Introduction
There’s currently a huge buzz about the question of having a dedicated IP address. Of all the hosting features available to service providers, this is one feature that’s being hotly debated across the board. While some experts question the need for it, others passionately recommend it to boost your SEO rankings and your online presence.
What is an IP address?
The Internet Protocol address is a virtual address, very similar to your home address. It allows one computer to communicate with another over the Net and locate/identify the billions of devices that are connected via the Internet. If you share an IP address, then it’s like sharing a house with other people. That means you get the short end of the stick if someone in your neighbourhood gets up to tricks like spamming or is blacklisted for some reason.
Benefits of a dedicated IP address
Among the many reasons why your own IP address can be a huge advantage are:
- Sites whose priority is safety, privacy and confidentiality, generally tend to prefer dedicated IP addresses because it offers better control.
- High volume sites that routinely process large amounts of web traffic need a dedicated IP address to maintain their speed and prevent your site from crashing.
- One of the reasons for the debate on dedicated vs shared can be traced to a 2006 blog post written by Matt Cutts, the then head of the Webspam team at Google. In that post, he stated that having a dedicated IP address was not a factor of SEO ranking. However, 2006 was almost eons ago by tech standards. Today, the page-load speed of your site is an important factor in determining your SEO ranking.
- Dedicated IP address builds your business identity and gives customers confidence because you’re protected from the activities of shared sites.
- It gives more stability and prevents Google from discriminating against your site when it comes to SEO rankings.
Though it could cost a little more, getting a dedicated IP address can certainly impact your SEO ranking. Give Cloud.co.za a call to find out more about dedicated IP addresses.
