Importance of WMT change of address and problem doing it

[Houses]

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:

1. 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.

2. 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

[DarinPirkey]

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.

[Houses]

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?

[DarinPirkey]

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.

[Houses]

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?

[DarinPirkey]

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.