Why can't I verify my website with Google?

Question

Here's the error I receive when trying to verify:

Verification failed for http://oracleoflegends.com/ using the Google Analytics method (1 minute ago). Your verification file returns a status of 500 (Internal server error) instead of 200 (OK).

My website works fine when visiting it with a web browser normally, so I'm at a loss.

I'm also using Google Analytics and it's working fine!

Not only that, but when trying to verify my website with another separate Ad company they are also receiving this error message. A 500 Internal Server error.

What do I need to do on my end in order for Google's bot to work? I assumed that if it works on a browser it would work for their verification bot.

Answer 1

Why don't you try "Alternative methods" to verify your website, like upload the generated HTML file ?

Answer 2

You can use Fetch as Googlebot to see how the Googlebot sees your site to try and track down the problem.

Answer 3

Just because your site appears to display fine, doesn't mean it is returning a 200 status code. You can technically show any page with any 4xx or 5xx status code. However, I checked your site with web-sniffer.net and it returns a 200 status code.

You are supposedly verifying your site using Google Analytics, but the error message suggests that you are missing a "verification file" - did GWT tell you to upload an extra file somewhere? They are usually of the form google123456789.html - if I load http://oracleoflegends.com/google123456789.html it returns a "server error", although it says 404 rather than 500.