Is SEO affected when hosting service is changed?

[ambisuite]

I put my plan to change web hosts on abeyance when an SEO friend of mine told me that it would negatively impact the sites SEO. I am not changing the url or anathing, just the host.

[RyanKent]

All things being equal, your SEO would not be be affected at all purely because of a host change. Let me clarify the "all things being equal" part:

• will your new server offer the same performance as the old server? As Cody suggests, if the new server offers better overall performance that would be good, and if it is worse that would be bad.

• will there be any downtime during the change? Ideally your should be able to make the move with zero downtime. Any downtime would obviously not be good.

• is your new server physically located in a significantly different location? If your current server is located in England, it can offer better local results for visitors located in England. If you then move your server to the US, your local SERP can be affected.

• there are many server settings which can impact SEO and performance. These can easily be taken for granted. If you use any form of shared hosting, you should try to thoroughly understand your current settings and ensure you are aware of your new host's settings. Webmasters are often surprised to learn about changes after they have moved.

[CodyWheeler]

On a short term basis, I suppose it's possible if your site is down while your domain propogates to the new host, but on a long term basis this shouldn't be an issue, especially if your site performance is improved due to the change.

If your new host is known to have poor performance or is at risk of frequent outages it could negatively affect your SEO. Page load times do factor into your rankings.

Did your friend give you any kind of specific reasoning why he/she believes that changing your webhost will negatively affect your SEO?

The question to ask even if a slight drop in rankings may occur is - Why are you thinking about changing hosts in the first place, and will the small chance of a potential drop in rankings trump your reasoning for switching hosts?

I don't think you have anything to worry about, but if you do, think of the long term positive effects, not the short term (potential) negative effects.