More on Dedicated IP Addresses and SEO

Here’s a quick update on my dedicated IP address testing regarding SEO improvement. In my previous post, I pointed out that contrary to some opinions a dedicated IP did not lead to improved SEO for my sites.

Since it’s been over a couple of months now, I thought I’d take another look to see if any improvements in search engine results have occurred. Just as a reminder, I tested a dedicated IP address on two different sites—a newer website with very few links and a more established site.

Looking at my search engine impressions, Site A (the newer site) actually has lower numbers that it did a month ago. Site B (the older site) actually does show a slight increase in impressions; however that could be due to other factors including a recent Google update.

Site A: Previous Search Engine Results

Site A: Updated Search Engine Results

Site B: Prior Search Engine Results

Site B: Updated Search Engine Results

At this point, I just don’t see any real evidence that a dedicated IP address will improve your SEO. Certainly they are necessary for sites that use SSL. But if you’re thinking of purchasing one simply for better SEO, I would recommend you hold off and save a little money.

Here are a couple of other claims about dedicated IPs you might have heard along with my thoughts:

If you use a shared IP, your site might be contaminated by a spam site sharing your IP address.

While at one time this might have been true, I have never experienced any problems such as this. The truth is that most web hosting companies do a great job of insolating their shared hosting customers from each other.

If you use a virtual IP address, someone that tries to navigate to your site by entering your IP instead of the URL may wind up on someone else’s website.

This situation would usually only occur if your server is incorrectly configured. Again, I have not experience this kind of problem. What usually happens if your shared IP address is typed in a browser is that you go to your web hosts page. And really, how many people actually type in an IP address instead of a URL these days?