Google Webmaster Tools provide free tools that can be used to diagnose, troubleshoot and suggest ways to correct a website's technical-related issues. As Google is constantly improving everything else it offers users, it has also recently improved its webmaster tools. Keep reading for a closer look at the changes.
One of the most common issues that most webmasters will be dealing with when using Google Webmaster Tools is in relation to search engine optimization. Naturally, we'll be focusing on the new tools that can be most helpful to your SEO tasks.
As of May 2010, Google made a significant improvement to its webmaster tools, which now feature a variety of diagnostic tools and data that can help webmasters to further improve their websites in terms of traffic, search engine visibility and crawlability in Google.
This is a review of the new features and tools available in the latest release of Google Webmaster Tools. This article also includes some of the latest techniques that the webmaster must know in order to get the most out of their use.
This tutorial assumes you have basic knowledge of Google webmaster Tools and that you have a site added and verified to get data from the tools.
Speed up the Transfer to a New Domain Using the "Change of Address" Tool
Moving to a new domain is common among webmasters and owners of online businesses. However, it's a painstaking task, not only technically but also in terms of affecting your rankings and customers in the long run. Think about having thousands of indexed pages in Google and hundreds of key phrases ranking very well, and then one day you move your website to a new domain.
The result can be quite disastrous, because you will experience long periods of lost traffic and rankings, which of course translates to lost sales. Before, the classical solution to moving a website went as follows:
1. Set up your new website.
2. 301 redirect your old website to the new domain.
3. Wait a couple of months (six months for big sites) to stabilize website traffic and rankings. In this stage, the new website will be the one ranking for those keywords, and the old website will be dropped in Google index for successful 301 redirection.
Thanks to the "Change of Address" tool in Google Webmaster Tools, that process is much simpler. According to Google "Change of Address will help us update our index faster and smooth the transition for your users."
Using this tool can smooth and quicken the maturation of any website transfer. To do this in Google webmaster tools, you need to follow this procedure:
1. Set up your new website using your new domain name.
2. 301 redirect or use the link rel canonical tag to emphasize that the new website is now the canonical domain for your content.
3. Add your new website in Google Webmaster Tools. You need to verify this using any of the recommended methods (such as meta tags or others).
4. Go to Siteà Change of Address in Google Webmaster Tools. Select the new domain in the drop down list under "Select a verified site..." And then click submit.
Google Optimization 
