Console doesn’t verify when Site Kit only uses GA4

Apologies @uablspringer, I didn’t include the link to the guide in my past response, see below:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080?hl=en#zippy=%2Cgoogle-analytics-tracking-code%2Cgoogle-tag-manager-container-snippet

Now that you have Site Kit connected I’ll close this support topic, but do ask if you have any further queries on this.

I am having a similar problem again. Multiple sites are no longer verified with Google Search Console (red boxes).

Is there a way to prevent this? Needing to play with settings on many sites each month is not something I should have to schedule.

@uablspringer Site Kit itself doesn’t unverify sites from Search Console. Sites can become disconnected from Site Kit, the plugin can be reset or the OAuth tokens connected a user with their site and the respective information (from Analytics, Search Console, AdSense etc) can become invalid.

What may be happening if Search Console itself may unverify a property if it’s unable to confirm the presence and validity of the verification token, which may have been placed via your GA4 property based on your previous comments.

If you want to share the site URL for one of these impacted sites, along with any errors or warnings you see within the Site Kit dashboard, I’d be happy to assist. If you’re only seeing issues from Search Console itself, it may be a cause of verifying your site once more.

Is there a way I can submit them without it being public?

Certainly @uablspringer, you can use this form. If you wish to also include what you see in the verification tab for that property at Search Console level (see example). Primarily we would like to know whether you’re encountering any issues within Site Kit, such as any notices or errors.

From the earlier post you mentioned that Search Console may not be finding the verification token placed by GA4. It temporarily works if I go through the steps of reauthorizing. Then sometime later it stops. The site I sent had similar problems before, but it may not have been the same example I sent.

Thanks for the update. In that case there may be something off with the verification at Search Console level. Have you tried querying this with the product experts at Search Console level? Site Kit doesn’t use any Analytics verification method, instead using a virtual file placement. If this fails it uses a meta tag placement.

I also reviewed the Site Health information report you kindly shared and I can see you’re encountering a Search Console permissions notice. We have a guide on this added to the plugin website. To resolve this on this site, can you attempt to disconnect Site Kit and connect once more (see below)?

Let me know how you get on after disconnecting the plugin.

The site I sent had similar problems before, but it may not have been the same example I sent.

That’s interesting. If you wish to open an individual support topic specific to the error you’re facing within Site Kit, while also sharing a screenshot for any verifications from the Search Console verifications page we can investigate any such case individually. What may be a useful check to apply, is to remove any existing verifications from Search Console, and then use only Site Kit to verify your site. As long as the plugin remains active, the verification should remain in place.

Disconnecting Site Kit and reconnecting it, will temporarily work. Search Console will say that verification was complete with an HTML file. I assume that means the virtual file worked. Then sometime later that verification is no longer valid and it asks me to verify again.

What may be a useful check to apply, is to remove any existing verifications from Search Console, and then use only Site Kit to verify your site.

Only Site Kit was used for setting up and verifying all of these sites. I used the plugin since I’m on a multisite and share a single template among them. The plugin has remained active. A few sites have not required reauthorization. Others have required disconnecting and reconnecting.

Will the search console community be able to help with the virtual verification not being recognized after some period of time?

Edit: I forgot to ask about new individual support topic. Just create a new ticket with any particular name?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by uablspringer.

Thanks for the update @uablspringer. If you’re finding that Search Console verification is breaking for some multisites, one option is to verify your site and it’s subsites manually, independently of Site Kit. You can do so by following this guide. If you follow the guide for a domain type property in particular, this will cover all sites within your multisite setup.

Edit: I forgot to ask about new individual support topic. Just create a new ticket with any particular name?

An individual support topic may be useful to start afresh looking into any issues with this particular multi site setup. From reviewing the topic you were previously using Analytics to verify a property on Search Console, and you were also encounter permissions issues within Search Console, which may not necessarily be related to Search Console verification. We can continue to work from here if you wish, but do please attempt to verify your multi site as suggested above. After doing so, let me know if you encounter any errors within Site Kit.