The importance of having a dedicated IP address for your site to enhance security and protection

Each server connected to the Internet comes with its own identification name, which is what we call the IP address, which is the direct way to connect to this server, such as the names that people give themselves and be a means of communication and acquaintance between them, but this identification address differs into a type called Shared IP and the second type Dedicated IP address.

What is the difference between them and the way to use each type? 

In this article, we will learn about the concept of an IP address and the difference between it and a domain name, and how more than one site can share the same IP address, and you will also learn about the benefits of using an IP address dedicated to your site only and not shareable with any other website except under your management, as we will explain The practical way to change the site’s IP address to a properly assigned address in WordPress sites.

Concept of IP address vs domain name 

Basically, as we indicated in the introduction, every website published on the Internet has its own identifying name which is an IP address as we agreed. 

Now imagine that Facebook’s IP address is 69.63.187.18 or is one of its addresses, would that be better than having the site’s address written in letters that are easy for all visitors to remember like www.facebook.com

A domain name is the gateway through which a web browser communicates with the IP address of any website you wish to visit or connect to in one way or another.

Therefore, domain names that know the DNS acronym were created based on the Domain name servers clause, which is the system responsible for assigning a readable and easy-to-remember domain name for each IP address published on the Internet, and you can still connect to any site through its IP address as well, but the domain name It makes it easier for you instead of typing a lot of consecutive numbers in order to connect to the server or website. 

The difference between a shared IP address and a Dedicated IP address

You can easily get acquainted with the idea of ​​a shared IP address, which means that it is one primary address shared by a large number of Internet sites, but with different domain names for each site separately, by logging into your shared hosting account (in case you are using Shared hosting). , and you will find the shared IP address clearly in front of you in the Cpanel Hosting Control Panel:

This means that the IP address of your site is a shared address, meaning that it is located on the same server as another set of Internet sites, and this is the idea of ​​shared hosting where the same server is divided into a large number of spaces and a domain name is allocated to each hosting, but it remains The server’s IP address is only one! 

Having a large number of sites sharing the same IP address means that when one of the owners of the sites on the same server as your site performs any fraudulent action for example sending fraudulent mail messages and receives a large number of reports, in this case if he uses the IP address of the server in this Unethical action.

… the e-mail service providers may apply a blanket ban on the server’s IP address, which is the procedure that may affect your site even though it has a different domain name but in the end it shares with the rest of the sites on the same server the IP address, and that is The most common threat is for websites that use a shared IP address with other websites on the same server. 

 

The other type is a Dedicated IP address, which means that it is an address dedicated only to your website and another website will not have the right to share with your site at this address except under your management and disposal, and therefore you will be responsible for the reputation of the IP address and at the same time your site will not be affected by fraudulent address blocking services in This is the case where you can rest assured that no one in the black hat is doing unethical things, putting your website’s reputation at risk.

In the case of shared hosting, you can change the IP address of your site to a dedicated one only for you by purchasing a Dedicated IP address from within the hosting control panel as shown in the image:

Benefits of using a dedicated IP address for your location

After you know the basic difference between a shared and a dedicated IP address, and you come to the idea that a dedicated address gives your site a higher degree of protection, as well as protects it from falling into blanket bans that are applied at the level of servers on which some sites whose owners initiate some unauthorized work. Ethical, let’s get acquainted with the main advantages of using a Dedicated IP address for your own website:

1. Easy navigation between domain name and IP address 

If your site only has an address assigned to it then you will have the ability to easily connect to the website using the assigned IP address and site owners need this action if there is a problem connecting the domain name to the server, as well as with FTP connections etc.

In the case of shared hosting, you are not entitled to use the shared IP address exclusively, as all the owners of the sites that are located on the same server share this address by using the domain names of the site’s site separately until one of the site owners obtains a dedicated address and is informed by the Compliance Department of the address Shared IP from other sites. 

3. Reduce the risk of blocking mail messages sent on behalf of the site 

If you rely on email marketing for your online business marketing, it is important to use a dedicated IP address.

The following image shows that the site owner’s messages are not authenticated to users, and are often placed in the spam folder:

If an IP address’s mail is determined to be unsafe, your mail may also be exposed to denial of the threat if your site is located on a shared address within the same server. 

