Can an external firewall affect rankings?

[samgold]

For security reasons we are now routing traffic through an external firewall cum CDN. Our server and domain IPs remain the same, but any request is routed through an external IP, which then forwards the traffic.

Would our rankings be affected because of IP changes?

Thanks

Sam

[willcritchlow]

Hi Sam. A correctly setup firewall or CDN should not have implications for SEO. If you can share the URL / domain then I can take a look at the specifics, but in principle, you should be fine.

Things to watch out for:

1. Site speed impacts - in theory a CDN should generally be good for site speed, but if you didn't select one primarily for this reason, it's something to check
2. HTTPS - ensure that you keep this consistent through the change
3. Avoid changing URLs in the process (if you have to, make sure you have redirects set up and treat it like a migration with associated risks)

[effectdigital]

Site speed impact is where I see this becoming a real problem, unless the setup is done correctly

[samgold]

Thank you for your answers. yes the sit speed has been affected just a hair - so that TTFB has gone down from 0.45 seconds to about 0.6 seconds - oscillates between A and B (mostly B) in one of the testing sites.

[Caffeine_Marketing]

Hi, We have the same question and we noticed that ahrefs is blocked.  Would you mind looking at our site to see if you see any issues>. www.caffeinemarketing.co.uk  thanks