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Instructions about verifying with Google confused in WordPress.com summary

  1. shadowoperator
    Member

    Hi. I'm writing even though the instructions say to handle all questions with Google or Bing, because this instruction is the very first step to handling webmaster tools with them, and the Google instructions on WordPress.com's site are confused. The instructions work until you get to the choice between "alternative methods" and "recommended methods" to get a meta tag. The WordPress instructions say to choose alternative methods, but they don't result in a bold-faced content value code like they're supposed to, but something else that doesn't even look like it and must be downloaded and then uploaded into WordPress. I tried, but I was afraid (because I didn't want to "strip out" WordPress stuff with HTML code, as some of the instructions say not to do) to upload it, because I saw HTML written on it. So, I tried to do the other alternative, the "recommended" method, which google apparently recommends when you're working with a site that links with another one (is that like an individual wordpress acccount linking with wordpress/search/etc?). It also said HTML, but this time, the code looked like the correct kind of content value code, in bold text. Plus, it was open to a copy and paste method, as per your instructions. Unfortunately I had already downloaded the other method, and I couldn't get it to function. I'm trying my best to follow the rules of wordPress.com, but the rules are very often unclear when it comes to dealing with the instructions that must be accomplished with the help of an outside site. Somebody needs to see to it that Google and WordPress.com have exactly the same set of instructions with all the same words in the same places for the benefit of people who are just trying to do this for themselves without much experience. I'm going to try Google's "recommended" method to see if it works. I hope it does, because otherwise all of WordPress's other instructions on this issue don't make sense. Thanks if anyone can help with this issue. I've written to Google too, because you said to ask them, so it's sort of like having two parents or employers who don't agree on issuing instructions.

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

  2. timethief
    Member

    1. Ditch the instructions from Google that do not apply to our free hosted WordPress.com blogs.
    2. Use the instructions I provided the link to earlier today http://en.support.wordpress.com/webmaster-tools/ because that's the only process that can be used for WordPress.com blogs.

  3. shadowoperator
    Member

    Thanks for the link (you didn't supply it to me, but I'll try to find it--I've having some difficulty getting access or using or etc., something, the forum thing). I guess what i'm saying is that the button they call "recommended" does what the button WordPress calls "alternative" does, and vice versa. At least, before it got all scrambled up on my Google webmaster account. now they keep telling me i don't own the site and asking me to ask someone to invite me. Next, they give me the meta tag code without making me go through the first few steps, but when I get it to WordPress and press the button to paste it, it doesn't say paste, but select all, and it doesn't release anything. Thanks, i hope this describe the problem accurately enough.

  4. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    The meta tag is what you want, and you can paste that in the Tools section of your blog's Dashboard.

  5. shadowoperator
    Member

    Yes, thank you, but my point is that I've tried over and over again, and that doesn't work. Today I'm in communication with Google to see what they say. Thanks for responding.

  6. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Is creativeshadows.wordpress.com the blog you're referring to? If so, I don't see any meta key content saved in the Tools section of your Dashboard.

  7. shadowoperator
    Member

    I worked at it for almost 24 hours solid--for example, one of the problems I was having was telling just where the "content" value started, because that's all wordPress.com wants, not the rest of the meta tag, and the instructions say the part in bold letters, and on Google, all of the letters and symbols look equally bold. But that's just one part of the problem. In order to understand all of the problems I was having with it, you would have to read my entire request for help with close attention and imagine yourself to be a person who had little experience of any kind of computer programming or computer stuff at all before this. Raincoaster suggested that I take a break from trying to work on it and see if I could do it later, so I stopped trying. If there's no meta key content in the tools section, it's because I couldn't get it to work, and i took Raincoaster's suggestion and left it alone for a while. People just keep referring me back to the same instructions, which I read so many times and tried to follow so many times that i had them memorized. If you re-read them yourself, maybe you'll understand something of what i'm having trouble with, and if you see my posts. Thanks very much for trying to solve the problem, but so far it just hasn't worked for me.

  8. raincoaster
    Member

    We have answered repeatedly. I don't know what else we can say.

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/profile/shadowoperator

    You don't HAVE to verify with Google, it's just something that helps.

  9. shadowoperator
    Member

    Believe me, raincoaster, I would like to verify with Google and learn to do the rest of SEO. I'm really very intelligent, just not experienced with computers. When someone gives me instructions, I try to follow them to the letter--but instructions in a field I'm not familiar with that require me to improvise are sometimes too much. I think you were right to advise me to leave it alone for a while and then go back and try again. Maybe I can later get it to work. For some unknown reason, when I follow the instructions you all have given me, not once has Google said "Verified." That's as much as I know. I know you must be frustrated; so am I. It's clearly not your fault, you've all responded repeatedly. I'll just wait for a while. Thanks for answering all of the questions you have so far.

  10. raincoaster
    Member

    Well, once you do it you have to wait for a few days. So just wait. It took mine several days to work.

  11. shadowoperator
    Member

    About that, the time it takes to work--even if it does take several days to work, Google should tell you right away if it's verified, true? I mean, their system seems to imply that you will immediately be told if you got it right. Then they say, "Don't delete this code even after it's put in successfully."

  12. raincoaster
    Member

    No, Google doesn't tell you you're verified before you actually get verified, and it takes some time to get verified. Put the code in and wait.

  13. shadowoperator
    Member

    Believe it or not, this is one of the most helpful instructions I've received. I knew the Google forum was slow to work, and I knew there was a time lag between when I tried to verify each time and when they recorded the attempt, but now I guess I can say that Google's slow about lots of things. It makes more sense that way. Thanks for being so patient.

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