An IP (Internet Physical) address is the physical location of a server or website as seen from the internet. When entering the address of a website that you wish to visit your computer will make a query to the DNS responsible for the domain name to request the IP address held for the domain name concerned and will then point your web browser towards the IP address of the server where the website is hosted so that you can view the content that you are requesting.
Dedicated IP addresses are a standard feature of dedicated forms of web hosting such as VPS server hosting and dedicated server hosting; if you are using a shared web hosting package then your chosen web hosting provider may be able to provide you with a dedicated IP address for your web hosting account at additional cost.
A dedicated IP address will be able to provide you with many benefits over using an IP address that is shared with many other websites. As is the case when you are hosting your website on a shared web hosting package. It is also a good idea to note that when using a VPS server or a dedicated server, you can purchase additional dedicated IP addresses if you wish to host multiple websites on a single server.
Using shared IP addresses can cause problems if one of the websites using the IP address carries out malicious activities since it could lead to the IP address becoming blacklisted in different places, i.e. it could be blacklisted for spamming or for hosting a fraudulent website.
By using a dedicated IP address you can be sure that your website and the domain name will be the only ones making full use of the IP address meaning that only your activities could lead to it being blacklisted and no one else’s.
A dedicated IP address will be able to provide you with many benefits in terms of SEO as search engines will recognize that your website is running on a dedicated IP address when they come to index it.
By using a dedicated IP address search engines interpret that you are paying close attention to the loading speeds of your website since traffic will arrive at your website much faster when using a dedicated connection because you won’t be sharing that connection with anyone else.
Furthermore, the interpretation that your website is hosted on its own server will mean that there are large resource reserves available for your website to use when necessary, thus maximizing uptime.
The cost of a dedicated IP address is quite justifiable when using a shared web hosting package as it will provide you with a base on which you can serve your own website and will also provide you with expansion opportunities without the need to upgrade your web hosting service.
A dedicated IP address is one of the pre-requisites of using an SSL certificate, an element of the web hosting that will encrypt the data that is transferred between the web hosting server/your website and your visitors’ computers; by using an SSL certificate you will be able to increase the sensitivity of the data you handle thus allowing you to expand your website to include an online store, for example.
Using a dedicated IP address will also allow you to have reverse DNS (rDNS) set on your IP address. Reverse DNS is effectively what it says in the name with the DNS query being made to resolve an IP address to a hostname rather than a hostname to an IP address.
Although this is something that isn’t that important, if you are going to be sending email addresses using your dedicated IP address then it is a good idea to have rDNS set on your dedicated IP address as without it you may find that some of the emails sent get bounced back.
Furthermore having rDNS set on your dedicated IP address will allow you to portray a more professional image to those who do carry out a reverse query on your IP address.
In some situations your shared web hosting provider may be able to provide you with a dedicated IP address for free, something that will be of great benefit to you when using a shared web hosting package. A dedicated IP address will be able to lift you out of the traditional set of a shared web hosting package since it will provide you with a higher level of freedom and can provide you with several different expansion opportunities.
A dedicated IP address is something that should be available regardless of the web hosting platform that you choose for your requirements as web-hosting providers should be able to easily assign dedicated IP addresses to users of both Linux shared web hosting services and Windows shared web hosting services.
When using a dedicated server hosting service such as VPS server hosting or dedicated server hosting. You will provided with one dedicated IP address to get you started with your new form of web hosting. The benefit of using dedicated web hosting is that you can purchase an unlimited number of dedicated IP addresses for your server meaning that if necessary, you can bind individual IP services to individual IP addresses if you wish to have such a configuration.
You will also be provided with the benefit of being able to host a large number of websites than would be possible with a shared web hosting service, therefore, meaning that if it is one of your intentions, a dedicated web hosting service is ideal if you wish to start your own web hosting company.
In conclusion, dedicated IP addresses are an ideal way of benefiting your website in terms of SEO if you wish to conduct an SEO campaign that will help to promote your website around the internet.
A dedicated IP address will also provide you with the advantage of giving your website its own physical location on the internet which will also seen favorably by search engines, but most importantly it ensures that the IP address used by your website isn’t blacklisted unless you do something yourself which causes this to happen.