September 23, 2020

How Does IP Address Affect Site Performance and Security

It is a common misunderstanding that a shared IP address is not ideal for site performance and security. This is because most uninformed people mistake a shared IP address with a shared server. In a shared server scenario, the resources and computing power of a single server is shared by multiple websites, which can sometimes lead to privacy concerns. A shared IP address, on the other hand, means that the domain is mapped to an IP address that is shared between multiple domains.

Both dedicated addresses as well as shared IP addresses can be suitable for hosting a website. In fact, the server on which the site is hosted will have more effect on its functionality and performance. Most web hosts use shared IP addresses to allocate the resources to their website. Some use containerized server technology as well to give each of the websites on the server their own dedicated resources. This works to help boost the site speed and mitigate security risks.

Some web hosting services also utilize multiple IP addresses for different services based on the site architecture. For instance, one IP address can be used for caching when the site receives a request while another can be used for routing the request to the relevant access points. Sometimes, a third IP address may also be used to redirect the request to the site containers, while outgoing requests may be handled by using any number of shared IP address.

Using any third party Content Delivery Network (CDN) will further redirect the requests to/through another IP. So in a nutshell, as long as the server allocates the site its own resources, using shared IP addresses will not affect the site security and performance.

The type of IP address will also not affect SEO and search engine rankings in any way. This means that using a shared IP address will result in the same search engine performance as when using a dedicated IP address, all other aspects being the same.

It should be noted that having similar content on different sites would affect the site ranking. The age-old practice of creating multiple domains with the same content is still being followed by some in order to target their focus keywords and generate inbound links. The low costs associated with shared hosting made this simpler. As all the sites will be hosted on the same server, the IP address will also be shared.

This is what led to the misconception that shared IP addresses are bad for site performance and SEO. However, the reason why these sites saw poor search engine rankings was the duplicate content and never the shared IP. So focusing on the content instead of worrying about the type of the IP address should be the goal of site builders.