SEO gurus... hosting question for you
 

For a small network of sites, what's the smarter choice? One dedicated server with 10/20/30 different IPs OR a bunch of small virtual accounts with 1/2 IPs each at Naked, WebAir, HostGator, etc.?

Also, does each and every site need to have a different IP or can I do 1/2/5 sites on one IP?

THNX in advance.

Go with different hosts.

If you can get away with multiple virtual accounts (not resource intense), then go for it. You'll be over multiple networks and geo-graphically spread out too.
WG

Wow very convincing answers so far, thanks guys.

Google knows all of your sites, no matter how many hosts you use :pimp

It is better, just a pita to manage.

Can I still host a few sites per account, or just one?

Use whois protection too. This is a cross-link ready network. If you are not gonna cross-link your sites you don't need any of this just unique content.

You can host a few per account, put them on their own IP and don't cross-link with the ones on the same virtual.

true.. true..

i put 50 sites per 3 ip block. 2 for dns and 1 for web...

i host 350 sites per dedicated box

but i guess it depends on what you are doing.

i run adsense and amazon on my sites as well as cpa offers, so google is well aware of what sites i own..

i no longer see a benefit in seo by having your sites all spread out. i think the speed i get out of a beefed up dedicated box is better for what google is wanting to see..

i am sure other will disagree, but i am happy with the rankings i have so i will keep doing it my way...






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Correct. You need to also do smart A-B-C link trading if you are doing a network. There is software available that will help you do this.

I have done single host multiple IP blocks, and spread out as WiredGuy said. I have had similar results going either way. So I do not think it make a HUGE difference either way. But that privacy on WHOIS would be a solid investment as well.
:2 cents:

Agreed on all points.

i thought this was a 1999 thread bump when i saw the first post...

there are many seo theories, so you should not look for one answer.

I find that the better my bounce rate is, the fewer backlinks are needed to rank well.

Correct.

There is more that goes into SEO other than just the linking piece.

Google knows what you plan on doing.

google are their own registrar, they know who owns what. whois protection doesn't do jack shit.

depends on what you are doing. too many variables.

Actually, you bring up a good point I forgot to consider. Make sure the response time of your site if you're doing virtual is descent. These days, load time is a factor for Google so make sure your not on a crap shared server.
WG

i cross link sites on the same networks, even the same IPs, and still have tons of front page listings... sometimes even multiple places on the same front page for the same term.

a lot of this "SEO" stuff is voodoo! Its usually, A. someone guessing at what they *think* works, B. someone making things up, or C. someone repeating a source that was doing either A or B. give the user a nice website, follow a few guidelines and usually the traffic will follow.

Google is a registrar, its not hard to figure out domains that were all registered the same day promoting the same content and linking to the same end points(affiliate links), are owned by the same entity and are thus "SE Spam". Google and Yahoo have very bright minds writing their algorithms and millions of people reporting errors... you probably aren't going to outsmart them just by spending a few extra bucks putting things on different hosts.

Id get a host that is willing to give you IPs spread across a few C blocks and call it a day. When you hit hundreds of domains... start looking for multiple hosts.

but then again... what the fuck do i know ;)

the privacy whois idea someone said is a bad idea too, as it will look totally unnatural to google if all the strong important backlinks to your sites are from privacy whois domains, it makes much more sense to use many varied fake whois, completely different with no similar address, name, phone number or emails :2 cents:

If you're going to abide by Google quality guidelines, then I'd suggest dedicated hosting. You'll have more control and less variability over site performance, and google it appears from official comments and google labs, may be trending on factoring site performance more heavily.

If you're black hat, then attempt to spread the risk across different hosts, if you can manage.

go look at the top sites in competitive adult serps. how many have their whois visible?

i refer you to this thread for further information on the matter.
fucking-around-and-business-discussion/975350-ip-address-range-effect-search-engine-ranking.html

I used to use 20 different hosts, and now have less than half that. I now consider it virtually pointless.

It's almost impossible to hide your footprints these days, so I believe you're better off not crosslinking the hell out of your own sites on multiple hosts, but use tools like linkspun to get inbounds from other people.

Read JDough's "GFY Education Series" article on link strategy, he goes into the basics of it very thoroughly.

how many of them have wide ranging networks of backlinks though, I figured this thread was about building one's own network and achieving the best bang for the backlink buck by interlinking, I believe you go a lot further by having links back from many varied whois rather than all of your strong links back from similar private whois domains (and especially important if you end up ranking strong in the serps and get a manual review which branches through your network)

Ofc It's better to have a different visable whois for each domain. As I see It It's either a hide everything even down to the point of sponsor links or hide nothing and use original content and don't interlink too much.

:2 cents:

floppy disc is the best way

what he said...

We actually did BOTH, when we built our network of over 200 hand written blog we did everything we could to hide everything but quickly realized it was easier and we think better just to build unique content on all our sites and have no interlinking.

If your building a network of any size its next to impossible not to leave some footprint.
Google Analytics, Akismet, Domain Whois, Themes, Affiliate Links just to name a few.

I have sites that have no hard links between themselves but trade with each other using a script with the domain in the link like this:

mydomain.com/script/out.php?t=myotherdomain.com

Does google consider that a backlink?

You have a nice network there. Have you added It to linkspun?

if you are doing whitehat, you dont have to worry about the ip space thing. hosting companies pry on people who think they need more ip space, "seo" hosting is the biggest scam ever.

I'd have to agree with fris. If you're totally legal, linking couple of your hi quality sites for the shake of information sharing won't hurt at all!

So, I ditched all the virtual accounts I had and now using only one dedicated box where all my hi-quality sites are. And I don't have problem with that, neither does the Google.

I believe there is utility is geo but also utility in having sites 99.9 uptime.