Thread: SEO and hosting

Hi guys, just looking for the opinions of fellow users on SEO and the importance of which host and which platform you use.

Most of us are aware that Apache has excellent SEO'ability when powered by mod-rewrite() rules and of course through .htaccess powered canonical urls and all that. Also hosting your site in the same country as your target audience aids your regional search term indexing.

So a few questions...

1) How many sites can be hosted on a shared hosting plan or single IP before/if Google penalises you for duplicate content?

2) If you receive backlinks from a site which is hosted on the same IP/Server does it lessen the weight of the backlink? I understand that receiving a backlink from an IP outside of the same class C address is better?

3) Are some hosts penalised in regards to SERPS if they host dodgy content? And likewise are some hosts ranked better?


Thanks guys.

1 - why would Google penalise you for duplicate content if the content is different?

Most of my personal sites are hosted on a single IP... I could use more IPs, but there's no reason for me to do so

[deleted]

Originally Posted by blacknight

1 - why would Google penalise you for duplicate content if the content is different?

Most of my personal sites are hosted on a single IP... I could use more IPs, but there's no reason for me to do so

In a Matt Cutts videoblog he addressed shared hosting and some issues that might arise with content. He said that if a lot of similar sites reside on the same IP that the sites could get flagged.

I would guess that when they say lots, I would expect the number to be in the hundreds or even thousands. I wouldn't worry about 5 or 10 sites.

Originally Posted by Cormac

1) How many sites can be hosted on a shared hosting plan or single IP before/if Google penalises you for duplicate content?

If Google start penalizing based on a site being on the same IP, they are going to be penalizing a LOT of the websites out there.

Originally Posted by Cormac

2) If you receive backlinks from a site which is hosted on the same IP/Server does it lessen the weight of the backlink? I understand that receiving a backlink from an IP outside of the same class C address is better?

I have no idea exactly what the Google algorithm would do in this regards, but most shared hosting providers will be hosting thousands of sites within the same /24. If Google are weighting the backlinks based on proximity of IP, they will be penalizing a lot of people needlessly.

Possibly if there is a large proportion of identical sites on the same IP, Google will not be happy. There is no real way of knowing though.

I think the danger comes if similar content sites on the same server/C class are then linked, G is big into discerning linkage "intent" and may decide the sites are too closely "affiliated" for it to be a coincidence.

As long as you're not planning on doing anything spammy you don't need to worry about IPs IMHO.

Originally Posted by Cormac

1) How many sites can be hosted on a shared hosting plan or single IP before/if Google penalises you for duplicate content?

This seems not to be a problem according to Matt Cutts video blog called “Some SEO myths”. At this link http://seo.ketec.net/content/view/4/5

2) If you receive backlinks from a site which is hosted on the same IP/Server does it lessen the weight of the backlink? I understand that receiving a backlink from an IP outside of the same class C address is better?

Again nobody really knows, but from my own testing the better spread of IP ranges (not necessarily c class) for incoming links certainly increased ranking for a couple of sites I tested on.

3) Are some hosts penalised in regards to SERPS if they host dodgy content? And likewise are some hosts ranked better?

I read a post over on EV1 servers about a chap who took out a dedicated server with them and the previous owner was booted out for spamming. However, the new guy got the old IP address the spammer used and took him 6 months to discover why his IP was banned all over the place. I could only assume this would apply to doggy hosts as well.


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