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
-
What are the things that need update? before Appying SEO
Hello Everyone, I need Start work on for this site www.tajsigma.com, I want to know Did i need Add any things for Good ranking. what are the things that need update in This site For SEO??
Technical SEO | | falguniinnovative
i know Basic Things robots, title, discription , But i want know Any Additional Things that I need to apply?? can anyone help, please Thanx in advance0 -
Personalization software and SEO
Hi guys, I'm just testing a personalization software in our website, basically changing the "location" text depending on the user's IP. I can see in my software that when the Google bot comes to our site the personalization software triggers an action changing the location based text to "California". Can this make Google understand that our website targets only users in California and thereof hurt our rankings in other locations nationwide? I'll appreciate your opinions.
Technical SEO | | anagentile1 -
Domain name SEO
I would like to hear your opinion about which between robotics.kawasaki.com and www.kawasakirobotics.com is more effective for SEO of keyword robotics and kawasaki. We have been using kawasaki.com domain name for more than 15 years.
Technical SEO | | Iwashima0 -
SEO implications of network outage
Hi, Our bandwidth provider has informed us of a forthcoming network outage this weekend, the net result being that around 20 websites will be unreachable for a total of about 1 hour inside a predetermined 3 hour window.In an ideal world we would like to provide a holding page or be able to respond with a "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable" HTTP code, however the complete absence of connectivity means we'll be unable to do this.Does anyone have any ideas about the SEO implications of this kind of downtime? It would be useful to know if there are any actions we can take prior to the outage that could mitigate the impact. We've considered repointing the DNS to other servers, but it's only something we'll do if the negative impact of not doing it is too great.Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | Dave3920 -
Page URL Change
We're planning on rolling out a redesign of an existing page, and at the same time, we're looking to possibly changing the URL of the page. Currently, the URL is www.blah.com/phraseword1-phraseword2-phraseword3-phraseword4 and we're ranking top 3 in Google SERP for that 4-word phrase. The keyword phrase is something we have in our Page Title, Site Copy and the URL. Now, we are planning on simplifying the URL to below.. www.blah.com/phraseword1-phraseword2 The plan is to 301 redirect the original URL to this new URL and actually work the exact phrase into the copy a few more times. My understanding is that URL doesn't get as much weight as it does in the past, but it's still important. So my question is... How important is the URL in this case where we will continue to have it in our page title and also we'll be working more copy on to the page with the appropriate keyword? Will 301 redirect from the old URL address the issue of passing SEO value for that keyword phrase? Thanks,
Technical SEO | | JoeLin
Joe0 -
Cloud Hostings & SEO Effects
Is there any negative to cloud hosting? I believe they share the same IP addresses but is it true you can still get banned if someone else on a shared IP or server does some spam?
Technical SEO | | iAnalyst.com0 -
SEO Tomfoolery
Oh Hai, I recently changed the permalink structure on my Wordpress based site, southwestbreaks.co.uk from the standard ?p=123 to a more SEO chummy /%postname%/. As a result, my site has completely dropped off the board for all my previously well ranked search phrases. Having since gotten into SEOmoz a bit more, I can see there are WP plugins available that apparently would've done this a lot more smoothly. I'd be most grateful if someone could explain if this drop off is just temporary, or have I somehow entered Google's shun book? The site has been like this for about 48 hours. Thanks, Tim
Technical SEO | | Southwesttim0