Google - Verify site ownership

7 Feb 2007, 6:01 PM

#1

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Google - Verify site ownership

I am struggling to Verify my site with Google,
I am getting this error:-
We've detected that your 404 (file not found) error page returns a status of 200 (Success) in the header.

and so they will not verify my site,

How do I verify my site by adding a meta tag to my site's home page?

Once you access the Verify page for the site:

Choose the add a meta tag option.

Copy and paste the meta tag supplied into the HEAD section of your site's home page.

Click the "Verify" button. We will verify that the meta tag exists in the correct location. If it does, we'll show a status of VERIFIED and provide a link to your site statistics. You can view your statistics at any time after your site is verified by clicking the site link on the My Sites page

  <META name="verify-v1" content="googlexxxxxxxxxx.html ">. The meta tag we found was <META name="verify-v1" content="Incorrect_string">.

can anyone advise me how I can add the Meta tag code the header in the index.html ? Home page !
Thanks
Andrew

7 Feb 2007, 9:08 PM

#2

pierre

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Try putting the code into the file includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

7 Feb 2007, 9:31 PM

#3

scrat

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Thanks that worked a treat :D

18 Feb 2007, 4:10 AM

#4

justwade

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

I have the same problem. I did the .html file choice reccommended at Google and put it in my domains root. Plus set up in admin the page_not_found and added the code recommended in the extras folder for .htaccess (I put in root where other redirects are)

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.MYSITE.COM/catalog/index.php?main_page=page_not_found

Tests I made show the missing pages work perfect but when Google later rechecks they unverified the site.

We've detected that your 404 (file not found) error page returns a status of 200 (Success) in the header.

I remove the code from .htaccess and Google then will verify ok but the page not found no longer is seen.

So is the page_not_found always giving out 200(Success) responses?

18 Feb 2007, 8:16 PM

#5

scrat

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Try putting the code into the file includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

Did you try this? It worked for me!

18 Feb 2007, 10:36 PM

#6

justwade

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

I haven't tried it yet, but will. I am just trying to learn about this.

I was trying to understand if my page_not_found is giving the proper 404 errors when hit. That is what I thought should happen, and I wonder if this meta tag would only please Google, but still give a 200 (success) response.

Do you know if your Google solution is still responding with the 404 errors for a page_not_found?

And did you put the recommended extra code in .htaccess?

19 Feb 2007, 9:15 AM

#7

scrat

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

As soon as I placed the code in the meta tag file google verified my pages and did not come up with any errors, I didnot add any code to my .htaccess. I have now removed the code, but you may from time to time insert it again to re add the code again to verify if google request it.

3 May 2007, 10:48 AM

#8

addvant

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Other option to do this is to Open the file: includes/temlates/your_template/common/html_header.php
and add the Google verify code under the <HEAD> tag.

See for more details.:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...light=add+meta

It worked for me.

*** Many Thanks for Zen-Cart Team and forum members ***

6 Aug 2007, 12:02 AM

#9

hubert

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Try putting the code into the file includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

Just a question about adding to meta_tags.php.

do you just add this line or do you duplicate a meta_tags.php file then add the line ?

Thanks

Hubert

6 Aug 2007, 4:43 AM

#10

drbyte

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

If you're trying to resolve the page-not-found getting a 200 response instead of 404, then follow these instructions:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65275#post371521

6 Aug 2007, 11:35 AM

#11

hubert

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

No I'm not trying to resolve anything for now, I was just wondering if the file was a only one line file, or if the line was to be added to a meta_tags.php file duplicated from another directory.

Thanks

Hubert

6 Aug 2007, 10:53 PM

#12

drbyte

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

hubert:

Just a question about adding to meta_tags.php.

Try putting the code into the file includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php
do you just add this line or do you duplicate a meta_tags.php file then add the line ?

hubert:

No I'm not trying to resolve anything for now, I was just wondering if the file was a only one line file, or if the line was to be added to a meta_tags.php file duplicated from another directory.I'm not sure I understand.
Is your question related to the google issues discussed in this thread, or related to making edits of override files?
Have you already created an override file from a copy of the original?
Which "line" are you wanting to add/edit?
What problem are you trying to solve?

7 Aug 2007, 12:13 AM

#13

hubert

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Thanks for following my foggy question DrByte :-)

Pierre said

Try putting the code into the file includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

Scrat replied that it works for him, but I haven't got any meta_tags.php file in includes/languages/english/MY_TEMPLATE/

So I was wondering if I had to make a brand new blank file with only one line, or do I first have to take the content of another meta_tags.php file and then add the line to this file.

No problem to solve just want to be a bit more precise.

Thanks a lot
Hubert

7 Aug 2007, 12:55 AM

#14

drbyte

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

hubert:

...but I haven't got any meta_tags.php file in includes/languages/english/MY_TEMPLATE/

So I was wondering if I had to make a brand new blank file with only one line, or do I first have to take the content of another meta_tags.php file and then add the line to this file.No problem.

Yes ... standard override procedure is ... you need to make a copy of the original file, and then apply to it the changes you want (edits or adds), saving the newly modified file in your override folder.

7 Aug 2007, 11:04 AM

#15

hubert

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

DrByte:

No problem.

Yes ... standard override procedure is ... you need to make a copy of the original file, and then apply to it the changes you want (edits or adds), saving the newly modified file in your override folder.

Thank you Dr

Hubert

8 Aug 2007, 8:15 PM

#16

poolprorich

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

i am having the same problem, i put in the mata tag files and got an error i am not very good with php so could anyone tell me how to add it to metatags,
it looks to me that all in matatags are called from another portion of the site and how would i define my tag.

any help would be great
thanks rich

24 Aug 2007, 4:13 AM

#17

rylynn

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Hey I've been having the same trouble and it's been driving me up the wall.

I've tried putting the code in /includes/languages/english/meta_tags.php but apparently I'm doing it wrong because google still doesn't see it. The instruction were apparently a little to vague for me..

Do I just put the google meta tag line into the file as is? : <meta name="verify-v1" content="blahblahblah"/>

Because obviously if I do the php is going to have an error.. if I put it in before or after the php as is then it makes all the fonts on my site huge for some reason. If I put it in the form of the rest of the things in the meta_tags php: (define('blahblah', 'blah ');

then everything works fine but google doesn't see it still.

How is this so easily put in to make everything work fine and google see it?

Thanks,
Rylynn

24 Aug 2007, 8:56 AM

#18

drbyte

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Re: Google - Verify site ownership

Rylynn, the combination of a couple different topics above makes things a bit confusing. In those cases, the right file to edit would be the html_header.php file.

HOWEVER ... there's an easier way that doesn't require editing any of your site core files !!

Create a new file named jscript_googleverify.php
Put this into it ... just the code you need for Google (likely just the ONE line) ... (do NOT use any <?php or ?> tags in this file):```
<meta name="verify-v1" content="blahblahblah"/>

3. Upload this new file into your custom template folder's jscript folder, like so:
/includes/template/YOURTEMPLATE/jscript/jscript_googleverify.php

This will cause that file's contents to be displayed inside the <head> tag of your site ... and you won't have to touch the default html_header.php file, making upgrades simpler !

*
NOTE: This will make the verification code show on every page of your site. However, since you only need the code in place for Google to read it ONCE, you can delete the new file again after Google has read it to verify your site once.*

26 Aug 2007, 1:12 AM

#19

rylynn

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