What Is An IP Address?
If you’ve ever questioned how one site understands how to link to another and what details to share with it, all internet-connected devices use the IP addresses for that. IP represents internet procedure, which is how it’s determined for information to be shared throughout the web. Let’s dive into the difference in value that public data sources will bring versus private.
Public Data Sources
This is what you might know as a “reverse IP” lookup. These sites allow you to copy/paste an IP address into their platform, and they offer you the company data kept on the Regional Internet Registry.
The advantage of using public IP address data is that it’s typically free to gain access to, with countless websites letting you copy/paste IP addresses one by one and see what’s in the general public record. However, the details stored in public computer system registries are reported by the ISP companies have no reward or charge programs in place to guarantee they follow through and report their business data to the general public windows registries properly. This causes many mistakes in the public record with numerous IP addresses that really come from companies with no public record, inaccurate data, or out-of-date records.
Taking a look at the journey of an IP address from production to end-user (or company), it’s crucial to note that large companies like Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, and so on are large enough to rent out their own blocks of IP addresses directly from the Regional Internet Registries. This makes these businesses simple to identify and we can usually assume their details have been properly reported in the public record.
However, the issue B2B marketers deal with when trying to extract value from public IP pc registries is that most analytics platforms do not permit you to access the IP addresses of your website visitors. In addition, the majority of analytics and marketing automation platforms rely on public pc registry data to determine site visitors and fail to supply any actionable info for B2B online marketers.
Private Data Sources
These are companies, like IPLytics, that can identify the IP addresses of website visitors and evaluate them utilizing proprietary techniques to find the company data concealed behind the ISP and provide genuine value to B2B online marketers. Personal data often requires an investment, but it’s far more robust, accurate, and current than the data saved in a public record.
Data companies commit huge amounts of time and money to structure and maintain their IP address databases and are continuously competing with one another to offer the best and most accurate data.
Not only do these data sources offer you better firmographic details than public data sources do, but they also supply a ton of additional details that can be used to boost sales and marketing efforts. Another benefit of using a private IP data source is that you, as the online marketer, can access all the valuable business information about your site visitors without lifting a finger. Technologies like IPLytics, resolve a tag that lives on your website, continuously monitoring and reporting information about the business that checks out.
How Are IP Addresses Tracked?
Whenever 2 devices link to one another utilizing the web procedure, they have to acknowledge each other. In web parlance, this is generally described as “shaking hands.” Your IP address requires you to let the device at the other IP address know where to send out the details that are being asked for. That handshake is how IP addresses are tracked.
For example, when you’re attempting to visit a site, your network sends out an information package that includes your IP address and port number. Then the server that hosts the website you’re looking for accepts the packet, learns what network is requesting for gain access to, and understands where to return its reaction in the form of all the files that comprise the site.
That website and the server it’s on now know your IP address has checked out. And your internet service provider (ISP) likewise has a record of that go to. In most cases, that’s where the tracking stops. A random individual curious about your internet history will not be able to find out what sites you’ve visited simply based on understanding your IP address.
But ISPs keep a record of IP address activity, which means that, in uncommon cases, they can share that details with others. And while your IP address only offers minimal info to the servers your network interacts with, it does provide some data about you.