How to handle web server downtime?
-
We have a client who is taking their web server down Saturday morning from 1am - 7am for planned maintenance. Initially, we thought to have all requests return a 503 (service unavailable) response but the web server itself will be down so we are not able to have it return any response codes. Updating the DNS on the registrar will have too much lag time while it propogates out so we aren't sure exactly how to handle this. I had thought possibly of using a second DNS, or a service like DynDNS but that seems like a large amount of effort to set up just for some planned downtime. I have to imagine that Google understands planned website/server downtime every once in a great while.
This client has pretty good rankings for some incredibly competitive terms so we want to do all that we can to make sure those rankings are preserved. What are some other potential solutions? We could totally just be overthinking this but we'd rather be safe than sorry...
Thanks in advance!
-
We had an excellent post about that from a YouMoz author in January. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-handle-downtime-during-site-maintenance should tell you everything you need to know!
-
Yes, I would not worry about it. Google understands these issues specially on large scale websites. I have worked in scenarios where there's a weekly rebuild or deployment which essentially means the site is down for 2-6 hrs. Nothing happens. In a rare occasion, if your page with the maintenance message gets cached, you can always request a re-crawl of upto 50 pages from your Google Webmaster Console. I have never had to do that.
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
-
Duplicate content across similar computer "models" and how to properly handle it.
I run a website that revolves around a niche rugged computer market. There are several "main" models for each computer that also has several (300-400) "sub" models that only vary by specifications for each model. My problem is I can't really consolidate each model to one product page to avoid duplicate content. To have something like a drop down list would be massive and confusing to the customer when they could just search the model they needed. Also I would say 80-90% of the market searches for a specific model when they go to purchase or in Google. A lot of our customers are city government, fire departments, police departments etc. they get a list of approved models and purchase off that they don't really search by specs or "configure" a model so each model number having a chance to rank is important. Currently we have all models in each sub category rel=canonical back to the main category page for that model. Is there a better way to go about this? Example page you can see how there are several models all product descriptions are the same they only vary by model writing a unique description for each one is an unrealistic possibility for us. Any suggestions on this would be appreciated I keep going back on forth on what the correct solution would be.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | The_Rugged_Store0 -
Enormous 7 page drop after switching servers and adding load balancers. Thoughts?
Hello Everyone, I'm a longtime Moz user but I had to switch accounts after switching jobs. I was hoping someone might be able to give me some insight on whats going on if possible. Our startup had first page position for our most valuable keyword: "Crowdfunding real estate" for about 6 or 7 months. Once we launched and switched to a production server behind load balancers, we dropped almost overnight to 7th page and we've been there for about a month. We don't have many links yet and some of the ones we DO have are kind of spammy (no idea where they came from and in process of trying to get them removed) but we thought it'd be strange to see that massive drop. We are even pages below a competitor who has NO links and basically zero content on the page. We don't have any notifications in WMT about a manual penalty or anything. I'd really, really appreciate any advice and If anyone has any ideas, the page is at: PatchofLand.com Thanks, Jason
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PatchofLand0 -
Handling 301 Redirects when Moving from IIS to Apache Linux
I am moving a blog from domain A on IIS to domain B on Linux. Same posts and pages - different domain. I'm looking for a guide, article or steps on what needs to be done on the IIS side to make sure we do this correctly. Thanks !
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GlennFerrell0 -
Best-of-the-web content: Graphical Tips
This question is for EGOL (if he's willing) and anyone else who wants to partake. EGOL is the best content writer I've ever run into, really. I'm wondering what his top 3 to 5 tips are on how to use graphical layout (font, images, graphics, organization, menu, etc) to make content irresistable. A couple of assumptions: The content is written really well from a perspective of authority. Also, we're not including video on this one. Again, anyone is welcome to answer this. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW1 -
Changing Server IP Addresses. Should I be concerned?
Hello Mozers Our site has been on a dedicated server for about four years now. (no other sites, just ours on the server) I have made the decision to move it to a much better and faster server than the current server we are on for more than one reason. My big fear is Google will lose trust for my site because of the IP change. Ip's stay with the server at 1and1 they do not follow the website. So, I have done my due diligence and copied over all code and databases and have tested it completely to insure there are no issues when I change the DNS to point to the new server. Made sure 1and1 is giving me an IP that has never been used, I am Keeping the old server on until cached DNS records expire for it. Is there anything else I need to do to make sure I do not lose current rankings in Google? I have heard nightmare stories about making these kinds of changes but at this point for our site there is no turning back this is a change that must take place. Any pointers and advice would be much appreciated! Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Robbie82991 -
Changing Hosting Companies - Site Downtime - Google Indexing Concern
We are getting ready to switch to a new hosting company. When we make the switchover, our sites will be offline for a couple of hours and in some cases perhaps as long as 12 hours while DNS is configured -- should we be worried about Google trying to index pages and finding them unavailable? Any fear of Google de-indexing pages. Our guess was that Google would not de-index anything after just a short period of not being able to find pages -- it would have to be over an extended period of time before GOOGLE or BING would de-index pages -- CORRECT? Just want to gut check this before pulling the trigger on switch over to new hosting company. We appreciate input on this and/or any other thoughts regarding the switch over to new hosting company that we may not have thought of. Thanks, Matt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MWM37720 -
Changing server today, any SEO implications or advice you may have?
Morning, We're moving our site to a new server today and having never done so before in an SEO capacity, are there any SEO implications, pitfalls, things to watch out for? Advice and comments appreciated. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Martin_S0 -
How do I set up a 301 redirect if the default settings for our web servers create multiple URLs for the same page?
How do I set up a 301 redirect if the default settings for our web servers create multiple URLs for the same page but only views it as one page?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ibex0