Can changing a host provider impact search rankings?
-
I was wondering if changing my host provider would impact my search rankings on the major search engines?
-
A quick way to check is reverse IP lookup. I routinely use the "You Get Signal" free checker. Just from domain names you can sometimes see right away if there's a lot of garbage. You can then just click through to sites on that server and see what they look like.
That's only possible if you know the IP your site is going to be on though, and doesn't show you all the sites on a shared server, or within a C-block.
Consider the host as well. Some hosts blatantly tout their SEO value beyond typical hosting provider marketing spin for SEO as a minor service.
So for example just do a search for SEO Host. You can pretty much just stay away from every site in that search result.
If you go with a top tier well known hosting provider, you should be fine. But if you do, as soon as the hosting is set up, run the reverse IP lookup. If things look suspicious, immediately contact them and request a change to a different server or C-block in their system.
-
retaining full link equity only happens if you keep all the content. If you dump it and start from scratch, you may retain it for a period of time, however over time Google's system is going to re-evaluate everything and you will likely lose a lot of it.
Given current Google anti-spam intent I would also caution that you could very well send up major red flags if you do a mass replacement of all content.
-
What if you are moving host providers and are deleting all content and rebuilding the site from scratch with new content? Would you retain a lot of the link equity (assuming you used the same URLs as before).
-
Thank you for your answer. How can I determine if there are bad sites on the shared server?
-
If you leave everything else the same, and simply migrate the site to a different hosting provider the only way you can cause a problem (or alternately improve your situation) from an SEO perspective is related to bad neighborhoods.
So if your site currently resides on an IP or C block that's known to Google as having too many suspicious sites, moving it off and onto a "clean" IP or C block can help. And moving it from a clean IP or C block to one that's bad can lead to your site being labeled and eventually you may suffer.
Second tier considerations are overall site performance and speed. This isn't specific to changing hosts, but even server to server within a host. If you get more reliability of up-time and site speed related to server calls, that can help as well.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect and ranking issue
Hi there - was wondering whether someone might be able to help. For a period of a day and a half, all the traffic to our website's blog articles were mistakenly being redirected to our homepage. A number of these articles ranked in the top 5 in Google worldwide for their targeted keywords, so this was a considerable amount of organic traffic that was instantly being redirected. It was a strange site glitch and our web team rectified the error, but now all these articles have disappeared from Google rankings (not visible anywhere in the first five pages). I'm presuming this must be linked to this redirect issue - we've been advised to wait and see whether Google restores these rankings, but I'm still concerned as to whether this represents a more serious problem? We have re-indexed the pages we are most concerned about, but am not sure whether there is anything else obvious we should think to do. If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them!
Technical SEO | | rwat0 -
Changes to title and description not appearing in Google search...
www.heatwavemedia.com Search terms: san francisco video production, san francisco video production services In Google search site appears as "Heartwave Media: San Francisco Video Production Services" but I'm sure I've never used a colon in all my iterations of the title... Instead it reads "San Francisco Video Production Services | Heartwave Media" with the description "A San Francisco video production company specializing in creative corporate and commercial video services." But that's not coming up either... I'm on Wordpress and am using All in One SEO if that helps... Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | keeot0 -
Rankings Bouncing Weekly
I have a client who ranks well for a number of keywords. This week we have about 20 keywords in the top ten on Google that we're tracking. But every week it seems, the keywords bounce around quite a bit. This week, for example, we had at least 15 keywords out of the ~90 we're tracking jump between 30 to 40 spots. The most any keywords increased was 43, a few 42s and 41s, in one week. Next week, they'll go down a few, then bounce up again just like this. This has been happening for a while. I'm trying to figure out what the issue is.
Technical SEO | | Millermore0 -
How to change noindex to index?
Hey, I've recently upgraded to a pro SEOmoz account and have realised i have 14574 issues to do with 'blocked by meta-robot' and that 'This page is being kept out of the search engine indexes by the meta tag , which may have a value of "noindex", keeping this page out of the index.' How can i change this so my pages get indexed? I read somewhere that i need to change my privacy settings but that thread was 3 years old and now the WP Dashboard has updated.. Please let me know Many thanks, Jamie P.s Im using WordPress 3.5 And i have the XML sitemap plugin And i have no idea where to look for this robots.txt file..
Technical SEO | | markgreggs0 -
Does SEO Reflect when We change the Host??
I would like to know, if i switch to host not Domain, Just Host which just change the internal IP, Will that Affect to My SEO? If YES then What is the procedure to safe our SEO before Move? Or what is Procedure after we Moved. Hope many people found this issues, and got the solution, I through Google Webmaster do through filter, but i am not sure about it. Thanks
Technical SEO | | Webranx0 -
Hosted in the Cloud, my URL is a .com how can I rank in UK SERPS?
Hi Mozzers, I have found an e-commerce SAS solution (USA based) that hosts its platform in the Cloud. Unfortunately my domain is a ,com but I wish to rank & sell within the UK. I realise I can select the UK parameters within GWT, but I am led to believe that this isnt hugely effective. Other than choosing another eCommerce platform, could anyone please assist me in identifying a solution? Thank you in advance.
Technical SEO | | eppleston0 -
Anyone seeing a major impact in Gogole rankings today?
I am seeing major movement in my keyword positions leading me to believe that Google made a major algorithm update this morning
Technical SEO | | irvingw0 -
How will a domain change affect my rankings?
My company will undergo a domain change in the next few months. Other than implementing 301 redirects, what else can I do to help the search engines realize the site has moved? What kind of impact on rankings can I expect to see? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | raylau0