So when you have an IP address assigned only to you and not from the rest of the other sites, you will be the one responsible for the reputation of your e-mail, but this does not mean that if you obtain a dedicated address and then violate the terms and policies of mailing messages that you will not be banned! But for sure, you will not feel wronged for banning your site due to the unethical action of another site administrator.

Also, one of the ways to avoid being banned from e-mail messages is to use add- ons to send e-mail messages based on a special server and do not depend on your site’s server for sending and receiving e-mail messages. 

3. Get an efficient SSL certificate

When your website is located on a shared IP address, this does not mean that it is not ready to install an SSL certificate , as with the advancement of methods and software tools, it has become very easy to install SSL certificates on a website that works on a shared address.

When you have an IP address assigned only to you, the efficiency of the SSL certificate will be higher, especially since older web browsers still have some problems reading the SSL certificate on sites that do not have a dedicated IP address.

Also, in terms of SEO, it will be useful to have a Dedicated IP address, as this gives a good impression to search engines and spiders that crawl site links.

Officially, neither Google nor its search engine has announced that having a shared IP address may cause you harm due to the presence of a site that violates unethical policies on the same IP address of the server, and this matter was officially explained by a Google specialist:

But in general, it will be useful for your site to have a completely dedicated IP address so that you do not have to worry about doubts about the negative impact of the shared address on your website and its reputation among search engines. 

4. Get faster performance with a dedicated IP address 

As we mentioned earlier that a shared IP address is shared with a large number of sites that may reach thousands of sites using or pointing to the same IP address.

This may cause a relative slowness in the speed of loading and opening your site to visitors, because the server needs some time to recognize the address referred to by each domain name that shares the same IP address, which may cause a noticeable slow in the speed of opening the site to visitors. 

But with a Dedicated IP address, the interface will be one and known exclusively, and this is certainly reflected in the speed of opening the site to your visitors, which will positively affect the increase in the visitor’s stay on your site, the increase in the percentage of conversions, and perhaps an improvement in the ranking within the search results in different search engines. 

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Get a dedicated IP address instead of a shared one

If you are planning to buy a Dedicated Server or VPS hosting then you are often assigned a Dedicated IP address by default without any further action from you. 

But if you are already on a Shared Hosting plan, then the IP address of your site is often shared with the rest of the sites on the server, and in this case you can enter and write to technical support in order to change the IP address to a dedicated address, which is done by the support Technical for the hosting company.

Some companies provide an easy option to change the IP address to a custom address from within the hosting control panel, and this often takes within 48 hours to read the change completely on all of your site links.

Cloud hosting companies like DigitalOcean, for example, will provide you from the start with an IP address dedicated exclusively to your server:

Dedicated IP prices range on average from 2 to 50 USD and maybe more, and it is often better for you from the start to get a VPS hosting where you get a dedicated address and this option will be better than being on a shared hosting and buying a dedicated IP address.

How to replace a domain name with a dedicated IP address 

If the purpose of your custom address is to replace it with the current domain name assigned to your website, you can change the domain name and replace it to appear instead of the domain name in the search bar of your web browser as follows:

You can replace the domain name with a custom IP address by changing the site link from within the WordPress dashboard by going: Settings << General

Then type the IP address instead of the domain name of the site

Changing the URL within the WordPress dashboard is not enough to replace the domain name with the custom IP address, as you must also change the link name within the WordPress databases, which you can access through PhpMyAdmin within the hosting dashboard

You will open the WordPress database, in which you will find the Options table , where there is a box to change the site URL, which is siteurl and Home , which you can click on the edit button next to each of them to replace the domain name of your site with the assigned IP address, and therefore the custom IP address will be the main way to connect to your site instead From the domain name:

Conclusion

In the past, almost all sites were working with a dedicated IP address, but with the increase in the number of websites, there has become to share the same address with large numbers of Internet sites in order to save the number of IP addresses used and also to save cost in some cases, in addition to the advantages that site owners obtained from using IP addresses are shared, but there are many risks arising from this development. 

In general, using a dedicated IP keeps you away from many of the negative consequences of using a shared address, gives you more freedom to manage your site and improves security and trust.