In the SEO world, the topic of shared versus dedicated IPs has always been a controversial topic. Some SEOs demand a site to be on an IP address all by itself, while others simply do not care.

A Google Groups thread renews this debate but gives us, yet again, a confirmation from Google that shared vs dedicated IPs are just fine.

Official Googler, Berghausen, said:

Lots of sites are hosted on shared IPs. If this had a negative effect on ranking, it would harm most of the sites on the web--and that's not good for small webmasters or for our users. So, understandably, sharing an IP should not have an effect your ability to rank.

My advice: don't worry about it. Host your site however you think is best, and instead spend your time focusing on the content--making sure your pages are easy to navigate for users regardless of their browser or hardware, and ensuring that the content you provide is informative and unique.

Good advice. Where else did we see confirmation from Google on this? Matt Cutts of Google a year ago wrote Myth busting: virtual hosts vs. dedicated IP addresses where he said:

I’m happy to affirm that this statement which was true in 2003 is still true now. Links to virtually hosted domains are treated the same as links to domains on dedicated IP addresses.

We have past articles about both sides of the coin:

• The Dedicated IP Myth
• Why Using A Static IP Address is Benefical... Google Engineer Explains
• How Important is the IP Address for SEO?

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

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