Google DNS

googlebot on old and new servers

[Tartan75]

2 weeks ago, I moved a website to a new host. Last week googlebot started hitting the new server, but googles caches are still from the old site, and have been updated as recently as this weekend. Unfortunately log files are not working on the old server.

I know Brett (i think it was) advises in the library here to leave the old site up for a month, but I was rather hoping google would be quicker. Does anyone have any more recent experiences - 4 weeks is a long time to wait for google to properly pick up the new server.

[hetzeld]

Hi Tartan75,

If you kept the same domain name, the fact that GoogleBot is now hitting the new box means that she's got the right IP for your domain. In that case, you don't need to keep the old server up as GogleBot won't come back there.

Just to be on the safe side, wait another couple of days to make sure all GoogBots have the new IP.

Dan

[wackmaster]

yes,

Early this year we moved some sites to a new server (all one IP). Cleared the old servers just days later. Google didn't miss a beat. But also, we have lots of backlinks, which might make a big difference here...not sure about that, but certainly lots of backlinks enhances the chance that Google always knows you're there.

Still, we are just one data point, and may have gotten lucky.

[Tartan75]

thanks for your replies.

hetzeld - thats what i would have expected, but if that is the case, i dont understand why google is still getting cached pages from the old server - I know they are, as the old server was hacked, and googles cache showed the defacement page. I restored what had been there (which is slightly differant from whats on the new server), and google has now updated its cache to that - my conclusion is the cache is still updated regularly from the old server several days after googlebot started hitting the new server. Am i missing something.

Im quite keen to discontinue the old host, but dont want to do it too soon.

[mipapage]

Hey there,

We just moved two weeks ago, and Freshy's been hittin us everyday at the new site. Not much to offer you other than that!

I don't have logs from the old site either, but the new space has been updated regularily and the changes showing in the cached pages on www.google

Hopefully deepbot, well rested as he/she will be, will make it to the new space....

HTH

[Tartan75]

I have had another look at my logs, and i see its freshbot that has been hitting the new server. Is it unusual for freshbot to hit, but not update the cache?

This has happened to several hundred pages. - its as if two freshbots are on the go - one that gets pages for the cache (hitting the old server), and another one(hitting the new server). I cant see why freshbot would do this.

[WebGuerrilla]

GoogleBot is now hitting the new box means that she's got the right IP for your domain. In that case, you don't need to keep the old server up as GogleBot won't come back there.

I would be careful about jumping to that conclusion too soon. Each Google crawler runs its own dns cache. Just because you are seeing some Googlebots visiting the new site doesn't mean that all of them are updated.

I had a situation once where an old server was turned off too early. There were a couple of crawlers that couldn't seem to get the new IP. They continued to hit the old IP for about 8 weeks. That caused about a third of the pages indexed to get dropped.

If you don't have access to the old server logs, you should definitely keep the old server live for at least a month.

[CCowboy]

Why not For your DNS Record show:
New Server as: "ns1.yourdomain.com"
and
Old Server as site "ns2.yourdomain.com"

Make sure your Time-to-Live" Record is only one day and your DNS "Start of Authority" - Serial Number is greater than the old one.

Google should see the new serial number is greater and you should be ok. For today I would use 2003051215.