Unique IP Address

A unique IP address (Internet Protocol Address) or dedicated IP is not shared by other domain names; it is unique to your domain name and your space on a server.

If, like most people, you have opted for virtual hosting, your website is stored on a computer along with several other websites. Because of the relative scarcity of IP addresses, your web host may have assigned only one IP address to the server; this means your website shares the IP address of the server with the other websites stored on it.

More than 87% of active domain names are found to share their IP addresses (i.e. their web servers) with one or more additional domains, and more than two thirds of active domain names share their addresses with fifty or more additional domains.

  Why use a Unique IP Address?
Your website deserves a unique IP address if you want to avoid search engine stumbling blocks and protect the integrity of your online business from 'spammers' or blacklisted websites.

Think of this as large room such as a hospital ward (shared server) called the Blue Ward (one IP address) with lots of beds (websites) within the same large room (website domains all sharing the same IP address).
 
In the event of any disease or threat occurring in one bed on the main ward (blacklisted websites, spammers, hackers, spoofers,etc) the whole of the main ward might have to be closed suddenly. 

Then think about a single bed private or side room (unique IP address) with its own door, within the same ward (shared server).  This bed is protected from disease or threat as there is no-one else sharing it.  

 Don't confuse a unique (dedicated) IP address with a dedicated server - lots of folk do!

There are other areas where you might consider having a unique IP address, such as having more than one website on the same server; if you use doorway pages; or anticipate a very large volume of orders from your website.

Here are some of the reasons why you might want a unique IP address:

DNS or "Domain Name Servers"
Your Domain Name should match your IP Address
The DNS Spam Blacklist
Web Hosting and IP Address Stumbling Blocks
IP Address Sharing and IP Filtering
Do you have More than one Website?
If you use Doorway Pages
Is yours a large website?
Are you Ecommerce enabled?
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  DNS or "Domain Name Servers"
For humans, it's much easier to remember Yahoo's domain name than its associated IP address. Computers, however, deal with the underlying number, so they need a way to find an IP address based on the domain name.

This is done using DNS or Domain Name Servers. When you register a domain name, you must specify (at least) two name servers. You need two or more for reasons of redundancy: even if one name server should ever go down, the other would likely still work.

Using a rather complicated "distributed database" process, the name servers will "translate" the domain name into the associated IP address. If you ever want to move your website to another computer (e.g., because you have chosen a new web host), you will have to update the IP address in the name server.

 If you are setting up your own DNS (NS1.yoursite.com, NS2.yoursite.com) you will need a unique IP address

  Your Domain Name should match your IP Address
Recently some of the major search engines (such as Google) began to use a 'Reverse DNS (Domain Name System) lookup' to verify sites before they are indexed. The lookup provides the ability to locate a domain name using a Host IP address. Websites with domain names that don't match their IP addresses are either rejected outright, or penalized.

 With over 2 billion pages on the internet, it's more important than ever that the major search engines find your website and index your pages

  The DNS Spam Blacklist
In an attempt to identify spammers and block their ability to send email and get search engine rankings, many web email servers, internet providers and search engines refer to the DNS Spam Blacklist to check to see if the IP address of a website is on the list. If it is, email from the website can be blocked or deleted, and search engines may choose not to rank the website.

 It is possible that even if you have never sent spam, your website could be on the Spam Black List

The New York Times reported that many legitimate websites can be forced out of business if they are on shared IP hosting system and another site on that same IP number is involved in spam or other questionable activities.

With new laws being enacted making it a crime to send spam, more and more internet service providers are using the DNS Spam Black List to delete mail coming from websites on the list.

  Web Hosting and IP Address Stumbling Blocks
On page 4 of our article, Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks you will find more information and tips about Web Hosting and IP address stumbling blocks, including:

Does your Domain Name match your IP Address?
Blacklisted Host/Shared IP Address
Check your IP address
Unreliable Hosts
Free Websites and Free Hosting

  IP Address Sharing and IP Filtering
Although IP sharing has become standard practice, this can interact unpredictably with efforts to filter the Internet and restrict users' ability to access controversial content (porn, abuse, hate sites, etc).  More and more filters are being used (eg. DNS Blacklist) on the basis of the IP address used to host that content.

With so many websites sharing IP addresses, IP-based filtering efforts are bound to produce "over-blocking", which is accidental and often unanticipated denial of access to websites that abide by the stated filtering rules.

  Do you have More than one Website?
If you have more than one website, it is better to have a unique IP addresses for each site.  Even if your websites are linked to each other on the same IP address, if they share similar keywords and content, they could be considered as 'spamming' and penalised or de-listed by search engines.

  If you use Doorway Pages
Consider using a unique domain name and unique IP addresses for your doorway pages.  Mistakes are easily made, such as using too many keywords that are too alike and thereby ending up with duplicate pages or a cluster of high rankings for the same keyword.

The penalties for such an error can be the penalization of the offending page, or the search engine may block any new submissions from the offending website.

Is yours a large website?
Some search engines limit the total number of pages you can have indexed from one website.  For example, Infoseek supposedly limits this to 600 pages per domain.

 If you have a large website, with hundreds of pages, it is wiser to split your pages among two domains, each with its own unique IP

 Are you Ecommerce enabled?
If you are setting up a complete high end ecommerce solution which will have many thousands or millions of transactions then it is worth getting a unique IP address, SSL Certificate and also a dedicated server, with a dedicated line to the processing bank.  The costs may be justified by savings per transaction compared to using third party payment processor providers.

However for 99% of ecommerce solutions it is far better to use a third party payment processor such as Worldpay or one of the numerous other providers. They have a ready built processing solution (where the actual processing will be done on their servers) and have a direct link with the banks through a dedicated connection.

We can Do It for You

 If you decide that you need a unique IP address or dedicated server, or are not sure and want further advice or information, contact us, ask for a free quotation, or if you know what you want, simply

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