I havent done it before and dont plan on doing it right now, but Im curious: I used to think switching hosting providers did not cause any problems "if done right". However the other day I read something a little bit different.

Now Im wondering whats the real deal on this. In case somebody switches hosting providers will his site usually get very similar rankings to those it had before (those it would be expected to have if hosting providers hadn't changed)? Or can it cause trouble and it might be a better idea not to switch hosting providers unless that move really pays off?

If you leave the site live at the old IP and new IP to allow the new DNS to propagate, rankings should remain very near the same.

thx beu.

rankings should remain very near the same...Ive read something similar as this before, which made me wonder: Does this mean there usually is a slight (temporary) decrease in rankings or something? or did u say this simply b/c possibly the rankings could have changed slightly or whatever w/o that happening regularly?

thx beu.

rankings should remain very near the same...Ive read something similar as this before, which made me wonder: Does this mean there usually is a slight (temporary) decrease in rankings or something? or did u say this simply b/c possibly the rankings could have changed slightly or whatever w/o that happening regularly?

I use caution here because a number of other factors can come into play that are not directly related to the switch. Any change can cause problems!(see: trying to manage expectations just in case something goes wrong)

In most cases, decline in ranking after a switch is due to bad configuration and/or killing the old IP to early and thus DNS not having time to propogate. (hosting issues)

Initally your rankings should increase across the board because the server time stamp will be up to date. After a short period of time, rankings should level out to their privious state. Reason being, it may appear to some engines that every page has been modified recently especially if the server supports "if-modified-since". (freshness factor manipulation short term)

My concern (stupid paranoia thus far, knock on wood) is always about other sites on the new server and/or new IP and what effects they could have.

In the end, every switch I've done has worked out fine. That said, moving sites still makes me nervous!:)