Multiple Domains on 1 IP Address
-
We have multiple domains on the same C Block IP Address. Our main site is an eCommerce site, and we have separate domains for each of the following: our company blog (and other niche blogs), forum site, articles site and corporate site. They are all on the same server and hosted by the same web-hosting company.
They all have unique and different content. Speaking strictly from a technical standpoint, could this be hurting us? Can you please make a recommendation for the best practices when it comes to multiple domains like these and having separate or the same IP Addresses?
Thank you!
-
Sorry, I'm confused about the setup. Hosts routinely run multiple sites off of shared IPs, but each domain name resolves as itself. Users and search bots should never see that redirection at all and shouldn't be crawling the IPs. This isn't an SEO issue so much as a setup issue. Likewise, any rel=canonical tags on each site would be tied to that site's specific domain name.
-
Hello Peter,
We have three sites hosted on the same server with the same IP address. For SEO (to avoid duplicate content) reasons we need to redirect the IP address to the site - but there are three different sites. If we use the "rel canonical" code on the websites, these codes will be duplicates too, as the websites are mirrored versions of the sites with IP address, e.g. www.domainname.com/product-page and 23.34.45.99/product-page. What's the best ways to solve these duplicate content issues in this case? Many thanks!
-
I think that situation's a bit different - if you aren't interlinking and the sites are very different (your site vs. customer sites), there's no harm in shared hosting. If you share the IP and one site is hit with a severe penalty, there's a small chance of bleedover, but we don't even see that much these days. Now that we're running out of IPv4 addresses, shared IPs are a lot more common (by necessity).
-
I have something similar. I'm with Hostgator, I have a VPS level 5. It comes with 4 IP address's and I have about 15 sites, some mine, some customer sites spread out over the addresses. There is very little interlinking between the sites but I was concerned too. I have read that Add-on sites are bad for SEO, but as long as you arent feature building crappy sites and linking them to your main site, should be fine.
-
I think @cgman and @Nakul are both right, to a point. Technically, it's fine. Google doesn't penalize shared IPs (they're fairly common). If you're cross-linking your sites, though, it's very likely Google will devalue those links. That tactic has just been abused too much, and a shared IP is a dead giveaway.
Now, is it worth splitting all these out to gain a little more link-juice? In most cases, probably not. Google knows you own the sites, and may devalue them anyway. Chances are, they've already been devalued a bit. So, I don't think it's worth hours and hours and thousands of dollars to give them all their own homes, in most cases (it is highly situational, though).
The only other potential problem is if one site were penalized - there have been cases where that impacted sites on the same IP, especially cross-linked sites. It's not common, and you may not be at any risk, but it's not unheard of. As @Nakul said, it's a risk calculation.
-
I am presuming all those domains are linking to each other, correct ?
Are they regular or nofollow links ? It boils down how much authority you have on your main domain as well as the other domains. If I were you, I will keep the main e-commerce website on one server and everything else including niche blogs etc on a different server. It's not just SEO, but also security issues.
Essentially, to answer your question, it may not be hurting you to have the niche blogs, a forum with user generated content, the articles site and the corporate site on the same IP/server, but it would help you a lot more if they were on a different server, possibly different Class C IPs. So, you will gain from these links being on a different server. Keep in mind, these links are important for you and its good to increase their value by hosting them separately, because these sites are links that your competition can never get linked from. I would also consider doing a nofollow on them, and that's just my thoughts. I prefer lower risk. Again, it depends on what your e-commerce website's link profile is.
-
There is nothing wrong with having multiple sites / blogs on the same C block IP address. However, if you're trying to use your blogs to link to your products to boost SEO scores then you might want to consider other link building techniques in addition. Building backlinks from sites on same IP is okay, but you'll have greater benefits getting links from sites hosted on other servers.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Spam flags for sub-domain
Hi Moz Community, I am reviewing our website via MOZ and found the following issues: http://shopwindowcleaningresource.com/ 1. No Contact (please refer to the attached image). However, we have an up to date contact info on our website. We have social buttons at the footer, our telephone number is at the top and we have a contact us page. Any idea, why we are being rated as such and how to resolve it? Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance. 327M9Fc
Technical SEO | | Shop-Sq0 -
What is cross domain?
what is cross domain? can any one explain in simple language ?
Technical SEO | | constructionhelpline0 -
Htaccess - multiple matches by error
Hi all, I stumbled upon an issue on my site. We have a video section: www.holdnyt.dk/video htaccess rule: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
Technical SEO | | rasmusbang
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^video index.php?area=video [L,QSA] Problem is that these URLs give the same content:
www.holdnyt.dk/anystring/video
www.holdnyt.dk/whatsoever/video Any one with a take on whats wrong with the htaccess line? -Rasmus0 -
Domain Name Acquisition
Hi Anyone know how to get contact details for a domain owner beyond those provided by the likes of whois, archive etc etc ? Cheers Dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Multiple domains on the same hosting
Hello, I have around 80 sites (different domains) which are on the same host. Everytime I look up the IP of these domains, it gives me the same IP. The sites are interlinked, all linking to the main domain. My question is: Does the off site link building have effect on the 80 sites?
Technical SEO | | Arianittt0 -
Two blogs on the same domain
I have had two blogs on the same domain for a while now, and it just occurred to me that no one else seems to do this and maybe it's even weird. http://www.stadriemblems.com/blog/
Technical SEO | | UnderRugSwept
http://www.stadriemblems.com/scouting/blog/ One is our main blog, and one is for a very concentrated niche of customers. What are your opinions on this? Everything from SEO to best practices, to overall unusual-ness?0 -
Redirecting root domains to sub domains
Mozzers: We have a instance where a client is looking to 301 a www.example.com to www.example.com/shop I know of several issues with this but wondered if anyone could chip in with any previous experiences of doing so, and what outcomes positive and negative came out of this. Issues I'm aware of: The root domain URL is the most linked page, a HTTP 301 redirect only passes about 90% of the value. you'll loose 10-15% of your link value of these links. navigational queries (i.e.: the "domain part" of "domain.tld") are less likely to produce google site-links less deep-crawling: google crawls top down - starts with the most linked page, which will most likely be your domain url. as this does not exist you waste this zero level of crawling depth. robots.txt is only allowed on the root of the domain. Your help as always is greatly appreciated. Sean
Technical SEO | | Yozzer0 -
When should you turn off redirects to your new domain?
Our website moved to a new domain a year ago, and we have our original domain to redirect to our new domain. We're working on contacting people who still link to our old domain to ask them to update, but 7% of our traffic is still coming as a redirect from our old domain. My question is, when should we just shut the old domain down entirely and stop redirecting people to our new domain? Or should we just keep it up indefinitely? What would be the positive or negative impact on our new domain's SEO if we shut the old domain down? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | UWPCE0