Google, IPs, and site age

Will switching IPs make my site look younger?

[kpaul]

Since visiting webmasterworld and lurking and learning, my traffic has shot up a lot. I need to upgrade my server (gee, thanks guys - and gals! ;)

The Widget Site will have a different IP at its new home. I think I read somewhere that Google tends to like 'older/mature/more established' sites. (Is it true? Also, more reassurance that G-Bots aren't having as much trouble with new DNS information would be appreciated and help me sleep a little sweeter ;)

My question is, will moving the domain to a diff IP affect how Google sees the age of the site?

It's not too old in human years, but in 'net years I think it is middle-aged ;) Or does Google just look at when the domain was purchased?

Thanks much.

[TheDave]

From what I've heard around here, and from my own experience, there is no conclusive evidence that google favours older pages, and the only rational explanation for the older pages being higher in the results is that they have been around longer, and so have more links. I registered a domain just over a week ago, and it's already in the google index, and ranking fairly high for the keywords I'd like it to. When it comes down to it, you have to take the same advice that is repeatedly offered here, build your site for your visitors. So if a server upgrade is going to make the pages load four times faster or whatever, I wouldn't hesitate in doing it.

[kpaul]

No doubt. I'm gonna do it no matter what. ;)

I was just curious as to what the latest thinking on the subject was.

I do think the 'been around longer == more linkage' is probably what happens.

Big server switches are usually stressful for me, though, so I guess I'm thinking too much of what can go wrong.

I usually add several pages on widgets per day and have been doing so for years. Quite a lot of pages. Taking the id=blah out of some of them really helped me in indexing some, and is attracting new users who like to post content about widgets.

So, I guess you should kinda watch what you do, but if it's the visitors you've already accumulated versus Google, the humans win :)

Thanks for the reply.

[Krapulator]

Hi KPaul,

About a year ago I migrated a four year old site (well placed in Google) to a new server on a new IP and there was no negative impact at all.

Once you re-delegate, make sure you leave the old server running until Google picks up the new IP properly.

[Chris_R]

I vote against switching IPs.

Long story.

Sort of falls under if it isn't broke don't fix it.

[kpaul]

It is broke, though. Or will be. The server/IP I'm on won't be able to adequately keep up with the traffic I'm getting. So, as I said, it's something I have to do no matter what, but I wanted to get some others recent experiences.

Thanks all.

[g1smd]

A few people have reported a small negative impact when changing IP addresses. This was probably more to do with some short downtime or DNS issues rather than the actual change of IP address. Make the change sooner rather than later. It does sound like it is needed.

Parallel thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

[caine]

Changing IP's is not a problem - as long as the people doing it know exactly what they are doing and get the timing correct.

[Chris_R]

I think I know what I am doing - all domains are STILL at the old IP*, but they all were affected.

This was about half a dozen sites chosen more or less at random from a dozen sites (I think I picked them in alphabetical order) to balance out two servers. The ones that were moved got hurt - the ones that didn't didn't.

If someone else told me this - I would say they were crazy - so I don't expect anyone to believe me.

Just saying don't switch IPs cause you think it will HELP you. I don't think it should HELP or HURT you. It just appeared to in my case.

*[It didn't hurt to leave the old IPs up - as the old host doesn't charge me more - and the bandwidth should be zero by now]

Just my 2 cents. If you have to (or there are other advantages in doing so) switch - of course do so.