Is Domain Name A More Important SEO Factor Than IP Address?
Self-proclaimed SEO specialists abound nowadays, most of whom are unable to separate anecdotes and opinions from facts. If ever you encounter one who says sharing an IP address with low ranking sites would affect your site’s ranking, better look for another SEO consultant.Google itself confirmed that its SEO algorithm neither discriminates nor favors a website based on IP address. According to Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, a website with a unique IP address has no algorithmic advantage over sites with shared IP addresses. Cutt is straightforward in debunking the “unique IP theory” as a myth.
Before the advent of virtual private server (VPS), shared and dedicated hosting are the only two options for web publishers looking for managed server solutions. Signing up for shared hosting means publishing your website under an IP address used by other customers of your web host, whereas dedicated hosting gives you a unique IP address and server, which of course costs more. The “Unique IP = SEO Factor” myth somehow helped foster the growth of virtual private server hosting, in which one physical server is split into multiple user accounts, each having a unique IP address.
Google Ban Websites by Domain Name, Not by IP
Google is aware that millions of websites share a common IP address, that’s why banning sites by IP address doesn’t make sense. As a proof, Google is requiring web owners to specify their site’s domain name (not IP address) when sending a request to reverse Google’s ban or penalty. Google admits that a ban could be subject to reversal upon review.
Another proof is that a banned domain name would not appear in Google search results even if it is transferred to a new host with a different IP address, unless the new owner informs Google that the banned domain is now under a new ownership and populated with entirely new content. This clearly shows that Google relies on domain name instead of IP address when ranking websites. Read the real story of Chris Webb who bought ckwebb.com after it was blacklisted by Google.
Getting a unique IP via VPS or dedicated web hosting is not bad either. A dedicated IP prevents security issues and allows for more flexibility in tweaking the server environment.
Possible Reasons Why Some Sites Seem to be Banned based on IP Address
Google is of course smarter than black-hat SEO experts out there. Since a single server can be abused for SEO purposes, Google looks into domain registrant information to check if a single webmaster is maintaining a large network of spammy sites. Google can uncover illegal SEO activities by looking at domain registration data. If you are planning to purchase domain names from GoDaddy and publish them under the same IP address, that’s fine. But if you would use them to build links to your main site, Google may ban your entire site network. Registrant data would show that these sites are owned by a single webmaster and by having a common outbound links, it would be undeniable that they have been created mainly for SEO purposes.
The ISP of your web host can also affect your site’s ranking in subtle ways. For instance, a host with high downtime can misinform a crawler that your site is not existing. This can lead to temporary downgrade in the PageRank of all sites in the server. Also, if the server computer is slow in handling client request, bounce rates may increase. Bounce rate indicates how long a visitor has stayed in your website, and this is one of more than 200 SEO factors in Google’s algorithm.
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Category: SEO
About the Author (Author Profile)
Bradley Zarich blogs for NewSat, the largest independent satellite broadband carrier in Australia. As a manager for eServe BPO’s web services accounts, he keeps the online community updated with the latest developments in Internet technology, SEO, wireless communications, mobile backhaul services.Subscribe
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Twitter: couponseasy
says:
Hi Bradley,
In this you have mentioned that Google banned site by domain name. So one question knocks my mind if Google bans your site then what should a webmaster do to lift that ban?
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Twitter: AffiLateNetwork
says:
Awesome article Bradley!!
I think the only ones who care about the IP and data recording are those have a network of high PR sites that link to each other
Same IP, same registration information, same backlinks …. all these data leave an impression easily identifiable
Other data to identify a network of data products Google Analytics, Webmaster tools and Adsense
I any case, nobody forbids to have multiple sites, it is important to follow the rules made by google
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Twitter: sreejeshsuresh
says:
Good insight! Domain name is like a brand, you should carry it with the blog, but the IPs can be changed when in need, but yet when you consider the response time for an IP located somewhere in the far world, its also an important factor. And more than facts these are SEO myths as you mentioned. Domain name keyword definitely has the upper-hand.
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Nice post,
All things are very important from my point of view so we should work with carefully.
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Yes I agree with the author. But how do you confirm whether google uses Domain registrant details ?
See the video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pnpg00FWJY
Regards,
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Hey mate
As stated above, the concern about Unique IPs is more to do with link building as opposed to the nature of the IP itself.
SEOmoz has shown that the number of different IPs that a website receives links from is a linking factor!
Hope that was useful..
Mat.
Domain names were really important in terms of ranking for keywords included in the domain name before, but google replaced this requirement with relevant content.
While hosting in shared server its always better to check whether bad neighborhood ip exist on server or not.
I have never thought that Google is really concerned about the IP addresses and they are taken into consideration while working with the site, but it is fair that domain plays a more important role as domain is more important itself.
