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I moved the htm files over to the new host on a temporary domain and set up 301 redirects for the htm pages to the php ones, then I repointed the domain to the new nameservers. A few weeks later, after Google etc had indexed the new pages and the old ones were gone from its cache, I deleted the htm pages, though I suppose I could have deleted them straight away. The redirects are still there in case anyone has the htm pages in their favourites. Incoming links weren't an issue because they all went to the actual domain.
The new pages are nicely indexed but the homepage hasn't got back to its previous ranking (it does have its previous PR now), but it seems to be creeping back week by week.
I'm not sure if this is the textbook procedure but it seemed to work for me.
[edited by: Patrick_Taylor at 10:11 am (utc) on Aug. 4, 2004]
I'm in the middle of the same procedure now, so I'll let you know what happens over the next week or two.
I'm doing the same as Patrick - 301'ing, although in my case it's to a new domain name (rebranding).
I'm anticipating any inbound links to the new domain will get sandboxed in the usual way. I'm tempted to leave the old ones alone, and let the 301 take care of them, as those links are now out of the sandbox.
TJ
I still don't understand this?
I see several 3 week old sites ranking well with over 2,000 pages indexed by G!
As for hosts G! doesn't give a hoot unless you are a serious cross-linker. Even then I don't think you are going to get caught for several months!
I see several 3 week old sites ranking well with over 2,000 pages indexed by G
Yes, I have sites only a couple of weeks old ranking well. But in competitive searches, large numbers of inbound links do seem to be quarantined for a bit.
I don't know whether it's a sandbox or something else, but it's noticeable.
They do come good in the end though.
TJ
What I have is an account with one of the big hosting companies. I pay a monthly fee and have a certain amount of space on a server of theirs, certain amount of bandwidth, etc.
The current interface they have provided me with is cpanel. The problem is that this interface does not allow for me to check logs reliably. They have recently been running servers with vdeck, a newer application (i guess that's what it is) that allows for better log analysis, more bandwidth, etc. After speaking with them, they have assured me that nothing bad would happen with google. But then they said, well you may need to resubmit. That doesn't sound very good to me! I have about 30 backlinks and have been actively pursuing more.
The transfer would involve them creating a new account for me, and then me uploading my website to this new server.
Thanks!
Matt
Just over a month ago, we elected to begin with another new host. Much smoother transition this time (thanks again everyone.) It's now coming up on five weeks and so far not so much as a lil' bitty tiny speedbump has emerged.
they said, well you may need to resubmit
matt, you shouldn't have to resubmit to Google if your page URLs remain the same. Presumably you will retain your current domain and filenames on the new server?
I've recommended using an approach detailed in Bruce Clay's site. You can find the recommendation I've made in Bruce's site section "Server Technical Tips". It's a link at the bottom of his home page.
This is what Bruce and Greg Boser (Hey Greg!) prescribed at SES.
The developer wrote to Google and they assured him there would be no difficulty in moving to another IP.
I guess my question is: Is this outdated information (on Bruce's site)? Do you need to take precautions when transfering to a new ip? Or do you just make the tranfer?
Google indexes urls - not ip addresses (or not in the context that is being proposed anyway) - and if you switch your hosting (package ¦ company ¦ ...) in a manner that does not alter your sites EXTERNAL structure, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck...well then for all google cares it is a duck. IIS -> apache or whatever else, the important thing if only switching hosts and not changing the site, dont change the site.
There should be no detremental effect from the above type switching. Some years back google would need a month to reindex (if memory serves they used to cache dns for extended timeframes, roughly a month, which I dont believe to be the case today). If you wanted to play it extremely safe you could host under both accounts for a month or until your traffic on the old box dried up, but quite frankly its overkill.
If you change the internal structure or domain of your site, with or without switching hosts, then and only then should you worry about 301's and such. Though there are likly those who know better you should roughly:
create a functional new entity (development), entity could be a seperate server, a subdirectory, a domain, whatever.
create 301s which direct the old pages to the new. This should ideally be done for all content to speed up the switch. Logfiles should be analized to ensure proper redirects (a bad one might cause for instance, dmoz to drop your site rather then redirect to a new domain)
Submit the new home and perhaps sitemap.
Cross fingers and wait some weeks (we did similar starting 03/04 and visable pr was transfered by 06/04, BUT, googles spidering of the old site stopped well before this. I could not gauge traffic dependant upon serps becasue we were largly unindexable prior to this process)
I just moved several sites from virtual name-based hosting to the same elsewhere without a hitch (except on my end, misplaced a couple of files in the process while staying up all night). No affect on listings at all - or crawling.
miammiam - >I would like to move our site to a new host <
You should have no problem. I've done this several times, but I like to overlap the hosting just long enough for the name o resolve to the new IP.
Patrick Taylor - >I also altered the page contents and changed all the page filenames <
I think I would have done things one at a time, but then I'm cautious ;)
mbush27 - >I am looking to upgrade my account with the hosting company I am currently with<
Hmmmm, overlapping might be a bit difficult here. I would keep the old account for a month, even though the name should be in place within a day or two.
Midhurst - In theory (and should be in practice)the name and the hosting are seperate.
Good luck everyone........
I _might_ have an answer about the spam.
It turns out that my present (soon to be gone))
host was also a major SPAM pipeline. That was
so bad, that my separate dial-up ISP was trashing
emails sent to webmaster(etc)@mydomain.net!
No notice, incoming email just vanished.
I had to have Spamhost.com save my emails and
tediously call up some page of theirs to retrieve
them (99% spam of course) rather than redirecting
that to my dial-up.
I'm changing hosts as I write this, since the one
year subscription is up in a month.
I plan to leave up both sites for the month, but
will change my registration to point to the new
host. I'm making no special changes to my URLs or
pages, just moving the whole shebang.
If anyone has special cautions, I need to know them.
Best. -Larry
