Hello, Can someone please tell me the effect of the following: Two web sites in the same industry (not related, but let's say , competitors) are hosting on the same server, (lets use Hostgator for example). Major hosting companies like hostgator might have thousands of web sites on the same class C IP, and it is very likely that multiple competitors lie on that same class C Ip as well. Let's say Company X sells metal widgets, and Company Y sells metal widgets. Company X and Company Y host their web sites with Hostgator, and both of them are on the same class C IP - Company X's IP is 244.433.412.3 and Company Y's IP is 244.433.412.15 . As both company's are in the same industry and compete against each other, they have obtained backlinks from the same directories, web sites, etc. (eg. Yahoo directory - category: Widgets, Dmoz, and all the other sites related to widget). My question is... given this coincidental circumstance... what is google's algorithm going to do when it sees this occur? Is google only looking at interlinking between sites on the same class C Ip, or sites in the same industry with backlinks from the same URL's on the same class C ip ? Thanks a lot for your help.. Rob
It depends how relevant the 2 sites are. If they are closely related in content, interlinking with the right keyword anchor texts will help one or the other or both. The amount of help may be higher if the 2 sites are not on the same C class range. It also depends on the age of each domain and the age of each site. Say if the first site was launched 10 years ago and recently switched to hostgator, the 10-year history will help Google determine the site's credibility and its relevance.