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Screenshot from HubSpot.com, June 2022<\/span><\/div>\nFortunately, these lists sparked numerous conversations with Google employees about the validity of IP addresses as ranking factors in Google\u2019s algorithm.<\/p>\n
[Ebook:]<\/strong> The Complete Guide To Google Ranking Factors<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n In 2010<\/a>, Matt Cutts, former head of Google\u2019s webspam team, was asked if the ranking of a client\u2019s website would be affected by spammy websites on the same server.<\/p>\n His response:<\/p>\n \u201cOn the list of things that I worry about, that would not be near the top. So I understand, and Google understands that shared web hosting happens. You can\u2019t really control who else is on that IP address or class c subnet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ultimately, Google decided if they took action on an IP address or Class C subnet, the spammers would just move to another IP address. Therefore, it wouldn\u2019t be the most efficient way to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n Cutts did note a specific exception, where an IP address had 26,000 spam sites and one non-spammy site that invited more scrutiny but reiterated that this was an exceptional outlier.<\/p>\n In 2011<\/a>, a tweet from Kaspar Szymanski, another former member of Google\u2019s webspam team, noted that Google has the right to take action when free hosts have been massively spammed.<\/p>\n In 2016<\/a>, during a Google Webmaster Central Office Hours, John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google, was asked if having all of a group\u2019s websites on the same c block of IP addresses was a problem.<\/p>\n He answered:<\/p>\n \u201cNo, that\u2019s perfectly fine. So that\u2019s not something where you artificially need to buy IP address blocks to just shuffle things around.<\/p>\n And especially if you are on a CDN, then maybe you\u2019ll end up on an IP address block that\u2019s used by other companies. Or if you\u2019re on shared hosting, then these things happen. That\u2019s not something you need to artificially move around.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In March 2018<\/a>, Mueller was asked if an IP change with a different geo-location would affect SEO. He responded:<\/p>\n \u201cIf you move to a server in a different location? Usually not. We get enough geotargeting information otherwise, e.g., from the TLD & geotargeting settings in Search Console.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A few months later<\/a>, Mueller replied to a tweet asking if Google still counted bad neighborhoods as a ranking signal and if a dedicated IP was necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cShared IP addresses are fine for search! Lots of hosting \/ CDN environments use them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In October 2018<\/a>, Mueller was asked if the IP address location mattered for a site\u2019s rankings. His response was simply, \u201cNope.\u201d<\/p>\n A few tweets later, within the same Twitter thread, another user commented that IP addresses mattered regarding backlinks. Mueller again responded with a simple \u201cNope.\u201d<\/p>\n In June 2019<\/a>, Mueller received a question about Google Search Console showing a website\u2019s IP address instead of a domain name. His answer:<\/p>\n \u201cUsually, getting your IP addresses indexed is a bad idea. IP addresses are often temporary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He suggested that the user ensure the IP address redirects to their domain.<\/p>\n A few months later<\/a>, when asked if links from IP addresses were bad, Mueller tweeted:<\/p>\n \u201cLinks from IP addresses are absolutely fine. Most of the time, it means the server wasn\u2019t set up well (we canonicalized to the IP address rather than the hostname, easy to fix with redirects & rel=canonical), but that\u2019s just a technical detail. It doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In early 2020<\/a>, when asked about getting links from different IP addresses, Mueller said that the bad part was the user was making the backlinks themselves \u2013 not the IP addresses.<\/p>\n Then, in June<\/a>, Mueller was asked what happens if a website on an IP address bought links. Would there be an IP-level action taken?<\/p>\n \u201cShared hosting & CDNs on a single IP is really common. Having some bad sites on an IP doesn\u2019t make everything on that IP bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In September<\/a>, during a discussion about bad neighborhoods affecting search rankings, Mueller stated:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not aware of any ranking algorithm that would take IPs like that into account. Look at Blogger. There are great sites that do well (ignoring on-page limitations, etc.), and there are terrible sites hosted there. It\u2019s all the same infrastructure, the same IP addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In November<\/a>, Gary Illyes, Chief of Sunshine and Happiness at Google, shared a fun fact.<\/p>\n \u201cFun fact: changing a site\u2019s underlaying infrastructure like servers, IPs, you name it, can change how fast and often Googlebot crawls from said site. That\u2019s because it actually detects that something changed, which prompts it to relearn how fast and often it can crawl.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While it\u2019s interesting information, it seems to impact crawling and not ranking. Crawling is, of course, required to rank, but crawling is not a ranking factor<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2021<\/a>, a Twitter user asked if IP canonicalization could positively affect SEO. Meuller replied:<\/p>\n \u201cUnless folks are linking to your site\u2019s IP address (which would be unexpected), this wouldn\u2019t have any effect on SEO.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Later in December<\/a>, when asked if an IP address instead of a hostname looks unusual when Google evaluates a link\u2019s quality, Meuller stated, \u201cIp addresses are fine. The internet has tons of them.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re worried about your IP address or hosting company<\/a>, the consensus seems to be: Don\u2019t worry.<\/p>\nThe Evidence Against IP Address As A Ranking Factor<\/h2>\n
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![\"Is](\"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/is-ip-address-a-google-ranking-factor-via-sejournal-kristileilani-1.png\")
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