Ahhh, Jade, I just now recollect about you from another thread (I think in another forum). You're the one who is #1 for "Las Vegas real estate" in google.

My hats off to you again for that exemplary performance in SEO! That is one of the most competitive keyphrases in real estate over the Internet.

The ultimate proof of an SEO's effectiveness is performance from a list of the most competitive keywords. Everybody can make the claim of being the best, but winners are pretty clear in the SEO world. Your methods and instincts are probably right on the money!

------------------
Ruperto Elpusan, MBA, e-Pro
Broker/Officer
Beverly Hills-Malibu-Palos Verdes Real Estate
Torrance/South Bay Real Estate
Rancho Palos Verdes Home Values

Interesting read here about Google's secrets based on US patent filed by Google. It does corroborate the notion that a bad IP can unduly penalize you, through no fault of your own, in Google.

Here's the link: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-10-2005-71368.asp

Here's a direct quote from the article: Your hosts IP address. If you are on a shared server it's possible somebody else on that server is using dirty tactics or Spamming. If so, your site will suffer since you share the same IP.

FWIW

From a google employee on SEO:

1. Google does not penalize web sites that use pop-up ads.

2. Participation in Google's AdSense will not get your web site indexed more quickly.

3. New web sites take time to rank well in Google.

4. New sites take time to build up PageRank - even if you have tons of links pointing to it "immediately".

5. If you have your domain hosted on a shared server that also provides other domains... Google is smart enough to recognize virtual hosting.

6. Google doesn't start indexing web sites in alphabetical order.

7. Google is not limited to 32 bit indexing (4.3 billion pages) - Google will continue to grow.

8. Avoiding URLs with "id" parameter because "id=" usually marks a session. Rename domain.com/index.asp?id=something to some other param.

9. words separated by underscores ("_") or hyphens ("-") in URLs. Google will treat "keyword-phrase" as "keyword phrase" and "keyword_phrase" as "keywordphrase.

10. TLDs (Top level domains) .com, .net, .org, etc., will not rank better than any other regional domain.

11. Google can detect hidden text/link and even innovative use of hidden text/link e.g. - blue text link in a blue table but page white background is still detected.

12. Your site description is missing in index tends to indicate... site was down when Googlebot crawled.


So...it would appear that Google does not penalize based on IP. However, there is a good reason to have a Static IP...SPAM. If someone on your virtual host is spamming, your IP can be blacklisted by the spam services and, if you use your domain for your smtp server, your email will not be delivered.

Hope this helps!

Christina,

Thanks for your input. However, from actual experience as a search engine optimizer myself, I've seen Google penalize based on IP, historically. And they made the official statement they do not do so. I still do my own optimization but as a professional optimizer back in the day, part of the job is to separate fact from fiction (and it may appear strange but the search engines are often guilty of propagating fiction about their algorithms).

You make the statement in your last paragraph that if someone in a virtual host is spamming, the IP associated with the host can be blacklisted. That's true. Did you know that historically, entire class c's of ips can be banned also? What that means is that if you have a static ip residing on the same class c of a spammer, it can get penalized. In fact, slices of ips on a class c can be banned, if not the entire class c.