Google: Multiple Sites on Same IP is Not a Problem, But Similar Content Is
How :
To solve this problem we introduce two terminologies Public IP address and Private IP address are as follows.
Can Two IP Addresses Be Same?
Overview :
A simple definition of Computer Network is an interconnection of two or more computers(includes personal computers, mobiles, laptops, etc, network devices like a router, switch, bridge, etc) for the purpose of transferring data. Now one obvious question arises how does one computer in the network identify another? Here, is the answer. By MAC address and IP address
MAC (Media Access Control) is 6 bytes =48 bits =12 nibbles (1 nibble=4bits) long .
Note –
It is a hardware address given to each NIC(Network Interface Card).
- Can two devices have the same MAC address?
No. - Can two devices have the same IP address?
Yes
Why and How :
Now comes the interesting part, WHY and HOW? Let me first explain WHY and then HOW ingeniously we do that as follows.
Why :
- Today the two most widely used version of IP is IPv4 and IPv6.
- IPv4 is 32 bit and IPv6 is 128 bit
- if we talk about IPv4 it has only 32 bits means 2^32 addresses
- possible (max) which is roughly equal to 4 billion(10^9) addresses.
- but to have more than billions of devices in the world is possible
- as now we have lots of IoT devices, smartphones, even smart
- fridges which are connected to the internet.
- so we have to find out some solution that how can we reuse the already used IP address. otherwise we will run out of IP
How :
To solve this problem we introduce two terminologies Public IP address and Private IP address are as follows.
Public IP address and Private IP address :
Any IP address in this range is the private IP address and the remaining are public IP addresses.
- Private IPs are free of cost
- Public IPs are costly (ISPs like Jio, Airtel purchase public IPs)
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255/8 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255/12 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255/16
Diagram Representation –
Here we have two routers Jio and Airtel both are connecting private networks and public networks. Remember we do not talk directly to Google or Amazon server or any public device directly, we talk via our ISP . we talk to ISP router and ISP router talk to the Internet. All ISP or public routers have public IP addresses that they purchase and all have different public IP addresses, they can’t be the same, as in fig. Airtel public IP is 43.5.6.1 and Jio public IP is 53.9.7.1. Now under each public IP address, any private IP address range can be used (private IP range listed above). That’s why host A and host B in fig. can have the same private IP address. so within one network for ex-Airtel, all private IPs must be different but for hosts, on two different networks ex-Airtel and Jio hosts may have the same private IP address this way we reuse the private IPs.
Public and private network
Conclusion :
All public IPs assigned to Routers of ISPs or Routers connecting to Internet are unique. but private IPs of two hosts can be the same if both are connected to different public networks. So the combination of public and private IP identifies your device uniquely. One interesting activity you can do, take two or more phones to connect all the phones with the hotspot of anyone’s phone. now on all the phones type on Google “what is my IP address” it will give you the public IP to which your phone is connected, (not the private IP), you will see all of your phones have the same public IP (because all of you are connected to the same public router) and to see your private IP go to setting and then Wi-Fi and then Wi-Fi setting. You will see your private IP address ( for your mobile model please search on google how to find private IP). One more thing you will note here is that all of your private IPs will differ in a uniform manner. Because all of you have the same public network your private IP can’t be the same.
Last Updated : 09 Sep, 2021
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Google: Multiple Sites on Same IP is Not a Problem, But Similar Content Is
Google’s John Mueller recently clarified that having multiple sites on the same IP address is not inherently a problem.
However, it may become a problem if those sites have very similar content.
This topic came up during a webmaster central office hours hangout. An individual was concerned about a decline in traffic amongst multiple sites on the same IP address.
In addition to being on the same IP address, the webmaster described these sites as having very similar content and site structure.
Mueller explained that having multiple sites on the same IP address is not a problem as far as Google search is concerned. That’s how the internet generally works, Mueller says.
A bigger issue is the similar content, as Google may regard that as being a collection of doorway sites — especially if the sites are funnelling users toward the same products.
Google may end up doing one of two things in these cases:
- One: Google may decide to display content from just one site out of the collection of “doorway” sites.
- Two: If Google regards a collection of similar content sites as being “doorways” then it might demote all of them.
Mueller ultimately recommended that this webmaster focus on making the content more unique, rather than being concerned about them all being on the same IP address.
You can hear Mueller’s full response in the video below, starting at the 20:33 mark.
“All the same IP address — that’s really not a problem for us. It’s really common for sites to be on the same IP address. That’s kind of the way the internet works. A lot of CDNs (content delivery networks) use the same IP address as well for different sites, and that’s also perfectly fine.
I think the bigger issue that he might be running into is that all these sites are very similar. So, from our point of view, our algorithms might look at that and say “this is kind of a collection of doorway sites” — in that essentially they’re being funnelled toward the same product.
The content on the sites is probably very similar. Then, from our point of view, what might happen is we will say we’ll pick one of these pages and index that and show that in the search results. That might be one variation that we could look at. In practice that wouldn’t be so problematic because one of these sites would be showing up in the search results.
On the other hand, our algorithm might also be looking at this and saying this is clearly someone trying to overdo things with a collection of doorway sites and we’ll demote all of them.
So what I recommend doing here is really trying to take a step back and focus on fewer sites and making those really strong, and really good and unique. So that they have unique content, unique products that they’re selling. So then you don’t have this collection of a lot of different sites that are essentially doing the same thing.”