2 servers. 301 old sites to other server or move to same server first?

[MrSavage]

I would be incredibly grateful for any insight into this situation.

-I have a site on Server A which is new.

-I have a couple sites on Server B which I will be 301 to the new site on Server A.

My real question is, would the IP matter? Should I simply bother to move the Server A sites to Server B first, and then 301?

I'm trying to do this in the safest manner for maintaining my old sites value and search rankings. I'm afraid that if I 301 from a different server/ip, that Google etc may not trust the 301 as much. Perhaps it doesn't matter?

My other option is to change nameservers/ip to the Server A. Wait a few days and then do the 301. My fear is, that the movement of the domains will look less trusting to Google. Paranoid I guess.

Looking before I leap! I suppose the only side question is, could I just do the 301 from GoDaddy and just ditch the server A completely?

Thanks and I'm grateful for any insights you could offer me.

[jdMorgan]

I'd 301 from Server A domains to Server B domains first. Then define some filespace on Server B for the old Server A domains, and put (redundant-at-this-time) 301's from Server A domains to Server B domains into that filespace. Wait for the 301s on Server A to take full effect -- that is, to be recognized and show up "stably" in the SERPs.

After the 301s are recognized and stable in search results, you can switch the DNS so that requests for Server A domains resolve directly to Server B, and continue to be 301 redirected to Server B domains (by the previously-redundant 301s already installed on Server B) from that point on.

I'd use this approach mainly for convenience. There's no need to copy files over, for example, if you're doing a complete domain replacement and won't need to support any old Server A domain content on Server B. You also retain control over Server A until you are almost done, leaving the option to reactivate it if something goes wrong in the process or implementation.

The main 'control' you have here on 'trust issues' is the time that you allow for the first set of 301s to be recognized and to stabilize. Don't rush this -- Give it a month or two after you see the search engines recognize the 301-specified changes. In this way, you won't be fooled by their slow sampling (spidering/update) rate and their occasional and unpredictable "database roll-backs" and mistakenly pull the trigger too soon on dumping the old server.

I'm making this recommendation based mostly on the technical hassle factors. Although I'm considering SEO factors as well, it has been a very long time since I changed a URL, much less an entire domain. In my book, such things are "simply not done" unless absolutely unavoidable. For this reason, you may wish to ask this question in "pure SEO terms" in one or more of our search engine/SEO forums and get several "second opinions."

Jim