The world of website optimization is ever-evolving. There has been always a buzz about the segment. Website owners and digital marketers keep on thinking what is good and bad for SEO. Lately, Google’s John Mueller shed some light on it and with respect to shared IP addresses. Fortunately, it is not as bad as some might have thought.
IP address is the digital address for a website. Some worry if an IP address of a website is shared with others and especially if with spammy sites, it could kill all the SEO efforts. However, Mueller said that is not the case at all.
He reassured that sharing IP addresses, hosting on shared servers or using Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) that share IPs is normal with respect to Google. It is a common practice among websites.
He addressed concerns about the potential harm to the reputation of sites when sharing an IP address with spammy sites. He explained that CDNs and shared hosting operate in a way that involves sharing IP addresses. Google and other search engines are well-equipped with it.
He also highlighted that CDNs often use a network of data centers which are spread across the globe. This means that the IP address can change depending on various factors like time and location. This is well known by search engines.
Similar assurance was given by Google earlier in 2016 and thereafter in 2019. Mueller emphasized that while concerns about shared IPs might have been valid in the early 2000s, they sre largely outdated now.
The discussion around shared IP addresses basically gained attention when Mueller urged CDNs to stop blocking Googlebot, which are the web crawler used by Google to index websites. This in fact aimed to ensure that Google could efficiently crawl and index content hosted on CDNs.