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Adding a meta tag

  1. margaretedits
    Member

    I'm following the directions from http://en.support.wordpress.com/webmaster-tools/ to the best of my ability, but I still cannot verify my webpage with Google. I keep getting the messager "verification failed." Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

    The blog I need help with is margaretadopts.wordpress.com.

  2. rachelmcr
    Staff

    Are you copying the entire meta tag or just the content value (the part listed in bold in item #6 in the WordPress directions)?

  3. margaretedits
    Member

    I've tried both--copying the entire meta tag
    <meta name="google-site-verification" content="aiAzpb4fYAAYTpRbrP9WYaXwyjwFnf_eCmzUOGjD6xc" />

    and the content value "aiAzpb4fYAAYTpRbrP9WYaXwyjwFnf_eCmzUOGjD6xc" />.

    Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Your help is greatly appreciated!

  4. rachelmcr
    Staff

    You only want to use the characters that are in between the quotation marks (don't include the quotation marks or the characters that come after the closing quotation mark). Hopefully that will work for you!

  5. margaretedits
    Member

    I tried that, and it still doesn't work. This is what I used:
    aiAzpb4fYAAYTpRbrP9WYaXwyjwFnf_eCmzUOGjD6xc

    Any other ideas? Thanks so much for replying.

  6. rachelmcr
    Staff

    I would double-check (and triple-check) that the characters in the "Google Webmaster Tools" box in WordPress are exactly those characters and only those characters. Then I would double-check that you clicked "Save Changes" on that page before trying to verify it.

    I just tagged this post for staff attention, so if those tips don't work hopefully a staff member can figure out if something is going wrong on the WordPress side of things.

  7. rachelmcr
    Staff

    Another approach (one of my favorite when computer-related things are being glitchy) is to erase everything and start from scratch. Delete the site from Google Webmaster Tools and erase everything from WordPress Tools. Then start over, checking everything carefully as you go. It sounds silly, but a little thing like a typo or an extra (or missing) character makes all the difference.

  8. raincoaster
    Member

    And wait. It took mine a week for it to actually work.

  9. margaretedits
    Member

    Thanks so much for the advice! I'll give it a few days and then try again.

  10. margaretedits
    Member

    Okay, so I waited a day and one of my WordPress blogs was verified but the other wasn't. So I deleted everything and did it again and waited a day and it still didn't work. So frustrated! Any other ideas would be great.

    Thanks,
    Margaret

  11. timethief
    Member

    The good news is that even if you never verify your blog your content will be indexed. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/01/21/omg-i-cant-find-my-blog-on-google/

  12. margaretedits
    Member

    That does make me feel better. Thanks for the link!

  13. timethief
    Member

    Not to worry as I know that even it you don't verify, provided you start publishing content regularly your content will be indexed.

  14. zandyring
    Happiness Engineer

    Hi there,

    We've had a few reports of users having issues with getting the Google verification to work. I would recommend waiting up to a week and seeing if your result changes. And as noted above - you will still get indexed!

    Cheers, and thank you so much for your patience!

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