What Is An IP Address, and How Does It Affect SEO?

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique number assigned to each device connected to the Internet and used to exchange information with other network participants. Some claim that IP addresses are important for search engine visibility and ranking. I will analyze if this is true later in the article, but first...

What are IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses?

Everyone has probably seen an IP address with their own eyes, for example, when setting up a new router. It looks like this: 

192.168.0.1 

This is an IPv4 version, a very clear form of writing in four decimal numbers with values from 0 to 255. The maximum possible number of unique IPv4 addresses is 4.19 billion. However, as more and more people started to use the Internet, there were not enough IPv4 addresses for everyone.

To overcome this, a new version of IPv6 with 128-bit representation was introduced in 1999. It looks like this:

fe80:0:0:0:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf 

A large number of null groups can be skipped by using a double colon:

fe80::200:f8ff:fe21:67cf

For example, the IP address of the site netpeak.ua looks like this — 78.47.97.93. 

How an IP address works

I said at the beginning that an IP address is a unique identifier for a device, but if you think about it, a website is not a device. You're communicating with a server, which is where the website is hosted. When you type a URL into your browser, your device uses the IP to find the web server and load the pages you need.

Typically, users have no way of knowing the IP of a website because it is hidden behind the domain. When a user enters a website address in a browser, a special domain name system called DNS translates it into the corresponding IP.

Let me show you an example of user interaction with the site:

1. A router automatically assigns a local or private IP address to your device.
2. The Internet Service Provider (ISP, such as Kyivstar) assigns an external IP address to the router.
3. You use an external address to connect to the server hosting the site you are looking for.

Googlebot and other search engines have their own IP addresses that are used to crawl websites. The robot requests the server hosting the website to download the necessary resources for further crawling and analysis. 

Googlebot generally accesses the site from IP addresses belonging to the US region. If the site has set up a block on requests from this particular region, Googlebot will use IP addresses from other regions. 

Use Google Search Central to find the type of IP addresses used for crawling, and you can make sure that your site is crawled by Googlebot.

How to find out the IP address of a website

Contrary to a common belief, it is impossible to get personal information from IP addresses. The IP address only reveals the geolocation of your Internet provider within the city limits. So, there are several interesting ways to find out a site’s IP address, and it is not risky or dangerous in any way.

Whois

A popular global service that provides detailed information about any domain or IP. You can find out the server name, domain registrar, domain creation date, and license number. 

To find an IP address:

1. Go to the site, type the site domain, and click Search.

2. In the results, select the DNS Records tab.

3. On a new page, look for the following line in the table below.

2ip

This is a handy and intuitive service. It will give you information about the type of IP address, server (hosting) location, domains located on the same IP, and other details. To find this information:

1. Clear the input line, which will contain your personal public IP address.
2. Enter the domain and click the blue Check button.

3. The screen will then display information about the address type, server location, provider name, and other useful parameters.

The ping command

Another way to find out an IP address is to run the ping command. The procedure varies depending on operating systems. I'll go through the most common ones.

On Mac OS

1. Open Terminal on Mac. It's a basic program that comes preinstalled on all Mac machines, so you don't need to download it. To find Terminal quickly, use desktop search.

2. Type the command ping [website domain] and press Enter. Your device will then send requests to the site approximately every second, and you'll get the response as a string with the IP and other information, as shown in the screenshot below. To stop the request flow, press CTRL+C.

On Windows

1. In the Windows search box, type Windows PowerShell. This program is the Windows equivalent of Terminal on Mac. From the options that appear, select the program with the exact same name without any additional characters.

2. Click it to open the interface of the program.

3. Type the command ping [website domain] and press Enter.

4. After processing the command, you will see all the necessary information in the same window.

Netpeak Checker

Netpeak Checker is a great tool that gives you insight into website performance and SEO strategy. You can also use it to check website IP addresses:

1. Open Netpeak Checker.
2. On the right side of the Parameters window, uncheck all the boxes except for the box next to IP in the DNS tab, as shown in the screenshot below.

