Host Changing My Sites IP

Duplicate content Worries?

[phantombookman]

Hi
my host informed me that they are going to change one of my sites IP's, naturally this is not the most comforting thing at the best of times (it is currently #1 on Google).

One thing in the email did particularly concern me

We do not anticipate any issues with the move process, but just in case your old IP address will still be available during and 5 days after the move process to insure that users who are sent to the old IP address because of DNS Propagation issues will still be able to access your website

Duplicate content alarm bells started ringing! 5 days?
Has anyone had experience of this and do I need to worry?
Thanks in advance

[encyclo]

It's not duplicate content as the content will be available under exactly the same URL and domain name. Many large sites (including Google) use load balancing which means that the same page is available from many different IP addresses.

It sounds as if the hosting company are doing it right (although I would have preferred a bit longer than 5 days if it were me). If you have a database-driven site with user input (like a forum, etc.) that the content will be being pulled from the same database (and not a copy) otherwise your site will develop into two different versions as your visitors are split between the two IP addresses.

[phantombookman]

Hi encyclo
thanks for taking the time to reply, really appreciated. Having read many of your posts before I feel much reassured, something my host failed to achieve.
Not database driven, so hopefully all will go well

Once again my thanks and regards from England

[encyclo]

Are they moving your site to a new server too? If so, try to connect to your control panel and stats with your old IP address (rather than your domain name). You can then watch the stats to see how many visitors are hitting the old IP address once the switch has been made. It should tail off pretty quickly, but Googlebot tends to cache DNS data longer than most. You only really want the old IP address switched off once the traffic has dropped to zero. You should also want to see Googlebot hitting the site at the new IP address too.

Can you contact your hosting company and see if they will leave it up on the old IP address a bit longer? A couple of weeks would normally do it. Otherwise if Googlebot is hitting your old server and getting 404 not found errors it won't help your cause. Don't worry too much, though - five days should be enough, but it's best to be safe.

[phantombookman]

Hi Encyclo
I am not sure exactly what they are doing, it's all rather vague. The 5 day wait is, as you say, a concern. Google work pretty quickly but I find Yahoo incredibly slow with any form of change.
My host says they have done all this many times with no reported problems etc.

It seems I am in their hands and just have to hope for the best