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Does moving Server (IP) affect rankings?
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I work for a pretty large company with an established web domain with thousands of pages. We are working on a new website and they talked about moving the site onto a new server. What is the impact ranking wise of going to a new server? Does Google care so long as it's the same domain, or is there some equity lost?
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Scott!
We've experienced situations where we moved a site to a new server, a new IP address was assigned and the rankings dropped for a month or so, then leveled out and we regained all original rankings back. However, like Ryan stated, we did not make any changes to the url structures, page names, etc. in this case. Also using a site like he referenced helps a lot. You can also use this site to find out what other sites are on the server you are hosted on: http://www.ipfingerprints.com/reverseip.php
We have also migrated another site to a new server, keeping the same IP as the previous server and the rankings did not fluctuate at all.
I would think that the answer lies in "HOW" you perform the migration and be sure to "measure twice, cut once". As the move could be very smooth if done properly, however it could turn into an absolute disaster if rushed and done improperly. If you haven't already, check out this website migration guide. Study it. Know it. Implement it. Hope this helps!
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In most cases a server move with no other changes to page structure, names, etc. would not impact rankings. Perhaps in very rare cases the IP could be associated with a known spam server, but you can check something like that out at sites like: http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check.
If the server move enhances your site's speed and responsiveness then go for it. Cheers!
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