IP Address Change Monitoring

If someone accidentally moves a site without telling you, how quickly would you know?

Every website on the internet has an IP (Internet Protocol) address and it’s the location of where it’s hosted. Sometimes, your website will have it’s own unique IP address and sometimes, it will share one with others.

What does an IP address look like?

An IP address is a series of numbers, split by periods, with each “block” of numbers having a letter assigned to them. Each number can range from 000 to 255. It often looks something like this: 13.248.150.189.

Why worry about my IP address?

Ideally, your IP address shouldn’t change very often and should remain static. But there will be times when it changes and that’s okay - as long as it’s planned and you know about it. If your IP address changes and you didn’t know about it in advance, then there is a chance that it may have been changed to an IP address that isn’t ideal.

For example, the IP address may have changed to a geolocation that isn’t where your core business is conducted which could lead to a slower experience for users and confusion for search engine crawlers.

Another example is where the new IP address may be on a shared host with low quality websites also hosted.

Of course, all may be well and the IP address may be perfectly fine, but it’s always good to know about it and check - just in case.

How does an IP address get changed?

The main way that an IP address of a website gets changed is if a web developer or admin changes the hosting provider which essentially means that the website is moved to a new server. This server will be connected to the internet and therefore, have a different IP address to the server that was used previously.