Bluehost Dedicated IP, How Can It Help You?

Bluehost offers an award winning range of shared hosting tools to meet the needs of the internet, from high end unlimited features to the very personal approach of quick support.   By default, hosting accounts some with a shared IP address, one IP that controls many sites.  However, Bluehost offers the optional and recommended affordable opportunity to have your own dedicated IP address.

A dedicated IP address is much like a phone number.  Every phone has a number where it can be reached and every website has an IP address where it can be reached.   In a shared IP address setup,  several websites share the same number.  On a dedicated setup, there is one number to one website.  This is highly beneficial in dealing with search engines. Most search engines give you a boost when they list and rank your website if you have a dedicated IP.

There is also the benefit of SSL integration when you use a dedicated IP address. Ecommerce and security is controlled through SSL certificates (which are security seals which tell your browser that it is safe to enter critical information such as credit cards or other personal data).  SSL certificates, which Bluehost also fully supports, must be run under a dedicated IP address.   We go back to that one to one issue again.  A dedicated IP links ONE IP to ONE website and in turn SSL certificates and ecommerce programs are able to make secure connections.

Cost: The cost for an IP at Bluehost is highly affordable.  Currently an IP is $30 a year which of course breaks down to around 8 cents a day.  Currently, the internet is running out of IP addresses, so this is a great value and it helps that Bluehost lets you lock-in your own IP for such a duration.  Most other hosts operate IPs on a month to month basis.

There are several important factors that help create a proper internet identity so your website visitors can properly access your site.  The most common is domain names of course.  But underneath every domain name there is an IP address (they look like 123.123.123.123, four sets of numbers with dots in the middle).   In the case of Bluehost, their dedicated IPs are located in Utah and are not outsourced which is also very important.  In house control of IP addresses is critical to maintaining IP security.

There are many hosts that do not operate their own IP addresses and instead buy them from larger providers.  If those larger providers were to mess up their IP pointers, it could result in major outages.  Having their own IP addresses and operating them in house allows Bluehost to diagnose any issue quickly and easily, which is why they have a history of superb uptime.

So in short, how can a dedicated IP address help you?  When using ecommerce, a shopping cart or any web data that is sensitive in nature, use a dedicated IP.  When trying to get a leg up with the search engines use a dedicated IP.  When trying to make sure that your website is on its own and has not related to any other website, use a dedicated IP.   You will find you end up with better results in the long run.

Category: BlueHost Dedicated IP