Webmaster Tools Suddenly Asking For Verification of Site Registered for 5 Years
-
Google Webmaster Tools has been successfully installed on my website, (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) for more than five years. Suddenly, today I have received a request to Verify this Site". This makes no sense.
The only possibility I can think of is that this is somehow tied to the following events in the last month:
1. Launch of new version of website on June 4th
2. Installation of Google of Tag Manager
3. Sudden Increase in number of pages indexed by Google. Unexplained indexing of an additional 175 pages. About 625 pages should be indexed, while 800 are now indexed.In the last month ranking and traffic have fallen sharply. Could it be tat these issues are all linked? But the strangest issue is the request to verify the site.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Alan -
True. Could be that you were using a method that required reverification after a Google-determined time period.
"1. Launch of new version of website on June 4th"
Since you launched the new website, did someone check to make sure all the tracking data was moved over as well? If you were using a meta tag, did you insert the same meta tag in the header of the new site? Or if using the file upload, did someone upload the file?
"3. Sudden Increase in number of pages indexed by Google. Unexplained indexing of an additional 175 pages. About 625 pages should be indexed, while 800 are now indexed.
In the last month ranking and traffic have fallen sharply. Could it be tat these issues are all linked? But the strangest issue is the request to verify the site."
If you just lauched a new website, check to make sure you have canoncial links enabled and working. If you are using a cms, and the old site was HTML (or anything static and not database-driven) could be you have a ton of stuff indexed you don't know about. This could also be influencing yoru traffic loss, as Google will see these additional pages as duplicates.
Example:
yourdomain.com
www.yourdomain.com
www.yourdomain.com/home...could possibly all be showing the same page.
-
This has happened to me before, i just download the new file and upload it and all the data was there, are you using html or a wordpress site?
-
How was your site verified in the past? Is there a meta tag or html verification that might have gotten accidentally removed? It's been a while, but I think I've seen this happen just on its own, with GWT occasionally wanting you to reverify, even if nothing has changed. The html file was there, so I just hit reverify and everything was fine.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Webmaster Tools equivalent to Change Default Address found in Analytics
Hello all! We're changing from http to https. In Google Analytics there is an option to change the default address so we keep our historical data. I can't find a similar option in Webmaster Tools though. Do you have to setup a new property or is there an option to change your current one? Thanks in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | thegrbteam0 -
Any issues with Google impressions dropping in Webmaster Tools?
I'm seeing a drop in impressions across all my websites that are hosted at a certain location. Just wanted to make sure that it is not some reporting issue that others are seeing.
Reporting & Analytics | | tdawson090 -
Why am i getting a flux of increase in Impressions on my site & then it decreases
They guys. Hope everyone is having a great week. I wanted to get some inputs from you guys in regards to what is happening to my site that i quite don't understand. Every month or so i get this influx of high visibility with impressions for my keywords and then the impressions go away but my rankings still keep going up. Has anyone experienced this before and can give me some insight on what is going . Why do i get such a big jump and then it dies off only to return again a month later or 2 months later. I know you guys want probably some info from my site or from analytics or webmaster tools so i will provide as much as i can . For now i have included a screen shot. ScreenShot2013-06-04at31220PM_zps0d02f5fc.png ScreenShot2013-06-04at31134PM_zps5bb81b68.png ScreenShot2013-06-04at31134PM_zps5bb81b68.png ScreenShot2013-06-04at31220PM_zps0d02f5fc.png
Reporting & Analytics | | BizDetox0 -
"not selected" is gone from Google Webmaster Tools Index Status Advanced
Just noticed today that the "not selected" has been removed from the Index status, Advanced section of Google Webmaster Tools. Anyone know why. I've used this metric to determine how or why Google was not selecting pages, particularly to gauge canonical's, 301's and duplicate content. It will be missed if gone for good.
Reporting & Analytics | | tdawson090 -
When one of my sites returns a ranking that consistently reads "No Data", what does that say about the site?
I am getting "No Data" reads for some of my sites - I personally think it has to do with the site's construction - especially the landing page... I inherited this site to do SEO - it was not created with on site SEO in mind - please help if you can sites are: www.storagesanangelo.com www.storagemidland.com Should I get webmaster to remove the big map graphic and add text and pics instead... Sure appreciate brilliant thoughts - even about yetis and beer
Reporting & Analytics | | creativeguy0 -
Open Site Explorer Discrepency
Hi, I'm just starting to look into this tool as a result of the need to analyse some work that is being carried out on my site by an external SEO company that is charging absolute top dollar. I'm sure it's a simple answer, but looking at the attached image you will see that the total links is shown as 219 which is described as links from all sources. However the report that is on the page shows only 44 links which would appear to be a report based on the same criteria. What is the difference in the numbers please? Simon siteExplorer.jpg
Reporting & Analytics | | simonphumphries0 -
Should you get a new Google Analytics account if your site has a new domain after a site redesign/new development?
We recently developed a new site for a client and they have opted to move forward with a domain change. Should we create a new Google Analytics account for the new site?
Reporting & Analytics | | TheOceanAgency0 -
No Internal Followed Links on My Site?
I just ran the Site Explorer on my site (myeyedr.com) and it reported that there are no internal links on www.myeyedr.com or myeyedr.com. However, there were 20 internal followed links on www.myeyedr.com/index.aspx. I'm guessing this is hurting my SEO. Any suggestions?
Reporting & Analytics | | lance-1744490