Google Verification isn't working

!(upload://w1f23dyXKZAsdLhllCN4wAPuxP.png) Hi all,

I recently discovered that google is not indexing my RW6 site. I went to the Google Search console and it seems that when I went from http:// to https:// (a long time ago) they considered that a different site, which went unverified for many months until they sent an email saying something was wrong.

So I started a new account with Google Search console and followed the directions to verify my site, which did not seem to work. They sent me an .html download script, which I added to RW in the header/html window, replacing the code that was already there. then I published the page, clicked “verify” in the google window, and got “ownership failed”, sending me to Google Analytics asking for the (gtag.js) to be added to the header of every page. I’m lost here. Never had to do this the first time around many years ago when I verified my site. I’m happy to use any method to verify my site, so I can figure out what else may be messed up. Can anybody help, please? Thank you!

This might help:

It looks like your verification meta-tag is good but maybe you still need to add your analytics script

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Thank you Jabostick! So this video shows it being added to a different place from where I added the meta-tag. I should leave that where it is? And something I read said the analytics scripts needs to be added to every page. Is that the case, or just the home page?

In the video, it’s added where it is so that it lands on all pages of the site automatically. Where you have it, it’d need to be added on each page manually. Either is fine but the site-wide version is easier…

Now, RW 7 is laid out slightly different than RW 6 and I don’t have either in front of me right now but it shouldn’t be too dissimilar

This must be it! I’ll give it a try. Many thanks.

And I assume I have to republish the whole site…

Hmm… getting closer but no cigar. Verification still failed, but not because of the analytics tracking code. That must be good. It says in the screen shot “Could not find the Verification file (html meta-tag) in the required! location.” Is that the meta-tag which I added earlier? Anyone have any ideas? Thank you.

Maybe try using the .html file verification method from Google which you upload to your server?

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Never done it any other way. Takes less than a minute.

  1. Download .html verification file to desktop.
  2. FTP .html verification file to the site directory.
  3. Click Verify.
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Thanks, Jabostick, Thang and Martin. As I dug deeper into what’s going on, I discovered a mess related to the SSL setup (thanks, Godaddy) which had not been done correctly, causing Google to ignore me. I won’t bore you all with the details, but that’s got to be straightened out first. I appreciate your responses, and will be back!

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Have you opted out of the sneaky code that Godaddy installed on everyone’s website? GoDaddy is sneakily injecting JavaScript into your website and how to stop it | Igor Kromin

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