Does google index by IP addresses

[webgator]

I hope I don't get shot down again for not knowing much about web servers...this was never my interest...but in trying to leave no stone unturned, I have another question. Does google index by domain name or IP addresses. I posted a while back that our site was not listed in Google and we were notified my email that it would be reincluded soon. We we are still waiting for that to happen.

When you type in the domain name the site comes up fine and using the server header check here it gives a 200 OK. We have a dedicated server through a guy out in Indiana who handles all our web hosting, so this is why I am not well versed in server issues. However when poking around today, I typed in the IP address in my browser for our site and get our server placeholder page instead of the homepage since apparently we used a host header. I thought I read somewhere that Google uses IP addresses to find sites and thus is finding a virtually blank page instead of our real homepage. Does Google or any other search engine find this a problem and what can be done about it.

[pixel_juice]

Hi webgator.

Google keeps a cache of the IP addresses tied to each domain name. This means (I think) that they can lookup sites much quicker because they don't have to query the IP address first.

The only time this creates a problem is if your site switches IPs, because then Google might use the old cache, and not be able to find your site.

>>I typed in the IP address in my browser for our site and get our server placeholder page

I think your host has more than one site on a single IP, so when your request the domain at the IP address the server knows to show your site. However, when you request just the IP address there is no 'default site' so it just returns the server holding page.

You could search for your IP on an alltheweb advanced search and maybe see some other sites that are sharing it (if they're in the index).

[kaled]

I'm no expert but my site behaves the same way when I type in the IP address (I have complained about this). In any case, Google does not have a problem with my site, nor do any other search engines.

Try submitting to ExactSeek. Theirs is a meta-tag based search engine which is much simpler than scanning whole pages. Consequently they include new sites within days rather than weeks or months.

You should ensure that, at least, your home page conforms to their requirements. It's been a while and I can't remember exactly what these are, but if you look on their site I think all the info is there.