How to Fix Google Search Console Change of Address Error. Validation failed. Couldn’t fetch the page.

If you’re a website owner who’s recently moved your website to a new domain, you may have encountered a “Google Search Console Change of Address Error” that says “Validation failed. Couldn’t fetch the page.” This error occurs when you try to use the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console to notify Google about your website’s new domain.

The Change of Address tool is a useful feature in Google Search Console that helps website owners inform Google about a domain change. This tool ensures that Google recognizes your new domain and redirects all your search traffic to the new domain. This can help maintain your website’s search engine rankings and prevent any loss of traffic due to the domain change.

However, if you encounter the “Validation failed. Couldn’t fetch the page” error when using the Change of Address tool, it means that Google’s crawlers are unable to access your new domain.

Some common reasons this may happen are:

• Server configuration issues – Make sure your server is set up properly to allow Googlebot to crawl your site. Check for redirect loops, 404 pages, or blocked user agents.
• HTTPS issues – If you recently switched your site from HTTP to HTTPS, Google may still be crawling the HTTP version. You need to configure your redirects and secure your site properly.
• Change of address – If you recently moved your site to a new domain name or URL, Google may still be looking for the old URL. You need to configure 301 redirects from the old URL to the new one.

To fix this issue, first check:

1. Your server configuration – Make sure Googlebot can access your site properly.
2. Your redirects – Ensure you have the proper 301 redirects set up from any old URLs to the new one.
3. Your HTTPS – Configure your HTTPS and secure your site if you recently changed to an HTTPS connection.

If you recently moved your site, the most likely cause is a “change of address” where Google is still looking for the old URL. To fix this:

1. Set up 301 redirects from the old URL (or URLs) to the new one. Make sure to test first the redirection is working.
2. Go to the OLD domain property in the Search Console and put the old domain URL in the Inspect URL bar and then Submit the OLD domain URL for re-indexing.
   
3. To make it faster for Google to detect the redirection, on the OLD site console, go to URL Inspection and click the “TEST LIVE URL” button. This will force Googlebot to fetch the site instantly. And you can see in the HTML source code the new URL being served to Googlebot.
   
4. The go back to the “Change of Address Tool” on the NEW domain Url property and resubmit. This should fix the 301-redirect undetected issue. And you can proceed for the migration.
   
5. Google will do their stuffs to pass the traffic to the NEW property. Also if you want to cancel the migration, you can submit for cancellation within 180 days after it was made.
   
6. If you want to go the natural way, you may skip steps 2-4 above – this may take hours or even a day or two for Google to recognize the redirects.

In conclusion, if you encounter the “Validation failed. Couldn’t fetch the page” error when using the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console, it’s important to take immediate action to fix the issue. By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure that your website’s domain change is properly recognized by Google and maintain your website’s search engine rankings and traffic.