How to Build Your Own Portfolio of Authoritative Websites to Rank Your Clients, Part 2: Hosting (How to Build a PBN the Correct Way) - Episode 04 - Grumpy SEO Guy

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[00:00]
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This is Grumpy SEO Guy. Episode 4, how to Host your authoritative domains.
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You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the.
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SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work.
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I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have.
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Helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years.
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B
In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies.
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And trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry.
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If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy.
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Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today.
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I'm grumpy today because nobody knows the correct way to host their authoritative websites. So let's get caught up right here.
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But before we do that, my lawyer.
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Tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on.
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My experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for for me may or.
[01:05]
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May not work for you. Okay, back to the show. You just listened to the last episode and you just bought a bunch of.
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Authoritative domains because you're building your own portfolio and you're gonna use it to rank your clients. Okay, good. You've got some domains now you need hosting.
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The first thing I wanna do is talk about the wrong way to do it. Now, there's a lot of wrong ways, but the first thing, if you're new.
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To this, that you might think of.
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Is, well, I'm just gonna go buy some hosting and I'm just going to host all my domains on it.
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I know you can host more than.
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One domain on the same hosting package.
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Yay.
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I'm ready to go.
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No, no, no, no, no. That's a terrible idea. If you do that, all of your domains will have the exact same IP address, and it will be very obvious.
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That one person owns all of those domains. And that's another footprint that the search engines can use to detect manipulation.
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And your sites will probably get penalized and. Or de indexed, and. And any links that you provide to your clients will have no value.
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Okay, the second thing that I want to talk about is something called SEO hosting.
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SEO hosting is a bad idea. But in Order to explain why it's a bad idea, let me first explain exactly what SEO hosting is. In order to explain what SEO hosting.
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Is, I have to define something, but I'm going to define it in the way people commonly use it, not the correct way. Okay, so you've probably seen something called.
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C class, IP or IP address.
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If you don't know what IP address is. IP stands for Internet protocol. And basically any device that's connected to the Internet has its own IP address. Okay, An IP address is four numbers.
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And they're separated by a period or.
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A dot, however you want to say it. So I'm just going to make up.
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An IP address right here for an example.
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So you might see something like 100, 152 50100. I have no idea what that is. I literally just made that up. So anyways, that's an IP address.
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Okay?
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So anytime you go to a website, you type in www.whatever.com, you're not actually going to that website.
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What that does is it's taking you.
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To an IP address of the website. The reason people use domains is because it's much easier to remember google.com or.
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Whatever website than it is a list of four numbers.
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Okay, like how hard would that be?
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Imagine if you had to, instead of.
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Remembering your favorite website's addresses, you had to remember four different three digit numbers.
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For each website that you're. That would be annoying.
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Nobody would ever use the Internet if that was the case. So you type in a domain name and behind the scenes it redirects you.
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To a specific IP address that you never see because all you care about is the domain.
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Okay, that makes sense.
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Now any website that you host or.
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Any website on the entire Internet is going to have an IP address and it's going to be four numbers. Okay, Now I said I was going to define something and I said I was going to define it for you incorrectly and I said I was going to define it wrong because that's how everybody else defines it.
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So you might have seen something called.
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A C class IP address. There's something called A class, there's B.
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Class, there's C class, there's D class, and there's E class.
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Okay, now that really refers to something different. Okay, let me actually tell you the real definition first.
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Okay, you don't need to know this.
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But I want you to understand what the correct definition is. So the wrong definition, but the definition.
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That everybody uses will make sense.
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Okay, I'm not going to make this super difficult, but like if the number.
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In the IP address is between a certain number and a certain other number.
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It'S considered an A class ip.
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If it's between a different number and a different number, it's considered a B class.
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That's all you need to know. Okay, now what's the definition that people actually use? Okay, so an IP address is four numbers, and you have, you know, whatever, dot, whatever, whatever, whatever.
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Okay, cool.
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So it's divided into four numbers. Each of those numbers is referred to as an octet. Okay, so we got the first octet, and then a period, and then the second octet, and then a period, and then the third octet, and then a period, and then the fourth octet. Okay, pretty. Pretty simple, right?
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Now, the bad definition that everybody uses that is wrong is assigning one letter to each of the octets. So, for example, whatever the first number is, people will refer to that as the A class. Whatever the second number is, people will refer to that as the B class. Whatever the third number is, people will refer to that as the C class. And whatever the fourth number is, people will refer to that as the D class. Now, that's not what it actually means.
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Okay, but that's for some reason how.
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People in the SEO industry use the term. And you need to know that for two reasons.
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One, you're probably gonna see it when.
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You'Re searching for hosts or when you're reading about SEO.
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And two, that's the way we're gonna use the term in this podcast, because even though it's wrong, it will still make sense. Okay, so why is SEO hosting a terrible idea?
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Great question. First of all, most SEO hosts offer something called C class hosting or unique C class hosting.
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What does that mean?
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It means you'll have multiple IP addresses to host your sites on, and they will be unique at the C class or at the third octet or the third number, remember?
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So you'll have like.
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I'm just making these numbers up.
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You'll have like 100, 200, 100, whatever.
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100, 200, 101, whatever, 100, 200, 102, whatever, and so on.
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See how they're different at the third octet? Okay, sounds like a good idea, right? Because then you're like, well, you just said we don't want all our websites on the same IP address, and that sounds like we're getting some different IP addresses. Well, that sounds good.
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No, no, no, no, no.
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It's bad.
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Let me tell you why. Well, you're right.
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You do want them on different IP addresses, but you do not want them.
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On sequential C class IPs.
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Okay?
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Why do you think that search engines.
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Could look at a bunch of websites that are all linking to the same.
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Website and say, wait a minute, these are only different by one number at the third octet, These are all owned by the same person? Yes, I think the search engines can do that. I'm pretty sure that's one of the.
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Ways that private blog portfolios, or private blog networks or whatever you want to.
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Call them, PBNs, whatever, get discovered.
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Okay?
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The second, don't worry, I'm going to tell you how to fix this. I'm going to tell you how to like fix this concern anyway, because there's like an easy way around it that's actually easier than wasting your time with.
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Some SEO hosting company. Okay?
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The second reason is because SEO, the industry in general is pretty suspicious, okay?
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From listening to my other podcasts, especially.
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Episode number one, you know that I don't really have the best view of.
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The industry nor the people in the industry.
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Okay?
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It has been my experience.
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Your experience may differ.
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It has been my experience that SEO hosting companies are not the kind of.
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People that you want to get involved with anyway.
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I'm not saying they're all bad.
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I'm saying I have used them in the past for experimental purposes, not for.
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Actual sites that I link to my clients on.
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Okay?
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I'm not saying all SEO hosting companies are like this, okay?
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But in my experience, I have used them.
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I've used two SEO hosting companies. I did not use them with websites.
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That I was linking to my clients from.
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Okay?
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I did not do that way because I know that it's a bad idea. I was experimenting with some stuff and I wanted to see how it would work.
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Side note, you got to do a lot of your own testing in the.
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SEO industry because there's not really any good information out there. Like, you asked 10 different people in.
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The industry how to do something, you'll.
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Get 10 different answers and like, probably all 10 of them are wrong anyway. So you gotta, like, you gotta like, figure out stuff on your own. So I was using some C class IPs on some. Let me say that differently. I was using some servers that were unique at the third octet, right?
