Would this be considered a reciprocal link?

Just a quick question about link exchange..

If somebody runs multiple blogs that are hosted by the same company (say Hostgator) and I agree to do a link exchange with them, will Google see it as a reciprocal link if I link to their site on my blog and they link back to my site on one of their other blogs? Are multiple blogs through the same host considered to be from the same IP..? I am just wondering if this scenario would be flagged as a reciprocal link exchange and thus devalued in Google's eyes..

i recognize this is a newb question, but it can't be that dumb

Hostgator is just a hosting service! It has nothing to do with ip address. Millions of blogs use hostgator for hosting!

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Originally Posted by jetsetter883

i recognize this is a newb question, but it can't be that dumb

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It's not, everyone here is/was a newb at some point. And we have all asked questions that people thought were dumb. Relax :D

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Originally Posted by PairADice

Hostgator is just a hosting service! It has nothing to do with ip address. Millions of blogs use hostgator for hosting!

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True, but the OP asked a question about reciprocal links.

I am not entirely sure about IP's, but, I think IP's have more to do with your ISP than the fact that your blog is hosted on hostgator. I think Wink0r would be the best person to ask that question, but I do think that getting a reciprocal link from hostgator would be a good idea. they are not only a authority site, but they have been around a long time and it would help your site. I think if your site is also in the same niche as hostgator, it makes the link all the more powerful.

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Are multiple blogs through the same host considered to be from the same IP..?

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The answer is a definite maybe, but probably not. Shared hosting typically uses one IP address per server. Looking at the HostGator site I see that they claim to host over 7,000,000 domains. These would be spread across a few thousand servers in the data center. If the other blogs happened to be on the same server the IP address would be the same with the exception of a port number appended to the IP address. I don't know if Google sees the port number associated with the specific sites on the server. The IP number and the port number would both be part of the DNS record for the site so that traffic can be directed to the right place.

The other piece of information that is associated with the site is the domain name record. These can be public or private (usually for an extra fee) but there is a legal requirement for the information about the ownership of the domain name to be on file. I suspect that the domain registration record would be considered before the IP number given that somewhere between many and most sites are hosted on shared hosting space.

I don't think that this really answers the original question but it is an overview of some of the factors involved. I do see cross site links in several of my accounts in Webmaster Tools. These links are from one domain that I own to another domain that I own and both are hosted on the same server in the same master hosting account. So I don't think that the expressed concerns should be the primary factors to decide about these link exchanges.

Google does not like reciprocal links because they have been abused and are not natural links in many cases. The content on any site with whom you consider a link exchange should be complementary. There should be a definite possibility that the visitors to the site would have an interest in the content on the linked site. If the content of the sites is not related the links will not look natural and may cause problems.