A change is a must, especially in terms of web technology, where trends, requirements and needs evolve very fast.
Google Search Console is a web service by Google, provided free of charge for webmasters, allowing them to to monitor and check indexing status, as well as optimizing the visibility of their websites.
Two years after launching and testing the new Google Search Console and bringing it out in 2018, Google is saying goodbye to the old Google Search Console.
"Those pages are part of the history of the web, they were viewed over a billion times by webmasters from millions of websites. These pages helped site owners and webmasters to monitor and improve their performance on Google Search for over a decade."
With the old Search Console gone, Google is removing access to the old version, and redirecting all visits to the new Google Search Console interface.
The change can be significant in terms of SEO professionals who were already familiar and comfortable with the old Google Search Console interface. Another thing that should be considered is that, there is still no proper replacement for every old tool and report in the new Search Console.
This is why Google is still keeping the below alive, at least in the meantime:
- Remove URLs tool.
- Crawl stats report.
- Robots.txt testing tool.
- URL Parameters tool.
- International targeting.
- Google analytics association.
- Data highlighter tool.
- Messages report.
- Crawl rate settings.
- Email preferences.
- Web tools.
While those legacy reports aren't migrated to the new interface, as according to Google, the reports are made available through an option in the new Google Search Console named “legacy tools and reports.”
Webmasters should be able to access those legacy tools and reports via the links.
However, it should be noted that not all of those links work when webmasters have set up domain properties in the new Google Search Console in the first place.
And Google also stated that users shouldn’t expect all tools to be ported over to the new version.
"From now on, if you try to access the old homepage or dashboard you’ll be redirected to the relevant Search Console pages. There are only a few reports that will still be available on the old interface for now - check the Legacy tools and reports in the Help Center."
"We're continuing to work on making the insights from these reports available in the new Search Console, so stay tuned!
"Thank you for working together with us on making the web better - and see you at the new Search Console!" said Google.