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Because that's what C class hosting means, the fake definition, as we learned.
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And I was testing some stuff out. Anyway, don't use them. I don't know how many of them.
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Are out there anymore. I know that like 10 years ago.
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There were a lot of them.
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They were all terrible.
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Oh, My gosh, they were terrible. Like, you know how like you can.
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Just look at a website and just.
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Get a feeling that the company is shady? You know what I mean?
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Like they were all shady. Like, I think I picked the two.
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Like least shady ones and I still had like a terrible experience with them. So I don't care. Don't use them, alright? It's a bad idea. Don't use them, okay? So anyway, you know, the industry is kind of shady. SEO hosting companies are kind of shady. Don't use them. Even if they weren't shady, even if.
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You found a legitimate SEO hosting company.
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You still don't want unique C Class IPs.
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That's a terrible idea.
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So there's literally no reason to ever use one of these companies ever for your hosting, okay? Like, just don't.
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The next reason that you probably don't.
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Want to use an SEO hosting company is this.
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The search engines can tell where a.
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Website is hosted, okay?
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There's something called name servers.
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You probably know what name servers are. By the way, let me tell you.
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Now, there's no need to use private name servers, okay? Look, if you have a bunch of.
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Websites that are all linking to a.
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Certain website and they all happen to have private name servers, look, nobody ever.
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Even uses private name servers, okay? So like if all of these websites.
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Linking to somebody have private name servers, that's gonna look suspicious. And I'm saying this because somebody always recommends, well, if you're building a private blog network, you should use private name servers. No, you should. The name servers of the host are fine.
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But back to the other point, if the host is called something like, I'm.
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Just saying this, I'm not naming a.
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Company, but if the host is called.
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Something like SEO hosting servers or something.
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Like that, and that's what the name servers say, do you think that if.
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The search engines see that you're using name servers that are literally called SEO hosting, they're not going to think you're manipulating the system? Come on.
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Like just, there's literally, there's literally not.
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A reason to ever use anything called SEO hosting, okay?
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Don't use it.
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And just for those of you who need another reason not to use SEO.
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Hosting, who do you think uses SEO hosting in the first place? The only people that do it are.
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The people that are building low quality PBNs who think that it's helpful and it's not.
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And you don't want to be grouped in with those people. And just for the very clever listeners.
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Let me give one more little Exception.
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But sometimes some unscrupulous marketers will claim.
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That SEO hosting is used for something else. And they say that certain IPs will get you higher in the search results. That is absolutely wrong. The search engines, for the most part, do not care what your IP address is. In fact, for the regular person who.
[11:38]
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Just hosts their site wherever they want because they don't know anything about hosting. Because 99% of people with a website don't know anything about hosting other than the fact that they have some hosting company that they use and it's probably one of the, like, big players, nobody knows anything about hosts or IP addresses. Okay, so how do we fix the.
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Problem then of needing every website to go on its own unique IP address without using sequential C class nonsense or SEO hosting? Great question. Remember when you're building your portfolio of.
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Authoritative domains and when you're building your.
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Private blog network, or, you know, whatever.
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You want to call it, everything has to look as natural as possible.
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So what does that mean? It means you need to use hosts with a wide range of IP addresses. Ideally, you want them unique at the A class or the first octet.
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You know, you want the first number to be different.
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You don't want any of this sequential nonsense.
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You don't want anything to be the same.
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You want everything to be as unique as possible.
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So how do you do that?
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Well, you use a different hosting company for every site you have.
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Now that sounds like a lot of work, but it's not. You know, let me explain.
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Remember, you don't want to use any of these SEO hosting companies.
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You don't want to have any sequential nonsense in your IP addresses. You want every IP address to be.
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Different, and you want them to be.
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Different at the first octet. So you got five sites in your.
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Portfolio, use five different hosting companies, but.
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You don't even have to do it that way, because, check it out, some hosting companies offer different servers for different packages.
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So, for example, I have some sites that I host with one hosting company.
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But they have different packages, and each.
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Package lets you pick a location. For example, one site might be hosted in Seattle, one site might be hosted in London. One site might be hosted in Singapore, one site might be hosted in the Netherlands.
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It's all like, yes, it's the same.
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Company, but they're on different servers and.
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The servers have completely unique IP addresses. Okay, so it's pretty easy. Now let me tell you something else. I have a lot of sites and I have a lot of hosting packages, and I don't really pay Very much for them. I have so many that I've been.
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Able to negotiate some very good deals with some hosts. So whatever you're thinking it costs, it costs much less than that.
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Okay.
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What a normal person pays per month, I probably pay per year for each of my sites.
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Okay, but you probably can't do that if you're just, you know, hosting one. When you start building a really big portfolio, you start to get some large discounts. It's pretty cool.
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My hosting bills are not that bad.
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Let me just put it that way.
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And again, there's not another way to do this.
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Okay?
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You can't use SEO hosting.
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You can't put them all on the same server.
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You have to have each site on.
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A different IP address.
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You have to. There's no other way to do it. You have to do it this way or your portfolio will be discovered and you'll probably be de indexed, which means all the links that you built will be worthless and your clients will not.
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Get the ranking increases that you want them to get.
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Okay?
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It's pretty easy now. Probably wondering, well, how do I find the hosts? The hosting industry is pretty shady, just like the SEO industry. It sure is.
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Here's my advice. I would not go online and search.
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For best web hosts or anything like.
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That, because the overwhelming majority of sites that you will find are affiliate garbage.
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Okay?
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B
It's a fake review site designed to.
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Say that one hosting company is better than the other so that when you.
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Sign up through their website, they get paid a little bit.
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You probably are aware, but, like, 99% of affiliate links on the Internet are fake reviews.
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C
Okay?
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It's just a bunch of people that.
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Are trying to make money by peddling garbage.
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All right?
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The hosting industry is no different. So here's what I would recommend. Let me explain to you how I.
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Did it, because I kind of use two different strategies. The first strategy is I went to a website called web hostingtalk.com okay?
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Most of the stuff in the hosting world is suspicious, but this site is pretty legit. It's a discussion by actual webmasters and.
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Actual hosting companies who discuss problems and.
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Trends and recommendations and all that stuff. So if you have any questions about.
[15:53]
B
Hosting, you will probably find your answer there.
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A
You will also find a lot of hosting companies on that site who not only have good products, but who often offer discounts.
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If you get a discount code that they posted, like, they'll just. They'll. I'm trying to think how to say this. There's a forum on there where people.
[16:10]
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Can post offers and they'll say like, we're such and such hosted company. Here's a coupon for, you know, 50%.
[16:14]
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Off or like whatever. I literally got more than half of the hosts that I use from this website.
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A
It's very good.
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B
Now is there some shady stuff on there?
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A
Yeah, there's some shady stuff on there.
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B
Because remember, we're talking web hosting and we're talking about people trying to make money. So there's some shady stuff on there.
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But the overwhelming majority of people on there are cool and friendly and helpful and I recommend the site.
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I still visit that website from time.
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To time when I have some problem.
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That I'm trying to fix or something that I'm trying to learn.
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My only advice, and I say this with love, is don't go on there talking about SEO. Don't go on there talking about building.
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A private blog network. Don't do any of that.
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Why? Because that's kind of frowned upon. I'm just saying if you go on.
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There saying I'm trying to build a.
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Network and I need different IPs, blah.
