Verify To add Google Verify to your site, please just follow the simple instructions below:

  1. Log in to your website
  2. Select “Admin” on the toolbar
  3. Visit the “Site Information” tab
  4. Click on the “Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools” button
  5. On the bottom of the Webmaster Tools panel click “Get your Google ID”
  6. Google should open in a new window and ask you to sign in
  7. You’ll be taken to the Google "Dashboard"
  8. Add your website address in blank field and click "Add Site"
  9. Look for the "Next step" box and select, "Verify Site"
  10. Go to the "Verification Method" drop down and select "Add a meta tag"
  11. Copy the code string e.g.: <meta name="verify-v1" content="UqbdIVXyU8m8PIvMSJLj+W6bf5Sa4An1CZcxazTgafs=" />
  12. Return to your website and paste the code string into the blank field in the "Webmaster Tools" panel
  13. Click "OK"
  14. Click "OK" on "Admin" panel
  15. Your site will now have the Google Verification code added to the HTML

N.B. The code string given above (<meta name="verify-v1" content="UqbdIVXyU8m8PIvMSJLj+W6bf5Sa4An1CZcxazTgafs=" />) is an example, please do not use this, it won't work! You must register with Google and request your own.

Sitemap We automatically generate an XML file which search engines will index when ever they visit your site. We automatically publish all pages visible in the menu and withhold those that are hidden. If you wish hidden pages to be published you will need to visit the hidden page, click on "Edit" and then go to "Page Settings". You can then select the check box for "Include this page in my Site Map".

To see your site map, you only need to add "/sitemap.xml" to the end of your website address (or URL) in the web browser address bar e.g. www.mysitename.com/sitemap.xml

If you see the message: "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.", don't panic! This is being generated by the browser (most likely Firefox) and relates to 'how' the information is being displayed in your browser and does not affect what the search engines 'see'.

UPDATE (18/01/08):

For those of you checking site verification you will probably encounter some "403 (Forbidden)" errors. They will appear in list with entries similar to the two below:

  • (http://www.mysite.com/_app/8296/partner/moonfruit/modules/) 403 (Forbidden) _?_
  • (http://www.mysite.com/_app/8296/resources/) 403 (Forbidden) _?_

These are folders that the the web crawlers (or robots) should not be accessing as they contain and relate to software that runs your site and they do not contain any of your site content.

Our mistake has been to omit an 'exclude' comment telling robots not to look in these directories, which have restricted access anyway. So the web crawlers attempt to read these directories, are not permitted and subsequently generate a 'Forbidden' error.

This bug will be fixed very soon. We will simply request that the web crawlers do not check those directories and this will mean errors will not be generated.

These errors will have no impact on the indexing of your site or your page rankings!

UPDATE (08/02/08):

We have now modified the 'robots.txt' file to stop the web crawlers reading our application directories and throwing up 'errors'. However, now that we have blocked these directories you will probably see a report from Google that says: "URL restricted by robots.txt " and listing the same '.../_app/...' directories (as mentioned above). Google themselves recognise that some directories can be restricted for a logical reason and then simply continue crawling your site for valid content and links.

Just to reiterate, seeing a 'restricted' message is not a cause for alarm and this will not affect your site being indexed or impact your page rankings.