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<div align=justify>The importance of choosing a good web hosting company cannot be overestimated nowadays.  There are several reasons for that, but one of the main is the fact that switching to a new host is not that easy. Changing hosts and servers without downtime is almost impossible.  Downtime may result in losing visitors, customers and eventually sales.  While there are ways for you to inform customers about the move, your search engine rankings get in danger.

Though you do not often consider moving to a new web host, this should be a straightforward process. Correctly done, it won't have any impact on your position in the search engine. Follow the below points to make the transition smooth:

* '''''Check the IP address of the new host'''''

In some rare cases, the new host may have a few IP addresses that have either been banned or experience issues.  The worst thing that can be done here is to move from the current host that no longer can meet your needs to another one with an unfavorable IP rage.  Having your site associated with a troubled IP address, will have negative impact on your search engine rankings.

* '''''Create a full backup of your website'''''

Moving to a new host is much easier when you have a full backup of your account on the current server. In this case the transfer won't take much time and will be much more painless for your site.  Besides, if anything goes wrong with the new service, you can go back to the previous host and set everything back rather quickly.

* '''''Test your website on the new server'''''

Take your time and make sure everything is set properly on the new host.  Even if everything seems to be OK from the first glance, it is still recommended to double test all of your files,forms, mailboxes and databases.

* '''''Change your DNS'''''

After you have all your site files transferred to the new host and everything seems to be working properly, it’s time to change the domain nameservers. The best and the easiest way to do this is to contact your current registrar and ask them to change the DNS for you. Now you are ready to go.  Just remember that the change isn't immediate and generally takes anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to propagate all over the net.


Now that you know what it takes to move your website to a new server you can reduce the downtime to the minimum.  The most important thing here is keeping intact rankings in search engines.
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