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Our site is currently on shared hosting.

The site has some strong links to it, but after doing some digging through the links, I noticed that two of our highest authoritative links back to our site happen to come from the same IP address as our site. (even though the sites are unrelated to ours, they just happen to be on the same shared hosting)

I understand that sites with the same IP (and even the same C block) linking back to each other are regarded as being owned by the same person / connected, thus not getting the full SEO benefit of the link.

My thought was to change the hosting of our site to a VPS with its own dedicated IP. Does any one know if moving a site and changing its IP would allow those links to be valued higher? Or does Google keep a mark by your sites name forever linking the sites on the same IP, even after changing the IP?

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    I understand that sites with the same ip (and even the same C block) linking back to each other are regarded as being owned by the same person / connected, thus not getting the full SEO benefit of the link. It is not quite like that- fortunately. In fact, it never really was. There is some analysis along those regards, certainly, but Google is far more clever about who owns what and determining how sites are related or not. If you are using a website to determine link value, I would caution you that they are making assumptions that may be misleading.
    – closetnoc
    Sep 14, 2015 at 22:29
  • In fact, do not drive yourself to crazy worrying about specific links and authority. There are a few curves in the algo so that calculations are not as linear as you might think. Worry about decent natural links. Links from high authority sites may not be passing as much value as you think because of link value calculations and authority caps. Keep the bad links down as much as you can and let good links happen. Do not sweat the details. Just do good link worthy work and focus on decent links and you should be fine.
    – closetnoc
    Sep 14, 2015 at 22:38

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The site has some strong links to it, but after doing some digging through the links i noticed that two of our highest authoritative links back to our site happen to come from the same ip address as our site.

My website is on a dedicated server and contains sub-domains of all which are connected to the same IP address. I bet you have either a similar setup.

Also, you may have a link to your home page from various sections of your site and some random robot from the same server you're on keeps accessing it. I'd suggest checking your server logs to see what IP addresses access your site and block anything that looks too suspicious (for example: constantly attempting to access the same set of files that don't exist).

My thought was to change the hosting of our site to a VPS with its own dedicated ip

Get a 100% permanent IP address. I'd go with a dedicated server. The other day, I found one for $30/month. With a dedicated server, nothing goes fishy in the background (or even in the access logs) if others link to your site since they won't have your server IP address at all. This makes it easier to block fishy IP addresses.

Or does Google keep a mark by your sites name forever linking the sites on the same ip, even after they change ip

Search engines keep a mark on websites by their ability to access them as well as what content they have when accessed and this is done frequently.

They will attempt to access the site using the URLs you supplied to them in a sitemap or through other webpages outside of yours they have access to that contain links to URLs that are part of your site.

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Yes, IP adresses / C block is an important metric, usable by Google to make clear relations between sites. But even if you change your IP (there are shared hostings, which offer dedicated IP-adresses), you will not be able to realize, whether Google values your backlinks more or less. If your site will go up or down, you will not be able to explain it with "yes, now G values my links higher, and thats the cause why my site goes up in SERP". Going up or down in SERP isn't just related to this one factor.

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  • What evidence do you have that IP address is an important metric?
    – Andrew Lott
    Nov 14, 2015 at 12:34
  • @AndrewLott the evidence is an experience, partly own, partly not, that to recognize link schemes Google makes use of IP adresses C block
    – Evgeniy
    Nov 16, 2015 at 8:00

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