How to switch web hosts or move to a CDN without hurting your site in Google Search

Google maintains a guide for site owners who plan to change their hosting infrastructure without changing the URLs users see. It covers switching hosting providers and moving to a content delivery network (CDN). The goal is to minimize the impact of the move on how the site performs in Google Search.

According to Google Search Central documentation, in a version published on November 9, the process has three stages: prepare the new infrastructure, start the migration by updating DNS, and shut down the old infrastructure. The guide applies only to migrations that don't affect visible URLs.

Before the migration

The first step is to put a copy of the site on the new provider. Depending on the platform, that can mean copying HTML files or importing a database export. Then the advice is to test everything: pages, images, forms and downloads such as PDF files, ideally in a test environment with access restricted by IP address.

For public testing, Google suggests a temporary hostname such as beta.example.com, which lets you confirm that Googlebot can reach the site. To keep the test version out of the index, apply a noindex rule in the HTML or in the HTTP header. Search Console's URL Inspection tool can be used to check that Googlebot can access the new infrastructure.

The guide also recommends lowering the TTL on your DNS records to a low value, such as a few hours, at least a week before the move. That way, internet service providers refresh their caches faster.

What you can't leave behind

Site ownership verification in Search Console has to keep working after the switch. If you use the HTML file method, include the verification file in the new copy of the site. If you verify through a meta tag or through Google Analytics in your CMS template, make sure those elements are present in the new version.

Another point is removing temporary blocks. While building the copy, some teams use robots.txt to stop Googlebot from crawling or a noindex rule to stop indexing. When the migration happens, all of those blocks need to come off.

During and after the switch

Once DNS points to the new provider, Google recommends watching the logs on both servers: traffic on the old one should fall as traffic on the new one rises. Public DNS tools help you check whether ISPs in different parts of the world have picked up the new configuration, and the index coverage chart in Search Console shows how crawling is going.

According to the guide, it's normal for Googlebot's crawl rate to drop temporarily right after the new system goes live and then climb steadily over the following days, possibly exceeding the previous pace. Google explains that it sets crawl rate based on a range of signals, and those signals change along with the infrastructure. If Googlebot doesn't run into serious problems or major slowdowns, it crawls the site as fast as it needs to.

The old infrastructure should be shut down only when its traffic reaches zero and no one is using the old server anymore.

For brand teams, the takeaway is that changing hosts or adopting a CDN affects how Google crawls your site, even when no URL changes. The things to watch are leftover robots.txt and noindex blocks on the new copy, Search Console verification, and the temporary dip in crawling, which Google itself describes as normal.