Another piece of technology that WordPress hosting companies have up their sleeves, is two additional types of IP addresses. They’re called dedicated and shared IP addresses. So, does it really help? Is it something important to have for your website?
In the web community, people have been discussing whether dedicated or shared IP is better to use. Each individual’s point of view has given some distinct ideas about differences between the two IPs, and it just keeps on going. In the end, it might sound disappointing. But for the majority of users, it just doesn’t really matter.
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IP address: What it is and its relation to hosting websites
An IP address can be defined as a unique string of digits detached by periods that points out each machine communicating over a network utilizing the Internet Protocol.
It is what you’re typically used to seeing, as the IP address is linked with your very own computer.
Your IP address is how the web knows to relay information back to you when you do anything online. This analogy is used to describe that your IP address functions similarly to a return address on a letter.
Your website’s server, just like your PC, has an IP address. Actually, when it comes time to configure DNS, you’ll need your server’s IP address to ensure that everything is properly plugged. This is normally seen in your web host’s dashboard.
When visitors letter your website’s unique domain name, the browser converts it to an IP address to determine which server has your website’s data.
This is when things begin to detract. Your site may be allocated a dedicated IP address or a shared IP address, depending on your hosting provider’s high-tech stack and server configuration
Dedicated IP address
Having a dedicated IP address means you’ll have an IP address exclusive to your website. When visitors search for your site using the specific IP address, it will directly connect them to your site as a substitute to your domain name. In addition to that, your actual IP address will stay hidden and your data traffic will still be encrypted as well.
Shared IP address
It is more commonly used by most managed WordPress web hosting providers nowadays. As a single IP address can be utilized or shared for multiple websites.
To really see the difference and a whole picture of both IP addresses, comparing their advantageous characteristics from site owners’ perspectives would be most appropriate. Let’s look through some of the impact that dedicated and shared IP addresses might have on these site’s vital components; SSL certificates, site security and performance, and SEO.
Which type is the most suited for SSL?
At present, both dedicated and shared IP addresses are not so different in the matter of SSL. Long ago, if you wanted to get an SSL certificate encrypted for your site, you needed to have a dedicated IP address to do so. But with today’s technology called SNI (Server Name Indication), everything is easier as several hosting providers are generally using it for their users’ convenience, including WP Flash.
With SNI technical magic, it allows a single IP address to now have several SSL certificates on it. On top of that, whatever IP address your site uses, adding an SSL certificate can now be done to any type of IP address. Pretty amazing right?
As it is a mandatory requirement to have SSL installed on your sites (announced by Google), here at WP Flash, we got you covered with our free SSL certificates generated by Let’s Encrypt! Adding them to your sites can be done through our dashboard. Nevertheless, you can use other certificate you preferred if you’d like to.
Which type is better for security and performance?
Whether using shared or dedicated IP addresses, both are excellent for site security and performance; however, the server on which your site is hosted is far more important!
One of the most common misconceptions about IP addresses is that a shared IP address equates to a shared server. While some web hosting companies function in this manner, others employ shared load balancers (IP addresses) while still providing each WordPress site with its own resources. That’s the way the cloud hosting platform of WP Flash goes.
Our stacked server technology, which is built on Google Cloud Platform, provides dedicated resources for your websites to function efficiently and securely.
It’s worth noting that, depending on the design of your web server, your website may utilize many IP numbers for various services. With WP Flash, for example, our cache layer is the first element of our stack that a request to your site meets (an IP address) before being directed to a Google Cloud entry point (another IP address) and then to one of your site’s containers (a third IP address). Outbound requests from your website can also originate from an unlimited number of dynamic IP addresses. That’s another IP address if you use WP Flash to send traffic to your website!
Despite shared IP addresses, you do not have to worry about another website interfering with yours because each website has its own resources. If another website on the same server sees a traffic surge or is hacked, you may face performance or security difficulties with shared servers. This is one of the primary reasons we advocate utilizing a managed WordPress server such as WP Flash rather than a shared hosting service.
Importantly, this is about the server that hosts your website, not the type of IP address it uses. Therefore, it’s best to find a WordPress server with an amazing infrastructure, and it will keep you on its toes!
Lastly, let’s touch on the subject matter, SEO.
Is it true that IP addresses can impact SEO?
Surprisingly, no. They absolutely don’t.
The IP address you employ for your website has no direct impact on SEO or your Google ranking.
Here are some of the things we compiled and properly rephrased from what a Google’s webmaster analyst, John Mueller says about IP addresses.
“We have no problem with everyone having the same IP address. Sites using the same IP address are quite common. That’s how the internet functions. Many CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) utilize the same IP address for multiple sites, which is absolutely OK.”
He also mentions that the true issue is when sites have too much similar material — This raises a danger warning for Google.
Remember when it was considered a “great” SEO technique to create numerous websites with duplicate content in order to target certain keywords and gain inbound links? Because of the reduced cost of shared hosting, this was quite simple to accomplish, and because those sites all shared a server, they would also share an IP address. This is most likely where the notion that a shared IP is harmful for SEO started, whereas the true issue has always been duplicate content.
So, this is what John Mueller advises.
“What I advocate doing here is taking a step back and focusing on fewer sites and making them extremely powerful, excellent, and distinctive. In this way they may have distinct content and sell unique things. In doing so, there won’t be an assemblage of mismatched sites, doing repetitive and identical work.”
To be more specific, when having concerns about SEO, just concentrate on your content and ignore your IP address.
Where to now?
Unleash the ultimate performance for your site with WP Flash, your trusty managed WordPress hosting partner. With our impenetrable security, sublime speed, and solid cloud-based foundation, we’ll help you accomplish many great things ahead. Need more details? Find out more about us here!
Summary
So, sit back, relax, and be cool about it. To put it simply, think of an IP address as a piece of the process to identify your website. As long as you have a reliable and top-class managed WordPress hosting company taking care of your sites. With SSL certificates and accessible tools provided, there’s nothing you should be concerned about.
Published on June 16, 2022
