It is not something new that there are many people around us who raise the issue of switching to another web host or IP address being devoid of any sort of hiccups in Google. In this article, the experience of moving mattcutts.com from one IP to another IP just with the aid of altering the host is elucidated. It\’s easier to accomplish having a static website than a dynamic website. The idea doesn\’t vary but it is better if you can spend a day while your website can swing between 2 IP addresses. Some steps are there.
Step 1: You need to sign up with a good web host provider
It\’s always wise to make an intensive research or follow some references in order to have a good web host. As far as I am concerned, I selected csoft.net after the research that did exhibit a brilliant readership, whereas, pair.com was the selection of my non-SEO friend. To clarify the fact, we can assume shifting from csoft.net to pair.com and the IP is going to change then from 63.x.x.x to 65.x.x.x. A machine makes use of DNS system (like 61.115.6.132 ) in order to map websites to the IP address.
Step 2: Create a backup of your website on the new web host
You are just in need of copying the whole file to the new web host with a static website. On the contrary, a blog engages MySQL for the purpose of storage of posts and it makes the process a bit difficult. It is quite possible to find some e-commerce sites where the database is always synced and if it happens, you are probably in need of setting up a copy of the database between the old and new location at the time of transition.
Well, here, an instance is given of a WordPress blog that makes use of MySQL database and can come up with a bit of problem for some hours. Just imagine that you have made use of FTP in order to copy the static files from one web host to other. A new MySQL database has to be created now. The same username and database name might work but if it doesn\’t, you are in need of putting the WordPress wp-config.php on the new location with a view to update the username, database name, and other relevant things.
Having the new SQL database, you can copy the old one to the new one and the load the database. This is quite simple.
One has to bear in mind that it\’s not only about a username and a password for both the web hosts but it\’s about having dissimilar usernames and passwords for the database at every single location. I exhibited the host option while database reinstatement because you can be endowed with MySQL database stored on a distinctive location. In fact, WordPress can\’t get into the database if notwithstanding the new host having a unique option for the database, you don\’t edit wp-config.php file.
You have similar copies of your website at 2 locations. If your blog is just updated with a couple of comments daily, it\’s not a big issue if a comment is posted or if someone changes your database during the period when the transition is taking place. But if your site is huge and based on e-Commerce, then you will need to work hard to keep both the databases synchronized.
Step 3: Changing the DNS to point to the new web host
One needs to have an acquaintance with the term DNS because it\’s of paramount significance. Your IP address is indispensable for any agent striving to get to your site-be it Googlebot or anybody else. Rechecking the IP address after 500 fetches in order to determine the authenticity or making sure if some hours have gone are common factors. TTL (Time to Live), calculated in seconds, does have an impact if you have DNS-enabled browsers. It states that your fetched IP address is going to be safe for \’x\’ seconds and for this much time, the address can be stored. The browser is expected to proceed very slowly simply because the IP address is meant for everything on each webpage of your site.
Sites like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. possess a bit short DNS TTL setting (300-900 seconds) because you intend to have one of them in order to make the data center mechanics perfect for endowing the machines with good data provided you have several data centers. TTL is immensely important as a short TTL lets you drag the IP address of a data center out of the rotary motion very quickly.
The \’Google Dance\’ phenomenon lasted for about a week and would show the old as well as the new results depending on the data center which the user hit. This is because every data center was taken down and brought back up after loading with new data. T needed many days to switch the data to all the centers. Webmasters checked out www2.google.com or www3.google.com as they led them to the latest data centers. Today, the production system is better equipped to switch these things in much less time.
Step 4: Wait while the DNS change is propagated through the internet
This is a TTL function and is based on whether you are switching to those name servers which are present in the DNS currently. DNS is hierarchical, and thus it will take some time for the DNS caches to be flushes as the TTL is exceeded. The switch, which takes place at the root of DNS, would be faster only if you use a smart registrar and a known set of the new name servers. The \’dig+trace domain\’ can be used in UNIX and Linux for confirming that the new name server is present on the root server.
Step 5: If Googlebot is fetching from the new web host and the IP address, the process is almost over and one can shut down the previous website.
With the aid of your domain, your IP address can be verified. Make yourself familiar with the proceedings and remember that the new visitors should be endowed with the new IP address, whereas, it is possible for the previous visitors to employ the old IP address from their DNS store. Permitting a couple of days is recommended because it is possible for some people to possess long TTL set, although, these are mostly meant for a day or even less. So, get rid of hosting on the old location after a day. In order to have an infallible verification on this, test your logs and it is perfect if your log doesn\’t show any previous visitors.
About the author: Gregory Trune is a professional web hosting blogger. Visit WebHostingMadness.com to read his reviews on the top 10 hosting companies each month.