Search Console Change of Address Tool for Domain Moves

This guide uses Search Console Help: Change of Address tool, Add a website property and Managing owners, users, and permissions; Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes, Changing your web hosting and Redirects and Google Search. Where we add our own advice, we say so.

What the tool does

The Change of Address tool is a setting in Search Console for one job: telling Google that a whole site has moved from one domain or subdomain to another, "for instance, from example.com to example.org or example2.com." Google's Help page says it "tells Google about your change, and helps to migrate your Google Search results from your old site to your new site."

It is the last step of a move, not the move itself. Google's words: "Use this tool after you've moved and redirected your site." The redirects do the real work. The tool adds three things on top, for 180 days from the request:

• Google puts more weight on crawling and indexing the new site than the old one.
• It "forwards various signals from the old site to the new site".
• It tells Google "to prefer the new site over the old when determining canonical pages."

What it does not do: "Google does not erase the old site from the index". Old URLs can still show in search results if they are available and have no equivalent page on the new site. Redirects and rel=canonical tags on equivalent pages reduce how many old URLs stay visible.

Which moves need it, and which don't

Many moves give a site a new address but are not what this tool is for. Google's list:

Move	Use the tool?	What Google says to do
One domain to another (example.com to example.net)	Yes	Redirect, then submit the change of address for every variant of the old domain.
One subdomain to another (a.example.com to b.example.com)	Yes	Same as a domain move.
A domain to a path on another domain (example.com to example3.com/new/location/)	Yes	Google lists this as allowed. The old property must still be at domain level.
http to https	No	Follow the site move with URL changes guide; "Google will figure out your changes for you."
www to non-www, or back, on the same domain	No	Use canonical tags and/or redirects.
Pages moving to a new path on the same site	No	Add redirects and update your sitemaps.
New host or CDN, same URLs	No	Follow Google's guide for a move with no URL changes.

A hosting or CDN change with the same URLs is a different kind of move: Google describes it as switching providers or moving to a CDN while the visible URLs stay the same, and it has a separate checklist for it. How the redirects themselves should be set up is covered in our 404 errors and redirects guide.

Requirements

Google lists these before you can use the tool:

• Owner of both properties, in one Google account. "You must be an owner of both the old and new properties in Search Console. You must use the same Google account to manage both properties." In Google's permissions table, owners can use Change of Address; full and restricted users can only view it. Both verified and delegated owners count as owners.
• Domain level only. You can move example.com, m.example.com or http://example.com, but not a property at path level such as http://example.com/petstore/. You open the tool in a property with no path segments.
• Subdomains are not included. "The tool does not move any subdomains below the specified domain (including www)." Moving example.com does not move www.example.com or m.example.com. All paths under the domain are included.
• Protocols are included. If you specify http://example.com, it also moves https://example.com.
• Every variant of the old domain. Google says to use the tool "for all subdomain variants of the old domain, including www and non-www", for example from en.example.com, www.example.com and example.com to new-example.net, "even if you're not actively using these variants currently", and to have all of them verified.

Property types matter here. A Domain property covers all subdomains and both protocols and is verified with a DNS record; a URL-prefix property covers one exact prefix, so http and https, and www and non-www, are separate properties. Our Search Console basics guide explains both. If you work with an agency, make sure the business itself is an owner of the old and new properties, not just the agency's account; see domain names explained for the same rule on the domain itself.

Before you open the tool

Google's pre-work for every site move starts with redirects: "Implement a 301 redirect from your old homepage to your new homepage", and it recommends 301s for the canonical pages of the old site too. Redirect planning and testing belong to the move itself; our redesign SEO guide covers the URL inventory and redirect map, so we don't repeat them here. The Search Console points Google adds in its site-move guide:

• Verify all variants of both sites, for example www and non-www, and http and https if you use https.
• Keep verification working after the move. If you verify with an HTML file, Google reminds you to include it in the new copy of the site. Verification tokens may differ when the URL changes.
• Copy over settings you made for the old site, and set the crawl rate to "Let Googlebot determine" for both sites.
• Disavow file: if you uploaded one for the old site, Google recommends uploading it again in the new site's property.
• A recently bought domain: check it for manual actions and for URL removals left by the previous owner.
• Server capacity: "after a migration, Google will temporarily crawl your new site more heavily than usual." Large sites should warn their host.

