Incoming links and IP addresses

[lesterj]

Hey everybody,

Does the IP address of incoming links effect the value of the link? If I have several incoming links to my website from other sites with unique domain names, however, because they happen to be hosted by the same web host on the same server, they all have the same IP address, will the fact that they have the same IP affect the value of those links? To be clear these are incoming links from outside websites, not links from other pages of my website or other sites of mine.

And, if the IP address does effect the value of the links, how different does an IP address have to be to prevent this?

I've been searching all around and can't seem to find a specific answer for this.

Thanks.
Kurt

[timmathews.com]

This is tough. I have been wondering about this and wanted DIFINITIVE answers as well. I have received many differing opinions, and nothing absolute. This thread should be an interesting discussion.
Thanks for asking!

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by lesterj

Hey everybody,

Does the IP address of incoming links effect the value of the link? If I have several incoming links to my website from other sites with unique domain names, however, because they happen to be hosted by the same web host on the same server, they all have the same IP address, will the fact that they have the same IP affect the value of those links? To be clear these are incoming links from outside websites, not links from other pages of my website or other sites of mine.

And, if the IP address does effect the value of the links, how different does an IP address have to be to prevent this?

I've been searching all around and can't seem to find a specific answer for this.

Thanks.
Kurt

As the DNS does not perform NAT, traffic for a given IP address can be routed to a single site only.

Unless a specific host site, as opposed to a server, has been configured to handle traffic for multiple URLs, each site would, of necessity, have its own IP address, albeit, in this instance, most likely within the same block of IP addresses.

If the host in question has been deemed, by an SE, to be a source of junk links, then all inbound links from said host could be treated by that SE as being suspect; in other owrds, you could find yourself being punished for the sins of others.

[computergenius]

I have read that links from the same Class C IP range get less weight.

That is to say,
a.a.a.25
and
a.a.a.26
which are on the class C IP range, get less weight.

It would make sense. If you add another name based domain to your server, it will have the same IP address. If you add an IP based domain to your server, only the last part of the address will change - so it is easy for search engines to see if you are linking to yourself.

I don't have any proof (who does???) but if you search the web for Class C Google, you will see plenty of people putting this argument forward, and I couldn't see any disagreeing with it.

...although no doubt someone will (:->

[niki_TM]

Hi Kurt,

For Google I'd recommended incoming links from relevant websites hosted on servers whith an IP address in a different C class than yours (123.456.789.101 and 123.456.789.102 are in the same C class, 123.456.789.101 & 123.456.790.999 are in different C classes); however, incoming links from websites hosted on the same server won't hurt. Another issue: if the owner of the domain names is the same, Google will not put too much value on incoming links from these sites.

It seems that Yahoo and MSN are not that fussy about these mattters.

Hope this helps,
Nick

[jawn_tech]

Don't forget that inbound links from any site, such as sites that you own, can ultimately lead in natural link growth. That is, the traffic you send to another site you own generates more visibility, and the chances of someone linking to your site because of its content.

I mention that to encourage anyone away from thinking somone should abstain from linking to their own sites just because those links somehow may carry less weight in a search engine algorithm. It just doesn't hurt to link at all, especially if they're relevant pages.

[jaldridge]

I have my own server and I link to my new sites from just one of the established sites. They are all on the same server with the same IP. Sufficient weight seems to be passed to the new sites to get them to rank well. All the domains are also in my name.

I just always make sure that I don't abuse it. I only link one-way and only from one of the sites to all the others.

Works for me!

[AjiNIMC]

Does the IP address of incoming links effect the value of the link?

It does, Read http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~georgem/hilltop/

esp read 2.1 Detecting Host Affiliation

AjiNIMC

[TrafficProducer]

Does the IP address of incoming links affect the value of the link?

The main thing I've heard is not to have sites Google Dislikes linking to you... (Porn, fake drugs, hacking sites etc)

In my very humble option: -

Remember that most users will not checkout an IP of any website they are about to click-on... and it is real people and how they use any site, (how and which links they click-on), and not search engines that website layout should be based on. (Of course you should try to do both.)

IP addresses will not affect most people but may affect search engines and this is something more under website designers control where-as which links users click on is more under their control, how search engines list sites is under their control and this is subject to change, at any time with out notice..

So what to do, personally I would not, at this time worry too much about which IP addresses link to me, but this could change in the future.

I'd think on the lines of how much work would be involved in Domain Name, Hosting Management to keep different IP's compared with that of keeping the same IP's and what RIO, Return On Investment that level of work would achieve. Not a lot, I will not get a million more visits or much higher Google PageRank just be changing he IP's, and the domain name maintenance could increase even cause me to forget to update a URL and lost it, so why bother.

