All devices on the Internet are recognized by a unique number called an IP address, for instance 123.123.123.123. In case you have a site, the domain that you type to be able to load it is for your convenience, yet the server where your website files are still has an IP. Due to the fact that there're a lot more websites and devices than there're IP addresses, all shared web hosting servers have a number of websites under an identical IP, whereas using a dedicated server you'll get a dedicated IP too. Even in the first case though, you are able to acquire a dedicated IP for your sites and host them on a shared server. One benefit would be that you will enjoy superior search engine rankings since a dedicated IP usually means a quicker loading site. Last but not least, you need such an IP when you plan to obtain an SSL certificate for your site and protect the information that your visitors submit on it.