Is Dedicated IP Address worth it for Google SEO?

[JesterMagic]

I am in the midst of possibly looking for a new web host and am currently looking at Business or Business Pro level accounts at you standard popular web hosting providers in Canada to run a couple of fairly busy sites that use CMS.

Currently I have a dedicated IP for the 4 or 5 sites we host.

On most of the hosting providers I see you can purchase a dedicated IP address for the account. In terms of SEO do people find it's better to host on a dedicated IP or do the search engines not use this really as a rank signal?

Anything else I should consider if I make the move?

[goodroi]

Dedicated IP is not an important direct ranking factor. Matt Cutts busted this myth over 10 years ago. [mattcutts.com...] You might want a dedicated IP for other reasons like spreading out your network of sites to make it harder for your competition to realize you own different sites or when switching to https.

It is better to make sure you pick a hosting company that has fast servers. Google likes fast sites and it is much, much more important to your users that you have a fast website. You also want a hosting company that has good security.

[robzilla]

Dedicated IP is not an important direct ranking factor

Most likely, as explained in the Matt Cutts post you linked, it's not a ranking factor at all.

So no, it's not worth it, and since IPv4 addresses are scarce, your host may not even hand you one if you say it's for "ranking purposes."

If they just hand out IPv4 addresses to anyone who wants one, even for illegitimate "SEO" or nameserver purposes, I'd steer clear of them.

[aristotle]

when switching to https

Can you explain this more fully? I may switch some sites to https eventually but most likely would still want to keep them on shared servers. I also read somewhere that google has a problem with Cloudflare SSL certs for free accounts because of IP questions. So I would like to know more about this.

[goodroi]

You can go https with a dedicated IP but do not necessarily need a dedicated IP to go https. There are many https solutions and the free solutions aren't always the best option.

I only mentioned https to be thorough and be a bit of a devils advocate mentioning some of the reasons people get dedicated IPs. These are not common scenarios. Most companies are perfectly fine on a shared ip and will not significantly benefit from a dedicated ip so save your money for faster servers.

[JesterMagic]

Thanks for the replies. That's the main reason I am looking now (speed). Currently we have our own server but the cost to keep the hardware and other related equipment upgraded and keep the software upgraded/maintained I think it may be cheaper to find a web host.

The only other reason I have for a dedicated IP would be it's easier to keep it clean from IP blacklists since you have control of the websites on that IP.

[lucy24]

On most of the hosting providers I see you can purchase a dedicated IP address for the account.

Look around. My host currently charges for IPv4, while IPv6 is free on request; I haven't done the research but they can't possibly be unique in this. (Hosts never are.) If it does no harm, and costs nothing, why not? That's assuming your target audience doesn't include a lot of people with antiquated browsers and/or overly persnickety proxies that can only function with IPv4.

[robzilla]

Can you explain this more fully?

Before Server Name Indication (SNI) came around, you could not serve different certificates for domains hosted on the same IP address, so you needed a dedicated IP address for each HTTPS site. Some really old browsers and operating systems don't support SNI, so if a server uses it, HTTPS won't work. But we're talking Internet Explorer <7, Firefox <2, that sort of stuff. Nothing to worry about.

[seoskunk]

Not for Google (makes no difference) but for users and other SE's I would still pick a dedicated IP over SNI all day every day. Its not just old browsers its older operating systems like XP (still used widely in government organisations) where you hit problems.

<snip>

[edited by: goodroi at 9:52 pm (utc) on Nov 2, 2017]
[edit reason] Cleaning up off-topic comment & its responses [/edit]

[robzilla]

Browsers other than Internet Explorer, like Chrome and Firefox, can have support for SNI on Windows XP. But, of course, those browsers are unlikely to be used in the government organizations you mention, especially when they're still running XP. I doubt you can get far on the internet these days with such old software.