Does removal of domain www prefix require Google address change tool?

Question

I am aware of the Google webmaster tool for changing addresses, which according to the help applies for the following site moves:

• The protocol: http://www.example.com to https://www.example.com
• The domain name: example.com to example.net
• The URL paths: example.com/page.php?id=1 to example.com/widget

So just to be sure, if I am to change my domain from www.example.com to example.com a 301 redirect would be sufficient and I do not need the Google site move tool? Or are there people who have bad experiences with this?

Answer 1

on changing www to non-www, you should do both:

1 make a 301 redirect

2 make a change in the search console

• Without the first you get duplicated content issue
• without the second you get wrong data in the search console and in analytics, if search console bound to it.