Will changing hosting hurt your Google ranking?

No, as long as the site keeps answering, with the same addresses and the same content. Search engines do not rank a site by the company that hosts it; they rank what they find when they go there. What hurts, in a move, is never the move: it is what it tends to break by accident. Nobody can promise a position, before or after, but almost everything that goes wrong is avoidable.

What can go wrong, and how to avoid it

Risk Why How to avoid it
The site is unreachable during the move Google tries to visit and gets errors or nothing. Build everything at the new place before pointing the domain (migrating without downtime).
Page addresses change Each old address becomes a 404, and what Google knew about you is lost. Keep the same permalink structure, and compare the lists of addresses before and after.
The “do not index” option comes from the test copy If you tested the site with search engines blocked and the option stayed on, Google stops showing it. On WordPress, check Settings, Reading; and confirm the robots.txt (robots.txt and sitemap.xml).
The site gets slower Speed counts, and a badly tuned server weighs on it. Measure before and after (the site is slow: what actually makes a difference).
The secure connection fails Between the DNS and the certificate there can be a gap without the padlock. See no padlock on your site and check after the move.
Redirect rules get lost The .htaccess is a hidden file and gets left behind. Copy it, with hidden files shown (301 redirects).

A list for before and after

1 Before: save the list of the site’s addresses (the sitemap will do) and a screenshot of the Search Console performance report, so you have something to compare against (Google Search Console, step by step).
2 Before: lower the DNS TTL, so the change reaches everyone quickly (changing the DNS of a domain already in use).
3 During: test the new site in the hosts file before pointing the domain (testing before you change the DNS).
4 After, on day one: open the home page, three inner pages and an image; check the padlock; open /robots.txt; do a site: search for your domain (checking that Google can see your site).
5 After, over the next weeks: watch Search Console and deal with the crawl errors that appear (crawl errors, one by one). Small swings are normal; a problem that does not pass is a forgotten address or rule.
You do not need to tell Google when you only change server. Search Console’s “change of address” tool is for when you change domain, not hosting. If you change domain too, the road is different: moving WordPress to a new domain.
Server location matters little for searchers; response speed matters more. A server near your visitors helps speed, but it is not a magic ranking factor.

About to move the site and want us to review the plan before you point the domain? Write to us.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

How to migrate a site without downtime

301 redirects when you change a page or a domain

Why your site does not show on Google: a checklist

Hosting migration

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