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I have a client whose websites I have just moved from http to https. He's also asked me to update Google Web Master Tools too.

Web Master Tools is now called Google Search Console, and appears to have changed how you do this.

I found this question: Moving from HTTP to HTTPS in Google Search Console

Which explains the old way to do this, with some brief text saying the way this works has changed, without explaining what you do now: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/02/announcing-domain-wide-data-in-search.html

It's not clear from either of those articles, or from searches on Google, the process I need to use to do this now. It also kind of implies it might be automatic?

Can someone clarify this (all the sites are in Google Search Console as http already, but not https) - or confirm that no action needs to be taken anymore?

The web server is forwarding http to https with a 301, as well as http://www.example.com to https://example.com, and https://www.example.com to https://example.com

dan
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niico
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Is there any reason to set up anything in Search Console, besides the client asking you to do so? Google will naturally catch up with your site's changes and 301. This will reflect in the Console too, automatically. You might want to spend some time checking for mixed content after moving to HTTPS automatically or by hand, in the browser, to prevent "unsecure error warning". Also, make sure all pages are redirected. I had a BIG client who lost 70% of traffic due to poorly handled 301s to HTTPS. SC is the last thing to worry about, it will adjust itself. In general, you can think of SC as a tool to tell you if you are managing your site right, not to resolve issues (there are exceptions). If there are not alerts or warning, don't worry about it too much.

Pang
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marko-36
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  • Thanks, yes all redirections are now in place all tested and working fine. I think before people wanted to browse SC and had to setup all their sites again as https. So maybe it is more for monitoring than 'fixing' anything? – niico May 08 '19 at 23:01
  • Yes, that is what I meant. SC is optional. You should be fine without it, if you manage your site properly. It can help you check that there are no serious issues with Google, but that does not mean your site is performing best, for example, in terms of SEO. It also provides shortcuts, to "tell" Googlebot things about your site, which may not be clear for some reasons - often if things are not set up properly - such as the https issue, or if you'd be using sitemap on a non-standard url, etc. – marko-36 May 09 '19 at 07:51