Look how old this is! I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 15 years 5 months 11 days ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.
I was just mid-session on Google Webmaster tools, when I clicked on a link and saw the message – “that page no longer exists”. Huh?
I went back to my home page for WMT, and that too was a bad link. Weird. So, i went to my IGoogle home Page, went back into Google Webmaster Tools, and “wham” everything was different!
Apparently, I had now been forced into their “new look and feel” that until this moment, had only been an option.
As I was exploring the menu on the left, trying to get back to where I was, I saw a new option that made my heart skip a beat – Could it be?
Yep, sure enough, I clicked the link called “change of address” under the site configuration menu, and was taken to a new screen for – you guessed it – MOVING DOMAIN NAMES.
This feature was LONG overdue, and I think I first started wishing for it back in 2006, after doing eeverything “right” and still getting a site dinged after changing domain names.
At some point, I asked for it at a Webmaster Tools conference session (either SMX Advanced or maybe Pubcon) and my request actually got a round of applause!
Anyway, I still don’t really like the new WMT interface, but with this improvement, it’s a lot easier to take… Thank you again, Google!
Thanks for the heads up. Now we just need someone to “test” it by moving their domain, right?
Well I think you should volunteer 😉
I had the opportunity and tried to use it. It didn’t work. It said something like “hm… something when wrong, post this to Google Help forums”
…but soon perhaps.
Good idea to update your URL. I would hate to lose track of my fav sites. Sometimes I have to search, most of them have remained pretty low key even when becoming popular and so have kept their addresses the same but occasionally you find one has moved and the is not always a redirect or link on the old site
Nice tips, I saw this in my webmaster account but have not tried this, now it is clear. Thanks
Oh i missed that update, thanks for sharing. Nowadays Google making rapid changes in their webmaster tool, reason is Competition getting tougher day by day. Nice post
I used this feature yesterday and everything was changed today in the SERPS. Very cool tool.
FYI: I am unable to tab into your Spam Protection Input Box. Once you are there, tab moves the cursor to the top of the page. It looks like it is because it has tabindex=”4″ as an attribute and the other input forms do not have a tab index specified.
I did see this too, but havent tried it. Its hard to keep up with the constant change.
This is so cool! I’ve used 301 redirects in the past to change domain names, but, had no idea it could be done using my Google webmaster account!