To ensure your server is migrated smoothly and your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings are not lost, there are a number of steps that you can take. For best results, iWeb recommends you do not update DNS zones (including rDNS/PTR records) until you have tested that your new server functions as expected. Modifying DNS zones should be completed after the new server is ready, so there can be a seamless transition. If you are managing your own DNS zones, you will need to make your changes at your registrar, but if iWeb is managing your DNS zones, you can simply open a ticket with us to perform the necessary updates.
iWeb recommends only migrating to faster and more powerful hardware, in order to ensure SEO rankings are not impacted by a slow website. You can see your page load speed as a percentile of all pages crawled by Google by registering your website to Google Webmaster Tools. By registering for Google Webmaster Tools before you migrate you can see the effect of your website migration on page load speed. You can also compare other important SEO metrics like crawl statistics and ranks from before and after your migration.
As SEO is based on text search and link density, you will not lose any SEO ranking during a migration.
unless you also change the content and/or URLs of your website at the same time.
Please note even if our system administrators have migrated all the data successfully, it remains the responsibility of the customer to ensure all email accounts, websites and domain names function correctly. iWeb supports the migration of data; website code and management remains the responsibility of our customers.
If you have changed or removed any URLs as part of your website migration it is vital to your SEO rankings to ensure all retired URLs redirect to the most relevant live page using a 301 (permanent) redirect. This will prevent 404 (page not found) errors and ensure links to your old URLs still help your SEO efforts.
If you have changed the content as part of your migration you will be able to see the effect on your SEO in your organic referrals in the analytics package you use, as well as in Google Webmaster Tools or Bing Webmaster Tools.
To learn more about migrating to iWeb's dedicated servers, please consult our Knowledge Base article on migration.