Do I need a Dedicated IP Address for My Website?

In one quick short answer NO!

Is it possible to have a dedicated IP for a website, absolutely YES. But completely unnecessary.

The ip address is used by the host to route the user to the machine that hosts your website. The server then has the ability to decide which files or directories to send the user to based on the actual website they are looking for.

With more complex networks like pageBuzz.com and other cloud based systems many website don't run on just one IP address or use just one server for all of their processes.

In these cases where clustering type enviornments are used it becomes that much more complex to assign ip addresses to individual sites because they are part of a bigger network.

In cheap web hosting environments, it is very simple to assign 100 ip addresses to a single server and let every website use a different ip address. In fact, that is typically how the low cost hosting services manage the servers because users run DNS services and mail services on the same servers, so 2 ips are reserved for sudo name servers and sometimes a mail server all hosted on the same cheap computer.

As they promise more and more resources, they can allow multiple customers to run their own DNS servers and other functions that require additional ip addresses. So they just load up a bunch of ips on the servers when they deploy them for service in case anyone wants them later.

That means that having a dedicated ip address has nothing to do with the resources available or how good the website actually is.

In fact, networks typically only use only 1 ip address to transmit all of their data sometimes for millions of websites. So even if you have a dedicated IP address for your website, they all funnel though 1 ip address when they leave the network.

The whole process of routing and networks is just too complex for this article, but in spite of all the complexity, they do in fact work very well.

Data travels in and out on one or more lines and than is distributed within the network to the correct servers. Severs then move data between users or virtual hosts and back out to the internet through the same lines.

The process of having a dedicated IP address for a website is not a big deal, except in cases where servers use resources from outside servers and have multiple ips bound to different network ports allowing machines to talk on internal networks and external networks.

If you start adding more ip addresses to the mix it becomes more complicated to communicate with other servers since each needs an authorization to communicate with that ip for the purpose of transferring data or resources to each server.

The more complex the network, the less ips are used because it simplifies the networking process.

At least from a programming standpoint that is the case. I am sure network engineers will tell you it is not big deal to dump all the ips into servers, but since they are not system administrators, they don't have a vote.

So if you ask for a unique ip for a website, it may not be possible or practical depending on the application that the hosting company is using. If it is possible, chances are they have a very simple network where each server has no access to the rest of the network resources.

Now, some websites use multiple ip addresses for load balancing which is one way of balancing loads between multiple servers each with duplicate content. So a website can have 10 or even 20 ip addresses that all point to different servers even though it is one website.

This is an inexpensive and simple way to add more resources to popular websites and in those cases, yes, you would need multiple ip address to set up that kind of network.

That is not to say that we don't need multiple ip address in a clustered environment sometimes referred to as a cloud environment, but only one ip needs to be facing the outside and that means only one ip for all the websites on that cluster.

Obviously, a cluster of servers is better than one server but having a dedicated ip address does not tell you if that is the case or not, in fact it is unrelated.

The SEO Myth that a dedicated ip address makes your site better

Because of the complexity of todays networks and the sever lack of ip addresses in the IPv4 system that virtual environments were created many years ago to solve the problem of more websites that IP addresses.

Hosting companies now pay a premium for ips as much as $1/month for each ip address. Now that may not seem like a lot but with thousands of websites that adds up fast. It also would make your website hosting more expensive and you would get no value out of it.

There is really no good reason to have a dedicated ip address for a website since the network resolves the virtual host to the exact same place.

If your domain name is "thenameofyourbusiness.com" does it matter what the ip address is?

Unless you plan on hosting your website as 192.126.72.0, then you don't need to be concerned that it has or does not have a dedicated ip address.

I am sure there are 10,000 SEO webmaster professionals reading this right now say, "what an idiot this guy is" but if they knew about the networking and the resource distribution part of hosting they would sing a different song.

No search engine will give you any more relevancy for having a dedicated ip for your website.

But if you want one, or think you need one, get a hosting company that offers that service. You will find, the cheapest deals, the slowest servers and the lowest quality networks in your search. Because in order to provide dedicated ips on a broad scale, you need a simple network.

Now you decide, is it better to have a dedicate IP Address or a website with better uptime and more resources because it is part of a larger network?

In Conclusion

A website can share an ip with tens of thousands of other websites or have one or more ips on its own. It is a function of how the network and servers are set up and wont have any bearing on the website itself.

If all the data for 10,000 ips comes in over one IP then they all really only have one IP address anyway, the main broadcast IP. So who cares how the network is routed within the datacenter?

Unless you are the networking guy, whether you have a dedicated ip or not is really not going to affect your website one way or another.