By Shad Super in Questions —

What Should You Monitor in Google Search Console After Submitting a Change of Address?

Summary

After submitting a change of address in Google Search Console, it is critical to monitor several key metrics and reports such as the Change of Address status, Index Coverage, Search Performance, Sitemaps, and External and Internal Links. This helps ensure the migration of your site to a new domain is successful and does not negatively impact your search visibility and traffic.

Change of Address Status

Once you have initiated the change of address process in Google Search Console, keep a close eye on the status of your request. This helps you confirm that Google has received and is processing your request to redirect traffic from your old domain to your new one.

Index Coverage

Error and Warning Reports

After the change of address, monitor the Index Coverage report to identify any pages on your new domain that are not being properly indexed. Look out for errors and warnings, such as "404 Not Found" or "Server Errors," which need immediate attention.

Valid with Warnings

Check for pages that are indexed but have issues, marked as "Valid with warnings." Ensure these are resolved to avoid potential crawl inefficiencies.

Search Performance

Changes in Traffic

Track the Performance report to monitor traffic changes, click-through rates (CTR), and average position for your new site. Significant drops in these metrics might indicate issues that need to be addressed.

Queries and Pages

Analyze the specific queries and pages receiving traffic. Ensure that the most important pages from your old site continue to perform well in the search results for your new domain.

Sitemaps

Submission and Coverage

Ensure that the sitemap for your new domain is submitted in the Sitemaps report and the pages listed are being crawled and indexed correctly. A properly formatted sitemap helps Google discover and index your pages more efficiently.

Monitor the Links report for external backlinks to your old site. Ensure they are updated to point to your new domain. You may need to outreach to webmasters to update crucial backlinks.

Verify that internal links within your new domain site are functioning correctly and not leading to the old domain. Broken internal links can disrupt the user experience and negatively impact your search engine optimization (SEO).

Crawling and Fetching

Crawl Stats

Check Crawl Stats to monitor how frequently Google is crawling your new site. A healthy crawl rate indicates that Google is effectively indexing your new domain.

URL Inspection

Use the URL Inspection tool to manually inspect important pages to ensure they are being correctly indexed and displayed in search results.

References