Google’s Gary Illyes addressed concerns about the potential negative impact on rankings and SEO when switching web hosting platforms. This is a valid query considering the technical complexities involved in migrating a website to a new host, which can lead to immediate setbacks.
What Does Changing Website Hosting Involve?
Transitioning between web hosts can be intricate, but for a standard WordPress site, migration to a new host is typically simple, especially with the use of plugins. Even manual migration is manageable if you are familiar with managing website databases using tools like phpMyAdmin and are proficient with SFTP software.
Insights From Gary Illyes Regarding Google’s Crawling Priorities
Illyes emphasizes the importance of following the correct procedures, which can be extensive and daunting for those unfamiliar with the process.
The question that was asked is:
“My company is considering switching hosts for our website. Would switching have a negative and lasting effect on our SEO rankings?”
Google’s Gary Illyes responded:
“If you do things by the book, meaning the website keeps being resolvable and the actual downtime is minimal, changing hosts should not have negative effects on your pages’ rankings in Google’s search results.”
Two Key Considerations
Gary Illyes’ response presupposes that the new web host matches the quality of the previous hosting platform. It’s evident that switching to a lower-tier web hosting service could lead to various degrees of negative consequences.
Challenges of Modern Cloud Computing Databases for 2024
Gary highlighted two critical factors to keep in mind
- Website Resolution: This aspect concerns the translation of the domain name into an IP address that corresponds to the hosting location of the website. It usually involves acquiring the Name Servers (NS) details from the new hosting provider, where the website files are stored, and updating this information with the domain name registrar. Furthermore, ensuring that the A Record (Address Record) accurately reflects the IP address of the new hosting space (along with other entries related to email) is essential.
- Minimize Downtime: Surprisingly, even if your website experiences extended downtime, it won’t permanently affect its rankings as long as everything is restored exactly as it was before. A website can bounce back from extended downtime, but it may take a couple of weeks for Google to recrawl and reintegrate all webpages into the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Would you like to read more about “Google On Whether Changing Web Hosting Affects SEO” related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
Use our Internet marketing service to help you rank on the first page of SERP.