[jawn_tech]

I have to disagree on something mentioned a few times already, and that is being penalized for having inbound links from bad neighborhoods.

As it's something beyond one's control, regarding who links to their site, competitor-sabotage would be completely rampant and out of control if this were the case.

As far as Google goes, their webmaster guidelines explain that unnatural links aren't given much credit, but that's far from a penalty, and doesn't affect the site being linked to in any way. A site that has outbound links to bad neighbor sites however, are the ones that are penalized.

As for what sites Google deems as "bad", they don't consider porn sites, viagra sites, or even hacking sites as bad sites. Search for all the above (at your own risk), you'll find examples of each with top positions in Google, awarded with plenty of PageRank.

What Google considers "bad" sites are in fact spam sites, that spam their search engine with doorways, unethical redirects, link or text hiding, and keyword spamming, to name a few. They go after the dirty tactics, not dirty content (unless illegal).

[computergenius]

Originally Posted by TrafficProducer

The main thing I've heard is not to have sites Google Dislikes linking to you... (Porn, fake drugs, hacking sites etc)

Google is well aware that you do not control which sites link to you, so will not give you bad marks if such sites link to you. If they did downgrade sites in this way, then all you would have to do would be create hate sites, and link to your competitors.

Originally Posted by TrafficProducer

Remember that most users will not checkout an IP of any website they are about to click-on...

I understood that the question was, "will search engines reduce the value of incoming links", and as far as I can see, they will not penalise you, but they will give links from the Class C IP range a lower value.

[lesterj]

Hey all,

Thanks for all the replies. It seems the general consensus here is that if the links are coming from the same IP address or even the same C class that the links may be discounted, at least in Google.

I find that a bit interesting. I wouldn't think that it would be unusual for a web host to have their clients websites either with the same IP address or with them, for the most part, in the same C class, obviously limited to the 256 possible IP addresses within a C class. If that is the case, and it's not uncommon, it would seem that the SEs would be discounting a significant percentage of the incoming links for websites.

AjiNIMC's article was very helpful, but has anyone done any real world tests that would verify the theories?


deepsand,

All the sites have the same DNS info and the same IP address. From what I understand, when you enter a domain name, it sends the visitor to the hosts server and their system then displays the appropriate website based on accessing that person's account on the server. I don't know if that technically would make everyone's website a part of the hosts website, but with differing domain names, but regardless, all the sites have 1 or 2 IP addresses.


jawn_tech and TrafficProducer,

I completely agree that the intent of incoming links is to bring visitors and that should be the primary consideration, however, if I'm going to work to get incoming links and have a choice in how I spend that time, I figure I might as well do it in a way that can have the most positive effect in the SEs as well.

Thanks again!
Kurt

[AjiNIMC]

AjiNIMC's article was very helpful, but has anyone done any real world tests that would verify the theories?

No one can do this test, you can easily simulate, Hilltop is implemented as a core logic for link evaluation.

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by lesterj

Hey all,

Thanks for all the replies. It seems the general consensus here is that if the links are coming from the same IP address or even the same C class that the links may be discounted, at least in Google.

I find that a bit interesting. I wouldn't think that it would be unusual for a web host to have their clients websites either with the same IP address or with them, for the most part, in the same C class, obviously limited to the 256 possible IP addresses within a C class. If that is the case, and it's not uncommon, it would seem that the SEs would be discounting a significant percentage of the incoming links for websites.

<snip>

deepsand,

All the sites have the same DNS info and the same IP address. From what I understand, when you enter a domain name, it sends the visitor to the hosts server and their system then displays the appropriate website based on accessing that person's account on the server. I don't know if that technically would make everyone's website a part of the hosts website, but with differing domain names, but regardless, all the sites have 1 or 2 IP addresses.


<snip>

Thanks again!
Kurt

In that case, there is but a single site, with that site containing the pages for multiple accounts. As far as the outside world is concerned then, all traffic coming from those internal accounts is coming from the same site.

Having links from one sub-account pointing to another may very well be viewed by SEs as being "black hat" SEO, and punished as such.

[incrediblehelp]

Pointing to links to websites can not penalize a website. All you could do is rank a website for certain keywords that the website owner may not want to rank for.

[timmathews.com]

So, to difinitively answer the question, if you have 100 websites hosted on the same server, with differing content, all having good, anchor text links to a site on another server, will it help?

[computergenius]

Yes, it will help, but it would help more if they were spread out across the internet, IP Address wise, with the first two parts of each IP address different.