--- title: "Mueller: set change of address for www and non-www" url: https://seomadman.com/news/mueller-site-migration-change-of-address-months section: news language: en published: 2026-10-13T00:00:00.000Z modified: 2026-10-13T00:00:00.000Z author: Adam Hafez topics: ["Technical SEO", "Search Console", "Indexing"] --- # Mueller: set change of address for www and non-www ## The short answer John Mueller answered a Reddit site owner whose old domain returned to Google Search four months after a domain move. He said such moves sometimes take a particularly long time to process, and that a Change of Address set for both www and non-www can help the domain migrate fully. Two outlets quote him. ## Key takeaways - Mueller said sometimes things just take a particularly long time to be fully processed, as both Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Journal quote him. - He named one setting that can help, which is a Change of Address in Search Console for both the www and the non-www version, so that Google can fully migrate the domain. - He said Google adjusted the documentation a while back, and its Change of Address help does tell owners to cover every subdomain variant, www included. - The new domain fell from about 5,000 impressions a day to 20 a week, and Search Engine Journal says it is reasonable to treat such a case as canonicalization. - The wording below is as the two outlets quote Mueller, because we could not open the Reddit thread, which returned an error to our fetch. A site owner moved domains at the start of 2026, did the redirects and a Change of Address, and saw traffic recover by April. Four months later Google began showing the old domain again. John Mueller replied that moves can take a long time and named one setting that may help. We could not open the Reddit thread, which returned an error to our fetch. The facts of the case and Mueller's wording are as [Search Engine Roundtable](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-old-domain-42279.html) and [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-says-why-site-migrations-can-exceed-4-months/592757/) quote them, both on 13 October 2026. ## What happened to the site? Per Search Engine Journal's quote of the thread, the owner changed the name and domain to cover one more topic. They did the redirects, the Change of Address and the internal name changes right away, and traffic recovered around the start of April. The new domain then earned about 5,000 impressions a day. Four months later, the owner wrote, Google reverted everything to the old domain. More than 5,000 pages of the new domain moved to Crawled, currently not indexed, and the new domain now gets 20 impressions a week. The old domain's Search Console property shows everything again, and a result under the old domain redirects to the same post on the new one. ## What did Mueller say? Search Engine Journal quotes Mueller's reply in full: "Happy to take a look if you want to DM me the domains. Sometimes things just take a particularly long time to be fully processed." He added that Google noticed one thing, and adjusted the documentation a while back, that can help: make sure Change of Address is set up in Search Console for both www and non-www, so that it can fully migrate the domain. Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz splits the reply into the same two points. He also wrote that he could not imagine the www setting is the cause, and he does not know all the details beyond the thread. ## What does Google's guide say? We fetched Google's [Change of Address help page](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9370220) and it matches Mueller's pointer. It says the tool does not move subdomains below the domain you specify, www included, and tells site owners moving to another domain to use it for every variant of the old domain, even variants they are not actively using. It also asks that all of those variants be verified in Search Console. The same page says the move notification shows for 180 days, that redirects should stay for at least that long, and that Google prefers the new site as canonical during that period. It does not tell you how to resolve a case like this one, and Mueller did not claim it would. ## How long can a site move take? Mueller gave no figure. "Four months or more" is Search Engine Journal's reading of his reply, not his number. For a wider range, our report on [how long Google takes to crawl, index and update results](/reports/google-crawling-indexing-serving-timelines-2026) covers the typical and slowest site move times shown at Search Central Live, as a recap reported them. Search Engine Roundtable also embeds a post by Marie Haynes dated 13 October 2026. She says she sees the same pattern of migrations gone wrong, with the pages sitting in Crawled, currently not indexed, and offers a theory that a move triggers a new quality assessment. That is her opinion, not something Google confirmed. ## What should you check? Start with the setting Mueller named. In Search Console, confirm that every variant of the old domain, www and non-www, is a verified property with its own Change of Address. Then check that each old URL reaches its new counterpart in one hop with the [redirect chain analyzer](/tools/redirect-chain-analyzer), and plan the mapping with the [redirect map builder](/tools/redirect-map-builder). Both tools are our suggestion, not Mueller's. Search Engine Journal also lists items the asker did not mention: stray absolute links to the old domain, redirect type, chained redirects and an out-of-date sitemap. Those are the outlet's checklist and not Google's. Our [indexing](/topics/indexing) hub and the [Search Console](/topics/search-console) hub cover the reports you will use to watch the move. ## Frequently asked questions ### How long can a domain move take in Google Search? Mueller gave no number. He said things sometimes take a particularly long time to be fully processed. Search Engine Journal's headline reads four months or more, which is the outlet's framing of his reply. ### Which setting did Mueller point to? A Change of Address in Search Console set up for both the www and the non-www version of the old domain, so that Google can fully migrate the domain. He said the documentation was adjusted to say this. ### Does the Change of Address tool move www automatically? No. Google's help page says the tool does not move subdomains below the domain you specify, www included, and tells you to use it for every variant of the old domain, even ones you no longer use. ### Why would the old domain return after the new one was indexed? Neither outlet knows. Both say details were missing from the Reddit post, and Search Engine Journal treats it as a canonicalization question. Mueller offered to look at the domains by direct message. ## Sources 1. [Change of Address tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9370220) - Google Search Console Help (primary) 2. [Google Search Showing Sites Old Domain Fourth Months After Domain Move?](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-old-domain-42279.html) - Search Engine Roundtable 3. [Google Says Why Site Migrations Can Exceed 4 Months](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-says-why-site-migrations-can-exceed-4-months/592757/) - Search Engine Journal 4. [Reddit thread on the old domain returning (not opened by us)](https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1x2wm8u/google_search_randomly_started_indexing_posts/) - Reddit