Google’s New Tool for Webmasters

Darren Franks - June 12, 2009

There’s a new tool for webmasters that was recently unveiled by Google and it’s called “Change of Address”. The tool, which can be found in Google’s newly revamped Webmaster Tools, allows webmasters to tell Google when they are moving to a new domain from their old one. Essentially, it lets Google index the new pages faster to ease the transition of the domain change.

Of course, webmasters still have to follow the usual protocols for redirecting their old pages to the new ones. For instance, making sure all of the 301 permanent redirects are configured correctly to tell both the search engines and users the location of the new pages is still of the utmost importance. Also informing webmasters to update any inbound links to your site still has to be part of the checklist of “moving items”.

What impact will this have on SEO? For one thing, webmasters can now rest assured that their hard work in setting up the new site will not be in vain. Providing they follow the other recommendations for site redirection, Google has provided this as a sort of insurance policy to make sure the user receives the most current search results.

In the future, Google and other search engines may make it even simpler to specify newer domains for webmasters. Search engines in general are getting much savvier in specifying the correct URLs to show in the results pages. This makes it better for both the user and webmasters. Webmasters can now focus on getting to the important business of optimizing the website and not be as concerned as to whether Google is indexing the correct URL.