How to properly change your website's address in Webmaster Tools?
-
Hi There,We've launched a new website and as part of the update have changed our domain name - now we need to tell Google of the changes:
- Both sites were verified in Webmaster Tools
- From the old site's gear icon, we chose "Change of address"
- As part of the "Change of address" checklist Google presented, we added 301 redirects to redirect the old domain to the new one
- But now that the 301 redirects are in place, Google can no longer verify the old site
- And because it can no longer verify the old site, Google won't let us complete the change of address form
How do we tell Google of the change of address in this instance - and has anyone else encountered this?CheersBen
-
Must've been a Webmaster tools issue - tried the whole process again and this time Webmatser Tools verifies the site with the 301 redirects in place
-
Thanks for the answer but the steps you posted are the same steps we've tried (and posted).
The issue is that the instructions/checks in the change of address form require:
- A 301 redirect on the old site to redirect traffic to the new one
- Valid verification of the old site
But as soon as the 301 redirect is in place, Google can no longer verify the old site because it's redirecting to the new one - the old site is essentially unreachable.
Has anyone else seen this or are we doing something wrong?
Cheers
-
Hi there,
- On the Webmaster Tools Home page, click the site you want to move from.
- Click the gear icon; then click Change of Address.
- Follow the instructions in the **Change of site address **tool.
- Monitor your traffic as indicated in Move a site with URL changes.
You can ffollow the guidelines here https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en
Hope it helps you.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Dealing with broken internal links/404s. What's best practice?
I've just started working on a website that has generated lots (100s) of broken internal links. Essentially specific pages have been removed over time and nobody has been keeping an eye on what internal links might have been affected. Most of these are internal links that are embedded in content which hasn't been updated following the page's deletion. What's my best way to approach fixing these broken links? My plan is currently to redirect where appropriate (from a specific service page that doesn't exist to the overall service category maybe?) but there are lots of pages that don't have a similar or equivalent page. I presume I'll need to go through the content removing the links or replacing them where possible. My example is a specific staff member who no longer works there and is linked to from a category page, should i be redirecting from the old staff member and updating the anchor text, or just straight up replacing the whole thing to link to the right person? In most cases, these pages don't rank and I can't think of many that have any external websites linking to them. I'm over thinking all of this? Please help! 🙂
Technical SEO | | Adam_SEO_Learning0 -
What's the best way to integrate off site inventory?
I can't seem to make any progress with my car dealership client in rankings or traffic. I feel like I've narrowed out most of the common problems, the only other thing I can see is that all their inventory is on a subdomain using a dedicated auto dealership software. Any suggestion of a better way to handle this situation? Am I missing something obvious? The url is rcautomotive.com Thanks for your help!
Technical SEO | | GravitateOnline0 -
What's another good SEO plugin for WordPress besides Yoast?
I know most people typically use Yoast, we use it on our sites, but we have one site where Yoast is causing a conflict. I wanted to investigate some other options and see what the best solution may be. Anyone else have an effective plugin they like?
Technical SEO | | AdamWormann0 -
WMT Change of address when moving to subdir
A client is moving their site that has had its own domain for years to their main domain under a subdir. So, product.com is going to brand.com/product with all pages and paths staying the same, no content is being removed. We have 301 the old domain to brand.com/product however, should we also submit a change of address in Google's WMT? The reason I ask is because the site wont be located at brand.com but at brand.com/product and do not want to confuse Google, as the 301 redirects will not match the change of address exactly.
Technical SEO | | piperis0 -
Bing Webmaster tool
Hi Fellas, I wanted to know once you verify the BIng Webmaster tool (via xml file) for a dev site, do you have to do the verification process again for the final site? I thought I needed to do the verification again but once I added the final website (which have almost a similar URL) into the webmaster tool account, it seemed that I didn't have to verify it. I am a bit confused. Thank you for clarifying
Technical SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Websites on same c class IP address
If two websites are on the same c class IP address, what does it mean ? Does two websites belong to the same company ?
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050 -
Do any short url's pass link juice? googles own? twitters?
I've read a few posts saying not shorten links at all but we have a lot to tweet and need to. Is googles shortener the best option? I've considered linking to the category index page the article is on and expect the user to find the article and click on the article, I don't like the experience that creates though. I've considered making the article permalink tiny but I would lose the page title being in the url. Is this the best option?
Technical SEO | | Aviawest0 -
Google shows the wrong domain for client's homepage
Whenever the homepage of my client's homepage appears in Google results, the search engine is not showing our URL as our domain, but instead a partner domain that is linking to us. (The correct title and meta description of our homepage is showing.) I believe this is caused by the partner website (with a much higher pank rank) linking to our homepage from their footer to a URL with it's own domain that 302 redirects to our homepage. Example: Link: http://www.partnerwebsite.com/?ad2203 302 redirects to: http://www.clientwebsite.com/?moreadtracking The simple fix would be for the client to ask for removal of the 302 hijacking link - but they are uncomfortable with this request since they had requested it prior, and their relationship is not the best. Is there any other way to fix this?
Technical SEO | | Conor_OShea_ETUS0