Questions to ask any SEO host before you buy
Before you pay anyone for SEO hosting, send eight questions and read the answers for specificity rather than enthusiasm. A provider who knows their own network answers with octets, timeframes and named limits. A provider who does not answers with adjectives. The questions below work on any host, including this one, and the second column tells you what a real answer sounds like so you can judge for yourself.
The eight questions
| Ask this | What a straight answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Where do the addresses come from, and are they allocated to you or leased in? | Names the registry region and the arrangement, says whether the ranges are announced under the provider's own AS number or a transit partner's, and states plainly what happens to your addresses if a lease is not renewed. Vague version: "we have a large pool available". |
| Do you check an address history before assigning it, and check against what? | Lists the actual checks: blocklist status, prior reverse DNS names, whether the range was previously used for bulk registration. Also admits the check is a snapshot and cannot prove a clean past. An answer of "all our IPs are clean" with no method behind it is worth nothing. |
| Is this address mine alone, or does anything else resolve on it? | States dedicated or shared without hedging, and if shared, gives a number. Watch for "dedicated" used to mean "not shared with another customer" while the provider's own mail relay or panel still answers on it. |
| On this plan, how much separation do I actually get? | Describes the octet pattern you will receive and says where diversity runs out. Honest hosts will tell you a plan gives varied third octets but a single second octet, rather than implying every address is unrelated. |
| A neighbour in my range gets penalised or blocklisted. Then what? | Describes a process: what triggers a reassignment, how quickly a replacement address is issued, whether you are charged for it, and who does the delisting paperwork. "That does not happen to us" is not a process. |
| If I leave in six months, what does that look like? | Notice period, whether cancellation is self-serve, how long data is retained after termination, and the export format. Also a clear statement that the addresses stay with the provider, because allocations are not property you carry away. |
| Who answers a ticket at 03:00, and what can they actually do? | Distinguishes between staff who can move an address or reboot a node and staff who can only escalate. Names realistic response windows and says which hours are thinner. "24/7 expert support" on its own describes nothing. |
| Will these addresses improve my rankings? | No. A separate range limits a shared footprint and gives you somewhere clean to move when something goes wrong. It is a defensive measure, not a positive signal. Anyone promising a ranking lift from IP diversity is either guessing or selling. |
How to read the replies
- Numbers beat adjectives. "Within one business day" tells you more than "fast".
- A stated limit is a good sign. Providers who name what they cannot do are usually accurate about what they can.
- Get it in writing on a ticket. Pre-sales answers sent to your account leave a record; chat transcripts and phone calls rarely do.
- Time the reply. How long pre-sales takes to respond is your cheapest possible sample of support speed.
Where hedging is legitimate
Some answers cannot be absolute, and treating a careful reply as evasion will cost you good suppliers. Nobody can guarantee an address will never appear on a blocklist, promise the behaviour of every neighbour in a range, or commit to a fixed number of distinct second octets years ahead. What matters is whether the hedge comes with a remedy: an address swap, a stated timeframe, a named escalation route. A hedge with no remedy attached is the one to walk away from.
Work through the same list when you plan capacity in network planning, and again before a migration in moving in. If you want to run these eight past us, send them over and judge the answers against the column above.
Still not sure which way to go?
Tell us what you are building. If it needs less than you think, we will say so.