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Blah, nobody's gonna reply to you or they're gonna tell you to stop being an SEO spammer.
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C
Okay?
[17:03]
B
But as far as finding hosts, as far as learning how it works, as far as having people explain stuff to you, it's a pretty cool site.
[17:10]
A
Let me give you another recommendation.
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B
There's no like special secret hosting company you use, okay? You just need a good reliable hosting company with an IP address that you want to use. So there is literally no problem using.
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A
Some of the big name web hosts.
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B
Now you might not like the management group that owns some of these companies. I'm not going to get into it.
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A
Probably doesn't concern you, but you may.
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Have read something about it, you know, but I'm not gonna name anybody, okay? But there's a couple big hosting companies that everybody knows about and there is no problem using them.
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Why?
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Because so many people use them that you can use them too. And it'll just, the search engines will.
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Think, oh look, it's just another normal website who uses these hosting companies. Literally, no problem. I strongly recommend them.
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Again, I'm not gonna name them because I don't wanna seem like I'm trying to, you know, make get referrals or like I like, I don't care. You can use whatever hosting company works for you. But I'm just saying find some on web hostingtalk.com if you want.
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Use some of the big name companies.
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But remember, one domain per package.
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That's how you have to do it.
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B
Okay, let me answer a few other questions that you might have.
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Shared hosting is just fine. You don't need your own dedicated ip.
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B
You don't need any of that stuff. It's going to cost too much money.
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A
Save your money. Shared hosting package.
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B
Okay, what else do you need to do? I don't think this is an issue, but most of the hosts that you.
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Should have some tools to easily install.
[18:38]
B
Things like WordPress or whatever CMS you want to use. CMS is content management system. Like, I'll be honest with you, I use WordPress on pretty much every site I run in my portfolio because it's.
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Easy and I've been doing it forever.
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And first of all, I'm not going to code something by hand because I don't have those coding skills and because I don't want to. I know there's other content management systems you can use. Use whatever you like.
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I mentioned this earlier.
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If all your sites are WordPress, it's not a problem because so many sites on the Internet use WordPress anyway. Nobody's gonna go, oh, look at this guy. He's all these, all these WordPress sites.
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Are all linking to this other guy. Oh, it must be manipulation.
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No, like, who cares? Like, just do something different if you want, but who cares?
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And then the same advice that I.
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Gave at the end of the last.
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Episode, if you tend towards paranoia, maybe don't use Gmail or an email address that is owned by, by a search company for this.
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Cause maybe they might read your emails and find out that.
[19:29]
A
I'm not saying this happens, but maybe they might read your emails and find.
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Out that you run all of these.
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Websites and then say, oh, this person's gaming the system.
[19:37]
B
Look, that's probably not gonna happen, but you know, just, it's an extra precaution.
[19:43]
A
That you can take. Okay, so let me give you another piece of advice.
[19:46]
B
It's a good idea to put some.
[19:49]
A
Time in between the sites.
[19:51]
B
So maybe I should have said this in the last episode, but whatever. So, okay, let's say hypothetically, you bought.
[19:57]
A
Five domains and you're going to start with a portfolio of five websites.
[20:00]
B
It's literally not a problem. When I first started, I had five.
[20:03]
A
Websites in my portfolio. They were awesome, they were powerful, but there was only five of them.
[20:08]
C
Okay?
[20:09]
A
I didn't know what I was doing necessarily. I didn't want to spend a ton of money making a huge portfolio. And more to the point, we got.
[20:16]
B
Very good results from only five websites.
[20:20]
C
Okay?
[20:21]
A
Now it's a lot bigger than five now.
[20:22]
B
But I'm just telling you, five is just fine.
[20:25]
A
Especially if you're just learning. Start with 5.
[20:27]
B
Get good, authoritative domains like we talked about in the last episode. Put them on distinct servers with totally different IP addresses and put a little.
[20:36]
A
Time in between them. So this applies more to when you're buying the domains than when you're starting to host them.
[20:41]
B
But if you've got, like I said, if you've got five domains in your.
[20:45]
A
Portfolio and the most recent whois record for them is all the same, so they all have the same date that the latest ownership change took place, that's gonna look weird. Why would five websites that all came into life on the same day all be linking to the same website? They wouldn't. That's weird.
[21:04]
B
So try to space it out a bit.
[21:06]
A
Now, if you're just starting, that's kind of hard because you might be like.
[21:10]
B
I don't wanna wait. Which is fine, but still wait, because you don't look. If you have five domains and the most recent whois record is all the.
[21:20]
A
Same month for all five of them, and all five of those websites link.
[21:23]
B
To the same website, what's gonna happen is the search engines are gonna say, wait a minute, there's some manipulation going on here.
[21:30]
A
That's a footprint. So put some time in between buying the websites.
[21:34]
B
Oh, I should probably tell you, you remember in the last episode when I said don't buy a website if it has too many links from certain countries? You know, again, nothing against those countries, but there's a lot of spam in certain parts of the world.
[21:47]
A
You know, India, Russia, China. I wouldn't buy domains that have a.
[21:50]
B
Lot of links from those countries unless it makes sense to do so. I wouldn't get a hosting package in.
[21:56]
A
One of those countries either.
[21:57]
B
Again, no problem with any of those countries. But if your client starts getting a.
[22:02]
A
Bunch of backlinks from one of those places, that might trigger something because that's how the search engines function.
[22:08]
B
Okay, so just North America, Western Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore. I don't know, you probably not going to find many other countries, but. And again, it's not a political thing, like, I don't really care. I have no problem with those countries.
[22:25]
A
But there's a lot of spam in those countries and the search engines know it.
[22:28]
B
So I'm just telling you, probably don't buy any hosting.
[22:31]
A
You probably won't see any hosting in.
[22:33]
B
Those countries unless you specifically look for it, but probably don't use any hosting in those countries, especially if you're dealing.
[22:39]
A
With primarily English speaking clients.
[22:41]
B
Okay, because again, think about it. If your client is some person who runs a little company, a local company in America, why would an American company.
[22:50]
A
Be getting dozens of backlinks from India.
[22:52]
B
And nowhere else that would seem suspicious? So you don't want to do it that way. Okay, so pretty straightforward.
[22:59]
A
Step one, which we already talked about.
[23:00]
B
Buy the authoritative domains, win the auctions. Buy them from somebody. I don't know, I talked about different ways of getting them.
[23:07]
A
Get some number two, get some hosting.
[23:10]
B
That is on unique IP addresses. Unique at the first octet is the best.
[23:16]
C
Okay?
[23:16]
A
If for whatever reason you can't. I don't know why this would be the case.
[23:21]
B
But if for whatever reason you can't get them unique at the first octet, the second octet is fine. So for whatever reason, your first website is 100 something, whatever, whatever. And then your second website is 100 dot something different, dot something else dot something else, that's fine. If it's unique at the B class, it doesn't matter.
[23:41]
A
Just stay away from sequential nonsense.
[23:43]
B
You don't want the numbers to be one digit away from each other. Like that just is shady. Don't do it. And then other than that, that's all.
[23:49]
A
You need to know about hosting.
[23:51]
B
It's pretty straightforward.
[23:51]
A
In the next episode, we're going to.
[23:53]
B
Talk about how to put the content on your site and we might go into managing the sites because when it.
[23:59]
A
Comes time to actually build the links.
[24:00]
B
And stuff, there's a certain way that you have to do it. So I don't know, we might get into that or that might be a different episod, but hosting is pretty straightforward. If you have any questions, literally every host that I've ever talked to has.
[24:11]
A
Been cool about helping you, but generally.
[24:13]
B
Speaking, there's one click installers for things like WordPress.
[24:16]
A
So that's fine.
[24:18]
B
Let me give you one more suggestion while I'm thinking about it. When you install WordPress and you can.
[24:22]
A
Apply this to whatever CMS you're using. When you install WordPress, you get the choice do you want to use www or not? What you need to do.
[24:31]
B
Remember in the last episode we talked about how you're analyzing the domains and.
[24:35]
A
You'Re finding out how much authority they have. Analyze them with W, www and analyze them without www and whichever one has.
[24:43]
B
More authority, that's the way you want to do it.
[24:45]
C
Okay?
[24:46]
B
When you're checking to see if they're.
[24:46]
A
Indexed, then you do site colon, the.
[24:48]
B
Domain name.com and don't put a space in there.
[24:51]
A
See if the results are WWW or not www.
[24:55]
B
And that's the way that you probably want to do it. Sometimes you'll only get one because most people use www or don't use www, but it's very rare that you'll see both. Remember the purpose of these domains as possible. So you want to do it in.
[25:12]
A
The way that will produce the most authority. If the site already has more authority.
[25:17]
B
With the WWW version, do it that way.
[25:20]
A
If it has more authority without the.
[25:22]
B
Www, then choose that way.
[25:24]
C
Okay.
[25:25]
B
It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty easy. One more thing, this is pretty important.
[25:30]
A
Once you get to a point where.
[25:31]
B
You start getting a lot of domains and you have them hosted, you're going to want to make sure that your.
[25:37]
A
IP addresses are all different.
[25:39]
B
So there is no problem messaging a.
[25:44]
A
Host before you sign up and saying.
[25:46]
B
Hey, I'm thinking about selecting this package.
[25:48]
A
Where is the server? What would my IP address be? I have done that many times and only once did I ever get any.
[25:55]
B
Kind of disagreement from the host. One guy responded and said, I think his response was something like, we don't deal with SEO myths here, or something like that.
[26:04]
A
I was like, okay.
[26:05]
B
And I picked a different host. Like, I don't know what the guy's problem was. I just wanted to know what the IP address was and where it would be hosted. Literally none of the other sites I've ever talked to have ever had a problem. They're always very happy to help. Most people that run hosting sites are pretty nice and helpful, but you should also ask that question because you should.
[26:23]
A
See how quickly you get a response.
[26:25]
B
If you get a response within an hour, that's pretty awesome. Sometimes they take a little bit longer.
[26:30]
A
Remember, if the host is in Europe.
[26:32]
B
For example, and you're in America, you.
[26:35]
A
Might email them when they're not even working.
[26:37]
B
So it's okay to wait a little bit. I use some hosts that are in different countries and I understand that people have different schedules. Anyway, it's pretty straightforward.
[26:46]
A
You can easily find out the IP.
[26:47]
B
Address that the site's gonna be on. Sometimes it'll even tell you. Sometimes there's literally a menu when you're signing up for the package.
[26:52]
A
There's literally a menu.
[26:53]
B
You can tap the menu or whatever and it will be like, pick the.
[26:56]
A
Server you want and it will say the city, and it will say what IP address it's on.
[26:59]
B
Sometimes you just pick the city, whatever, it doesn't matter. But you can always email them and say, hey, what IP address is this gonna be on? I've done it countless times. It's not even a problem. Anybody who has a problem with it, you don't wanna host with them anyway. Okay, that wraps it up. Now you know how to find hosting and you know what you should do with it. And in the next episode, we're gonna talk about putting content on your site. So it should be pretty straightforward.
[27:22]
A
Thanks for listening.
[27:23]
B
Don't forget to subscribe. I hope this episode was helpful. And if you have any questions or if there's anything that you want me to talk about on a future episode, you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com and I'll talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the.
[27:37]
A
SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time.
[27:39]
B
With nonsense that doesn't work.
[27:41]
A
Join us next Wednesday when we talk about how to put content and backlinks.
[27:45]
B
On your authoritative domains, the correct way.
[27:47]
A
To get your clients maximum link juice and get them to the top of the search engines.

