Google has included support for moving subdomain.domain.com to a new domain in the Change of Address tool within Google Webmaster Tools.
If you review the documentation as of last night, it was updated and included “or subdomain” to the instructions. The new documentation includes:-
- Use the Change of address tool when your site move entails a domain or subdomain change, such as changing from http://fish.example-petstore.com to http://example.com or http://example-petstore.com.
- Note: The tool does not currently support the following kinds of site moves: subdomain name changes, protocol changes (from HTTP to HTTPS), or path-only changes.
Previously users were unable to communicate to Google in Google Webmaster Tools that they are moving a subdomain to a new domain. Now they can, which is a great addition to the change of address tool. Of course, many still want the change of address tool to support HTTP to HTTPS moves, which is currently does not. In either case, setting up 301 redirects is a really good step to also communicate the domain moves.
