Changing DNS -- SEO implications?
-
Hey Moz,
We're migrating an old site on an old server over to a new server/DNS. The plan is to keep the same URL structure and reuse our existing URL's. As long as we make minimal changes to each page's content, we should be able to update our DNS entry and get all the pages recreated and assigned to their correct URLs without any reduction in SEO rankings. Is this correct?
This site gets a lot of organic traffic and ranks highly on some challenging keywords, so it's key that we retain our rankings as much as possible.
I've read that it's wise to lower the DNS time-to-live to one hour, about a day before the move, to help Google crawl the DNS a little quicker.
Are there any other recommendations you guys can offer or past experiences?
-
Can you 301 from the DNS in HTTP or would you do an .htaccess
-
While the Bruce Clay link seems solid, I believe it is also quite dated. Steps 1 and 2 usually happen within minutes, not days. I have moved multiple sites between hosts without performing those steps and have not experienced any issue. I have also used tools to validate the results which use checkpoints from around the world and the transition happens very smoothly, very quickly.
If you have a static site which does not depend on User Generated Content (i.e. forums, etc.) the process is as easy as copying the old site to the new location, verifying the move, then updating the DNS records and 301'ing the old site to the new location. If anyone has a different experience from this year, I would love to hear additional feedback.
-
If all things end up be exactly the same your biggest risk is resetting your domains trust with Google. In theory a new website's owner may not run the website with the same credibility as the former owner... It is a risk to wear if you can justify the speed improvements cost differences etc...
The above being said it is something that happens on the net quite often. If your new structure will effectively be an improvement to users and you map everything correctly you should be o.k.
Here are some steps I have used before taken from the Bruce Clay Website:
Source: http://www.bruceclay.com/seo-tech-tips/techtips.htm
How to move a site to a new host
If you are moving your site to a new IP address or ISP this procedure will help minimize the downtime and confusion during DNS propagation.
| |
- Set up the DNS on your new host to point to your existing (old host) site first. This is an important first step.
- Now change the TLD (top level domain) information at your domain registrar to point to this new site DNS. Your old site should still show by either by IP or domain name. This step results in "propagation" which commonly takes 72 hours to update servers world-wide, so do not proceed with step 3 for about four days.
- Copy your existing site to your new site and validate that all files have transferred and the links work.
- After allowing 4 days for the DNS to be fully propagated, point your new DNS to your new site. Make sure that your old site mailboxes have been emptied before you change any DNS info at this time. Once this DNS change occurs you cannot get to your old mail.
- If everything has been validated you should now also point the old DNS to your new site. This is a safety issue in case there is a lingering propagation error.
- Search Engine rankings or bookmarked pages should transfer to your new site with a 301 redirect.
After everything has been checked you should be able to delete your old site after a sufficient amount of time has passed (not more than 3 months). Note that Google does cache the old DNS address information and until they verify that the site has moved and store the new DNS information they may not visit your new site. The 301 will assist in this area.
If you are moving from an IIS server to Linux (Apache) you should validate your formmail scripts, and any items that may not be cross platform compatible. If you are moving from Linux to IIS then your .htaccess file will not be compatible as well as the ability to CHMOD permissions. Validate all functions with your ISP Administrator (some of the following steps may need to be redone on your new server).
|
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Should we change our URLs for SEO benefit?
Hi, I'm currently covering a maternity marketing role at i-escape and one our main objectives is to increase organic traffic to the website. i-escape has a selection of hand-picked boutique hotels, villas, lodges, guesthouses and apartments for people to discover and book. At the moment each hotel page URL follows this structure: https://www.i-escape.com/hotelname We'd like to change this to include some searchable words in the URL dependent on the type of hotel. For example: https://www.i-escape.com/boutique-hotels/hotelname or https://www.i-escape.com/boutique-apartments/hotelname If we do go ahead, we know we need to make sure all old style URLs canonically redirect to the new style. Is having the keyword in the URL important enough for us to change over 1500 URLs on the website? We have quite a high quality links pointing to these hotel pages URLs. Also, will this help us with navigation/user journeys/crawls as there will be a /boutique-hotels/hotelname rather than just /hotelname? Thanks so much all! Clair
Technical SEO | | iescape0 -
How to change primary language of the website?
