Hey everyone,

 

I recently took over the running of a website which was based on what I believe is a Dedicated server. I re-created the website and put the site onto my own shared server (my client just wanted to move away from her old web company), but now she is saying she has noticed a substantial decrease in enquiries.

 

The site hasn't changed at all, the old company sent me a copy of the site to use, and her PPC ads are still in place. In theory, there should be no reason for her enquiries to decrease at exactly the time I moved the site. The only thing I can think of as a possibility is that Google rated her old dedicated server higher than it is rating my current shared server, therefore she is appearing lower in the natural SERPs.

 

Can anyone corroborate this?

 

Many thanks,

 

Darren

Hi,

 

Did the website go down for any period of time during the move, i.e. DNS propagation? I recommend keeping the old server and websites files up and running for at least a day or so after the switch.

 

If the website had downtime during the move, Google may have tried to index URL's but couldn't find them and so removed them from the index.

 

Also, is the server in a different location, meaning GEO location, different country. If you've moved countries then this might be having an affect. Set the GEO location in Google Webmaster Tools to the country your targeting.

 

Have you tested the websites position in Google for certain keywords? Did you note down positions before moving the website, so you had evidence of the positions.

 

They may just be trying it on.

 

Hope this helps.

Hi Gareth,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

There was no downtime with the website. There was some DNS propagation but it was either cycling between the old site or the new site, which in terms of content were identical.

 

The site is still indexed in Google so I'm assuming it didn't have any problems indexing last.

 

I've just looked into the GEO location in Webmaster Tools and set it to UK, so thanks for that tip.

 

Unfortunately I didn't do a comparison of keyword location. I usually would if re-designing the site or changing content, however since it was a straight duplicate I didn't see the need to.

 

I've read before that shared servers can sometimes get lower respect from Google if the shared server hosted known spam, which is what I'm starting to fear about this issue. If that's true, it does raise an issue that my other client using this shared server might not be getting the enquiries they could get if we were using a dedicated server...

 

Darren

An interesting topic.

 

Am I correct in my assumption that if you have unique IP address for a domain it doesn't matter if you host on a shared server?

Am I correct in my assumption that if you have unique IP address for a domain it doesn't matter if you host on a shared server?

 

That makes sense, I guess that is probably the way Google determines which server it is on.

Most websites are hosted on shared servers, so this shouldn't affect your rankings but it may be a factor if the servers IP has been blacklisted. Check the server IP below to make sure.

 

http://www.blacklistalert.org/

 

There are many more websites like this, do a Google search. If the servers IP is not blacklisted then I doubt the rankings have been affected.

Also, do you have access to their analytic data. If you do, see if there has been a decline in visitors. If not, then rankings won't have been affected.

OK thanks for the reply again, that's a useful link. I've checked and the IP passes all but one filter, which seems pretty good. Sadly I had no access to the analytics data either so can't determine a decline in visitors. I'll just keep an eye on the site and do some of the standard SEO jobs on it.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Darren

If the server IP is blacklisted, as above, you could ask for a dedicated IP. Most decent hosting packages offer a free dedicated IP address for one year.

That's good advice, I'll check that out. Thanks!

Well, if I were you I'd ask for access to their analytic software, so you can check.

 

Have they paid you yet?

They didn't have any Analytics set up, Google or otherwise. It's a small client and her original web designer was a friend, so he's done a half-baked job on it. I've put Analytics on the site now, but it's a few weeks too late. I've not been paid - she's a friend of mine too, this was a favour for her.

Ah OK. It must be something else causing the decline in enquiries then. Doubt very much it's the server.

OK great, thanks for that, it helps put my mind at ease.

I Would say

 

A Dedicated IP Address > 123.456.789.10 > 1-5 TLD Domains

A Shared Hosting IP Address > 10.987.654.321 > 250-500 TLD Domains

 

Is your shared hosting your own personal box at your home or does a company host your sites. If it is shared hosting you can usually purchase a dedicated IP Address for around £10.00 a year. I doubt your IP is blacklisted otherwise your domains wouldn't appear in Google. Maybe Google has changed its algorithm or more competition has decreased her enquires.

 

Always make sure you have legal disclaimers in place encase these people try and sue you too !

Hi Sinero,

 

Thanks for the info. You're right about the blacklisting, it wouldn't be in Google at all if that was the case. I'm going to look into getting a dedicated IP address.

 

Thanks,

 

Darren