You migrated from old.com to new.com, set up 301 redirects, and the new domain is serving. But Google Search Console’s old property still only tracks the old domain, or you added new.com as a property and it sits empty while new URLs are clearly getting crawled. The thing people miss: a GSC property is not tied to your “site” as a concept. It is tied to a specific URL prefix or, for a Domain property, to DNS-verified ownership. Historical performance data stays in the old property and never transfers.
Fastest fix: add new.com as a Domain property, verify it by DNS TXT, then open the old property → Settings → Change of address → Update and point it at the new property. That tells Google to consolidate signals onto the new site for 180 days. Keep both properties and the 301 redirects live for at least a year.
Which bucket are you in?
| Symptom | Most likely cause | Jump to |
|---|---|---|
Only old.com appears in the property switcher | New domain never added | Cause 1 |
| New property exists but shows zero data | Not verified, or wrong prefix | Causes 2 and 3 |
www vs non-www (or http/https) data missing | URL-prefix only covers one variant | Cause 2 |
| Old property unchanged, new one slow to fill | Change of Address never filed | Cause 4 |
Per-locale (/en/, /zh/) numbers wrong | Locale sub-properties forgotten | Cause 5 |
| Old historical data gone | Old property deleted | Cause 6 |
Common causes
Ordered by hit rate, highest first.
1. New domain never added as a property
You moved DNS but never added new.com to Search Console. The property does not exist, so new URLs accumulate in Google’s index with no dashboard for you to see them.
How to spot it: Search Console → the property switcher (top-left). If only old.com is listed, add the new one.
2. Property type or prefix mismatch
You added a URL-prefix property for https://new.com/, but your site also serves https://www.new.com/. A URL-prefix property covers only the exact protocol, host, and path you entered, so the other variant is invisible. A Domain property covers every subdomain (www, m, blog) and both http and https at once.
You cannot convert an existing property between types. If you have the wrong type, add a second property of the correct type — both can coexist.
How to spot it: GSC → property settings → check the type. If it is URL-prefix and you serve more than one host or protocol, add a Domain property.
3. Ownership not verified for the new domain
You added the property but never finished verification (for a Domain property this is a DNS TXT record at the apex). The property shows in the list, but no data flows until it is verified.
How to spot it: open the new property. If you see a “Not verified” or “Ownership verification failed” banner, complete the TXT-record step. DNS propagation can take minutes to a few hours.
4. Change of Address never filed
The Change of Address tool tells Google “this site moved from X to Y” and forwards ranking signals to the new site for 180 days. Without it, consolidation is slower and can leave both versions competing in the index.
How to spot it: OLD property → Settings → Change of address. If it reads “No change of address,” you skipped this step.
5. Bilingual or i18n sub-properties forgotten
You serve new.com/en/ and new.com/zh/. With URL-prefix properties you need one per locale; with a single Domain property you capture all locales at once. A locale that has no property simply produces no per-locale Performance data.
How to spot it: Performance broken down by locale looks incomplete. Switch to a Domain property to capture everything under new.com.
6. Historical data lost when the old property was deleted
You deleted the old property “to clean up.” GSC has no undelete, and performance data is also hard-capped at 16 months regardless — clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position older than that are purged with no recovery path.
How to spot it: the property is gone from the list. Recovery is not possible. Export data before deleting any property, and export quarterly while data is still in the 16-month window.
Shortest path to fix
Step 1: Add the new domain as a Domain property
GSC → Add property → choose Domain (not URL-prefix) → enter new.com (no https://, no www.).
Verify with the DNS TXT record GSC gives you, placed at the apex of new.com. A Domain property confirms ownership of every subdomain and protocol in one shot, which is exactly what you want after a move.
Step 2: Submit the new sitemap
In the new property → Sitemaps → enter sitemap.xml (relative path, e.g. it resolves to https://new.com/sitemap.xml).
Wait for the status to read “Success.” Within hours, new URLs should start appearing in the Pages (indexing) report.
Step 3: File Change of Address in the OLD property
OLD property → Settings → Change of address → Update → select the new property as the destination → run the validation.
The tool runs pre-move checks and validates a sample of your old URLs (it confirms the 301s actually land on the matching new pages). A critical failure blocks the move, so fix it before retrying. Requirements:
- You own both properties under the same Google account, both verified.
- A sitewide
301(permanent) redirect maps each old URL to its new equivalent, including the homepage. robots.txton neither site blocks the URLs Google needs to crawl.
Note the tool’s two real limits, as of June 2026:
- It only works on domain-level properties (
example.com,m.example.com), not path-level ones likeexample.com/shop/. - It does not auto-migrate subdomains. If you also moved a separate
wwworm.property, file Change of Address for each one separately.
Step 4: Keep the old property and the redirects for at least a year
The Change of Address signal is active for 180 days, after which Google treats the old and new sites as unrelated. So:
- Keep the
301redirects live for at least 180 days, ideally 12 months — external backlinks still hit old URLs, get redirected, and pass signals. - Keep paying for the old domain for about a year so nobody can grab it.
- The old property keeps receiving lingering data during this window; export it periodically for your archive.
Step 5: Monitor both properties
For the weeks and months after the move:
- Old property: traffic should trend down as Google shifts to the new site.
- New property: traffic should trend up.
- Watch the old property’s
Pagesreport for any old URL returning404instead of301— a broken redirect stalls signal transfer.
Step 6: How to confirm it’s fixed
- Old property →
Settings→Change of addressshows the move as active (not “No change of address”). - New property →
Pagesreport shows new URLs moving into “Indexed.” - In Search,
site:new.comreturns your pages;site:old.comshrinks over the following weeks. - URL Inspection on a moved page in the new property reports it as indexed under the new canonical.
Step 7: After 12 months, decide on the old property
Once the 180-day signal is long past and traffic has fully shifted, the old property is purely historical. You can keep it indefinitely (it is free and harmless) for reference, or export and delete it. Never delete before exporting if you might want year-over-year analysis later.
Easy to misdiagnose as
People assume that adding the new domain “moves” data over from the old property. It does not. Historical data stays where it was logged; only the new property accumulates new data. The Change of Address tool transfers ranking signals, not your reporting history.
Prevention
- Use Domain properties (not URL-prefix) for new domains — they cover all subdomains and protocols automatically.
- File Change of Address the day you flip domains, not weeks later.
- Keep old GSC properties for archive after a migration; never delete during the transition.
- Export GSC data quarterly via the API; performance data is hard-purged at 16 months and there is no recovery.
- Keep
301redirects and the old domain registration alive for at least a year.
FAQ
- Does Change of Address transfer my historical clicks and impressions? No. It transfers ranking signals to help the new URLs rank; your old performance history stays in the old property and is never copied.
- How long does the Change of Address signal last? 180 days. After that Google treats the two sites as unrelated, so keep redirects up well past that — ideally a full year.
- Can I merge two properties into one? No. GSC has no merge. Keep both and query each separately, or rely on the single Domain property going forward.
- It only validated a few of my URLs — is that a problem? No. The tool checks a representative sample of old-to-new 301s. As long as it does not report a critical failure, the move proceeds.
- Do I need separate Change of Address requests for
wwwandm.versions? Yes, if those are separate domain-level properties. The tool does not auto-migrate subdomains. - Why is my new Domain property still empty after a day? Either DNS TXT verification did not complete, the sitemap was not submitted, or Google has not recrawled yet. Confirm verification first, then resubmit the sitemap.