Moving an established site to a different host - any issues?

[Frank Donovan]

Urrgh! I've just spent another hour with tech support for a site with a host using the Plesk interface and I've finally had enough!

I'd like to transfer this site to another hosting company that uses cPanel, but my only concern is that the site, which has been going since 2006, is ranking in the top three for several of its keywords and generating healthy traffic.

Has anyone had any experience with such a move? And, if so, is there anything I should do to minimize the disruption and potential loss of ranking/traffic?

Many thanks in advance.


Frank

[Adam Carn]

It should be fine, but I recommend not doing the transfer yourself, ask your new hosting company to transfer the site to their server, they should be happy to do it, after all they're getting a new customer. It won't take them long. The transition shouldn't be very noticable and you won't lose traffic or search engine rankings.

Thanks,
Adam

[Frank Donovan]

Originally Posted by Adam Carn

It should be fine, but I recommend not doing the transfer yourself, ask your new hosting company to transfer the site to their server, they should be happy to do it, after all they're getting a new customer. It won't take them long. The transition shouldn't be very noticable and you won't lose traffic or search engine rankings.

Thanks, Adam. It's just been a case of "let sleeping dogs lie" with the site, but maybe I've been unduly concerned about moving it.

Frank

[StreetCopMillionaire]

Hey Frank,

I'm in the "transfer process" as well. Switching from HostDepartment to HostGator. HostGator is transferring everything for me, although having a ton of issues with doing so (it's due to HostDepartment's end...so not really their fault..just wish I'd made the switch a couple of months ago before HD went to total hell!).

Anyway, good luck with it. Hope yours goes MUCH smoother than mine is!

Jason

[Adam Carn]

Originally Posted by Frank Donovan

Thanks, Adam. It's just been a case of "let sleeping dogs lie" with the site, but maybe I've been unduly concerned about moving it.

Frank

No problem Frank.

Adam

[Frank Donovan]

Originally Posted by StreetCopMillionaire

I'm in the "transfer process" as well. Switching from HostDepartment to HostGator. HostGator is transferring everything for me, although having a ton of issues with doing so (it's due to HostDepartment's end...so not really their fault..just wish I'd made the switch a couple of months ago before HD went to total hell!).

Hi Jason

I've got several sites with Hostgator - always found them to be helpful. Good luck with your move.

Frank

[Havenhood]

I'd like to transfer this site to another hosting company that uses cPanel, but my only concern is that the site, which has been going since 2006, is ranking in the top three for several of its keywords and generating healthy traffic.

Has anyone had any experience with such a move? And, if so, is there anything I should do to minimize the disruption and potential loss of ranking/traffic?

Many times.

Set-up your site on the new server just as it is on your current server. Test it with your temporary IP before you change your name servers. You shouldn't experience any loss of traffic or position. Once you've changed your name server and it's pointing to your new site, test again (make sure everything's working). All done!

P.S. You may need to change config. values or add new passwords to any password protected areas, change permissions on directories and even create new DBs, depending on the complexity of your site.