Hello experts, I have to move one site to another host i.e from one IP to another IP. My questions are: 1- Will google think it's a totally new site and do not give good SERP and PR in the next update? i.e. does google bots care about the IP address of the host server? 2- Will a 301 redirect hurts the PR and SERP? 3-I have heard bad news about 301 redirect, can anyone confirm? Thank you Toby
you move your domain to another host hence you change IP but domain remains same thus no redirect needed since all URLs the same 1. you first uplooad all files on new host 2. you change NS pointing to new host 3. site traffic will shift within global TTL of NS from old to new host - always using domain name 4. after about 3-4 days there usually is 0 traffic on old host and all on new host with zero downtime of site. most NS have a TTL of 24 hrs some however much longer, hence the delay or did i miss the point ? myself i changed host many times, since 1997 approx 5-6 times, always for quality reasons. I never had any loss of any kind.
Hans is right, if you are using the same domain name. You will need to 301 only if you are changing domain names. As far as 301 redirects being bad, no. I think you are thinking of the 302 redirect.
Moving your site from one server to another (different IP's, different hosting providers) pointing your domain to its new location don't affect PR. In the other hand, if you use a new domain name no PR will be displayed until the next PR update, and even using a 301 redirect the new domain will drop PR.
Switching hosts is a cinch. Just make sure EVERYTHING is uploaded to the new host before you do the nameserver switch so there will be minimal downtime.
thanks everyone very much for the good guidance. Indeed, they are very useful and put me at ease about the PR