Google updated its site move documentation to say that you should enter in all the domain variants in the Google change of address tool when doing a site move.
What Google wrote. Google posted the following new note in the document:
“For domain migrations: If you’re moving your site from one domain to another, make sure to submit Change of Address requests for all subdomains and the www and non-www variants of the old domain name (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. Ensure that you have all of these variants verified in Search Console.”
Domain variants. Domain variants are all the variations of your domains, including sub-domains, different TLDs, www versus non-www and so forth. These include en.example.com, www.example.com, and example.com to new-example.net, as an example.
Why we care. Google wrote that “domain migrations work best when all variants of a site are migrated properly,” which is why you should follow Google’s guidelines carefully when making site moves and domain migrations.
Site moves and domain migrations are scary tasks for SEOs and site owners, so having very specific steps and guidelines make the process a little less painful.
The change of address tool is there to help you speed up these migrations, so make sure to use it properly.
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