Summary5 min read

Podcast Summary: Grumpy SEO Guy – Episode 04: How to Host Your Authoritative Domains

Host: Grumpy SEO Guy
Title: How to Build Your Own Portfolio of Authoritative Websites to Rank Your Clients, Part 2: Hosting (How to Build a PBN the Correct Way)
Release Date: May 17, 2023

In Episode 04 of the Grumpy SEO Guy podcast, the host delves deep into the intricacies of hosting authoritative domains, a crucial component for building effective Private Blog Networks (PBNs) to enhance client rankings. Drawing from his 14 years of experience in the SEO industry, the Grumpy SEO Guy provides actionable insights, debunks common misconceptions, and offers strategic advice to ensure listeners can build and maintain a robust portfolio of authoritative websites.

1. Introduction: The Grump Behind the Mic

The episode kicks off with the host expressing his frustration:

“I'm grumpy today because nobody knows the correct way to host their authoritative websites.”
[00:40]

This sets the tone for a no-nonsense discussion aimed at correcting widespread hosting mistakes in the SEO community.

2. Common Hosting Mistakes: What Not to Do

a. Hosting All Domains on a Single IP

One of the primary mistakes beginners make is hosting all their authoritative domains on a single hosting package:

“If you're new to this, you might think, 'I'm just gonna go buy some hosting and host all my domains on it.' No, no, no, no, no. That's a terrible idea.”
[01:27-01:36]

The host explains that this approach results in all domains sharing the same IP address, making it obvious to search engines that they are controlled by a single entity. This homogeneity can lead to penalties or de-indexing, rendering any SEO efforts futile.

b. The Pitfalls of SEO Hosting and C Class IPs

The concept of SEO hosting, particularly the misuse of "C class hosting," is thoroughly examined:

“SEO hosting is a bad idea.”
[02:06]

He clarifies common misconceptions about IP classification:

“An IP address is four numbers… you might see something like 100.152.50100. I have no idea what that is. I literally just made that up.”
[02:33-02:51]

The host criticizes the prevalent misunderstanding in the SEO community regarding C class IPs:

“You do want them on different IP addresses, but you do not want them on sequential C class IPs.”
[06:05-06:50]

Sequential IPs within the same C class can signal to search engines that the domains are part of a PBN, leading to detection and subsequent SEO penalties.

3. Best Practices for Hosting Authoritative Domains

a. Utilizing Unique IP Addresses

To avoid detection, the Grumpy SEO Guy advises ensuring each domain resides on a unique IP address, preferably differing in the first octet:

“Ideally, you want them unique at the A class or the first octet.”
[12:16]

He suggests using different hosting providers or varying server locations within the same host to achieve diverse IP addresses:

“Use a different hosting company for every site you have… some hosting companies offer different servers for different packages.”
[12:39-13:29]

b. Finding Reliable Hosting Providers

Navigating the hosting landscape can be challenging due to the prevalence of affiliate-driven reviews. The host recommends seeking reputable sources:

“I would not go online and search for best web hosts… Most of the stuff in the hosting world is suspicious, but web hostingtalk.com is pretty legit.”
[15:04-15:45]

He highlights the value of community-driven platforms where actual webmasters discuss and review hosting services, often providing discount codes and honest feedback.

c. Leveraging Big-Name Hosting Companies

For those wary of obscurity, sticking with well-known hosting companies can offer reliability and a natural diversity of IPs:

“Use some of the big name web hosts… the search engines will think, oh look, it's just another normal website who uses these hosting companies.”
[17:25-17:58]

This strategy minimizes suspicion, as big-name hosts are commonly used and trusted within the SEO ecosystem.

4. Additional Hosting Strategies and Tips

a. Shared Hosting Is Sufficient

The host emphasizes that shared hosting packages are adequate for hosting authoritative domains:

“Shared hosting is just fine. You don't need your own dedicated IP.”
[18:20-18:25]

This approach is cost-effective and simplifies the management of multiple domains.

b. Utilizing CMS Platforms

Using Content Management Systems like WordPress can streamline the setup process:

“I use WordPress on pretty much every site I run in my portfolio because it's easy… Use whatever you like.”
[18:37-19:00]

Consistency in CMS choice does not raise red flags, as WordPress is widely used across the web.

c. Spacing Out Domain Acquisitions

To avoid creating suspicious footprints in WHOIS records, the host advises staggering the purchase of domains:

“Put some time in between buying the websites… don't look like you have five websites that all came into life on the same day.”
[19:46-21:04]

This tactic helps mask the coordinated effort behind building a PBN.

d. Avoiding Hosting in High-Spam Countries

Host mentions steering clear of hosting in regions known for high spam rates, such as India, Russia, and China:

“There's a lot of spam in certain parts of the world… if your client is some person who runs a little company in America, why would they be getting dozens of backlinks from India? That's suspicious.”
[21:50-22:40]

Focusing on hosting in reputable regions like North America, Western Europe, Japan, Korea, and Singapore reduces the risk of SEO penalties.

5. Final Recommendations and Next Steps

Before wrapping up, the Grumpy SEO Guy reiterates key steps for effective hosting:

Purchase Authoritative Domains: Secure quality domains to build your portfolio.
Select Unique Hosting Solutions: Ensure each domain is hosted on a unique IP, preferably differing in the first octet.
Avoid SEO Hosting Services: Steer clear of hosting solutions labeled as SEO hosting to prevent detection.
Leverage Community Resources: Utilize platforms like web hostingtalk.com for honest reviews and discounts.
Implement Best Practices: Use shared hosting, employ a consistent CMS, space out domain acquisitions, and avoid high-spam hosting regions.

