All devices on the Internet are recognized by a unique number called an IP address, for instance 123.123.123.123. When you have a website, the domain that you enter to be able to load it is to save you time, yet the server where the site files are still has an IP. Due to the fact that there're a lot more websites and devices than there are IP addresses, all the shared hosting servers have a number of sites under an identical IP, while using a dedicated server you will have a dedicated IP as well. Even in the first case though, you're able to get a dedicated IP for your sites and host them on a shared server. One benefit would be that you may get improved search engine rankings because a dedicated IP often means a faster loading site. What is more, you need such an IP when you intend to acquire an SSL certificate for your website and secure the data that your visitors submit on it.