Should I move? How will G react?

Yahoo and Msn kicked me off because of a class C infraction

[notsosmart]

To make a long story short, I believe that Yahoo and MSN gave one of my top $ sites the boot due to the activities of some twit whose site happens to reside on the same machine as mine. Google has not penalized me, so I could conceivably leave well enough alone, and lose the 30% of traffic that Y and M were sending combined (not really a pleasant prospect).

Here are my options:

Start a new domain (call it domain B), with all the same content as the original domain (say, A, just to be creative).

Robot-text google out of domain B and do the same for Y and MSN for domain A.

Advantages: new site, could conceivably get into Y and M eventually.

Disdvantages: for Yahoo and MSN ranking purposes, I lose all the links (1000s) that go to domain A. We really would be starting over.

or:

I move everything to a new domain. Well, no, I mean, I move my original domain to a new host, with new IP.

Advantages: Y and MSN hopefully lift the ban.

Disadvantages: I have absolutely no idea what would happen. Really. In 8 years, I've never had to move a site, and I have no idea what would happen if I tried this. Would Google suddenly treat the new IP as a new domain, and would I be starting from scratch (even though those 1000s of links would still resolve to the new IP?) Or could this be done in such a way that all three engines would instantly recognize the new IP, but also all the links that went to the old one?

[Marcia]

I move everything to a new domain. Well, no, I mean, I move my original domain to a new host, with new IP.

Advantages: Y and MSN hopefully lift the ban.

A brand new host with a dedicated IP is the simplest solution, which is usually the best way. Once it's moved and you check and double-check Yahoo's webmaster guidelines to make sure you're clean, you can write to them and possibly it will be lifted if being on the same C-block was the cause of being dropped.

Disadvantages: I have absolutely no idea what would happen. Really. In 8 years, I've never had to move a site, and I have no idea what would happen if I tried this.

I've moved many a site, and I can tell you that nothing happens. There used to be some problems, but as long as the site is continuously on line with no downtime, you wouldn't notice a thing.

I'm just building a site that I moved to a new server just last night. I changed the nameserver info at the registrar, and a few minutes later checked the domain in the browser and got the empty file - it had already resolved, before I'd even had time to upload the files to the new server. It's that fast. You will have to set up your scripts, programs and forms to work on the new server - do all that beforehand.

I've moved a number of sites in the last few months and there's been no problem whatsoever - and those were from shared IP to shared IP. Just make sure to upload the site files to the new host and have it all ready BEFORE changing the nameserver info. ;)

Would Google suddenly treat the new IP as a new domain, and would I be starting from scratch (even though those 1000s of links would still resolve to the new IP?) Or could this be done in such a way that all three engines would instantly recognize the new IP, but also all the links that went to the old one?

The links all go to the domain name - not the IP. It'll go by the domain name.

MSN is using Yahoo's data for now, it's just Yahoo to be concerned about.

Start a new domain (call it domain B), with all the same content as the original domain (say, A, just to be creative).

I'd give Yahoo a chance to restore the site before doing anything that "creative." You do NOT ever want Yahoo catching you with a mirror site. If it is restored it'll have to get crawled and re-indexed, but in your place I'd give the simple, straightforward way a chance first.

[Jack_Hughes]

I've moved the same site a number of times and it really isn't anything to worry about.

Move the site, test the new setup til your fingers hurt (and ideally get somebody else to do likewise).

then changeover the dns entry for the new hosted site. leave the old site up for a while until the SE spiders are no longer looking at it.

et voila..you've done it. really nothing to worry about. when you've done it once you'll wonder why you were so worried about it.

[Powdork]

No problems changing hosts here either. Like Marcia says, make sure all your scripts, forms, etc are ready prior to moving as well as being ready to move any databases.
Another advantage is that unless your previous host was really nice and kept giving you the latest rates your going to be saving some huge dollars. I'm currently doing a complete redesign for a rather small site. They are going to recoup 80% of the cost of my work just by switching them to a new host. They were paying $22/month each for two 20 page sites plus $20/year each to Network Solutions.

[glengara]

Reading "..one of my top $ sites" and "..I lose all the links (1000s)" makes me wonder who the " some twit" may actually be ;-)