Website verification with Google webmaster tools and sitemap submissions
-
The instructions in the wordpress website verification services (wp admin/tools/available tools) says that for website verification with google webmaster tools, you should enter your blog address without http:// or https:// in front.
Yet I believe that when I do this google webmaster tools does not crawl my sitemap after I submit it (it just always says pending). So instead I verified my wordpress.com website with google by putting the https:// in front. Then I submitted a sitemap and it worked, as in my pages and photos were indexed by google and it no longer says pending.
Google webmaster tools then advises to submit: both “www” and “non-www” versions for your site. Also, if you use the HTTPS protocol, add those variations as well.” So I added the www. version with the https:// in front. But when I submit a sitemap it says that the indexing is pending.
So in all honestly I’m confused. Should I only be submitting https://jadezone.wordpress.com to google webmaster tools (this is the one that worked and indexed and is not pending)? Should I also be submitting the www. version of my site as well? Should I be submitting it without the https:// in front (as per the wp admin instructions)? Should I be submitting it with http:// in front instead of https://? Should I even be submitting a sitemap to google to begin with? And should I be submitting a sitemap for every single variation of my site or should I be submitting only one sitemap in total?
Last but not least, google webmaster tools then says to select a preferred version between the www. version and the non www. version (choose whether you want your site to appear with or without “www” in Google Search). However, when I go to select the preferred version it says that this is restricted to root-level domains only.
Thank you for any help in clearing up my confusion on this whole sitemaps submission to google webmaster tools, and whether or not I should even be submitting a sitemap to begin with.
-
Howdy!
Lots of good questions here. I’ll answer them all separately. :)
The instructions in the wordpress website verification services (wp admin/tools/available tools) says that for website verification with google webmaster tools, you should enter your blog address without http:// or https:// in front.
Yet I believe that when I do this google webmaster tools does not crawl my sitemap after I submit it (it just always says pending). So instead I verified my wordpress.com website with google by putting the https:// in front. Then I submitted a sitemap and it worked, as in my pages and photos were indexed by google and it no longer says pending.
Since you’re using our free URL, we always force that address to https:// so this should be fine. If it indexed, than you’re all set. :)
This step is more important if you have a registered top-level domain. (example.com, example.org — instead of example.wordpress.com)
Google webmaster tools then advises to submit: both “www” and “non-www” versions for your site. Also, if you use the HTTPS protocol, add those variations as well.” So I added the www. version with the https:// in front. But when I submit a sitemap it says that the indexing is pending.
Since you’re using the free URL, jadezone.wordpress.com , and not a custom domain, you do not need to worry about using a “www” address.
If your site was at example.org, the recommendation would be to verify both example.org and http://www.example.org. — but since our free URLs are subdomains of WordPress.com, the www step is not necessary there.
The reason being that http://www.jadezone.wordpress.com isn’t actually a valid URL on our domain, WordPress.com. It’s a common thing to folks think the “www” is necessary so we have redirects in place that those going to http://www.example.wordpress.com just end up at example.wordpress.com — but for the sake of Google’s indexing, it’s looking for a page that doesn’t exist.
Last but not least, google webmaster tools then says to select a preferred version between the www. version and the non www. version (choose whether you want your site to appear with or without “www” in Google Search). However, when I go to select the preferred version it says that this is restricted to root-level domains only.
Root-level domain would be the “WordPress.com” part of jadezone.wordpress.com. The free URLs we provide are just sub-domains of wordpress.com, like folder within a folder. So this isn’t applicable — pick the non www version if it forces you to make a choice, but it should allow you to forgo the option.
-
Awesome! Thank you so much for clearing up my confusion!
Following your answer I simply deleted the www. version from Google webmaster tools. So in the end, I’ve only submitted https://jadezone.wordpress.com, the sitemap was indexed, and as I understand I’m good to go…
Again thanks for clearing up my confusion! I was literally pulling out my hair…
Cheers! :)
-
Yup, good to go! :)
If you hit any other snags let me know — but typically once you’ve done that initial verification everything in Google Webmaster Tools tends to work. Make sure to leave that code there in the “Available Tools” of your site though.
- The topic ‘Website verification with Google webmaster tools and sitemap submissions’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 