Field notes

Which address should Google show for the service?

A service can exist at a new URL while the navigation, sitemap and canonical tag still point in three directions. This field exercise shows how to decide which address customers should find and check the signals around it.

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Compare the requested address with the URL chosen for search.

Sample migration worksheet

A commercial service gets a dedicated page

Intent: The commercial service should rank at its own new address.
Check: Follow the old URL. Inspect the new page’s canonical and index setting.
Expected evidence: Final status, canonical target, internal links and sitemap all identify the intended URL.
Decision: Fix the inconsistent signal and inspect the public result after release.

Write down the intended destination first

Choose the durable public page for this service. If the former address should retire, check its actual response and each redirect hop. Record the final URL and its status. If two domains are intended to have distinct pages, inspect the content and canonical address of each separately.

Check what the destination declares

Read the page’s canonical link, indexing instructions and visible service description. Then inspect the internal navigation and sitemap entry. A redirect targeting a campaign page marked noindex produces a very different setup from a redirect targeting an indexable service page.

Read the observed and intended states together

After release, repeat the public response checks and save the date. When Search Console access is available, inspect the URL’s recorded crawl date and Google-selected canonical. A previous crawl can explain a difference between the live page and the stored search record.

Which address should Google show for the service?

A commercial service gets a dedicated page

Write down the intended destination first

Check what the destination declares

Read the observed and intended states together

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