It is common sense that if a web site is down it cannot get spidered, but we’ll state it regardless:When a site is down, it cannot get spidered. And when your domain’s designated DNS is down, your
site cannot get spidered either — even if your web server is up. Reliable hosting and DNS, then, is critical to your web site’s well-being. A web site that is down will irritate users and result directly
in fewer users visiting your web site. It may also reflect badly on your business, and users may not be back. Likewise, if a search engine spider visits your web site and it does not respond after quite
a few unsuccessful attempts, it may result in your web site getting dropped from the index. For this reason we recommend cutting costs elsewhere.

This underscores the need to find reliable hosting. In a field that is ultra-competitive, many web hosting providers choose to provide large amounts of bandwidth and features while compromising service
and support. Two dollars per month for hosting will likely get you just that — two dollars worth of web hosting.

Most of the time, users opt to use a web hosting provider’s DNS. This may be wise, because they may need to alter DNS records in order to move you to another server with another IP if the server your
web site is located on fails. However, domain providers (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, and so on)have more recently begun to offer free managed DNS services as well. If you use managed DNS,
the hosting provider will not be able to change your domain’s records to reflect the new IP, and your site will be down as a result. For this reason, we do not recommend using managed DNS
unless your provider is aware of it, and knows to notify you, so that you can change the records yourself to reflect the new IP.

Should the need exist to change hosting providers, the process must be completed in the proper order.Not doing so may result in a time window where your site is unreachable; and this is clearly not desirable,
from both a general and SEO perspective. The focus of this elaborate process is to prevent both users and search engines from perceiving that the site is gone — or in the case of virtual hosting, possibly seeing the
wrong site.

The proper approach involves having your site hosted at both hosting providers for a little while. when your site is 100% functional at the new hosting provider, DNS records should then be updated. If you
are using a managed DNS service, simply change the “A” records to reflect the new web server’s IP address. This change should be reflected almost instantly, and you can cancel the web hosting service
at the old provider shortly thereafter. If you are using your old web hosting provider’s DNS, you should change to the new hosting provider’s DNS. This change may take up to 48 hours to be fully
reflected throughout the Internet. Once 48 hours have passed, you can cancel your service at the old hosting provider.