The only reason we are staying with our current Host is because of SEO. We are scared that a move to a new host, the new IP address will cause a drop in positioning. Is this true?
Planet13
6:21 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
I don't think this is true at all. I would love to know where you may have heard this.
brotherhood of LAN
6:23 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
Google will see tens of thousands of sites switch IP daily, I highly doubt it's anything to worry about, if your transition is smooth.
aakk9999
6:27 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
The only possible negative issues I can think of are:
1) if the new host is not in the same country (you are moving hosting from one country to another) and Google used IP to geo-target your current site (because you were gTLD and no geo-location set in WMT) and hence geotargets moved site to a different country
2) If the host is slower/further away from your visitors and the user metrics are worse, then with the time there perhaps could be effect in ranking
superclown2
7:54 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
Your site will probably be offline for a short while whilst DNS propagates so if the Googlebot comes knocking at the wrong time you may see an effect from that. It should only last a few days at the most though. You can minimise the risk by lowering the TTL prior to the move if you're really worried. I usually change providers late at night when things are quiet to avoid any possible loss of business but I've never had any difficulties with Google when I've switched to a better provider. My advice - go ahead, provided that you're confident of your new host.
Rasputin
8:00 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
Generally with most hosts you can setup the new site before changing the DNS which avoids any downtime. Just dont delete the old hosting for a few days after changing the transfer.
I get nervous moving sites between hosts in different countries but I dont recall ever seeing the slightest seo impact from changing hosts and I have done it many times over the years.
Typically you'll be moving to a faster or more reliable host which may bring seo benefits. If you are moving hosts to save money I imagine the opposite could apply...
martinibuster
8:01 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
I've switched dedicated servers and shared hosts many times. No problem. Load up the site on the new host. Keep the old host running for at least a month. Do the DNS switch. It's all done by a couple days.
vandelayweb
9:08 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
Agree. This shouldn't affect you at all. If the new host didn't have the uptime standards of the previous, that could impact you and aakk9999 brings up a good point about the location of the hosts servers. I'd shelve the fear and make the move.
lucy24
9:25 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
Let me throw in a corollary question, because it's relevant. Does Google even know what your physical IP is, and hence whom it belongs to?
That is: of course they can know. Any of us can look it up at any time. But do they keep this information up-to-the-minute current, as opposed to just checking periodically? Is it part of the everyday algorithm, or just something that might get checked if the computer notices that, for example, site speed has changed significantly?
netmeg
11:43 pm on Jul 2, 2014 (gmt 0)
I've switched hosting five times in the past ten years because it took me that long to find a good one. My Google (and other search engine) traffic has done nothing but go up and up.
brotherhood of LAN
2:12 am on Jul 3, 2014 (gmt 0)
>Let me throw in a corollary question, because it's relevant. Does Google even know what your physical IP is, and hence whom it belongs to?
The prominent comments I remember from a Google rep is that sometimes during a switch you'll see a bit of a lag because they cache DNS entries (no point in their bot doing a lookup before every fetch, it'd be way too slow).
I would imagine (not much qualification I know) that they have a very good idea of the whole IPv4 space, who owns what, when new blocks are announced etc. The concept of "bad neighbourhoods" hasn't been mentioned in a while, but Google had kept tabs on IPs/blocks that were hosting above average..err.. 'low quality content'.
vandelayweb
3:10 am on Jul 3, 2014 (gmt 0)
Only the engineers from Google know for certain, but I would say that they do keep track of what domain is associated with what IP address. Say I owned 40 domains and created a nice little interlinking network with all hosted on the same IP. I think Google would want to know that. I think its safe to assume that Google gathers a treasure trove of information about every domain on the web -- IP included.
