When it comes to web hosting, there’s a lot of technical jargon floating out there on the Internet. In this article, you’ll get a breakdown of it all. You’ll learn about what an IP is, how it relates to your domain name, shared IP vs dedicated IP, and even what you need to know about dedicated IP benefits.
What is an IP address?
An IP address is short for Internet Protocol address, and it is a series of numbers used to communicate between computer networks.
The information communicated indicates where the information was sent from, as well as some details of where the info originated. For example, it will tell you the network that the info was sent on, as well as where the packets of digital info went through.
Every computer server has an IP address, and this includes the server that your website is hosted on.
How does an IP address relate to your domain name?
Your domain name can be used on any web host that you wish to build a website on. Each of the web hosting servers with your web host have an assigned IP address.
If you’re on a shared hosting account, the IP will be the same for all of the websites hosted on it, but each individual account will have its own username.
For example:
192.0.2.1/~yourusername
If your website is on a dedicated server, then you often have your own IP address or addresses, as the full server is all yours, and no one else is using it.
What is a Dedicated IP?
A dedicated IP is a type of IP address that is solely assigned to your web hosting and no one else's.
Only you or your web host should have access to your web hosting. Having a dedicated IP is great for your website’s security, and allows you to have your own unique identifying number online.
With dedicated IPs, you’re not sharing anything, so your website will have better load times.
What is a Shared IP?
A shared IP is a cost effective way to allow many people to share a server, whether for hosting or email.
In a shared IP setting, there are sometimes several hundred people using the same IP for their website and email needs.
Dedicated IP vs. Shared IP
What’s the difference?
A dedicated IP and a shared IP are different due to the fact that a shared IP means you’d be sharing resources with others on the same assigned IP or server.
If you have a couple hundred sites on the same shared server, sharing the same IP, that means those sites could become slow. The more your site lags, the more your visitors may be turned away from buying from you.
Another area where dedicated IP is different from a shared IP is email. If you’re using your web hosting account to send email out, to say, an email list, with shared IP, you’re limited on how many emails you can send out. Additionally, because there are a lot more sites on a shared IP server, that means there are potentially others sending out email, and sometimes they may be sending spam.
When an email is reported for spam, the IP address is usually reported or blacklisted, depending on the IP’s sender score. A sender score is basically your email server’s reputation. If you don’t know what your sender score is, you can check your email reputation at MXToolbox.
As a note, if your sender score is poor, and you’re on a dedicated IP, it’s a possibility that the previous user of that server may have done some things to hurt that IP’s reputation. With tools like MXToolbox, you can find out where to get a blacklist lifted. Additionally, your web host can also provide information on how to clear the IP.
In some cases, they may have to do it, especially if the problem happened before you moved onto the server. Sometimes the web host may end up moving you to a server with a clean sender score.
So, a recap: a dedicated IP is only used by you, and a shared IP is used by many. Of course, shared IP hosting is usually cheaper in pricing, while dedicated IP can cost a few dollars per month or more than a hundred bucks.
What you Need to Know about Dedicated IP Benefits
Here are some dedicated IP benefits:
Better load time
More resources available
More secure
Better load time
With dedicated IP, you’re the only one using your server, so you will reap the benefit of better load times. If you have a high traffic website, a dedicated IP allows you to handle more traffic, while allowing your site to load faster.
More resources available
A dedicated IP with a dedicated web hosting server can give you the ability to send more emails out, in case you’re managing a large email newsletter list. This can help eliminate the need to purchase an account with a 3rd party email marketing company like MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, or others.
More secure
With a dedicated IP, you can be more assured that it’s a secure solution. You don’t have to worry about other people possibly ruining your IPs reputation, which can ruin things like email deliverability to your newsletter subscribers, or even blacklist your whole domain on search engines.
Does having a dedicated IP mean better SEO?
Unfortunately, there’s no SEO advantage in having a dedicated IP versus a shared IP.
For example, you could have a poorly organized and written website on a dedicated server, but someone on a shared IP, that has fantastic content, may rank better.
Things like the content, how old the site is, if the site loads fast, and if the site is secure, are just some of the factors that make one site better than others in the search results.
