Dedicated ip helpful for seo

[TinaGammon]

I read somewhere a while back that having a dedicated ip address was helpful for seo if this true or just another rumor?

Also I read you should purchase your domain name for multiple yrs, what do you guys think?

[HandsomeWeb]

My experience is a dedicated IP is not a great boost, nor worth the money if SEO is the only reason to pay for it - if you are only working with one domain.  If you have 500 domains all on the same IP, and they all have a link to your site, that will probably get a Google penalty.

I am more of a web developer than an SEO expert, and I resell hosting.  Hundreds of accounts spread around about 10 ip addresses on only three servers.  Most have links to my web design site, and it seems to avoid being penalized.

Yes, purchase your name for the 10 years max.  Age of domain seems to help one of my clients a lot.  The ideas is a search engine will have a greater 'trust' in a domain that is going to be around for a while than one that may only be here for a year.

[RobertFisher]

On dedicated IP address, I really think it depends on you and your site. As an agency, we have some that are dedicated by virtue of their SSL, etc. Many are hosted on the same (with all on our dedicated servers). As to whether it is helpful for SEO, I would say not in the sense that if you have versus don't it is better. I think you are thinking of whether or not you have multiple sites on same IP linking to each other (or same C block). Even with that, I don't know if the benefit of totally different C block outweighs the issues of changing for most.

As to domain purchases, again that is a judgment call. When we purchase a domain like HotLawyer.com for example, we typically purchase the .net, .info, .org to go with it. On the main domain, we will purchase typically for one to three years and the others all on one. The reason is that we don't typically keep them after a year unless the vertical is hot and potentially they are EMD's.

Just a note in case you are looking at it. The other thing we rarely do is take the "free" privacty. The reason is when it is time to change something, it is a pain dealing with the privacy and the domain registrar. So, unless we have a particular client with a privacy need or some compelling reason we don't.

Hope this helps you out a bit,

[TinaGammon]

"Hundreds of accounts spread around about 10 ip addresses on only three servers.  Most have links to my web design site, and it seems to avoid being penalized."

We were doing that too but recently I heard it was a bad idea are you placing them in the footer?

My main domain we are using now is 6 yrs old and I renewed it for 3 more so that should be fine.

[TinaGammon]

"As to domain purchases, again that is a judgment call. When we purchase a domain like HotLawyer.com for example, we typically purchase the .net, .info, .org to go with it. "

I usually do this too but it seems someone always buys some version of my name either with an s at the end, the in front of it, a dash, the list goes on, and on.

[HandsomeWeb]

Yes, and typically on every page if clients do not mind.  They were also built up over time, and many clients don't host with me.

I believe the story would be different if we just built 100 new sites tomorrow on the same ip address, and they all had a link to the same one site.

I think Google penalizes what looks like obvious spamming.  These sites are all legitimate. If there would be a gain to use dedicated IP addresses, I doubt it would be worth the cost for me.

[HandsomeWeb]

If you have the .com, you win.  If there is a popular .net, you will get some spillover traffic for your .com.  But if you own "HotLawyer.com", I wouldn't expect you would lose much traffic to "HotLawyer.tv".  Domain brokers can be annoying with their constant offers.

[RobertFisher]

That is why we don't purchase all and every - or s or ing. The issue is making it a bit more difficult in certain verticals. That is why we go with one year. Typically we let them expire.

[TinaGammon]

Yeah but the bad thing is when a Chinese scammer buys the s, and rips a bunch of people off, and those people file rip off reports on the scammer. because those reports will still come up under your domain.

We had one buy our domain a few yrs ago with (the) in front of it, and for months we were getting phone calls for people looking for their ipad 2, and Nike shox