Quoting Matt Cutts on Two Common SEO Myths
Myth Number One: I need a dedicated IP address for my site to avoid getting downgraded by Google.
Time and time again we hear from businesses that are spending lots of precious extra dollars for a dedicated IP address, thinking that this will improve, or at the very least protect, their organic search rankings. Their fear is that if they are hosted on a shared server with spammy websites or black hat websites that have created link farms on the shared server, then this could affect their own “reputation” with Google.
However, we are here to dispel this myth and save you money – Google has made it abundantly clear that hosting your site with a dedicated IP address vs. shared IP does not affect your organic search rankings. Unless you are the only legitimate website sharing a server with “thousands and thousands and thousands “of spammy websites (the likelihood of which is almost nill – Matt Cutts of Google says he has seen this happen “at least once”), the fact that you share an IP address with others is not worrisome to Cutts or to Google. Matt Cutts spells it out nicely in this video. Cutts states, “Google understands that shared web hosting happens, you can’t really control who else is on that IP address…if you have the normal mix [on the server] then I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Myth Number Two: If my site and store utilize multiple servers, I will be downgraded by Google.
Also not true. Google recognizes the common use of multiple-server solutions and demonstrates their acceptance of this within Google Analytics, for example, by allowing you to indicate when you are using multiple servers so it can track visitors to your site across servers. Furthermore, Google’s Matt Cutts once again clearly states in this video that Google really doesn’t care whether your site and store are on the same server or different servers. In fact, Cutts states, “if you want to have part of your site powered by a completely different product… so you want to have that on a separate CNAME…that’s totally fine.” He further recommends that it’s merely “a question of which one is easier for you.”
I could go on and on about how these myths got started, why folks perpetuate them and why you shouldn’t believe them, but heck, what better authority on these subjects is there than Google itself? So I rest my case here with these Cutts videos, which pretty much say it all.
Pamela is a Senior Account Manager at Nexternal and works in the Napa Valley office. She is passionate about helping her clients succeed. With 20 years' experience in the wine industry spearheading business development and marketing for various wineries including her own, plus previous years practicing general business law, Pamela is well qualified to provide the service and guidance to her clients that sets Nexternal apart from other eCommerce providers.
