Site Change of Address issue in Google Search Console

[HoosierBuff]

Hi All,

I have a site that changed their domain a while back (2017 - ish). The site appears to have been 301 redirected correctly to the new domain. For story purposes we'll say they changed the name from AAAcleaningservices.com to AAAPropertyservices.com

Today, I claimed the old domain AAAcleaningservices.com in WMT, and went about changing the address. I got to step 2, and google said this:

Is this just because it has been redirected for so long?

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Hey @HoosierBuff

The new domain in WMT wouldn't happen to be HTTPS, would it? And the old is HTTP?

If that's the case, you need to pay for the security certificate for the old domain.

That said, if the domain change happened in 2017, doing the address change in WMT isn't going to do a whole lot of good at this point, in my opinion, so I wouldn't spend too much time on it. If you're seeing URL strings from the old domain, you might want to make sure that all URLs are being redirected, and not just the HP.

 

[HoosierBuff]

Thanks.. Cherie.

I'm trying to figue out why the client ranks #5 or #7 for brand name searches, behind yelp, FB, homeadvisor and others. .. formally changing the old domain was one my things to resolve as a just in case. But, you are right, there is no evidence that the old domain is showing up at all.