Can moving servers affect SEO?

[ajacko]

I moved a site from a UK server (where it has been for ten years) to a USA server. Overnight page views dropped massively. I monitored over 3 weeks and the page views remained at around 2% of the old rates. The new ISP can't account for the fall. The new server is faster than the previous one & both running Linux. The only difference as far as I can see is its physical location. Has anyone had a similar experience? Is it possible that Google now looks at the geographic location of servers and ranks the sites based upon the server's location?

[SimpleSEOTips]

That's quite a shocking drop. However, you mentioned page views as the key stat you have seen the drop off in. Have visitors have dropped off at the same level?
Also, is it only organic google traffic which has dropped?

Sorry about asking so many questions but I would think that if only page views have dropped more substrantially than visitors then you might have more issues with the customer experience that ranking. For example, your UK visitors are seeing such a lag as they navigate through your site that they are leaving earlier and lowering your page view stats.

Also, within Google webmaster tools you can tell Google which countries you are targetting and if you have suggested to it that it is the UK you wish to target then you leave Google to make its own mind up... not the safest option and as your server is in the US then Google might be using this as a sign that the UK traffic is not what you want. Just an assumption though.

There could also be quite a number of other factors in play here:
1. Have you broken links or more 404 pages (which were popular ones in the past) due to files being moved incorrectly?
2. Were you affected by the Google panda update which has been hammering certain types of websites?
3. Has your robot.txt files or any permissions changed when you moved servers which might be blocking the Googlebot from indexing your site
4. Have all of your new pages on the server been indexed and served from it?

There are so many different things which could be impacting individually and cumulatively and if I were in your position I would be heading straight over to my Google Webmaster Tools account with a strong coffee to investigate any errors thoroughly.

[FuriousStyles]

I am certainly no expert in the technical aspects involved in changing servers, but I had in the past considered the move myself for a number reasons but was stopped in my tracks when i heard a number of stories just like yours.

It does appear that changing servers can have a negative effect on your SERPS rankings.

Saying that however there could be another reason for this - try using Webmasters Tools and ensure that Googlebot can still access your website. Also, if you are using wordpress ensure that you check your privacy settings.

Anything over and above that - I'm out of my league.

DO check the geo-targeting as suggested by SimpleSEOTips though.

Good Luck!

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by ajacko

Is it possible that Google now looks at the geographic location of servers and ranks the sites based upon the server's location?

Geographic location = no

Bad neighborhoods = yes

If your site is being hosted on a known spammer network, chances are its going to have a negative impact on your traffic.

Use this page at google to see if your hosted around a bad neighborhood.

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/d...yourdomain.com

Replace "yourdomain.com" with your sites url.

What your looking for is the other hosted networks, there is an image on this page

Is Your Website in a Bad IP Neighborhood? | eMarketing Newsletter

Have you read that google recently delisted all co.cc domains? Keep that in mind when it comes to bad neighborhoods.

[charto911]

If you move servers in a different overall geo graphical location than yes you will see different serps so if ur in the uk want more uk traffic than dont move to the usa and expect to get the same picks of the litter. I would move it back to the United Kingdom and watch what happens!

[glennforum]

I think if your previous seo effort is geotargeted to the UK then it does have an effect but if it is targeting worldwide scope in general then that should not be the problem. I agree that it may also be due to bad neighborhoods so you also have to determine that.

[BarryWheeler]

It may also be possible that DNS has not yet been updated worldwide. I know this may sound "silly", but I've seen DNS entries take a month or so to reflect throughout the world.

As a result, you could possibly be getting a lot of "not found" type things happening.

It could also be because of bad neighbors, but don't think that's the case.

I've been running a web hosting company for years, and haven't seen anything like this impact rankings this significantly.

[realmaverick]

Are you 100% certain you've not broken analytics in the process? somehow?

Have earnings also tanked?

It seems like a pretty strange and rather sudden drop.

Have you checked your ranks?

Because you'd not lose ranks overnight, and ranks bring in traffic.

Moving servers can effect traffic, geo location, effect on page loading times etc. But this effect you're talking about, isn't normal.

Try checking your site from different locations around the world. Ensure it's resolving. If it's not, get on to your host!

[Inari]

extremely weird. I've never had that happen yet and I've moved hundreds of sites back and forth between different servers. you should check that your new host isn't in some bad neighborhood, as suggested above.