subject: Will Switching Server Hosts Affect My Rankings In The Search Engines? [print this page] When you're running an internet marketing blog, it is obvious that SEO is going to be something which is important to you. However, some people starting out in the game might have a clearer picture about the things that they can do to improve their rankings, without being as clear on what things might damage them. That is why people are sometimes unsure as to whether taking an action like switching hosts on their web server could damage their SEO.
Switching server hosts won't actually make much of a difference to your search engine rankings. Although there are ways that you can lose some rankings as a result of this kind of change, by taking a few simple preventative steps you can make sure that the changes will be minimal. You can also help to make sure that even if your rankings dip that it will only be very brief, and in no time you should be enjoying the great results in the rankings that you're used to.
When you're switching your server host, the one thing that you want to avoid is any downtime in your site. The search engines are constantly spidering the internet, and if they find a site that is down, it won't immediately affect the rankings. However, they do not want to provide results to their users which are no longer active sites. So, if they index a site for a second time and find it to still be down, then it can start to affect the rankings. The more you can eliminate downtime, the more you can reduce any negative effects on the search rankings. Of course, this is also why it is important to test the site on the new server before executing the move.
Experienced web masters also know a very useful technique for ensuring that no search engine rankings are lost when a site is transferred to a new host. There are some situations where this might not be possible, but whenever you can, it is recommended that you leave the old version of the site up on the original server for some point of time after you have put up the new version of the site up. Most recommendations say that you should leave up the old site for at least a month or two after the new one is set up. If you do this, you shouldn't even notice a change in your search engine rankings as you move through the transition phase.
