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Unique C-level IP addresses


WebDev22

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Posted

Is it important to have unique C-level IP addresses for our sites that carry similar products? We are using HostGator for hosting and all our sites have the same C-level IP address. Some of the sites carry a lot of the same products and target the same markets. It was suggested that we move these sites to their sister company, SEO Hosting, to obtain unique addresses. I did some research on this and found conflicting answers, so I thought I'd throw it out to the osCommerce community.

Posted

What's the problem? If you're concerned about duplicate content hurting you in the search engines, as long as the domain names are different, shouldn't the search engines see you as different sites? If they don't, I don't see what moving to a different server would do to help you. Have you actually been informed by Google, et al., that you're being penalized for duplicate content simply because your different sites are on the same server? If yes, then moving to a different server (not necessarily a different host), with a different IP address would help.

 

You might also look into giving a bit different content for the different sites. Rather than a strict cut and paste of product descriptions, you might edit them to be a little different (perhaps inserting the store name). Different titles and common headings for different stores might help too, to differentiate the content in the eyes of the search engines.

Posted

What's the problem? If you're concerned about duplicate content hurting you in the search engines, as long as the domain names are different, shouldn't the search engines see you as different sites? If they don't, I don't see what moving to a different server would do to help you. Have you actually been informed by Google, et al., that you're being penalized for duplicate content simply because your different sites are on the same server? If yes, then moving to a different server (not necessarily a different host), with a different IP address would help.

 

You might also look into giving a bit different content for the different sites. Rather than a strict cut and paste of product descriptions, you might edit them to be a little different (perhaps inserting the store name). Different titles and common headings for different stores might help too, to differentiate the content in the eyes of the search engines.

This was something that was brought up to me by one of the owners. It sounded like a legitimate concern. I contacted HostGator about it and they've addressed it with their "SEO Hosting" site: http://www.seohosting.com/hosting-plans.php. As with a lot of things related to SEO, I suppose this is just an unproven theory. However I'd prefer to leave nothing to chance.

Posted

This was something that was brought up to me by one of the owners. It sounded like a legitimate concern. I contacted HostGator about it and they've addressed it with their "SEO Hosting" site: http://www.seohosting.com/hosting-plans.php. As with a lot of things related to SEO, I suppose this is just an unproven theory. However I'd prefer to leave nothing to chance.

I also received this advice from their sales support: "It has been proven that Google applies a little more weight to sites on different servers."

Posted

Since they're trying to sell you a hosting upgrade, I'd be deeply suspicious. I've never heard of a server being set up for "SEO". A hosting plan with stuff like private static IP addresses and SSL certificates, yes, that could be useful for an eCommerce site, but SEO? Don't forget that Google changes its search result algorithms all the time, so who knows how long (if at all, if currently) they will apply "a little more weight to sites on different servers". And, how much is "a little"? Enough to offset the extra cost and hassle? In any case, you might want to search around for discussions on the subject, keeping in mind there are lots and lots of "old wives' tales" out there regarding SEO. There are a number of forums devoted to discussing SEO. So take anything you hear with a few grains of salt. What you have may be a somewhat unusual case with lots of duplicate pages on many different domains, in which case I'd rather tweak the product descriptions a bit to insert the store or domain name to individualize the pages, rather than spending extra for "SEO enhanced" hosting. That's my two cents -- do whatever makes you and your clients happy, and if you can find objective proof (say, from Google itself) that the proposed changes would do any good, I will stand happily corrected.

Posted

What they do over there at SEO hosting is this:

Since they are such a huge customer at the Planet data-center, they are able to purchase C classes from them that belong to servers in other locations. You can therefore virtually host your sites on a number of separate C classes, without having to purchase separate hosting in various locations. This "supposedly" works well when you have several other sites and want to link them to a main site. The search engines then find ll these different sites in different geographic locations pointing to 1 main site elsewhere. So the theory behind it is your site is to gain higher SERPs because other sites that look like they are owned/hosted by someone elsewhere are linking to you as an authority. Since they do not share an IP in the same region as your main site, it must be a true link partner, not the same webmaster building more sites to link in.

 

Does it work? If you do it right.

Posted

I think you are getting some bad infomation. C-Class IP's are IP's that fall within a certain numerical range. They, usually, have less traffic than the Class A and B IP's. However, not many hosts use them any longer since classless interdomain routing (CIDR) is easier and provides better control. But it makes little difference. The search engines will sometimes use IP's to determine the best way to place a site in their listings (called geo-targeting) but they don't pay a lot of attention to the IP otherwise. If they did, consider what would happen if each of us had a site selling computers and I decided to link to your site from mine. That would all be above board but because we may share the same host, your site would be punished by not allowing the link to count while my link to some other site on another host would count. So, if I wanted to, I would just need to look up the host of my most hated rival, create a small site there and link to that site. Bingo - my competition has been hurt. Fortunately, it doesn't work that way.

 

If you do create a site to link to your main site for purposes of traffic, you mainly need to be sure the sites are not duplicates. That will get you into trouble. I suppose, if you created 20 sub-sites all on the same server and they all pointed to your main site, that may send up a flag, though I doubt it. Having another site link to yours can be a good way to help the main site and is a common SEO practice. However, that really only makes a difference if the sub-site is established. In most cases, one is much better off optimizing the main shop.

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Posted

So the theory behind it is your site is to gain higher SERPs because other sites that look like they are owned/hosted by someone elsewhere are linking to you as an authority.

Sounds like "black hat" SEO to me (i.e., cheating). I suppose people do it, at least for as long as it works...

Posted

Sounds like "black hat" SEO to me (i.e., cheating). I suppose people do it, at least for as long as it works...

The reason we're even looking into this is not to "gain" SEO, but to prevent "losing" ground.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

What's the problem? If you're concerned about duplicate content hurting you in the search engines, as long as the domain names are different, shouldn't the search engines see you as different sites? If they don't, I don't see what moving to a different server would do to help you. Have you actually been informed by Google, et al., that you're being penalized for duplicate content simply because your different sites are on the same server? If yes, then moving to a different server (not necessarily a different host), with a different IP address would help.

Actually it does not matter if the IP is the same or not. Duplicate content is penalized for. I have had clients on different IPs having had issues with this. Google will penalize for this eventually and is not recommended to do.

 

There are "tricks" you can employ though to fix this by having separate product text for each site and keyword change ups etc.

 

 

 

You might also look into giving a bit different content for the different sites. Rather than a strict cut and paste of product descriptions, you might edit them to be a little different (perhaps inserting the store name). Different titles and common headings for different stores might help too, to differentiate the content in the eyes of the search engines.

 

A little change will not work, if 99% is duplicate content. You will get penalized still.

 

You need to rewrite and change the keywords within the text, as a base minimum and rework the text significantly.

 

 

cheers

Peter McGrath

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