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I've googled that and I've found many opinions on this subject, and I'm not sure, if, dedicated IP addresses actually really improve SEO? Is it that different from shared IP address (of 50-100 other sites)?

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  • Does it make sense for Google to care about those things? How would taking IP addresses into account improve search results for users?
    – Lèse majesté
    Commented Jan 16, 2011 at 13:00
  • @Lèse majesté - If a website has a million links from other websites on IP addresses in the same autonomous system, it might trip a link farm filter (but putting linked sites on different IP's within the same AS isn't really going to fix that problem)
    – danlefree
    Commented Jan 16, 2011 at 13:04
  • @danlefree: Given the ease of setting up link farm sites with unique IPs, even unique IP blocs, I don't think Google would bother with tracking that. Unless you actually do want to set up a link farm, you don't really have to worry about triggering a filter accidentally. It's link patterns/quality that Google tracks. This helps identify link wheels and the other complex link structures that blackhat SEOs/spammers use.
    – Lèse majesté
    Commented Jan 16, 2011 at 16:06

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The IP address where your website is hosted has no effect on SEO.

Since we're probably only talking about Google here, I found this link about how Google's PageRank is not affected by your IP address (or more specifically, how many websites are hosted at a given IP address).

My own theory as to why this opinion has developed is because larger companies typically throw way more money at their infrastructure (networks, servers, IP address blocks, etc.) than a small business, that may need to cut corners by going with a virtually hosted solution for their website. Since these larger companies have the budget, they spend more on SEO for their websites, which results in better Page Ranks, which leads to illusion that websites on dedicated IP addresses get better Page Rank.

Addendum: In the comments, Coops brings up a good point about IP blocks that get placed on blacklists for one reason or another. I'm wondering myself if this has any effect on SEO, or just with services like SMTP and the like. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

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  • +1 for the Matt Cutts link. My brain had fetched it before reading the body of the question.
    – Dan Carley
    Commented Nov 13, 2009 at 17:17
  • +5 (if I could). This myth about IPs is definately not true, and quite ironically having a google for it will give you a fair bit of information. You can however get into a bad IP neighbourhood, in which case moving IPs can help (I believe).
    – Coops
    Commented Nov 13, 2009 at 17:51
  • @Coops - Good point about bad IP blocks. I'll update my answer with that.
    – Timothy S. Van Haren
    Commented Nov 13, 2009 at 18:01
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Dedicated IP addresses have no effect on SEO as IP addresses in no way indicate anything about the content and whether or not it is relevant for a search query. A site on a shared IP that moves to a dedicated IP, or vice versa, is no better or worse because of that IP address. So the IP address won't affect the ranking of pages.

IP addresses may be used, and probably is used, as an indicator for possible TOS violations (i.e. part of a content farm, content spammer, etc). But each site/page will still be judged on its own merits as shared IP addresses are very common and to ban or penalize an IP address because one site using it is black hat is obviously bad for business (and just not smart).

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Google has changed their algorithms for geo targeting. If your IP is physically closer it is more likely to reach the visitor searching.

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It's easy for SEOs to get bogged down in the details and forget that Google's algorithm is all about relevance to the user. They desperately want anyone who searches to use Google, and to ensure that, they need to provide the most relevant results. So let's put this to the test... would a dedicated IP vs. a shared IP affect relevance to the user in any way? As far as I know, users don't know and don't care, so it's a pretty safe bet this has no impact on SEO.

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It is more important for mail servers and spam than for SEO. Google will obviously assume that all sites on the group are owned and operated by one person or company. That means that if you link from one site to another it doesn't really benefit you.

I have about 15 IPs in a row, all different online ventures, and have had no problems. Plus, I think with elastic IPs and more cloud hosting its likely that it will have no weight positive or negative really soon.

In other words: don't worry about it.

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  • Thank you! What about moving IPs? If I need to move my site from IP to another, does that have any effect?
    – Joel
    Commented Jan 16, 2011 at 13:31
  • You cannot move an Ip Address. You can move a site to a different IP if that is what you mean. The only time you will run into an issue is if the site goes down. Just make sure to have the site running on the 2nd ip, and then make the DNS change. After a few days turn the old server off.
    – Frank
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 4:46
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Clearly it's not going to have a major impact, but if you're head to head with another site, and your IP is closer to the person searching, that may just mean you might come up first.

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I also agree. Dedicated IP addresses have no effect on SEO. But there's an effect on backlinking. Backlinks on same IP has no effect. Google may ignore them while ranking.

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    Surely not many sites use links with IP addresses in?
    – paulmorriss
    Commented Jul 18, 2011 at 14:34

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