If you’re only changing hosting providers or moving to a CDN (and URLs stay the same), here’s the safe SEO-friendly process:
1️⃣ Prepare New Hosting Infrastructure #
✅ Copy website to new host
- Upload site files or migrate database.
- Test everything (pages, images, forms, downloads).
- Set up a temporary hostname (like beta.example.com) to check accessibility.
⚠ Important: Add a noindex meta tag to the test site to prevent it from being indexed.
✅ Check Googlebot access
- Use Search Console → URL Inspection Tool to test.
- Verify there’s no firewall or DoS protection blocking Googlebot.
✅ Lower DNS TTL
- Reduce Time to Live (TTL) to a few hours a week before migration for faster DNS propagation.
✅ Review Search Console Verification
- Ensure your verification method (HTML file, meta tag, Google Analytics) will remain intact after migration.
2️⃣ Start the Move #
✅ Remove crawl blocks
- Remove any Disallow: / in robots.txt.
- Remove noindex tags from production site.
✅ Update DNS
- Point domain’s DNS records to the new hosting provider.
3️⃣ Monitor Traffic & Crawl #
✅ Check traffic logs
- Monitor traffic drop on old hosting & rise on new hosting.
- Use DNS check tools to ensure global propagation.
✅ Monitor Googlebot crawling
- Temporary drop in crawl rate is normal.
- Crawl rate should increase again within days if site performance is good.
4️⃣ Shut Down Old Hosting #
✅ When logs show zero traffic on old server, safely shut it down.
💡 FSIDM Pro Tips #
- Always test speed & uptime after migration (Google values fast performance post-move).
- CDN moves: Check canonical headers & ensure correct content delivery.
- Migration Timing: Avoid peak traffic days — schedule during low activity hours.
- Backup Everything: Keep a full backup of the old hosting until migration is 100% stable.