I have another question that I would like to have answered by people who have similar experiences and who have a GOOD knowledge of facts in this area.

If I were to change webhosts, and let's say in my case, I have a PR4, and business is picking up pretty good, etc etc.

If I change to another webhost, and I will have to change my entire site, due to with my current webhost I am using a template, will I risk anything by doing so? Will I lose my PR? Would I lose my keywords? Would there be the risk of during the minute or however long it takes to have the dns switched, if googlebot came by right that second, would he think my site no longer exists and remove me? I really need honest opinions and experiences and ( do not take this personally from those who would NEVER do this), I am not looking to be sold a webhosting service at this time. I do need to know what happens when one changes a webhost. I lost my job several months ago and I really need this business to continue to thrive.

My problem is this. My webhosts offer the very best in customer service. I love nearly everything about them except for the fact that they are half way across the world from me and they are not available 24 hours a day. So, if something goes wrong with my shopping cart or something, I am not able to get it fixed asap. That is the ONLY reason I'd consider leaving them. They are always updating and adding new features and do not jack the price up or anything. I just am not quite sure what I should do.

I truly appreciate all your help and your advice! Thanks!

Changing web hosts itself shouldn't cause any problem with Google. The usual way to do it is to sign up with the new web host, then upload your site to the new host, so that it is mirrored on both hosts. Then give the instructions to update the DNS. When you've done this, it won't matter when Google visits, because it will still be able to spider your site on either server. After about a week, it will be safe to cancel the old account, and your site will be transferred.

Even if you can't do this, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Google knows that sites are sometimes down, and will try several times before removing you from the index on penalizing you.

Changing your whole site will risk your pagerank to an extent, but it shouldn't be too much of a worry as long as it is design, not content you are changing. Especially if (as I seem to remember you saying) you haven't done any SEO on the site, you don't have too much to loose, as obviously your PR is coming mainly from the content and backlinks.

Thanks for your reply David! Let me ask you this. I really did not know about this one thing you just wrote. One can actually have their site (same exact domain name, ie www.leatherlollipop.com ), be on two different webhosts at the same time?? So, when someone visits my site which one would they be on? I am sure this sounds like a ridiculous and stupid question. lol

It's not a stupid question. It's certainly quite confusing!

Basically the way that it all works is as follows:

Your domain name leatherlollipop.com is listed (with all others) on the central domain servers for the whole internet. When someone requests your site in their browser, it is looked up from your ISP's copy of these servers (they synchronise regularly with the central servers) which tell the browser what DNS servers to look up.

DNS servers are run by your web host and actually point your domain to the webspace on their server.

Now, when you move web hosts, you request your domain to be transferred, not from one site to another, but for the DNS server for your domain to be updated.

So how the moving of your site would work is as follows:

1. You set up the account with the new provider. They give you your space and you upload the data. They also set up their DNS servers so that any requests for leatherlollipop.com are sent to your account. Nobody will be viewing your site on the new server at this point, though, as they are still being pointed to the old host's DNS servers.

2. You request a change of DNS server from your domain registrar. The central database is updated to tell new requests to go to your new site.

3. The changeover period. Over a period of about 2 days, ISP servers around the world re-synchronise with the central servers. Once they have new data, requests are sent to the new host's DNS server (hence the new version of the website). If they haven't updated yet, requests are sent to the DNS server still on their records (the old host, hence the old version of the site)

4. Removing the old data. After 2 or 3 days (I'd probably leave it a week) all ISPs should have updated their servers. All requests for your domain are going to the new DNS servers, so all the visitors are going to your new site. You can now cancel your old account (and your old host will delete your site and remove the record from their DNS servers).

I hope that explains it a bit better. It's a complicated system, and can cause a lot of confusion, especially when the time for ISPs to update their servers can take a while, meaning that half the world is going to one site and half to the other. Actually doing this isn't difficult, though. It's simply a matter of:
1. Sign up for new account and set up as normal
2. Request domain transfer
3. Wait
4. Cancel old account.

Hope that makes it a bit clearer!

That made things a LOT clearer!! Thank you David!! Now it all makes sense to me. I really appreciate the time you took to explain that and I'm sure you've helped a lot more people than just me.

No problem!

That's what I'm here for

Illuminating explanation on this subject, David.
Useful and lucid answers such as yours here
help make this forum a valuable webstination.