Importance of WMT change of address and problem doing it
-
Hi,
How important is it to submit a change of address in WMT?
I say that because I am having problems doing it so wondered if it was worth the hassle in trying to fix it.
I am getting the error: "We couldn't verify website.co.uk. To submit a change of address, website.co.uk must be verified using the same method as www.website.co.uk. Add website.co.uk to your account and verify ownership, then try again."
I have looked on the web to try and find an answer and have come across 2 suggestions:
-
You might have lost the verification with the redirect. If you used a metatag on the home page, the home page is now redirecting. If you had uploaded a verification text file, that file is probably now gone and redirecting as well. You probably need to re-verify the site. Either re-upload the text file and configure it not to redirect (may be difficult) or use the DNS server verification method.
-
You need to verify the non www. version of the website because that's the way Google like it.
Not sure why solution 2 would be necessary but it does seem to be what WMT are getting. Because the site already redirects, 1 would then come in to play.
Is it worth persevering with because IT will be getting a long list of stuff to do from me as it is....
Thanks all
-
-
Yes that is one way.
Here is a link to a bunch of methods to verify your site
https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/verification-specifics
If you have access to the Registrar (or know who does) then it's much easier to verify that way.
-
Thanks again.
At https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=44231 it says:
"Generally, once you have verified one version of the domain, we can easily verify the other using the original verification method. However, if you've removed the file, meta tag, or DNS record, you'll need to repeat the verification steps."However, I can't see a way of Google verifying the non www versions using the same code. When I added a non www version to WMT it gives me new code. The www. site has meta tag with verify-v1 but the new code generated for the non www. is meta name="google-site-verification".
Do I just try and verify the non www. as if it were an unconnected site?
-
The first thing you will need to do is add the opposite www version of the site you have already verified to Google WMT.
For instance. If you have already verified example.co.uk you'll need to add a new site for www.example.co.uk
If the verification code is already on the site you should be good to go by clicking verify. If however, it is not, you can add it with the instructions given on WMT.
The end result is that you will have two version of your site in WMT dashboard. the www and the non www version of your site. Let me know if you need a few screenshots or more info.
-
Thanks.
We have stopped using a few old domains which are the ones I am trying to change the address of.
The new domain is one we were already using anyway.
How do I now verify the non www versions of the old domains? What do I need to ask IT to actually do?
-
I generally only submit a change of address if my root domain is changing. If you are doing a compete root domain change (ie. example.co.uk to website.co.uk) I would highly recommend doing a change of address.
If however you are just getting this error you'll need to verify both the www and non www versions of your site. You won't be able to set a geographic target, preferred version and other features until you do this.
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
-
Yet Another, Yet Important URL structure query.
Massive changes to our stock media site and structure here. While we have an extensive category system previously our category pages have only been our search pages with ID numbers for sorting categories. Now we have individual category pages. We have about 600 categories with about 4 max tiers. We have about 1,000,000 total products and issues with products appearing to be duplicate. Our current URL structure for producta looks like this: http://example.com/main-category/12345/product-name.htm Here is how I was planning on doing the new structure: Cat tier 1: http://example.com/category-one/ Cat tier 2: http://example.com/category-one/category-two/ Cat tier 3: http://example.com/category-one-category-two/category-three Cat tier 4: http://example.com/category-one-category-two-category-three/category-four/ Product: http://example.com/category-one-category-two-category-three/product-name-12345.htm Thoughts? Thanks! Craig
Technical SEO | | TheCraig0 -
What is the optimum schema for a Website and how important is it really is for SEO?
Hey everyone,
Technical SEO | | artdivision
As you all probably has seen Google has changed their structure testing tool and alongside that has also changed what is considered as valid and not valid. I have been struggling with this question for quite a while now where opinions are really split. **1. How important is Schema for SEO? **
2. How far should you go Schema'ing your website pages? From the one hand i can see how it can be easier for a BOT to read a code that has proper "road signs" (our schemas markups), on the other hands, Google is already extremely clever is working out what is the header, sidebar or footer as well as review and or a blog posts (especially for those of us who use Wordpress. Would love to know if someone has seen a "Like to Like" show case with schemas and/or have some factual information regarding what should or shouldn't be done when it comes ot Schema. Dan. x1aw0 -
Change of address form in Webmaster Tools
I have changed my domain from .co.uk to .com and tried to submit a change of address form in Google Webmaster Tools. However it seems because I redirect my home page onto www.domain.com/index.php I cannot submit the form as it is not a domain name. Is there a way round this? It is not currently an option to move away from www.domain.com/index.php Thanks in advance
Technical SEO | | TheHutGroup0 -
Changing Domain Name
Hi all, A client has just got their .edu domain and they want to change their current domain name (a .com) to this new .edu domain. The domain's CMS is Wordpress. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but basically I will need to create a new site (but they want to keep current design), move everything across to the new domain name, and 301 URL per URL? What about all the citations that the old URLs have gotten? The website is listed on Google listings/maps for some of their local keywords. Is there anyway to preserve this? Thank you all in advance.
Technical SEO | | EdwardDennis0 -
Changing title tags, do we need 301 redirects
I found many duplicate title tags and I'm in the process of changing it Do I need 301 redirects in place when I switch it? I am only changing the title tag. Also, we are switching over to a new site very soon, I am worried that we might be using too many 301 redirect "hops" because we are doing a lot of optimization as well. (video from matt cutts describing 301 redirects and hops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lVPrYoBkA. Does anyone have any experience in doing too many redirect hops that it affected your rankings? Any good ideas to avoid this?
Technical SEO | | EcomLkwd0 -
H1 problem on my site not sure how to solve it
Hi i have just done an on grade report for my site www.in2town.co.uk and i found that i had a number of h1 which was not doing my seo any good. I have sorted most of the h1 problems out but the report is still showing i have two h1 but i cannot find them, i have found one which i have done which is a short description of the site under the main banner page but i cannot find the second h1 can anyone please let me know if their is a simple way of finding the other h1 so i can deal with it many thanks
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Is Pinging important?
Somebody suggested me to ping my website's backlinks using services like www.Pingler.com. Firstly, I don't know what 'pinging' is and why is it important. Secondly, Should I go for it? Lastly, what kind of links should I ping regularly? I researched on google and got a feeling that only blogs should be pinged because they are updated regularly. Is that so?
Technical SEO | | KS__1 -
Multiple title and description change is considered spam?
I'm changing title and description several times throught 1-2 months... will Google penalize me? I'm worried that testing several title and description ideas would affect the site rankings on google. Anyone had a problem with that... or can i continue testing as many titles and descriptions as i want?
Technical SEO | | mosaicpro0