The episode concludes with a teaser for the next installment:

“In the next episode, we're going to talk about putting content on your site and… how to manage the sites when it comes time to build the links.”
[23:51-24:00]

Listeners are encouraged to subscribe and reach out with questions to continue enhancing their SEO strategies.

Key Takeaways:

Avoid Single IP Hosting: Hosting all domains on the same IP can lead to SEO penalties.
Reject SEO Hosting Myths: Misconceptions around C class IPs can undermine PBN effectiveness.
Ensure IP Diversity: Use unique IP addresses, preferably differing in the first octet, by utilizing various hosting providers or server locations.
Research Hosting Providers Wisely: Rely on reputable communities and avoid affiliate-driven review sites.
Implement Operational Best Practices: Use shared hosting, consistent CMS platforms, staggered domain purchases, and avoid hosting in regions notorious for spam.

By adhering to these guidelines, SEO professionals can construct robust and undetectable PBNs, thereby enhancing their clients' search engine rankings without falling foul of algorithmic penalties.

Loading summary

Transcript370 lines

[00:00]
A
This is Grumpy SEO Guy. Episode 4, how to Host your authoritative domains.
[00:06]
B
You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the.
[00:09]
A
SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work.
[00:12]
B
I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have.
[00:16]
A
Helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years.
[00:19]
B
In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies.
[00:24]
A
And trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry.
[00:28]
B
If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy.
[00:38]
A
Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today.
[00:40]
B
I'm grumpy today because nobody knows the correct way to host their authoritative websites. So let's get caught up right here.
[00:47]
A
But before we do that, my lawyer.
[00:49]
B
Tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on.
[00:53]
A
My experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for for me may or.
[01:05]
B
May not work for you. Okay, back to the show. You just listened to the last episode and you just bought a bunch of.
[01:10]
A
Authoritative domains because you're building your own portfolio and you're gonna use it to rank your clients. Okay, good. You've got some domains now you need hosting.
[01:19]
B
The first thing I wanna do is talk about the wrong way to do it. Now, there's a lot of wrong ways, but the first thing, if you're new.
[01:26]
A
To this, that you might think of.
[01:27]
B
Is, well, I'm just gonna go buy some hosting and I'm just going to host all my domains on it.
[01:32]
A
I know you can host more than.
[01:33]
B
One domain on the same hosting package.
[01:35]
A
Yay.
[01:36]
B
I'm ready to go.
[01:37]
A
No, no, no, no, no. That's a terrible idea. If you do that, all of your domains will have the exact same IP address, and it will be very obvious.
[01:45]
B
That one person owns all of those domains. And that's another footprint that the search engines can use to detect manipulation.
[01:52]
A
And your sites will probably get penalized and. Or de indexed, and. And any links that you provide to your clients will have no value.
[02:01]
B
Okay, the second thing that I want to talk about is something called SEO hosting.
[02:06]
A
SEO hosting is a bad idea. But in Order to explain why it's a bad idea, let me first explain exactly what SEO hosting is. In order to explain what SEO hosting.
[02:16]
B
Is, I have to define something, but I'm going to define it in the way people commonly use it, not the correct way. Okay, so you've probably seen something called.
[02:30]
A
C class, IP or IP address.
[02:33]
B
If you don't know what IP address is. IP stands for Internet protocol. And basically any device that's connected to the Internet has its own IP address. Okay, An IP address is four numbers.
[02:44]
A
And they're separated by a period or.
[02:46]
B
A dot, however you want to say it. So I'm just going to make up.
[02:49]
A
An IP address right here for an example.
[02:51]
B
So you might see something like 100, 152 50100. I have no idea what that is. I literally just made that up. So anyways, that's an IP address.
[03:04]
C
Okay?
[03:04]
B
So anytime you go to a website, you type in www.whatever.com, you're not actually going to that website.
[03:13]
A
What that does is it's taking you.
[03:14]
B
To an IP address of the website. The reason people use domains is because it's much easier to remember google.com or.
[03:22]
A
Whatever website than it is a list of four numbers.
[03:26]
B
Okay, like how hard would that be?
[03:28]
A
Imagine if you had to, instead of.
[03:29]
B
Remembering your favorite website's addresses, you had to remember four different three digit numbers.
[03:36]
A
For each website that you're. That would be annoying.
[03:38]
B
Nobody would ever use the Internet if that was the case. So you type in a domain name and behind the scenes it redirects you.
[03:45]
A
To a specific IP address that you never see because all you care about is the domain.
[03:49]
B
Okay, that makes sense.
[03:51]
A
Now any website that you host or.
[03:53]
B
Any website on the entire Internet is going to have an IP address and it's going to be four numbers. Okay, Now I said I was going to define something and I said I was going to define it for you incorrectly and I said I was going to define it wrong because that's how everybody else defines it.
[04:08]
A
So you might have seen something called.
[04:09]
B
A C class IP address. There's something called A class, there's B.
[04:13]
A
Class, there's C class, there's D class, and there's E class.
[04:17]
B
Okay, now that really refers to something different. Okay, let me actually tell you the real definition first.
[04:25]
A
Okay, you don't need to know this.
[04:26]
B
But I want you to understand what the correct definition is. So the wrong definition, but the definition.
[04:31]
A
That everybody uses will make sense.
[04:33]
B
Okay, I'm not going to make this super difficult, but like if the number.
[04:36]
A
In the IP address is between a certain number and a certain other number.
[04:39]
B
It'S considered an A class ip.
[04:40]
A
If it's between a different number and a different number, it's considered a B class.
[04:45]
B
That's all you need to know. Okay, now what's the definition that people actually use? Okay, so an IP address is four numbers, and you have, you know, whatever, dot, whatever, whatever, whatever.
[04:57]
A
Okay, cool.
[04:58]
B
So it's divided into four numbers. Each of those numbers is referred to as an octet. Okay, so we got the first octet, and then a period, and then the second octet, and then a period, and then the third octet, and then a period, and then the fourth octet. Okay, pretty. Pretty simple, right?
[05:13]
A
Now, the bad definition that everybody uses that is wrong is assigning one letter to each of the octets. So, for example, whatever the first number is, people will refer to that as the A class. Whatever the second number is, people will refer to that as the B class. Whatever the third number is, people will refer to that as the C class. And whatever the fourth number is, people will refer to that as the D class. Now, that's not what it actually means.
[05:41]
B
Okay, but that's for some reason how.
[05:44]
A
People in the SEO industry use the term. And you need to know that for two reasons.
[05:49]
B
One, you're probably gonna see it when.
[05:51]
A
You'Re searching for hosts or when you're reading about SEO.
[05:54]
B
And two, that's the way we're gonna use the term in this podcast, because even though it's wrong, it will still make sense. Okay, so why is SEO hosting a terrible idea?
[06:05]
A
Great question. First of all, most SEO hosts offer something called C class hosting or unique C class hosting.
[06:13]
B
What does that mean?
[06:14]
A
It means you'll have multiple IP addresses to host your sites on, and they will be unique at the C class or at the third octet or the third number, remember?
[06:24]
B
So you'll have like.
[06:25]
A
I'm just making these numbers up.
[06:26]
B
You'll have like 100, 200, 100, whatever.
[06:29]
A
100, 200, 101, whatever, 100, 200, 102, whatever, and so on.
[06:36]
B
See how they're different at the third octet? Okay, sounds like a good idea, right? Because then you're like, well, you just said we don't want all our websites on the same IP address, and that sounds like we're getting some different IP addresses. Well, that sounds good.
[06:48]
A
No, no, no, no, no.
[06:48]
B
It's bad.
[06:49]
A
Let me tell you why. Well, you're right.
