Has Google given any clear instructions

on how to change webhost without affecting SE?

[cyberair]

I have very good rankings, but have to change servers because my server is getting old. I am terrified to let go of the old server, because DNS is going to change and I don't want to lose my rankings in Google.

Does Google explain what happens? Because everything I read from outside sources is speculative and inconclusive.

We could really use some light from Google on the best way to handle this.

Some possible solutions I've read are:

1. Keep both servers running for an indefinite time until Google picks up new one completely.
2. Place 301 re directs in old server
3. Resubmit site when it is in new server
4. Place link of new page in old pages at the old server

Can Google shed some light on what is Fact and Fiction?

[mars9820]

Google is much faster with picking these things up lately I guess.

A friend of mine switched host a couple weeks ago with a couple domains and 4 days later googlebot was coming over for breakfast and lunch :).

It at the same time stopped visiting our old servers which makes pretty much sense.

We didn't put any 301/302 redirects on the old page to lead googlebot to the new server. As well we didn't change any of the old pages.

Regarding webvisitors we had exactly the same. Some kept visiting the old server for a couple more days before everything was switched over to the new server.

I guess this is just a normal transition model since some DNS servers at ISP's only get refreshed once a week. Therefore normal browsers will also keep accessing the old server for a week or so.

Hope this helps.

Oh I remember 1 thing that we changed before we switched servers. We put the DNS refresh dates and TTL to 1 hour instead of the original values that are a couple days. That really made it a fast move for 99 percent of the users.

Mind me telling you that it was a website without registered users. Else you of course have to keep track of database sync.

[Darkness]

I think the best plan is to leave an copy running on the old server until all bots and visitors have stopped visiting.

You can set the old server to access the new database on the new server, that takes care of any sync problems. Alternatively you could set the old web server to act as a proxy to the new one (personally I have not tried this before). As mars mentioned setting the TTL values to 1 hour will speed up the transfer time.

I did this about 6 months ago and can't remember any negative effects.

[sf22]

I don't understand the question. Do you change the site's hostname or just its ip?

[seanpecor]

sf22,

This is an issue when you change your domain's IP address through your DNS provider, or when you change both your IP address and your DNS provider through your domain registrar. This is because these address changes can take days to circulate throughout all the DNS servers of the world, and a search engine may cache this information (for as long as it wants) to reduce bandwidth.

So, if on Monday your IP changes from 4.3.2.1 to 1.2.3.4, Google (or any another spider) may continue to go to 4.3.2.1 for a few days (or longer). If you simply shut the old location down, then a spider may attempt to bring up your domain on the old IP number, and the result would be unknown. Maybe your old host reponds with 404 errors, effectively dropping those pages from the index, or it responds with a generic landing page that links to all kinds of paid sponsors, resulting in some reduced performance from that search engine for up to several weeks or months. Therefore, (imho) it is best to keep the site running at its old location for a week or two in order to minimize this issue.

I upgraded my dedicated server at Datapipe.com late last year, and the good folks there let me run the old server for a couple weeks until activity on the old IP number had dwindled to zero. I remember no ill effects with regard to my Google SERP performance.

Sean.

[cyberair]

My account rep allows me 30 days to run both servers without paying for both, but I wanted to make sure that 30 would be enough, or if I was going to have to pay both servers for more months.

[bhartzer]

As long as the site doesn't go down and you can always get to it there won't be a problem. 30 days is fine, there's really no need to go beyond that.

[seanpecor]

I think 30 days is plenty of time - you're golden. Enjoy the new hardware! It's cool to have new toys, even if you can only visit them via ssh ;)

Sean.

[div01]

I just had to do an emergency webhost switch over the weekend...so far, looks ok. 30 days should be plenty good.

[BigDave]

While I do believe that Google has gotten better about dealing with this sort of thing, I would still give the same advice that I used to give, just to be safe.

As others suggested, keep a copy of your site running on your old IP address. Watch both server logs. When you are no longer seeing any googlebot traffic on your old site, go ahead and shut it down.

Notice that I did not say to shut the old site down as soon as you see googlebot at your new address. The new address may not have propogated to all the googlebot machines at the same time.

I changed IPs about 6 months ago, and aparently the ISP did things right (don't ask me what "right" is), because googlebot was hitting the new IP within hours, and was off the old one by the next day.

A friend's site took several days for googlebot to switch over, so it seems that it is still variable. But I have not noticed anyone complaining about googleobt taking 3 months to switch for at least a year.

Good luck.