Google of course has to work smart so as to keep its site safe against spammed links. I wasn’t aware about the difference that Google makes between an IP address and the Domain name. I am just wondering how is it that people will continue with the process of SEO and the keywords if the domain names do not get accepted.
Whenever choosing domain name we must do the website title as same as our domain name. because the google also likes same thing. Another one important factor is domain name keyword should less competition in google searches. Thanks Bradley.
That’s a good option Maxicod, domain names of course are important because then how will a person recognize the website’s URL? The main reason behind it that it’s not possible to check the IP address of every login so this is how the domain names comes into the picture. Google will not be able to work without the use of domain names because without them it will be a long process for them.
The IP address of all the sites gets submitted to Google. Also it’s not possible for Google to remember each and every IP address as they are sometimes is really very long. So that is the main reason why Google prefers to scan through the domain names and not the IP addresses. And that’s why Google is to be known as a smart player.
The Domain name is the name that you give for your website. How is it possible to recognize your website without a domain name to it. Also it would be very difficult for your regular and new customers to search you on the web. The IP address will keep changing every time you login from the other computers. So the domain names would then be the one defining your website.
Choose a Domain name which would be user friendly and would let everybody remember it well so that the next time they feel like visiting your website, they should not find it difficult to search on the web. Even the Google identifies your website by your domain name and not by your IP address. It’s rarely that Google uses the IP address. It would be good if you use a domain name related to your product.
Yes in the Search Engine Optimization process what’s more important is the domain name than the IP address. IP address would only be helpful in terms of recognizing from which computer exactly the work is executed. This would be of no help in case of searching that particular website later. So it’s better to name your website so as to make it easy for your customers.
I think the IP addresses would do good enough to determine from where exactly a particular file or a website is uploaded on the internet. But yes at times the domain name is considered since the IP addresses are not the same for every computer and that the computer would not be able to understand the flow of data correctly.
Yes of course, domain names are very important. These days the website owner’s keep some funky or attractive domain name related to their products for their website as they help the customers to remember them easily. I think everybody should follow this strategy. I am still searching for a good domain name which would be funky but at the same time would also indicate as to what I want to offer them.
I am not a computer savvy person. But yes I do understand some of its basics. Domain names are something new to me. But yes IP address helps you to detect from particular computer is the information flowing into the web. I have got a brief idea of Domain names through all the comments that are posted above. I would love to hear more about the difference between them.
Yes of course there is a lot of difference In the IP addresses and the Domain names. IP addresses are used to hack those computers which send viruses and spam mails to all the other computers and domain names are a part of the URL that every business or every product or every service which is available online would have. It’s an important part of the website without which searching it online would be impossible.
Internet world is drastically growing. There are a lot of people to be found over the internet. Also there are a lot of business men who have their businesses on the internet. Recognizing all of them would be very difficult and so the concept of naming them has been introduced. The name that a website has over the internet is called the “”domain name”".
Yes of course domain names are very important for if you are undergoing the process of Search Engine Optimization. The domain name will ensure that you get a good ranking and will enjoy a good position and reputation in the e-commerce or online industry. But the IP addresses will not be helpful to you in such cases. IP addresses are only for the sake of identifying your computer.
In my opinion domain names would always help you to get a good amount of traffic over your website. Getting good traffic means that the number of customers for your business and products would increase. So in short domain name would help you to generate traffic as well as income for your business through all the products. I don’t think that IP address will ever help in doing any such things.
The Domain name factor has just come into the picture as the online industry is now in the booming phase. SEO has now to be seen in the online industry. It’s only because of the domain names that we get to see a lot of sites over the internet today. Searching for the desired websites without the Domain names would be impossible.
Domain name is of great importance. E-commerce industry is in its booming phase. So the demand for good domain names is also increasing every day. You can see a lot of websites coming over the internet and so remembering all of them is not possible. We can only remember those who are easy to remember. So it is important that we have good and easy to remember domain names.
Yes definitely domain name is an important factor when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Google searches for particular websites according to specified keywords or text. So if the domain name is keyword rich then it would definitely help to increase Google ranking of a particular website over its search results. Also if you need some help, there are various sites to guide you with good domain names.
I never even dreamt that Domain name would carry more weightage than the IP addresses. IP addresses would only let you define the computer from which the data is sent through over the other computer. But the domain name would help in remembering the ID’s of the sites where you can access the information you are looking out for
While handling the process of Search Engine Optimization you would only come across the Domain names because it is only the domain name that would get you a high page rank for your website or your blog. IP addresses are mainly for identifying the computer from which the data flows. IP addresses have got nothing to do with Search Engine Optimization processes.
Domain names can become popular once they have been recognized in the market and are easy to remember. IP addresses contain only numeric values while Domain names contains alpha numeric value which are much easy to remember than the IP addresses. Domain name would be a name for your website while IP would be a name for your computer.