[06:51]
B
You do want them on different IP addresses, but you do not want them.
[06:53]
A
On sequential C class IPs.
[06:55]
C
Okay?
[06:56]
B
Why do you think that search engines.
[06:58]
A
Could look at a bunch of websites that are all linking to the same.
[07:01]
B
Website and say, wait a minute, these are only different by one number at the third octet, These are all owned by the same person? Yes, I think the search engines can do that. I'm pretty sure that's one of the.
[07:13]
A
Ways that private blog portfolios, or private blog networks or whatever you want to.
[07:17]
B
Call them, PBNs, whatever, get discovered.
[07:21]
A
Okay?
[07:22]
B
The second, don't worry, I'm going to tell you how to fix this. I'm going to tell you how to like fix this concern anyway, because there's like an easy way around it that's actually easier than wasting your time with.
[07:31]
A
Some SEO hosting company. Okay?
[07:34]
B
The second reason is because SEO, the industry in general is pretty suspicious, okay?
[07:42]
A
From listening to my other podcasts, especially.
[07:44]
B
Episode number one, you know that I don't really have the best view of.
[07:48]
A
The industry nor the people in the industry.
[07:50]
C
Okay?
[07:51]
A
It has been my experience.
[07:53]
B
Your experience may differ.
[07:55]
A
It has been my experience that SEO hosting companies are not the kind of.
[08:00]
B
People that you want to get involved with anyway.
[08:02]
A
I'm not saying they're all bad.
[08:04]
B
I'm saying I have used them in the past for experimental purposes, not for.
[08:09]
A
Actual sites that I link to my clients on.
[08:12]
C
Okay?
[08:13]
B
I'm not saying all SEO hosting companies are like this, okay?
[08:16]
A
But in my experience, I have used them.
[08:18]
B
I've used two SEO hosting companies. I did not use them with websites.
[08:22]
A
That I was linking to my clients from.
[08:24]
C
Okay?
[08:24]
B
I did not do that way because I know that it's a bad idea. I was experimenting with some stuff and I wanted to see how it would work.
[08:32]
A
Side note, you got to do a lot of your own testing in the.
[08:34]
B
SEO industry because there's not really any good information out there. Like, you asked 10 different people in.
[08:38]
A
The industry how to do something, you'll.
[08:40]
B
Get 10 different answers and like, probably all 10 of them are wrong anyway. So you gotta, like, you gotta like, figure out stuff on your own. So I was using some C class IPs on some. Let me say that differently. I was using some servers that were unique at the third octet, right?
[08:55]
A
Because that's what C class hosting means, the fake definition, as we learned.
[08:58]
B
And I was testing some stuff out. Anyway, don't use them. I don't know how many of them.
[09:02]
A
Are out there anymore. I know that like 10 years ago.
[09:05]
B
There were a lot of them.
[09:06]
A
They were all terrible.
[09:07]
B
Oh, My gosh, they were terrible. Like, you know how like you can.
[09:10]
A
Just look at a website and just.
[09:11]
B
Get a feeling that the company is shady? You know what I mean?
[09:14]
A
Like they were all shady. Like, I think I picked the two.
[09:17]
B
Like least shady ones and I still had like a terrible experience with them. So I don't care. Don't use them, alright? It's a bad idea. Don't use them, okay? So anyway, you know, the industry is kind of shady. SEO hosting companies are kind of shady. Don't use them. Even if they weren't shady, even if.
[09:34]
A
You found a legitimate SEO hosting company.
[09:37]
B
You still don't want unique C Class IPs.
[09:39]
A
That's a terrible idea.
[09:40]
B
So there's literally no reason to ever use one of these companies ever for your hosting, okay? Like, just don't.
[09:46]
A
The next reason that you probably don't.
[09:48]
B
Want to use an SEO hosting company is this.
[09:50]
A
The search engines can tell where a.
[09:52]
B
Website is hosted, okay?
[09:53]
A
There's something called name servers.
[09:55]
B
You probably know what name servers are. By the way, let me tell you.
[09:58]
A
Now, there's no need to use private name servers, okay? Look, if you have a bunch of.
[10:02]
B
Websites that are all linking to a.
[10:04]
A
Certain website and they all happen to have private name servers, look, nobody ever.
[10:08]
B
Even uses private name servers, okay? So like if all of these websites.
[10:11]
A
Linking to somebody have private name servers, that's gonna look suspicious. And I'm saying this because somebody always recommends, well, if you're building a private blog network, you should use private name servers. No, you should. The name servers of the host are fine.
[10:26]
B
But back to the other point, if the host is called something like, I'm.
[10:30]
A
Just saying this, I'm not naming a.
[10:31]
B
Company, but if the host is called.
[10:33]
A
Something like SEO hosting servers or something.
[10:36]
B
Like that, and that's what the name servers say, do you think that if.
[10:39]
A
The search engines see that you're using name servers that are literally called SEO hosting, they're not going to think you're manipulating the system? Come on.
[10:49]
B
Like just, there's literally, there's literally not.
[10:52]
A
A reason to ever use anything called SEO hosting, okay?
[10:57]
B
Don't use it.
[10:58]
A
And just for those of you who need another reason not to use SEO.
[11:02]
B
Hosting, who do you think uses SEO hosting in the first place? The only people that do it are.
[11:06]
A
The people that are building low quality PBNs who think that it's helpful and it's not.
[11:11]
B
And you don't want to be grouped in with those people. And just for the very clever listeners.
[11:17]
A
Let me give one more little Exception.
[11:19]
B
But sometimes some unscrupulous marketers will claim.
[11:23]
A
That SEO hosting is used for something else. And they say that certain IPs will get you higher in the search results. That is absolutely wrong. The search engines, for the most part, do not care what your IP address is. In fact, for the regular person who.
[11:38]
B
Just hosts their site wherever they want because they don't know anything about hosting. Because 99% of people with a website don't know anything about hosting other than the fact that they have some hosting company that they use and it's probably one of the, like, big players, nobody knows anything about hosts or IP addresses. Okay, so how do we fix the.
[11:55]
A
Problem then of needing every website to go on its own unique IP address without using sequential C class nonsense or SEO hosting? Great question. Remember when you're building your portfolio of.
[12:07]
B
Authoritative domains and when you're building your.
[12:09]
A
Private blog network, or, you know, whatever.
[12:11]
B
You want to call it, everything has to look as natural as possible.
[12:16]
A
So what does that mean? It means you need to use hosts with a wide range of IP addresses. Ideally, you want them unique at the A class or the first octet.
[12:27]
B
You know, you want the first number to be different.
[12:30]
A
You don't want any of this sequential nonsense.
[12:32]
B
You don't want anything to be the same.
[12:34]
A
You want everything to be as unique as possible.
[12:37]
B
So how do you do that?
[12:39]
A
Well, you use a different hosting company for every site you have.
[12:44]
B
Now that sounds like a lot of work, but it's not. You know, let me explain.
[12:48]
A
Remember, you don't want to use any of these SEO hosting companies.
[12:51]
B
You don't want to have any sequential nonsense in your IP addresses. You want every IP address to be.
[12:56]
A
Different, and you want them to be.
[12:58]
B
Different at the first octet. So you got five sites in your.
[13:01]
A
Portfolio, use five different hosting companies, but.
[13:04]
B
You don't even have to do it that way, because, check it out, some hosting companies offer different servers for different packages.
[13:11]
A
So, for example, I have some sites that I host with one hosting company.
[13:16]
B
But they have different packages, and each.
[13:18]
A
Package lets you pick a location. For example, one site might be hosted in Seattle, one site might be hosted in London. One site might be hosted in Singapore, one site might be hosted in the Netherlands.
[13:30]
B
It's all like, yes, it's the same.
[13:32]
A
Company, but they're on different servers and.
[13:34]
B
The servers have completely unique IP addresses. Okay, so it's pretty easy. Now let me tell you something else. I have a lot of sites and I have a lot of hosting packages, and I don't really pay Very much for them. I have so many that I've been.
[13:52]
A
Able to negotiate some very good deals with some hosts. So whatever you're thinking it costs, it costs much less than that.
