How do I switch web hosts and not affect ranking?

[ariff44]

I am planning on switching my site from one shared server to another...

Is there a certain time to do this without missing a google crawl?

Are there any ranking risks I face from such a switch and what precautions do I take?

Does it matter if I have a unique IP?

If you had to swich your host, what steps would you take before, during and after?

I have a good business so I am very worried that I might mess something up so any advice you can give would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

[KCWebMonkey]

If you are copying the whole site over to the new host and you are not renaming any of the pages or anything, then switching should not affect the search engines at all.

Normally you will copy the site over to the new host first, and then update the DNS records to point to the new site.
As that propagates, users will eventually see the new site only, and in a few days time you should be able to pull the old site.

Hope this helps.

[Marcia]

It can for a while if it's from a shared IP to a shared IP, until the DNS records are updated. Crawling is by IP and domain name.

[netnerd]

I was going to do the same thing to a new ip address.

So, does it affect my ranking, and if so, for how long?

[ariff44]

thanks for the info, I have a unique IP right now but of course that will be a different IP with a new host...if I keep all urls the same and the only thing that changes is the IP, is this going to affect the next crawl?

[nancyb]

ariff44, probably the best thing to do is check out some of the previous posts on this topic. Try this one [webmasterworld.com] and then use the site search for "change host" or "moving site" without the quotes.

Lots of good info in these posts, but if all your questions aren't answered let us know ;)

[ariff44]

thanks nancyb...how do you do a site search...I've never done one bf

[andreasfriedrich]

There´s a site search link at the top of the page next to the WebmasterWorld logo.

[ariff44]

thanks!

[Marcia]

If it's going to a new unique IP, put up a link someplace going to the IP number.

[BigDave]

There are cases of it taking up to three months for google to update their DNS cache.

You should leave your site up on the current server, but change the DNS to the new server. Once you no longer have googlebot hitting your old site for a month, take the old site down.

[Marcia]

A link with the IP number seems to speed it. It worked for a member who moved from a shared to a unique IP - and the hosts default page at the old location was turning up when you looked for her site, Google had it all wrong. I put up a link to the new IP on a page that was fresh crawled and it straightened right out.

It helps if there's something uniquely identifying on the moved pages to be able to tell.

[ariff44]

Marcia -

how would I create a link to the new IP - just a normal text link anywhere on my homepage? Is it as simple as that?

[andreasfriedrich]

Yes.

<a [w3.org] href="http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/">content</a [w3.org]>