Google Webmaster Tools - Change of Address

Moving your Website to a new Domain Name?

If you've ever had to move your website to a new domain name, you know the task can be daunting. Depending on how complex your website is - it will have to be re-created with painstaking detail on the new hosting account. And that's only the first part of the job.

Redirecting Search Engines to your New Website

Once you've got the new website up and running under the new domain name, you're going to want to let the search engines know where it is. To do this, and to retain search engine credit for all your previously indexed pages (ie. all the pages stored under the old website URL), you'll need to redirect them one by one using permanent 301 redirects.

Google Webmaster Tools - Change of Address

Google's Webmaster Tools has a new setting that gives you step by step instructions on migrating your website, and also has a function that will let Google know you are migrating, and speed up the whole redirect process.

To access the new setting, login to Webmaster Tools, and then browse to Site Configuration > Change of Address. On this page you'll see all the steps listed we just described, as well as a tell us the URL of your new domain feature that will let you submit the new domain and expedite the redirect process. Note that you'll first need to add the new domain to Google Sitemaps and submit a new sitemap file. Before you do this, you probably want to check that all the sitemap links match up, and that they all redirect via 301 to the new links.