All website owners would like their website to be secure, lightning-fast, and of course, ranked high on Google. One way to achieve all this is to get a dedicated IP address. To briefly explain, a dedicated IP (aka fixed IP) is an Internet Protocol address reserved just for your website. In contrast to shared IP addresses, dedicated IP ensures that you are the only one using that specific IP.
This provides several noticeable benefits from enhanced security on your website to better SEO results. Unlike a shared IP address where you are affected by the users who also use the IP address from the pool you’re in, you have complete control over how to manage your most valuable digital asset.
In this article, we will explain the benefits of a dedicated IP address and provide information on how to set it up. Whether you have a personal blog or a small business, keep reading to find out more.
Improved Website Speed
Speed is one of the most important qualities of a good website. If you have a website that takes too long to load and show the content, visitors will most likely never visit the website again. Since this issue directly affects your profits, it is a smart thing to use a dedicated IP address that can help with the website speed.
First of all, if you are using a shared IP address on a website, it will be affected by a potential traffic surge on another website using the same IP address. Using a dedicated IP will prevent such traffic congestion since all the resources of that IP address will be reserved only for you.
Secondly, a shared IP address requires reverse IP lookup, which increases the response time of a server. This is needed to let the server know which website to load that uses the IP address. Since there are multiple websites on that IP, it naturally takes longer for the server to respond. By using a dedicated IP address, you will decrease this response time and have a faster website.
Better SEO Rankings
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website to appeal to Google and have it ranked higher so more users see and visit it. Using a dedicated IP address has proven benefits on SEO rankings, thus increasing your potential profit.
Having a dedicated IP address increases your overall website security (we’ll talk about this later in detail), which is a significant component of successful SEO. If a website is marked as malicious or risky on a shared IP address, it can harm the neighbor websites’ SEO score too. By using a dedicated IP, your website will not be affected by any activities of the other websites, protecting your SEO score.
Another important factor of great SEO is website speed, which we already explained above. Since dedicated IP addresses directly affect your website speed, they will also directly benefit your SEO operations.
Enhanced Security
We live in an age of various cyber threats targeting individual users of websites to steal their personal information. As a website owner, you are responsible for taking the necessary measures to protect your users and avoid issues related to cyber-attacks.
Regarding the security of your website, a dedicated IP address protects it from hacking attempts. When a website uses a shared IP address, an attack on the website on the IP may affect all the other websites too. A dedicated IP ensures that your website is free from the breaches of others.
Secondly, as a common threat, DDoS attacks happen when a server is overwhelmed with traffic by malicious users and causes downtime. This is a well-known risk for websites using a shared IP since it is easier to overload the server due to shared resources. However, dedicated IP proved to be stronger against such attacks since you are the only one using the server.
How to Set Up a Dedicated IP Address for Your Site
Now that you know the best benefits of a dedicated IP address for your website, we can talk about how to set it up. By following the steps below and choosing your provider right, you can improve your website’s performance and security in no time.
1. Choose a dedicated IP provider
The very first step of setting up a dedicated IP is choosing your service provider. Luckily, hundreds of online VPN services offer this feature with their vast network of servers around the world. Therefore, you can simply get in contact with a fixed IP VPN provider and let them help you get your dedicated server and IP.
2. Configure your website
Once you have your dedicated IP address from the service provider, it is now time to configure your website to utilize that IP address. This process can be different depending on the type of your website. If you use a CMS like AEM or WordPress, you can probably update your IP address from the settings. However, in some cases, you might need to change your DNS records and direct them to the new IP address.
3. Wait for propagation
After the configuration step of your new IP address, you will need to wait for DNS propagation. This is the process when your DNS records are updated throughout the internet so that your new IP address is acknowledged. This step can take hours and your website will likely be unavailable during this time.
4. Test your website
After the propagation step is completed, you need to test your website to ensure that there is no error on any of your pages and the website is working properly with the new IP address. To do this, have your team look up all the pages and the assets within them to prevent user dissatisfaction in the future.
5. Update your SSL certificate
SSL certificates are directly linked to the IP address of your website. For this reason, if you have a new IP address, you need to update the SSL certificate to reflect your dedicated IP. However, this step is usually very simple and you can do this by contacting your web hosting provider or changing it from the control panel yourself.
Conclusion
Having a dedicated IP address have significant benefits for your website from improved security, performance, and SEO results. Although some website owners think shared IP addresses are just fine, getting a fixed one, if you can, is better. Thanks to all the service providers on the internet, using a dedicated IP and server is now easier than ever. With the steps we mentioned above, you can also easily set it up for your website.
