Why did you choose your hosting company? Was it because the service that the company offered was second-to-none and strong uptime was guaranteed. Perhaps the cost was affordable? Maybe you had no choice in the matter and it was part of your website design package. Whatever your decision was - if your site is running shared hosting then you may be getting penalized by the Search engines without you even knowing it.

The majority of websites on the Internet share an IP Address. A shared IP can average out at about 400 websites and it only takes one site to penalize all the rest. So, what sort of sites are a target for the Search Engines that they'll blacklist or devalue that IP address.

Pornography or Adult content sites, Spamming Sites, Fraudulent or Phishing Sites (spoof sites that try to dupe personal details from users), Doorway Domains, Link Farms (these are generally considered bad neighborhoods by the Search Engines) and sites that run duplicate content.

A great way to check who you share your IP Address with is to enter your web address into this tool: http://www.seologs.com/ip-domains.html which allows you to visually check who is sharing your IP Address.

What are the options to shared IP Addresses? Well you can get your own static IP address which instantly erases the threat of Search Engines blacklisting or devaluing your site through someone else's activities. Are the costs greater? The cost will be higher but not great. No-one knows for sure if Search Engines prefer a unique IP to one that is shared, however there has been cases when sites release themselves from shared hosting to obtain their own unique IP Address that their rankings improved as well.

Another factor that can also can affect a sites ranking is the domain itself. No I'm not talking about the domain naming convention (almost everyone nowadays tries to cram that golden keyword phrase into their domain name). But how long you have actually purchased your domain for. Sites that have been purchased for two or more years in advance are saying to the Search Engines - were in this for the long run and come across more legit than those that purchase for a year in advance.

The reason is that spammers and malicious phishing sites are never around for long and their intention is to make as much money as possible in a very short period of time or in-case they get caught early enough without outlaying much cost. This is why Search Engines such as Google introduced the "Sandbox" to allow for a period of time for websites to become trustworthy to the Search Engines. Buying your domain for a lengthy period is a statement of intent by you to the Search Engines that your site is reputable and trustworthy.

SEO is like preventative maintenance. Every area should be covered, over and over, to gain you those prized ranking positions and that means including your hosting and domain registration in your checklist. A professional SEO Company ensures that the best model to suit your site is in place to get the best out of your website.