How important is your IP (Internet Protocol) with SEO?
Is your IP important for SEO? In this post I am going to cover a few technical search engine optimization
suggestions
, “how to” information and IP address related challenges.
Multiple domains on the same IP:
Very often webmasters host multiple websites on same IP, with duplicate copy on each website. This benefits in terms of lower web hosting cost having to generate unique content for each website. However, the search engines classify your websites “low value” and broadly deceptive and this is not desirable.
Best Practice: It’s always suggested to host the websites separately on different IPs. Also to avoid the issues of duplication, we suggest to have unique content per site. In case you don’t have sufficient time to create unique content you can use any of the below mentioned suggestions:
1. Block the duplicate domain with Robots.txt You can do this by amending the code of the Robots file.
2. Set up “no index” meta tag within each page of the duplicate domain.
3. Duplicate domains can be 301 redirected to any other domain that you are targeting for SEO efforts.
Shared IP or Dedicated IP
:
Dedicated IP has several benefits:
– You are free from domain spamming. For example, within a shared hosting environment, if Google penalizes any website—all others on the shared hosting account are also penalized.
– You can manage your bandwidth efficiently based on your traffic.
– Your domain is secured from hackers.
– Dedicated hosting gives credibility to your domain.
Best Practice: It’s always more expensive to have your website hosted on a dedicated server. However there is a low cost solution – try virtual servers. If your virtual server configuration is 100% optimal, Google views your domain and it’s links the same as if it is a unique IP addresses. However, for the best long term (more stability) solution, we suggest dedicated hosting.
Validating your Visitors IP:
Webmasters are always concerned about unwanted traffic because it consumes band width without resulting into a desired visitor action, such as calling your phone number and/or filling out your contact form. Several instances of unwanted traffic are:
1. You are getting traffic from unrelated geographical locations.
2. You are getting junk traffic from specific IPs with heavy bounce rates.
3. Your Google Analytics account registers visits from IPs that cannot be converted into customers.
Best Practice: Make sure you block those IP “ranges” from accessing your website. Within Google Analytics, you have options to block them and you will receive a better and more clear picture of your visitor traffic.
About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Charlotte NC and Charleston SC areas.
