Will changing host effect my search rankings?

**MortimerJazz** · 19-02-08

In a bid to improve search rankings, I'm moving a site over to a UK host.

However, will the move effect the rankings I currently have now? Will the site's PR return to zero, and will I have to start building up my rankings all over again?

Thanks alot,

**Grounded Vertigo** · 19-02-08

I can't give you any concrete evidence but I recently moved host from US to UK hosting and saw no change in search rankings at all and most of my sites are on page one for their keyword so not as though nothing happened because they were low ranking.

Hope that helps in some way..

**gadget** · 19-02-08

The only thing to 'actually' change is the IP Address. If you are targetting UK traffic then moving to a UK host may actually help. You can also set you GEO location in your Google Webmaster account which may help.

One thing to check is if the new host's server is actually located in the UK. For example, 1&1.co.uk ( yes that did say co.uk ) servers are located in Germany.

**MortimerJazz** · 19-02-08

Thanks - that's a relief. I thought the change in IP address might mean that Google saw it as a totally different website.

**lauriebred** · 19-02-08

I swop sites between servers regularly and I've never noticed any difference in SE results. I find that if you target the UK market and have .uk domains it doesn't really matter from the search engine point of view whether the servers are in the UK or abroad but if you're using any other TLD you should get about 20% extra business in my experience because of the number of people who click the 'UK only' button.

**tbp** · 19-02-08

You shouldn't have any problems, as all it is in the end is a change in DNS and a new IP address being assigned. The googlebot wouldn't even notice the change unless they were specifically looking out for it.

If they do notice, they can compare the content from the last crawl to how it is now, and will see their is no difference, so your site hasn't changed.

I can't see any reason why they would inflect any sort of penalty.

Just make sure that the DNS is changed in the correct order, so there is no downtime on your site.

**MrCatz** · 02-03-08

PR won't change as your domain will still be the same, right?

Might be a small change in your SERP in different data centers, but it would return to normal once the datacenters update the SERP.

**takahashii** · 03-03-08

I'm hosted with German servers at Lycos, will that prevent me from getting good rankings?

**gadget** · 03-03-08

It won't prevent you but it won't help.
Make sure your GEO region in your Google webmaster account is set to the UK.
Also, add some UK references within your site.
Add a Google map showing your location if applicable.
You don't say if you have a UK extension or not.
If you do, don't worry too much.