Nameservers/ hosting change

[rjwmotor]

I have a site that is about 6 years old. It ranks well and is my main source of income. I have recently been having some issues with my current hosting company(one of the ones badmouthed by G recently). When I set up the site I knew nothing and registered the domain name with them as well. I want to move the site but am concerned about what this will mean in regards to ranking and the such. Since I will be registering the domain name with a different company and hosting it at yet another company; what kind of problems can I expect?

I've read that changing hosting isn't that big of an issue(if done properly) but I'm concerend that changing the registrar and IP at the same time may cause unwanted problems. Advice?

[new_seo]

Server change is not going to effect your ranking any how.Until and unless you are changing your domain name,I don't think that need to worry about this.

[rjwmotor]

The server change(hosting) really isn't the part I'm worried about anymore. It's changing the registrar,DNS and hosting at the same time that concerns me. No one has had a problem doing this?

[new_seo]

See,I never done this before.But I feel it will not be a problem.

[jdMorgan]

As long as you leave your site up on the old host for a week or so after the change-over, and don't move onto a server shared with a number of disreputable sites, you'll be fine.

The search engines may cache the IP address of your site for a few days (which is why you should leave it up on the old host for awhile), but they don't care who provides the nameservers or the hosting -- all they "go by" is your domain name.

As noted above, it is when changing your domain name that you may expect to cause months of pain, not when changing hosts or DNS providers. Set up the site on the new hosting, set and then switch the DNS, look for SE spider visits in the log files on the new host, watch for your most recent updates (from the new server) to appear in the SE caches, and then you can take the site off the old server.

By looking for SE spider visits (and the lack thereof) in the log files on both the old and new server, you can assure yourself that it's safe to take the old site down -- But don't be in a hurry, and wait a few days after that anyway, even if it means paying for an extra month's hosting on the old host -- You said, "It ranks well and is my main source of income."

Jim

[rjwmotor]

Thanks for the remarks. I was hoping I'd hear that it would(should?) be an easy transition. Let's hope all goes well!