Changing WebHost Service

When is it safe

[Abigail]

I have a rather large site, I have had the same host for over 3 years, always reliable until just recently they have sold and since the service has been much less than desired. I am also paying top dollar. I know I can get better service for much less but I feel trapped.

What are my options - is there a way to move the site without losing my Search Engine positions. I have had an experience moving a smaller site and it never did recover. Is there a way to safely do this and minimize the negative reprucussions.

Is it possible to have 2 hosting platforms for a few months? Doesn't the registrars DNS point just to one or the other?

[kpaul]

I recently (read: a month or so ago) moved to a new server/new IP. Within 24-48 hours, all the 'major' SEs had found me at the new IP. (Can't remember if Slurp or G-Bot was first. I think it was G...)

AFAIK, Google seems to have squashed the problem of using old DNS info for weeks at a time. That is, if you switch DNS info, Google should be (in my experience) hip to the change within 24 hours or so.

I left the old site up for a few days, but once I saw G-Bot on the new box, I closed the other one down.

hope that helps,
kpaul

[claus]

That's good news kpaul :) ... in the google wishlist thread dmorrison suddently made me aware that the threads i've seen on this subject did not mention the TTL settings of the DNS records.

It's post #60 in this thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

I had posted a wish that Google would do at least daily or weekly updates of their DNS settings if they do not already. He's right though... The TTL settings are the ones that specify how long your DNS settings should be cached, and these can (and should) be reduced gradually to zero before a change of IP.

Most webmasters do not have any influence over these settings, though, their host has. You can check your TTL settings here:

[dnsreport.com...]

Look in the generated report under "info -> SOA record" The large number you will see is in seconds.

Anyway, although it's a large number it will probably not be even a week, and i think it's hardly improbable that it's a month, so that basically does not explain the loooong G cache period mentioned in other threads.

/claus

[Marcia]

Whoops! Forgive me I totally goofed, I apologize! I was thinking of moving a site to a different domain name - it's a different story altogether with changing hosts with the same domain name.

[Abigail]

Well - I just took the leap. I will keep a very close eye on it and let you all know the progress. I have left the old up and will not take it down until the bot stops visiting it.

[claus]

That will be exciting, but i don't think you have to worry anymore. After we discussed it in this thread, Jammer posted a success story involving moving 200 different domains without problems, except for one domain. It's message #2 here, and i interpret this as a sign that Google has become very much better at handling these things:

[webmasterworld.com...]

/claus

[storevalley]

http://www.dnsreport.com/

Nice tool. Thanks claus :)

[Abigail]

Well I found googlebot visiting last night in my new host's logs - 24hrs since the switch - "she" crawled a few of pages. I wonder how long before she stops in at all of them.

[Abigail]

Just thought I would let you all know Googlebot has now crawled all of my pages - Fast has found me - Scooter hasn't checked in yet and Slurp is still crawling the old host - I don't know how to get Slurpy's attention, I have a number of paid pages in Ink, any suggestions?

[ncw164x]

I put a new faster server online 5 weeks ago on a new IP number.

All other bots did not have a problem but all inktomi took for 3 weeks was the robots.txt page and then started spidering deep again on the 4th week

All you can do is wait and keep checking your log files for any activity