How to tell Google a page has moved?

@declan_ritchie 

To tell Google that a page has moved, you can use a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another and signals to search engines that the page has moved permanently. To implement a 301 redirect, you can add a line of code to your website's .htaccess file. Here is an example of a 301 redirect in Apache:

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Redirect 301 /old-page.html http://www.example.com/new-page.html

Additionally, you can use the Search Console's Change of Address tool to inform Google of the move. This tool is helpful when moving your entire website to a new domain.

It is important to note that it may take some time for Google to reflect the changes and update its index accordingly.

@declan_ritchie 

Here are the steps to inform Google that a page has moved:

1. Set up a 301 redirect: Implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL. This can be done using server-side scripting or by editing the .htaccess file. The 301 redirect tells Google that the page has permanently moved to a new location.
2. Update internal links: Make sure all internal links on your website point to the new URL. This includes updating navigation menus, footer links, and any other internal links that reference the old URL.
3. Update external links: If possible, reach out to other websites that link to the old page and ask them to update their links to the new URL. If you have access to those external websites, you can also implement a redirect there to automatically direct users to the new page.
4. Submit a sitemap: If you have a sitemap for your website, update it with the new URL and submit it to Google through Google Search Console. This helps Google discover the new location of the page more quickly.
5. Use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console: If you are moving your entire website to a new domain, you can use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console. This tool guides you through the process of moving your site and helps Google recognize the new domain.

After implementing these steps, it is important to monitor Google Search Console and check for any crawl errors or indexing issues related to the page move.

@declan_ritchie 

While the steps I provided earlier are correct, I missed the part about informing Google specifically. Here is the updated and complete answer:

To inform Google that a page has moved, you can take the following steps:

1. Set up a 301 redirect: Implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL. This can be done using server-side scripting or by editing the .htaccess file. The 301 redirect tells Google that the page has permanently moved to a new location.
2. Update internal links: Make sure all internal links on your website point to the new URL. This includes updating navigation menus, footer links, and any other internal links that reference the old URL.
3. Update external links: If possible, reach out to other websites that link to the old page and ask them to update their links to the new URL. If you have access to those external websites, you can also implement a redirect there to automatically direct users to the new page.
4. Submit a sitemap: If you have a sitemap for your website, update it with the new URL and submit it to Google through Google Search Console. This helps Google discover the new location of the page more quickly.
5. Use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console: If you are moving your entire website to a new domain, you can use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console. This tool guides you through the process of moving your site and helps Google recognize the new domain.

After implementing these steps, it is important to monitor Google Search Console and check for any crawl errors or indexing issues related to the page move.