Running it and the pre-move checks

1. Finish the pre-work above and check you meet every requirement.
2. Open the Change of Address tool in the old site's property (Settings, then Change of address). It must be a domain-level property.
3. Follow the instructions in the tool.

Before it sends the request, the tool runs "a quick check" to "confirm that you own both sites, and to check for 301s on a few pages on your site." The checks come in two kinds:

• Critical: "If you fail any critical pre-move checks, you must fix the issue before you can continue."
• Non-critical: you see a warning with recommendations, but the request can continue.

When the critical checks pass, every site in the move shows a notification in Search Console that the move is in progress, for 180 days. On the new site it reads "Other sites moving to this site". As the move goes on, Google says you will see the old site's traffic added to the new site's.

Several sites, subdomains and chained moves

• No chains. "If you submit a change of address to redirect traffic from site A to site B, you can't immediately submit another change of address from site B to site C."
• Merging sites. Moving sites A, B and C into D at once "can cause some confusion and traffic loss." Google suggests moving one at a time and waiting until traffic is stable before the next.
• A domain and a subdomain going to different places. To move A.com to B.com but m.A.com to m.C.com, create a property for m.A.com and move it separately.
• Same structure. Keeping the site architecture the same at the new address passes signals more directly. Combining a domain move with a new URL structure "will probably" cost some traffic while Google reassesses the pages. Google's site-move guide makes the same point: do a domain change, a CMS change and a new layout one at a time.

The 180 days after

The request lasts 180 days. After that, "Google does not recognize any relationship between the old and new sites, and treats the old site as an unrelated site, if still present and crawlable." What Google asks for in that time and after:

• Keep the redirects. The Help page says "at least 180 days" and longer if Google Search still sends traffic to them. The Search Central guide says "generally at least 1 year", so Google can recrawl and reassign links from other sites, and suggests keeping them indefinitely for users. We go with the longer figure.
• Keep the old domain. Google recommends paying for it "for at least a year to prevent others from buying and using your abandoned domain for malicious purposes."
• Expect time, and some movement. Google says "a small to medium-sized website can take a few weeks for most pages to move, and larger sites take longer." Rankings may fluctuate while Google recrawls.
• Submit sitemaps for both sides. Google suggests submitting the new sitemap and a sitemap of the old URLs: indexing of the old one should fall toward zero as the new one rises. Warnings that the old URLs redirect are normal; Google says you can ignore them.
• Update links you control: internal links, profile links on social networks, and ad campaigns, plus asking sites that link to you to update their links.

The Page indexing report and crawl stats show how the move is going; see Search Console page indexing and crawl stats.

Cancelling a move

You can cancel within 180 days of the request. Google's steps, in order:

1. Remove the 301 redirects from the old site. Otherwise Google sees them on the next crawl and may keep redirecting.
2. Add 301 redirects from the new site back to the old one.
3. Open the Change of Address tool in the old site and click Cancel Move. Repeat for every old site you no longer want to move.

A short checklist

Our own summary of Google's steps, for a typical business site moving to a new domain:

• Old and new sites, with every www, non-www, subdomain and protocol variant, verified with an owner account the business controls.
• 301 redirects live from every old URL to its new equivalent, homepage to homepage, tested.
• Verification file or tag carried over to the new site; settings and disavow file copied.
• Change of address submitted for each variant of the old domain, from one Google account.
• New sitemap submitted; old URL sitemap submitted for monitoring.
• Calendar reminders: day 180 for the end of the request, one year for the redirects and the old domain's renewal.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need the Change of Address tool to move to https?

No. Google says not to use it for an http to https move; redirect and follow the site move guide, and Google works out the change.

Does the tool move www and other subdomains?

No. It moves only the domain you specify, with all its paths and both protocols. Submit a separate change of address for www, non-www and each other subdomain of the old domain.

Who can use the Change of Address tool?

An owner of both the old and the new property, using the same Google account for both. Full and restricted users can only view it.

What does the tool check before it sends the request?

That you own both sites, and that a few pages on the old site return 301 redirects. Failed critical checks block the request; non-critical ones only show a warning.

How long do I keep the redirects?

Google's Help page says at least 180 days, its site-move guide says generally at least a year, and longer if people still reach the old URLs.

Can I undo a change of address?

Yes, within 180 days: remove the old redirects, redirect the new site back, then click Cancel Move in the tool in the old property.

Moving a site to a new domain without losing its search traffic is part of our website development work. See all our services, or browse more guides.