Does moving hosts affect PR

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.
If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

Thank you for shedding any light on this.
plh
Paul


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On Thu, 12 May 2005 16:09:54 -0500, Paul Burke
<webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote:

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.
If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

Off the top of my head you need to get your duplicate site set up and
working with your new hosts, get your domain name pointing at it, then
get a 301 redirect to it from the old server, then let the old site
expire. But leave it up for months. I think you'll be ok then.

BB
--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...
--

Paul Burke wrote:

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.

host as in hosting provider?

If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If you switch provider: it shouldn't. Unless you get a banned IP address.

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

bots look up your domain name, and domain names were invented to make such
things go smooth.

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

On 12 May 2005 22:16:31 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Paul Burke wrote:

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.

host as in hosting provider?

Yes. My site is allowed 40gb a month and I am already using 48gb and
the site is only the fraction of the size I want it to be.

I found one hosting company that gives 5gb webspace and 10gb a day in
b/w which should cover my needs.

If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If you switch provider: it shouldn't. Unless you get a banned IP address.

Hopefully I won't, but thanks for the tip

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

bots look up your domain name, and domain names were invented to make such
things go smooth.

Excellent.

It's only a PR3 site, but that's not the point. I need more b/w and I
wouldn't want to lose what I gained.

thank you for your help
plh
Paul


http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

On Thu, 12 May 2005 21:54:42 GMT, Big Bill <kruse (AT) cityscape (DOT) co.uk>
wrote:

On Thu, 12 May 2005 16:09:54 -0500, Paul Burke
webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote:

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.
If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

Off the top of my head you need to get your duplicate site set up and
working with your new hosts, get your domain name pointing at it, then
get a 301 redirect to it from the old server, then let the old site
expire. But leave it up for months. I think you'll be ok then.

BB
--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...

It's a completely different hosting company, so I don't think I could
do that option.

Thank you for replying though Bill

plh
Paul


http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

Paul Burke wrote:

It's only a PR3 site, but that's not the point. I need more b/w and I
wouldn't want to lose what I gained.

The bots seem to be picky about the speed with which your site responds.
Therefore, if you move to a hosting company with faster connections, you
will quickly recover the PR even if you happen to loose anything during
the move. And, frankly, it will probably take only about 1 or 2 months if
not quicker to get back to PR3 even from the ground up. If I had to move a
PR6 and up site, I would be concerned, but in your situation you have a
flexibility to find a hosting that would provide margin for growth without
loosing much during the change.

Sincerely,
Dmitri
http://www.1-script.com/install/
Check out my CGI scripts installation offer
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www.1-script.com wrote:

The bots seem to be picky about the speed with which your site
responds. Therefore, if you move to a hosting company with faster
connections, you will quickly recover the PR even if you happen to

Uhm, so the speed of a connection is related to PR? Funny.

loose anything during the move. And, frankly, it will probably take
only about 1 or 2 months if not quicker to get back to PR3 even from
the ground up.

Yup, a (few) PR6 links do the trick.

--
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Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
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On Thu, 12 May 2005 18:39:53 -0500, Paul Burke
<webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote:

On Thu, 12 May 2005 21:54:42 GMT, Big Bill <kruse (AT) cityscape (DOT) co.uk
wrote:

On Thu, 12 May 2005 16:09:54 -0500, Paul Burke
webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote:

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.
If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

Off the top of my head you need to get your duplicate site set up and
working with your new hosts, get your domain name pointing at it, then
get a 301 redirect to it from the old server, then let the old site
expire. But leave it up for months. I think you'll be ok then.

BB
--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...

It's a completely different hosting company, so I don't think I could
do that option.

Sure you could. You get the new account running before you let the old
account expire.

BB


--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...
--

On Thu, 12 May 2005 21:54:42 GMT, Big Bill <kruse (AT) cityscape (DOT) co.uk>
wrote:

On Thu, 12 May 2005 16:09:54 -0500, Paul Burke
webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote:

Hi all
I am seriously thinking of moving hosts due to the site using up all
the bandwidth and costing extra money.
If I move host (I am keeping the company name and file structure) will
I lose my PR that I gained ?

If the transition is smooth then users won't know a difference, but
what about bots ?

Off the top of my head you need to get your duplicate site set up and
working with your new hosts, get your domain name pointing at it, then
get a 301 redirect to it from the old server, then let the old site
expire. But leave it up for months. I think you'll be ok then.

You seem to have mixed up changing host with changing hosts AND domain
name Bill. The former doesn't require a redirect the latter does. Also
a 301 redirect would need to be maintained indefinitely if you change
domain otherwise you'll loose IBLs when the old domain drops.

Changing host should be seamless. You setup physical hosting on the
new server, FTP your site to it (or however you upload your site) and
when you are sure it's working (there are ways to test it via the IP
address) as it should be change the DNS setting from the old host to
the new. Because DNS changes can take days to fully propagate you want
the site to remain on the old host for a little while (3 days should
be more than enough in my experience).

If you feel confident you can skip the testing phase (ie if you have a
basic site). Depending on how you have your sites setup and your
current knowledge will determine how hard this is for you.

In it's simplest form where you get a new host and tell them to near
enough do all the above (you upload your own site) you'll not notice
any difference.

If your new host expects you to make the DNS changes and you don't
know what you are doing you can mess it up quite easily.

Anyway, if done correctly you will see no downtime and no PR loss.

Does anyone know a good resource for changing hosts? Stuff like how to
setup the DNS settings etc... I'd like to be able to refer clients who
are changing hosts to it.

About 2 years ago when I first got a dedicated server I didn't find
any good resources on how to setup DNS settings, had to work it out
through trial and error with test domains!! Took me a week to work out
how to get the www version of a domain working :-)

David
--
Free Search Engine Optimization Tutorial
http://www.seo-gold.com/tutorial/

SEO Dave wrote:

You seem to have mixed up changing host with changing hosts AND domain
name Bill. The former doesn't require a redirect the latter does.

Uhm depends. If you don't want to loose any visitor, and you got your own
IP address you might consider redirecting your domain to the new IP address
so people who use "old" DNS information go to the other site. Especially if
you run a database that is modified by visitors this might be an excellent
idea, otherwise you end up with 2 databases (unless you open your database
on the new IP etc for the old IP, etc.).

Changing host should be seamless.

Nah, DNS updates take some time.

when you are sure it's working (there are ways to test it via the IP
address) as it should be change the DNS setting from the old host to
the new. Because DNS changes can take days to fully propagate you want
the site to remain on the old host for a little while (3 days should
be more than enough in my experience).

Yup, and now imagine you have a database in which people store info...
oopsie.

any good resources on how to setup DNS settings, had to work it out
through trial and error with test domains!! Took me a week to work out
how to get the www version of a domain working :-)

Funny, you could have asked on Usenet in an appropriate group, or have
hired someone to do it :-)

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html