[14:00]
C
Okay.
[14:00]
A
What a normal person pays per month, I probably pay per year for each of my sites.
[14:06]
B
Okay, but you probably can't do that if you're just, you know, hosting one. When you start building a really big portfolio, you start to get some large discounts. It's pretty cool.
[14:15]
A
My hosting bills are not that bad.
[14:17]
B
Let me just put it that way.
[14:18]
A
And again, there's not another way to do this.
[14:21]
C
Okay?
[14:22]
A
You can't use SEO hosting.
[14:24]
B
You can't put them all on the same server.
[14:26]
A
You have to have each site on.
[14:29]
B
A different IP address.
[14:31]
A
You have to. There's no other way to do it. You have to do it this way or your portfolio will be discovered and you'll probably be de indexed, which means all the links that you built will be worthless and your clients will not.
[14:42]
B
Get the ranking increases that you want them to get.
[14:44]
A
Okay?
[14:44]
B
It's pretty easy now. Probably wondering, well, how do I find the hosts? The hosting industry is pretty shady, just like the SEO industry. It sure is.
[14:54]
A
Here's my advice. I would not go online and search.
[14:57]
B
For best web hosts or anything like.
[14:59]
A
That, because the overwhelming majority of sites that you will find are affiliate garbage.
[15:04]
C
Okay?
[15:05]
B
It's a fake review site designed to.
[15:07]
A
Say that one hosting company is better than the other so that when you.
[15:10]
B
Sign up through their website, they get paid a little bit.
[15:13]
A
You probably are aware, but, like, 99% of affiliate links on the Internet are fake reviews.
[15:18]
C
Okay?
[15:18]
B
It's just a bunch of people that.
[15:20]
A
Are trying to make money by peddling garbage.
[15:22]
C
All right?
[15:22]
A
The hosting industry is no different. So here's what I would recommend. Let me explain to you how I.
[15:28]
B
Did it, because I kind of use two different strategies. The first strategy is I went to a website called web hostingtalk.com okay?
[15:38]
A
Most of the stuff in the hosting world is suspicious, but this site is pretty legit. It's a discussion by actual webmasters and.
[15:46]
B
Actual hosting companies who discuss problems and.
[15:49]
A
Trends and recommendations and all that stuff. So if you have any questions about.
[15:53]
B
Hosting, you will probably find your answer there.
[15:56]
A
You will also find a lot of hosting companies on that site who not only have good products, but who often offer discounts.
[16:04]
B
If you get a discount code that they posted, like, they'll just. They'll. I'm trying to think how to say this. There's a forum on there where people.
[16:10]
A
Can post offers and they'll say like, we're such and such hosted company. Here's a coupon for, you know, 50%.
[16:14]
B
Off or like whatever. I literally got more than half of the hosts that I use from this website.
[16:18]
A
It's very good.
[16:20]
B
Now is there some shady stuff on there?
[16:22]
A
Yeah, there's some shady stuff on there.
[16:23]
B
Because remember, we're talking web hosting and we're talking about people trying to make money. So there's some shady stuff on there.
[16:29]
A
But the overwhelming majority of people on there are cool and friendly and helpful and I recommend the site.
[16:35]
B
I still visit that website from time.
[16:37]
A
To time when I have some problem.
[16:38]
B
That I'm trying to fix or something that I'm trying to learn.
[16:41]
A
My only advice, and I say this with love, is don't go on there talking about SEO. Don't go on there talking about building.
[16:49]
B
A private blog network. Don't do any of that.
[16:51]
A
Why? Because that's kind of frowned upon. I'm just saying if you go on.
[16:56]
B
There saying I'm trying to build a.
[16:57]
A
Network and I need different IPs, blah.
[16:58]
B
Blah, nobody's gonna reply to you or they're gonna tell you to stop being an SEO spammer.
[17:02]
C
Okay?
[17:03]
B
But as far as finding hosts, as far as learning how it works, as far as having people explain stuff to you, it's a pretty cool site.
[17:10]
A
Let me give you another recommendation.
[17:11]
B
There's no like special secret hosting company you use, okay? You just need a good reliable hosting company with an IP address that you want to use. So there is literally no problem using.
[17:26]
A
Some of the big name web hosts.
[17:28]
B
Now you might not like the management group that owns some of these companies. I'm not going to get into it.
[17:34]
A
Probably doesn't concern you, but you may.
[17:36]
B
Have read something about it, you know, but I'm not gonna name anybody, okay? But there's a couple big hosting companies that everybody knows about and there is no problem using them.
[17:47]
A
Why?
[17:48]
B
Because so many people use them that you can use them too. And it'll just, the search engines will.
[17:52]
A
Think, oh look, it's just another normal website who uses these hosting companies. Literally, no problem. I strongly recommend them.
[17:59]
B
Again, I'm not gonna name them because I don't wanna seem like I'm trying to, you know, make get referrals or like I like, I don't care. You can use whatever hosting company works for you. But I'm just saying find some on web hostingtalk.com if you want.
[18:10]
A
Use some of the big name companies.
[18:12]
B
But remember, one domain per package.
[18:16]
A
That's how you have to do it.
[18:17]
B
Okay, let me answer a few other questions that you might have.
[18:20]
A
Shared hosting is just fine. You don't need your own dedicated ip.
[18:25]
B
You don't need any of that stuff. It's going to cost too much money.
[18:28]
A
Save your money. Shared hosting package.
[18:32]
B
Okay, what else do you need to do? I don't think this is an issue, but most of the hosts that you.
[18:36]
A
Should have some tools to easily install.
[18:38]
B
Things like WordPress or whatever CMS you want to use. CMS is content management system. Like, I'll be honest with you, I use WordPress on pretty much every site I run in my portfolio because it's.
[18:49]
A
Easy and I've been doing it forever.
[18:51]
B
And first of all, I'm not going to code something by hand because I don't have those coding skills and because I don't want to. I know there's other content management systems you can use. Use whatever you like.
[19:00]
A
I mentioned this earlier.
[19:01]
B
If all your sites are WordPress, it's not a problem because so many sites on the Internet use WordPress anyway. Nobody's gonna go, oh, look at this guy. He's all these, all these WordPress sites.
[19:09]
A
Are all linking to this other guy. Oh, it must be manipulation.
[19:12]
B
No, like, who cares? Like, just do something different if you want, but who cares?
[19:16]
A
And then the same advice that I.
[19:17]
B
Gave at the end of the last.
[19:18]
A
Episode, if you tend towards paranoia, maybe don't use Gmail or an email address that is owned by, by a search company for this.
[19:26]
B
Cause maybe they might read your emails and find out that.
[19:29]
A
I'm not saying this happens, but maybe they might read your emails and find.
[19:32]
B
Out that you run all of these.
[19:35]
A
Websites and then say, oh, this person's gaming the system.
[19:37]
B
Look, that's probably not gonna happen, but you know, just, it's an extra precaution.
[19:43]
A
That you can take. Okay, so let me give you another piece of advice.
[19:46]
B
It's a good idea to put some.
[19:49]
A
Time in between the sites.
[19:51]
B
So maybe I should have said this in the last episode, but whatever. So, okay, let's say hypothetically, you bought.
[19:57]
A
Five domains and you're going to start with a portfolio of five websites.
[20:00]
B
It's literally not a problem. When I first started, I had five.
[20:03]
A
Websites in my portfolio. They were awesome, they were powerful, but there was only five of them.
[20:08]
C
Okay?
[20:09]
A
I didn't know what I was doing necessarily. I didn't want to spend a ton of money making a huge portfolio. And more to the point, we got.
[20:16]
B
Very good results from only five websites.
[20:20]
C
Okay?
[20:21]
A
Now it's a lot bigger than five now.
[20:22]
B
But I'm just telling you, five is just fine.
[20:25]
A
Especially if you're just learning. Start with 5.
[20:27]
B
Get good, authoritative domains like we talked about in the last episode. Put them on distinct servers with totally different IP addresses and put a little.
[20:36]
A
Time in between them. So this applies more to when you're buying the domains than when you're starting to host them.
[20:41]
B
But if you've got, like I said, if you've got five domains in your.
[20:45]
A
