In terms of popularity and number of users shared hosting stands out from all other types of hosting. It is also the most economical way of hosting your website. This could be one of the most important reasons for its overwhelming popularity.

Shared hosting and SEO

Shared hosting is a multi-tenant arrangement that enables large number of websites to operate from a single physical server. Every website is able to use resources of the web server along with other neighboring sites. All websites on a single server use the same IP address due to the fact that they belong to the same web server.

One of the most commonly asked question by people who are existing or potential users of shared hosting is regarding impact of shared hosting on overall SEO of the blog posted on a site that is using shared hosting. Since every website is using a common IP, there is a bit of skepticism about its negative impact on SEO.

Dedicated and shared IP addresses

A dedicated IP address is a unique address that is being assigned to every computer or device that is being connected to a specific network. It facilitates identification in terms of legitimate location of the device in relation with the network.

If a single IP address is used by number of websites that are hosted on the same server. Web server has to parse the request to relevant website. 

Need for a private IP address

In terms of costs, a unique IP is a highly affordable proposition for websites that are engaged in managing the business of an enterprise. Is it advisable to continue with common IP address or should the user opt for a private IP that would not cost more than $5 a month?

According to search engine stalwarts the type of hosting including shared hosting hardly has any influence on SERPs. However, you need to consider using a private IP because Google fixes a specific limit as far as indexing is concerned.

This limit is based on the IP of server. In a shared hosting scenario, if one of the websites as consuming large volumes of bot crawling, then your site will experience slow indexing with no bots crawling your blogs anymore.

This is exactly the reason why there are special SEO hosting packages offered by many service providers. These hosting plans have slightly higher price tags and are designed to allow private IPs to websites even in a shared hosting environment. Is such an arrangement of SEO hosting really necessary for improving rankings?

This is probably the most controversial issue with shared hosting. Why would you need to have a dedicated IP in a shared hosting environment? There are many reasons for availing a private IP in shared hosting and these are explained below.

Spam protection

It is observed that akismet.com is accessed by thousands of blogs for the purpose of spam protection. One should note that trackbacks are also having potential to be marked as spam. There can be some sites in your shared hosting that can be termed as bad neighbor sites. If such a site links to you, then you will mark it as spam instead of publicly exposing these sites in trackbacks.

There can be many instances of such spam marking. Akismet.com will block a legit site for trying to link with a good site since the trackback will not be visible. Such a scenario can be easily avoided by going for a private IP that will be unique to your website and will protect your site from being labeled as spam.

Ease of access

If you are required to check your website on a shared server prior to pointing the domain name to it, then a dedicated IP will allow an easy access your website. Private IP will enable direct server access without altering DNS settings as far as the domain name is concerned.

Ping time

It has been noticed that many search engines consider site’s ping time as an indicator for SERPs. If there are thousands of websites being hosted in a single server with common IP address, then the ping time will be certainly affected. One should also find out number of websites that are using the same server in addition to getting a dedicated IP address.

Reputation

It is quite possible to harm your reputation by any website that happens to share the same IP with your site. This can also impact your site’s ability of communicating with specific hosts. This may also affect your email service. Such abuse consequences can be avoided by using a private IP for email. 

In addition to this if you are building an authority blog, you should alays think of a dedicated IP

Universal browser compatibility

Thanks to the new SNI technology, it is now possible to assign multiple SSL certificates on shared IP addresses. There can be issues with some browsers that are supported by older versions and the visitors to these particular websites may be warned about low trust level of these websites. This scenario can best be avoided by availing a dedicated IP address for your shared hosting website.

Conclusion

There is no convincing reason to conclude that a dedicated IP address in a shared hosting environment would positively impact SERPs of that website. However, there are few other good reasons to try this option since it is not going to drill a big hole in your purse.