Recently, in an email, I was asked if changing hosting companies would affect a site’s ranking. I knew this to be a somewhat common question and felt it would be worth posting the answer to the web site. I felt this way mostly because I knew I would be asked again by someone else at some point so I might as well type it up nicely so I only have to do it once.
In the interest of being concise, I’ll get right to it.
Search Engine Listings;
- indexed pages are cached and remain until they are eventually flushed out of the system which can take months to years. Just think of all the times you have clicked a link only to find a ‘this page is no longer available’ message
- switching hosts will not affect a site’s ability to be found or indexed. All that would happen is the bot(s) would recognize the site changes and slowly begin to digest and reflect those changes over the next few weeks.
Upon switching hosts and replacing or renaming pages, proper ‘redirects’ will be set by the webmaster for:
- previous existing page(s) to the new page(s) (where applicable or feasible)
- no longer available pages should be redirected to a custom 404 pg (”Were Sorry the page you were looking for….”). The equivalent of redirecting to a page on your new site created for just that purpose.
- additional technical steps can be taken (.htaccess file commands)
Key Words:
Your new site is search engine friendly and key-word ready, with;
- standard meta tags
- ‘alt’ and ‘title’ tags on images
- key-worded source files (jpgs, html) where appropriate or feasible
- key-worded source head tags
- CSS Layout = lower code per page, less junk for engines to crawl through when crawling your pages
- primary page content and elements are text (organic)
Although it would be impossible to match an existing site’s key word structure exactly, one could copy some of the existing site’s title and description meta tags from the old site, or – better yet, they could be improved upon.
By having much of the site’s elements as text (referred to as organic content) search engines can crawl and digest almost every element of each page. The overall amount of organic content will reveal to the SE what your site is about and play a role in your site’s ranking.
Something worth noting is that many things in combination affect a site’s ranking, not any one particular element.
Some of the elements affecting a sites ranking include;
- properly utilized source code
- site structure
- organic content: overall theme, amount
- age of site
- length of domain registration
- key-worded files and/or elements
- quality links to your site from sites with related or relevant content
- time between modifications or updates (is a site active and current, or old and stagnant?)
My current reading leads me to loosely conclude the level of importance in contributing to a site’s overall ranking as the following;
- Site Development: foundation and code, ability to be crawled and indexed
- Organic Content: relevance to topic(s)
- Amount of Content: more is better
- Quality Link Backs: no link farms or link exchange programs allowed – quality, relevant sites matter most
- SEO: key-worded images, head tags, files names, page copy, etc
- Site Activity: does the site ever get updated? how often?
It may seem odd, considering it’s place in the list above, but one of the most important elements in that list is the quality link-backs to your site. I have it listed as #4 in the list above because links won’t do much good for your ranking without the preceding steps.
Some ways you can establish link-backs are;
- participating in social networking sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, etc.
- post to blogs or in forums which allow links in your signature
- write articles for web sites which provide credit and link-backs
- if you are a member of a group or association, ask them to provide link-backs
- actively engage in submissions to directories or smaller, targeted search engines
My overall opinion is:
- there could be a possible change in some rankings depending on the key word combinations used, but a properly built and optimized site will rebound quickly and by all accounts, should do better as it is redigested by the bots (search engine web crawlers).
- by all calculations the new site should do as well or better then the old site
Final notes:
- search engines companies are changing and tweaking the algorithms they use to rank pages every day
- search engine companies don’t reveal all the information regarding how they calculate rankings
- many debates continue regarding the success of some techniques or practices
When developing web sites at Whiplash Design and Print Services, it is our policy to utilize and implement developmental techniques which have been generally accepted and/or proven by the web development and search engine optimization communities.
So…
Will changing hosts affect a site’s ranking? It shouldn’t
Will changing hosts and redesigning or rebuilding a site affect my site’s ranking? Yes.. more than likely for the better in the long term.