Changing Hosts Affect Search Engine Rankings?

[Tnortham]

Hi all

I have top search engine rankings for my chosen keyword. However my current hosts don't have cpanel and I need it. If I change to a new web host will I lose my search engine rankings? May be a stupid question but I'd rather make sure

Cheers

T

[mpruben]

It shouldn't but make sure everything is set up on the new host before you transfer DNS. Any down-time or site errors will certainly affect things.

[Louise Green]

Usually it won't make much of a difference but..

If your new host/IP is seen has a 'bad neighborhood' (spam, porn, warez etc) then Google and other search engines might not look on your site too kindly.

Make sure you know what kind of sites are allowed on the servers before moving.

Another thing to conider is where your new host is, i.e. which country.

If for example you're doing well in USA results, but move to a UK host, there's a chance Google will give your site more importance in the UK results, and less in the USA results.

[Tnortham]

Thanks guys

[lanta99]

At the most you might get a couple hours to a couple days of downtime, but in my experience my rankings didn't fluctuate.

[gm22]

Ranking will only be affected if you move to a host in another country. I saw it first hand.

To be safe, when I move my sites from one host to another, I test everything with a temp domain, request a dedicated IP and only then re-delegate my domain.

GM