Google and Yahoo Verification - eShop Forums - eCommerce Help Forum for Shopping Cart Owners.

Naturally Simple · #1 (**permalink**) 24-11-2007, 11:22 PM

Hello everybody - I have another question about my Lycos shop.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong please? As in the previous thread I altered by shop from frames to be accepted on search engines. I did this and things seemed to be going well but my sites have become unverified now. They say I have to put a meta tag in or upload a file. I had verifed the sites before with uploaded files and they worked ok. Now Google is saying they can not find the file. Any ideas to help please? I would enter the meta tag but I don't know where to put them in the head of the Lycos home page. If anyone knows where I need to put them that would also be great.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Lawrence · #2 (**permalink**) 25-11-2007, 07:18 PM

Hi Wendy

I usually take the upload file route when verifying a site with Google Webmaster Tools. Just upload the file they give you to the root of your store.

To use the meta tag method, place the meta tag anywhere between the <head> and </head> tags of your homepage.

Black Rhino · #3 (**permalink**) 25-11-2007, 07:23 PM

I take it you mean unverified in google webmaster tools? That's only for things related to site maps, analytics, etc. I'm sure Lawrence can explain better than me. I'm not verified for those either as I can't find a way of uploading googles code but I'm not worrying in the slightest because I'm steadily working my way up the SERPS for my main keywords, I'm finally making sales and the number of visitors to my site are slowly but surely increasing. In fact, foe one of my main keyword phrases I'm number 1 in google UK. So I think you shouldn't worry too much about it. After all your site is listed in google. Try increasing backlinks.

Naturally Simple · #4 (**permalink**) 25-11-2007, 07:42 PM

Thank you for your advice both.

The problem with Lycos is that I have uploaded the files for yahoo and google and they did work when I was using frames. Now I have changed the site has become unverified again. With Lycos I don't know where to put the information in the <head> </head> because the space they give you is just <body> </body>. There must be somewhere to put meta tags but i am not sure where. I am new to all this and am self taught so if i am talking a load of double dutch I appologise.

Lawrence · #5 (**permalink**) 25-11-2007, 07:57 PM

There are a few useful tools in GWTs such as displaying what key phrases your site appears in the SERPS for, not just the ones that you receive clicks from. It also tells you your average position in the SERPs for your most popular keyphrases.

Another couple of tools that can come in handy are the ability to change the speed that the googlebot indexes your site and being able to geolocate non country specific domains .com .net etc. This is very handy if your server is in one country and you want to target the the SERPs of another country. You can even do this on a per directory basis, so one part of your site appears in one country's SERPs and the other in another country's.

They have some other very useful tools, they're not essential, in fact most people don't even realise they exist but they are worth investigating.

I don't know the specifics of how a Lycos Shop is configured, but you should have a method for adding additional meta tags to at least your homepage, if not each page of your site. Black Rhino is likely to know if this is possible with Lycos.

Lawrence · #6 (**permalink**) 29-11-2007, 07:27 PM

Hi Wendy

I've had a look at the source of your site and noticed that you have the verification meta tags in the body of the HTML i.e. you have this is the body.

HTML Code:

<meta name="verify-v1" content="mvduvQdoBptJbW7UpSp/rd1rZHwdHVHaWtc5ywAuxPo=" />
........
<META name="y_key" content="a6cc8f5a2762e055" > 
<meta name="verify-v1" content="mvduvQdoBptJbW7UpSp/rd1rZHwdHVHaWtc5ywAuxPo=" />

Meta tags need to go in the header part of the page, like this

HTML Code:

<html>
<head>
<META name="y_key" content="a6cc8f5a2762e055" > 
<meta name="verify-v1" content="mvduvQdoBptJbW7UpSp/rd1rZHwdHVHaWtc5ywAuxPo=" />
Other meta and header tags go here.
</head>
<body>
Main page content goes here
</body>
</html>

I also noticed that you have your Google analytics code at the top of the page. The ideal location for this is at the bottom just above the </html> tag. This is because if there's a delay contacting Google's server it will hold up the display of your page, if it's at the bottom your page will display first then contact Google, so any delay won't inconvenience your customers.

Naturally Simple · #7 (**permalink**) 30-11-2007, 02:40 PM

Thank you for the advice but I have just had a reply from Lycos and they have just told me I am unable to put anything in the <head> section. I put the above in the body because I had nowhere else to put it. I am now going to delete it because there is nowhere for me to go with it.

Thanks though for the advice again. Hope Lycos pull their fingers out and sort this out because others must have the same problem.

Lawrence · #8 (**permalink**) 30-11-2007, 08:02 PM

Having looked at your store, it would seem there is no way to put a file in the root of your site i.e. in http://www.naturallysimple.co.uk/ as opposed to http://www.naturallysimple.co.uk/epages/ If you can't insert a new meta tag or add a page to the root of your site then that is very limiting.

BTW What is Elephant Dung Paper used for?

Naturally Simple · #9 (**permalink**) 30-11-2007, 09:16 PM

Elephant dung paper is used just like any paper really. It is just made from some elephant poo. Have a look -they make lovely gifts for loved ones! Sorry for the advertising!

Thanks for all the help - I am new to all this stuff.

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