Does Switching host provider affect the site's Google ranking?

[AndrewC]

I am planning to move my site to webhosting.uk.com very soon as they seem to be reputed and reliable hosts. My only concern is will switching host providers have any effect on my site's ranking in Google and other major search engines? I am not too sure about it as some people say it does, some say it doesn't.

[harry]

IMO switching to new host will not affect your Google ranking.
What I will suggest you to ensure following things before switching to any new host :
* Ensure that the new web hosting plan you’ve chosen offers you the enough storage space to handle all of your current website storage requirements.
* Does your new web hosting plan offer you the same amount of email accounts, auto responders and mail forwards that you presently use?
* If you are making use of any scripts on your site, ensure that your new web hosting company supports all your scripts.
* Do you know how to properly upload your site files & data to the new server? If you don’t know perfectly, you’ll need to find out if your new web host’s technical support staff will upload your files for you. Some of them apply charges for doing so.
* Find out if your new hosting plan delivers you the same or more bandwidth that your current host provides. Don't compromise in bandwidth or you may face problems.

[Peter]

Switching hosts once should not affect the site's ranking as your content and link backs are the same even after you change your host. But make sure your site doesn't go down for a longer period of time.

Move it loads of times and it might raise some kind of flag though. Also due to geo-targetting, changing hosts can have some effect on rankings depending on the location of the new server.

[Nik]

Hell andrew,

If your site is UK based and it is hosted on US servers then it might affect the google ranking. Make sure you host your site on the UK servers and not US servers and incase of webhosting.uk.com you need not have to worry cos they have their servers in Uk itself.
cheers

[AndrewC]

Thanks to all for your feedback,

Nik, my site is currently hosted on UK servers as it is hosted with a UK based host. I am planning to move to webhosting.uk.com as I have seen good reviews about them online and one of my friends also recommended webhosting.uk.com to me. Now that it's clear that switching hosts won't affect the site's rankings, I shall move to webhosting.uk.com soon.

[skiguru]

I was interested to read the thread above, and wanted to know if the difference is really tangible - If you have a site that is multi-language, so you want it being picked up by numerous search engines, where would it be best to host it? I currently host in the States, but my future markets include the States, UK, France, Holland, Germany, Russia, China, India and Japan, amongst others.... How much influence will geo-targetting have on site ranking?

thanks

Skiguru