Do different hosting IP addresses really matter?

[RogerElliott]

Hi all

It used to be (allegedly) the case that you should have all your sites on different Class Cs or Google would hit you with the spam hammer. Which I guess made some sense because back then they probably didn't have many other ways of detecting unnatural link networks.

But today with all their data on who is related to who, can this really matter any more?

I'd like to move 3 or 4 of our sites (all long-established with widely varied link sources) onto one server, one CMS install, one less headache but I wanted to check first in case I'm about to shoot myself in the foot.

Thanks

Roger

[RogerElliott]

Thanks Zack, sometimes you just need to hear someone else say what you're thinking 'out loud'

[deltasystems]

You won't shoot yourself in the foot. I saw Matt Cutts comment on this once in a video years ago. The reasoning is that if you have hundreds of domains all registered in your name and on the same server, with little value, then yes Google will likely flag that as suspicious.

I have around 10 large personal websites for years that do well on the same IP.

If you can get an IP address cheaply and easily, sure why not. You'll be fine either way, though.