New Software Requires us to redirect a sub domain to another IP Address.

[ChopperCharlie]

I operate a local print and direct mail company located in Houston called Catdi Printing (www.catdi.com)We do very well with our local rankings and rank 1 or 2 in our main keywords ( direct mail Houston & eddm Houston ) We are looking to upgrade our online quoting and ordering system. The software is very expensive and the only way we can incorporate this new system is create on our end a new subdomain (printing.catdi.com) and redirect it to an ip thats with their server. Their server is located in Californiaa and might even be hosted by Google but im not certain on this point.  Our current host provider is Hostgator and they are based in Houston so im not this provides any benefit.

I guess my main question is will Google look at this negatively?  Would this change our SERPS organically and what about how Google indexes pages on the subdomain?  Im also concerned that the load times will be off and make the user experience awkward.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

[DmitriiK]

Howdy, neighbor.

If their server is indeed hosted with google - dont worry about speed and loading times, that's for sure. All my tests prove that there is no better place to host than Google (in terms of speed). Host provider office location doesn't matter, since their actual servers are located in,  most likely Provo, Utah. Additionally, nowadays the time to servers and back doesn't vary much with distance. Example - we got several servers - one in dallas and one in utah. the difference in response times is 30-60 ms.

Now, there is no connection between SERPS and IPs, unless that IP is blacklisted. In terms of subdomain being on different server - there is no difference either, since as you say, it's for orders and quotes only. Many-many websites have their shopping carts on servers, different from main content servers. Also since you're not gonna have any content on that subdomain, or backlinks to that subdomain (since it's quotes and payments), it won't bring any rankings changes. You can even robot-noindex the subdomain if you're afraid of changes after it's being indexed.

The only legitimate concern is UX, based on longer loading times. So, make sure that software server are fast enough and you'll have no problems. Additionally, the small lag is accepted (even expected), when you're being redirected to shopping cart/payment pages.

Cheers.

[DirkC]

More technical info on how to have a folder with different ip can be found here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2405845/redirect-folder-to-different-server

[DirkC]

Hi

you asked a very similar  question two weeks ago? https://moz.com/community/q/local-printing-company-moving-to-a-new-ip-will-our-rankings-change

Normally a folder would be better than a subdomain - technically it is possible to have a folder which points to a different server/ IP address than the other folders so you could explore this option. Regarding the load time you already got the reply last time - location is one thing - speed of the application itself is something you should take into account.

regardless the option you chose (folder/subdomain) - check that your current url's are properly redirected to the new ones - screaming frog will do miracles here.

Dirk