3. Select the Lists of URLs tab from the top menu. Click Enter manually.

4. Add the link and click Add.

5. Click the Start button. Wait a few seconds, and you're done.

Serpstat extension

This is another quick way to find out the IP address of a website. First, install the Serpstat Website SEO Checker extension for Google Chrome, and then do the following: 

1. Go to the website, which in this example is netpeak.us. Click on the extension icon in the upper right corner of the browser, and select the newly installed SEO Checker in the list.

2. Click the green Start Analysis button in a new window.

3. The analysis will take a few seconds.

Done! In the screenshot, I have highlighted where the IP address information is for the two versions of IPv4 and IPv6.

In addition to IP, this extension contains many useful SEO metrics that will definitely come in handy when analyzing website pages.

How does an IP address affect a website in terms of SEO?

Now that you know what an IP address is, how it works, and how to determine it, it's time to talk about SEO.

Right away, I'd like to point out that the IP address is not a ranking factor. It's just a protocol that establishes a connection between a website, search engine, or user. However, if there are problems with this connection, such as DDoS attacks on the server from competitors, the consequences are reflected in the functioning of the site. In turn, this can affect the promotion of the resource and the business as a whole.

But IP can also affect SEO in other ways, not only during DDoS attacks. Let me explain this in more detail.

Server location

You've already learned that the IP address can be used to determine the country of origin of the server (host) hosting the site. This server can partially affect promotion.

While the location of the server doesn't matter, its uptime is important, i.e. how stable it works for a certain period. If the site is unavailable due to server delays, it will lose potential traffic and users.

You can determine the uptime of your server by using the UptimeRobot service. This is a free service that allows you to connect your website to a continuous monitoring service. In instances of downtime, when the server stops working, it will immediately notify you of the problem. 

I recommend that you always customize this tool for your site.

Google's official documentation on server placement states the following:

Therefore, server location is one of the signals used to determine the audience, but it is not the main one. To be on the safe side, Google recommends that local sites be hosted on servers located in the relevant country or region.

Dedicated IP address

I've already mentioned a public IP address, which is an address assigned to a website by its hosting provider to allow it to be accessed on the Internet. 

Something similar happens at the site level. It resides on a server that has its own public IP address to which you send the necessary requests. But many different sites can be hosted, not just yours. 

You can solve this problem by switching to a dedicated IP address. This is a type of address that only you can use, and you won't have to share the server with any "neighbors". This has many advantages for SEO as well:

1. A dedicated address eliminates the chances of being sanctioned by Google. If a site publishes prohibited content, engages in fraud, or tries to manipulate search algorithms, there is a high probability that other sites on the shared server will be sanctioned by search engines. Therefore, in case of a sharp drop in traffic, it is better to check the “neighbors” on the same IP.
2. The number of sites on the server. When a host serves a large number of sites, there is a risk of a server crash. It might simply stop coping with the load and, as a result, stop working.
3. A dedicated IP reduces the likelihood of falling victim to a DDoS attack. If the site of one of the shared hosting users is attacked, it usually affects the operation of all the sites on the server. It is better not to risk this happening because you will lose potential customers for your business.
   
   If such a hacker attack is directed at a dedicated server, administrators can immediately detect and eliminate the threat because they will not have to spend time trying to figure out where the DDoS attack came from.

How to check server neighbors by IP address

To find out who else shares the same host as you, follow these steps:

1. Find out the IP address of the site. How to do this is described above.
2. Go to the Reverse IP Lookup toolpage at ViewDNS.info.

3. Enter the IP address of the website in the text box, and then click GO.

4. You are done. You will see a table with the results below. You can copy it and continue your analysis.

Conclusions

1. An IP address is a unique identifier assigned to each device connected to the Internet, and it allows devices to communicate and interact with each other.
2. There are two versions of an IP address: IPv4 and IPv6. The second was created because of the limited number of unique IPv4 addresses.
3. Websites often use a public IP address, which is determined by the server or host where the site is located.
4. To find out the IP address, you can use the following tools: Whois, 2ip, ping command in a terminal, Netpeak Checker, and Serpstat extension.
5. The IP address is not a factor in search engine rankings. It does, however, indirectly affect the SEO promotion of the site through the following factors:

• Server stability
• Number and quality of neighboring sites on the same server (IP)

6. To find out the sites that are on the same host as you, use DeltaHost.