SEO Resources - Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Maintain my Rankings when Moving to a New Host or IP?
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If you've worked hard to get your site to rank where it does on Google, and you're worried moving to a new hosting company or changing the site's IP address might cause you to lose you rankings, here are the steps you should make to ensure that this doesn't happen.
First of all, relax: your URLs are what count in the long run, so as long as your pages remain where they are, your domain doesn't change and you keep your document names and file paths you should be fine.
Next, follow these steps when making the change:
- First duplicate all site content at the new host. This is as simple as FTP'ing the files to the server - everything necessary for your site to function properly.
- Point the DNS (domain name servers) to the new hosting site (ask your new host for instructions on how to do this if you aren't sure - it isn't too tough).
- Keep your existing site up and running as long as possible (at least a week) after the site has been moved and the DNS has been switched. This will ensure that any cached pages in the Google or other Search Engine index will still be there, and once the Search Engine crawlers index the new pages the old site doesn't need to be there anymore.




