Dedicated IP
Many times when you sign up for web hosting you don’t know what features you need until it’s too late. For instance, I was helping my Aunt build a website to sell her homemade aprons and handicrafts. She had purchased web hosting before talking to me and later discovered that her host did not offer dedicated ips. Many shared hosting companies make you share one ip address with hundreds of other customers.
My Aunt wanted to build an ecommerce website where she could sell her aprons online. One of the key components to an ecommerce website is an SSL certificate which allows you to securely accept credit card payments. But, in order to have an SSL certificate you must first have a dedicated ip address. There are many other benefits to having your website on a dedicated ip address but for ecommerce websites a dedicated ip is a must have.
I found out the hard way that in a shared hosting environment other customers sharing your server/ip can affect your web site in a negative way. One day I couldn’t figure out why my site was suddenly having email problems. After weeks of trouble tickets and bounced email I found out that a spammer was sharing my ip address and had gotten the ip banned or blacklisted. You can see if your ip has been blacklisted here, many people don’t even realize it has happened.
A blacklisted IP can also cause problems with your website’s search engine rankings. I have friends that could never get their site indexed by Google and later found that their ip address had been blacklisted for years. Many times the blacklist happens long before you come along with your new web site. On the flip-side, a dedicated ip that is clean can have a positive effect on your search engine rankings.
Dedicated servers often come with multiple dedicated ips. Some webmasters like to have each website they own on a dedicated ip address. Many shared hosting companies can offer you a dedicated ip for a small fee. Another way to get a dedicated ip is through a VDS web hosting account like Jumpline offers. VDS hosting is a little more expensive than shared hosting but gives you quite a bit more freedom and features. Either way, a dedicated ip address is always a good idea in my opinion.
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