Portfolio and the most recent whois record for them is all the same, so they all have the same date that the latest ownership change took place, that's gonna look weird. Why would five websites that all came into life on the same day all be linking to the same website? They wouldn't. That's weird.
[21:04]
B
So try to space it out a bit.
[21:06]
A
Now, if you're just starting, that's kind of hard because you might be like.
[21:10]
B
I don't wanna wait. Which is fine, but still wait, because you don't look. If you have five domains and the most recent whois record is all the.
[21:20]
A
Same month for all five of them, and all five of those websites link.
[21:23]
B
To the same website, what's gonna happen is the search engines are gonna say, wait a minute, there's some manipulation going on here.
[21:30]
A
That's a footprint. So put some time in between buying the websites.
[21:34]
B
Oh, I should probably tell you, you remember in the last episode when I said don't buy a website if it has too many links from certain countries? You know, again, nothing against those countries, but there's a lot of spam in certain parts of the world.
[21:47]
A
You know, India, Russia, China. I wouldn't buy domains that have a.
[21:50]
B
Lot of links from those countries unless it makes sense to do so. I wouldn't get a hosting package in.
[21:56]
A
One of those countries either.
[21:57]
B
Again, no problem with any of those countries. But if your client starts getting a.
[22:02]
A
Bunch of backlinks from one of those places, that might trigger something because that's how the search engines function.
[22:08]
B
Okay, so just North America, Western Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore. I don't know, you probably not going to find many other countries, but. And again, it's not a political thing, like, I don't really care. I have no problem with those countries.
[22:25]
A
But there's a lot of spam in those countries and the search engines know it.
[22:28]
B
So I'm just telling you, probably don't buy any hosting.
[22:31]
A
You probably won't see any hosting in.
[22:33]
B
Those countries unless you specifically look for it, but probably don't use any hosting in those countries, especially if you're dealing.
[22:39]
A
With primarily English speaking clients.
[22:41]
B
Okay, because again, think about it. If your client is some person who runs a little company, a local company in America, why would an American company.
[22:50]
A
Be getting dozens of backlinks from India.
[22:52]
B
And nowhere else that would seem suspicious? So you don't want to do it that way. Okay, so pretty straightforward.
[22:59]
A
Step one, which we already talked about.
[23:00]
B
Buy the authoritative domains, win the auctions. Buy them from somebody. I don't know, I talked about different ways of getting them.
[23:07]
A
Get some number two, get some hosting.
[23:10]
B
That is on unique IP addresses. Unique at the first octet is the best.
[23:16]
C
Okay?
[23:16]
A
If for whatever reason you can't. I don't know why this would be the case.
[23:21]
B
But if for whatever reason you can't get them unique at the first octet, the second octet is fine. So for whatever reason, your first website is 100 something, whatever, whatever. And then your second website is 100 dot something different, dot something else dot something else, that's fine. If it's unique at the B class, it doesn't matter.
[23:41]
A
Just stay away from sequential nonsense.
[23:43]
B
You don't want the numbers to be one digit away from each other. Like that just is shady. Don't do it. And then other than that, that's all.
[23:49]
A
You need to know about hosting.
[23:51]
B
It's pretty straightforward.
[23:51]
A
In the next episode, we're going to.
[23:53]
B
Talk about how to put the content on your site and we might go into managing the sites because when it.
[23:59]
A
Comes time to actually build the links.
[24:00]
B
And stuff, there's a certain way that you have to do it. So I don't know, we might get into that or that might be a different episod, but hosting is pretty straightforward. If you have any questions, literally every host that I've ever talked to has.
[24:11]
A
Been cool about helping you, but generally.
[24:13]
B
Speaking, there's one click installers for things like WordPress.
[24:16]
A
So that's fine.
[24:18]
B
Let me give you one more suggestion while I'm thinking about it. When you install WordPress and you can.
[24:22]
A
Apply this to whatever CMS you're using. When you install WordPress, you get the choice do you want to use www or not? What you need to do.
[24:31]
B
Remember in the last episode we talked about how you're analyzing the domains and.
[24:35]
A
You'Re finding out how much authority they have. Analyze them with W, www and analyze them without www and whichever one has.
[24:43]
B
More authority, that's the way you want to do it.
[24:45]
C
Okay?
[24:46]
B
When you're checking to see if they're.
[24:46]
A
Indexed, then you do site colon, the.
[24:48]
B
Domain name.com and don't put a space in there.
[24:51]
A
See if the results are WWW or not www.
[24:55]
B
And that's the way that you probably want to do it. Sometimes you'll only get one because most people use www or don't use www, but it's very rare that you'll see both. Remember the purpose of these domains as possible. So you want to do it in.
[25:12]
A
The way that will produce the most authority. If the site already has more authority.
[25:17]
B
With the WWW version, do it that way.
[25:20]
A
If it has more authority without the.
[25:22]
B
Www, then choose that way.
[25:24]
C
Okay.
[25:25]
B
It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty easy. One more thing, this is pretty important.
[25:30]
A
Once you get to a point where.
[25:31]
B
You start getting a lot of domains and you have them hosted, you're going to want to make sure that your.
[25:37]
A
IP addresses are all different.
[25:39]
B
So there is no problem messaging a.
[25:44]
A
Host before you sign up and saying.
[25:46]
B
Hey, I'm thinking about selecting this package.
[25:48]
A
Where is the server? What would my IP address be? I have done that many times and only once did I ever get any.
[25:55]
B
Kind of disagreement from the host. One guy responded and said, I think his response was something like, we don't deal with SEO myths here, or something like that.
[26:04]
A
I was like, okay.
[26:05]
B
And I picked a different host. Like, I don't know what the guy's problem was. I just wanted to know what the IP address was and where it would be hosted. Literally none of the other sites I've ever talked to have ever had a problem. They're always very happy to help. Most people that run hosting sites are pretty nice and helpful, but you should also ask that question because you should.
[26:23]
A
See how quickly you get a response.
[26:25]
B
If you get a response within an hour, that's pretty awesome. Sometimes they take a little bit longer.
[26:30]
A
Remember, if the host is in Europe.
[26:32]
B
For example, and you're in America, you.
[26:35]
A
Might email them when they're not even working.
[26:37]
B
So it's okay to wait a little bit. I use some hosts that are in different countries and I understand that people have different schedules. Anyway, it's pretty straightforward.
[26:46]
A
You can easily find out the IP.
[26:47]
B
Address that the site's gonna be on. Sometimes it'll even tell you. Sometimes there's literally a menu when you're signing up for the package.
[26:52]
A
There's literally a menu.
[26:53]
B
You can tap the menu or whatever and it will be like, pick the.
[26:56]
A
Server you want and it will say the city, and it will say what IP address it's on.
[26:59]
B
Sometimes you just pick the city, whatever, it doesn't matter. But you can always email them and say, hey, what IP address is this gonna be on? I've done it countless times. It's not even a problem. Anybody who has a problem with it, you don't wanna host with them anyway. Okay, that wraps it up. Now you know how to find hosting and you know what you should do with it. And in the next episode, we're gonna talk about putting content on your site. So it should be pretty straightforward.
[27:22]
A
Thanks for listening.
[27:23]
B
Don't forget to subscribe. I hope this episode was helpful. And if you have any questions or if there's anything that you want me to talk about on a future episode, you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com and I'll talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the.
[27:37]
A
SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time.
[27:39]
B
With nonsense that doesn't work.
[27:41]
A
Join us next Wednesday when we talk about how to put content and backlinks.
[27:45]
B
On your authoritative domains, the correct way.
[27:47]
A
To get your clients maximum link juice and get them to the top of the search engines.