IP addresses and linking question
 

This might be a rather basic question, but can anyone explain how much Google, etc. pay attention to IP addresses with linking? I've read that it matters and it is best to have the different sites on different subnets, but how much of an effect does it have?

Since there are many common shared hosts, does Google penalize all of them? For example, what about 2 wordpress.com websites linking?

I do my own hosting, but I only own 1 server. I can obtain multiple IP addresses for it, but they would be all on the same subnet (class C). Does that hurt/killl linking strategies like ABC linking? Or does Google understand that sometimes it is legitimate for multiple sites owned by multiple people having no relation with each other sharing the same IP address?

Thanks.

Bump. Anyone know how this works (or has educated guesses based on experience)? Or is this a Trade Secret?

trade secret sorry.

Google "understands" that many legitimate sites can share the same subnet or indeed the same ip. But for "link juice" I would recommend getting as many links to your sites from other c-classes as possible. I don't think you will be penalized for linking your sites that are on the same subnet but it won't give you much or any of a boost in your seo results.

Thanks, John. That really helps.