Can I switch Hosting?

[rwotiz]

OK, here is my deal. I have a 30,000 page site with 1000's of BL's and great rankings currently hosted at Go Daddy -- but I absolutely HATE their stats program.

If I change where I host the site is there any chance it could affect my rankings in Yahoo or Google? I am scared to change anything.....maybe I would be better off just getting a different analytics tool?

Second Question - It takes like 4 minutes for my index file to come up....the guy at go daddy claims its cause its the only .htm file in a folder with 30,000 .html files and there is nothing I can do about it.

Any suggestions?

THANKS!!

[imaginemn]

1. Changing host typically does not affect any PR, backlinks, rankings as long as you don't change any of the structure. If you were to go from a .htm site to .asp or .php then it could potentially cause some problems.

2. One option would be to download your log files and use another application like webtrends to view your reports.

3. I did notice the site took a long time to load. # of pages in a directory should not make a big difference because the OS indexes the pages and it makes it easier to load and search files. I think your problem is the following when doing a who is on your site.

WOTIZ.NET

Reverse IP: Web server hosts 7144 websites
Server Type: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) mod_tsunami/2.0 FrontPage/5.0.2.2634 (Spry.com also uses Apache)
IP Location: - Arizona - Scottsdale - Go Daddy Software Inc

imaginemn

[rwotiz]

Thanks for the insight. Does anyone have an opinion on the best free web analytics tool? I would like to download my log files from go daddy and use another analytics program.

[Jonathan VanSchaack]

imaginemn,

did you use a basic "whois" to call up that info?

[imaginemn]

Sometime ago John posted a site www.whois.sc. This site gives you a little extra info especially if you subscribe to it.

imaginemn

[SN3]

"Web server hosts 7144 websites"

I would switch! That is huge, way, way, way, way, way, too high. Most good hosts only put around 100-1000 sites on each server (depending on the type of host).

[sue5050]

This is not my first time hearing problem with Godaddy hosting. You can change host like you change pages. Before moving to any web hosting company, you may want to consider <admin edit - spam removed>

[imaginemn]

You pretty much get what you pay for. If you are paying for cheap hosting you will get on a server with thousands of other users. If you pay more for hosting (which is NOT for everyone) then your chances on getting on a server with thousands are slim. It also depends on the needs of your website and how much bandwidth. People have all types of experiences with all hosting providers. I use Interland for a few of my sites and many people I know love it there and I know of some others that hate it. I have other sites with 1and1 hosting for dedicated hosting. I have never had any problems there either.

You basically need to find the best plan that fits your needs and your wallet. If all you can afford godaddy and you can live with the thousands of other sites then who cares? It could be that most of those sites are not heavily used. I would question the hosting provider and request to be moved to another server if it's affecting your site. If they are not willing to do it then I would suggest going elsewhere. But I wouldn't go with some no name reseller you have never heard of. The last thing you need is to find out your website is no longer available because some kid running a reselling business out of the garage can no pay his reseller hosting bill.

imaginemn

[MidHost Staff]

i really wouldnt recommend godaddy as a webhosting as they are just started doing it and has no experience in field. I do love their domain management though.

[MadHatter]

7000 websites is a joke, we limit all of our servers to 200!
Godaddy are great for domains, I use them for all of mine, but there hosting sucks.

I read a while ago that they disallow googlebot from crawling their servers... this might have just been rumor, but I'm not to sure about it.

A Comparison:
My Hosting Company... guarantees no more than 250 sites/server.

But, godaddy having 7000 sites on a server!? That is them trying to squeeze every last penny out of their servers, we'd rather have our servers relaxed & reliable than stressed & shaky.

A few tips when buying hosting:
Make sure that your hosting comany rents the servers direct from the datacenter, being down a chain of 10 resellers will probably mean the server you are on will proably be overloaded and unreliable.

Look for a guarantee... A 30 Day Money-Back guarantee is a great thing to have, because you can see how the hosting is and walk away from the service if it isn't any good. Without losing a load of money!

Look for a portfolio, a list of websites hosted by the company, go to them and check the speeds, maybe email the owners and ask how they have found their hosting.

Look for a good number of free support options: Email, Tickets, Phone... and try using them to ask questions before purchasing, this is often a good way of measuring response times.

If you want to know any more about my hosting, please PM me...
Hope those tips help,

Elliot 'MadHatter' Haughin

[Jonathan VanSchaack]

it didnt say 7000 websites for one thing, just 7000 domains, which if they all are business card sites, your can without a problem