Problem: there is a domain.com which primary language is Lithuanian, we want to switch it to English. The English content is on the website fully translated under domain.com/en/english-url. Question: How do i switch English content to domain.com while moving the Lithuanian one to domain.com/lt/lithuanian-url The purpose of course is NOT to loose neither English nor Lithuanian organic traffic Possible solution: the only solution I though of is to 301 English /en urls to domain.com ant to 301 the Lithuanian domain.com urls to /lt. Is that everything I should do or is there some other meta tags, server side or other stuff i should be worried about?
Technical SEO | | SEO_MediaInno0 -
Free Joomla SEO Extension?
Hi all -- all along, I have used Tag Meta as a super simple Joomla extension to manage page titles. The most recent Joomla site I manage is using K2. The Tag Meta extension will install, but something with K2 is overriding the page titles that I put in. Thus, I am simply looking for a free (if at all possible) Joomla extension that will allow me to enter unique page titles for each page of the site without changing the Joomla page title of each page. Or, if anyone has had the same problem, I'm looking for a solution to make Tag Meta and K2 play nice. Any suggestions?
Technical SEO | | Bandicoot0 -
Changing preferred domain
My company has an international website, and because of a technical issue visitors in one of our main countries cannot visits the "www" version of our site. Currently, the www version is our preferred domain - and the non www redirects to that page. To solve this problem, I was thinking of proposing the following and would greatly appreciate any feedback! (Note: If you answered my www vs. non www question, thanks - this is a follow up) 1. Set non www site as the preferred version 2. Redirect from www to non www 3. Contact our current links and ask them to change to without “www” 4. Change canonical URLs to without “www”
Technical SEO | | theLotter0 -
Getting to grips with the technical side of SEO
Hi all, I have been working in online marketing for a while, predominantly working on the affiliate marketing and business development side. Over the last year I have decided to focus my energies on getting to understand SEO and have picked up some actionable tips and strategies to put together an SEO strategy for the business I work for whilst at the same time broadening my skillset in online marketing. I would like to think I now have a good understanding on key areas of the SEO framework such as keyword research, on page optimisation and link building and look to put my learinings into practise as well as continue to play around through my personal blog An area that I see as more and more important so to get a full understanding is the technical side, getting a decent understanding on the learnings of HTML and CSS and putting this into practise. Can anyone recommend a detailed tutorial, powerpoint that provides insights and learnings on how to best understand this side of SEO? Thanks Simon
Technical SEO | | simonsw0 -
ECommerce Platform Switch and SEO Loss
Hi - We're switching eCommerce platforms, and naturally we're worried about losing organic search ranking. From what I've read on the message boards, I understand it's important to try to minimize as many 301 redirects as possible. Here's my problem: Our Product URLs are like this (ex: http://www.stupid.com/fun/TOLMG.html). On the new platform, URLs cannot contain capital letters. 😞 According to the new eCommerce platform's design team: "Google and other search engines do not see that as a change in URL, they are not case sensitive and will not affect search listings" How accurate is this? And how come on our current platform, if I use an all lowercase URL, it get a 401? (ex: http://www.stupid.com/fun/tolmg.html) Will we be fine switching our Product URLs to lowercase on the new platform? One thing also to note: Our Category URLs will remain the same. Are there any other areas of a typical eCommerce store that I should avoid changing URLs if I want to prevent SEO loss? Thanks! -Justin
Technical SEO | | JustinStupid0 -
Proxy servers and SEO
I read somewhere that reverse proxys can cause issue for search engines. Our server is using SQUID. What potential issues there might be?
Technical SEO | | Jani1