Many iWeb users face a common problem when trying to verify their site with Google’s Webmaster Tools. When at the Verify ownership stage, after pressing the Verify button, this error you see here is returned.

I am going to show you why this error is occurring, and how you can fix the issue so that your site can be verified with Webmaster Tools.

The first thing I want you to do, is type your website’s URL in the address field and hit return. When your browser takes you to your website, you will notice how your site is forwarded to a URL that looks like this. This URL has the domain name, followed by the SiteName, followed by the page name. Some URL’s will only have the domain name followed by the page name.  Alternatively, if you do not have a custom domain name and you use MobileMe , you should see web.me.com followed by your username, followed by your sitename, followed by the page name.

Now what I want you to do, is to test that your sitemap has been correctly published. To do this, I want you to delete the page name in the URL, and type in sitemap.xml as I am doing here. An alternative way of seeing if your sitemap has been published correctly is to press the Test Sitemap button in Sitemap Automator.

If you are taken to a page that has the XML Sitemap, then this means you have published it correctly. If you do not see the sitemap, then what I want you to do now, is delete the Sitename as well, so that the URL looks like your domain followed by sitemap.xml

So in my case, I’ve deleted the sitename, and replaced the page name with sitemap.xml. If this works, then you’ve uploaded your sitemap correctly as well. If this doesn’t work, then this means you probably have not published your sitemap, and you should go back into Sitemap Automator and try it again. Remember to view the video tutorial that walks you through this process.

For those of you who can see your XML sitemap, we are ready to move on to the next step. So as a reminder, I will go back to where my sitemap actually was located. So you can see the location of my sitemap is www.anotherbigdeal.com/apptorial/sitemap.xml. I want you to keep this in mind. My sitemap works when it is my domain followed by my sitename followed by the page name which in this case is sitemap.xml. This should be the case for most of you.

First, I am going to explain why our initial attempt at verification failed. This will make it much easier for you to understand how to do the process properly when you attempt it again.

If you take a look at step 3 in the verification method, it will tell you the exact location where Webmaster Tools is looking for your verification file. You will see in my case, it is looking for the file at www.anotherbigdeal.com/ the file name for the verification file. Here is where the mistake usually occurs. We all can see that my sitemap is located at anotherbigdeal.com/apptorial/sitemap.xml. This is most likely the same situation for my verification file. If I wanted to see my verification file, I could just replace sitemap.xml with the verification file name and it would show up in my browser. This page actually shows this. If you look in the URL you will see that the only difference is that sitemap.xml has been replaced by the verification file name.

But if we look back at step 3, notice where Webmaster Tools is trying to find my verification file. Something is missing from this URL. By now you’ve probably figured out that its missing my SiteName, which in this case is apptorial. This is the reason that it was unable to verify my site. The verification file it is looking for is not located in the location where it is trying to find it.

So what I’m going to do is, hit this Back to Home button, and then I will press the Add A Site button. Now, when I type in my site’s URL, I will enter a /apptorial at the end of the URL. Now if we look at step 3, you will notice that the URL now reads the correct URL for where my verification file is actually located. Now all I have to do is click on the Verify button, and my website will be correctly verified.

In this video tutorial, I am going to show you how to use Sitemap Automator to help get your site listed in Google. Recently, Google has made a change to how you need to verify your site through its Webmaster Tools. Because of this change, Sitemap Automator has been updated and now makes it easier for people, especially iWeb users, to get their sites indexed by Google.

Just a quick note before I begin, for those of you who are using domain forwarding, you should make sure that your domain is not masked. You can email your host to find out if it is masked. A masked domain will always prevent your site from being fully indexed by search engines.

To create your sitemap, first click on the New Sitemap button, and then type in your website URL. Next, you’ll need to click on the Create Sitemap button. Depending on how big your website is, this scanning process can take up to a few minutes. I will fast forward through this process.

When your site has been fully scanned, you can now click the Generate Sitemap button to proceed to the next step. The next thing we have to do, is upload our sitemap. To do this, we have two options. We can upload it to our FTP, or we can upload it to our iDisk if we are an iWeb user using MobileMe.

If you are publishing to iDisk, you have two options for publishing. The first option is to publish to your root folder. The second option is to publish to a selected folder. This second option is for users who have more than one site on their MobileMe server.

If you are publishing to a selected folder, it is important to remember the name of this folder as you will need to use it later. I am going to remember the folder Photos_By_Matt. Pay attention to how I use it later on in the video.

After the sitemap has been published, we must then go to our Google Webmaster Tools account. If you do not have an account, you can create a free one by going to http://www.google.com/webmastertools.

To add a site, click on the Add a site button. Then type in your website URL. Here is where I will type in the Photos_By_Matt folder name. Remember, this is for iWeb users who do not publish to their root folder. Again, you only publish to your root folder if you have only one site on your MobileMe server.

After you’ve typed in your URL and clicked on the continue button, the next page will show us the verification method. The first thing you want to do, is select Upload an HTML file as your verification method. Then click on the download link to download the verification file. You must know where this file is being saved in order to use it in our next step.

After you have downloaded the file, back in Sitemap Automator, click on file in the menubar and select Publish Verification File. Then click on the Select Verification File and find the file that you just downloaded. The next step is to publish the file by either publishing to FTP or publishing to iDisk. Again, if you do publish to a selected folder, make sure that you select that folder when publishing the verification file.

Your next step is to head back to Google Webmaster Tools and click the verify button. Once verified, you must not tell Google Webmaster Tools where it can find your sitemap. Click on your site URL,  then click the plus sign next to Site Configuration. and then click on Sitemaps. Next, click the Submit a Sitemap button, and in the text box, type in sitemap.xml as you see here. Then click Submit Sitemap.

Finally, our last step, back in Sitemap Automator, click on the notify search engines button, and your sitemap will be submitted Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Bing.

And that is how you get your site listed in all major search engines. To see more Mac Software video tutorials, visit www.apptorial.com

In this video I’m going to show you how to use RAGE Software’s Sitemap Automator. I will also be showing iWeb and iDisk users how to avoid the scenario in which your sitemap does not get properly created because of domain forwarding.

So how do you know if you are using domain forwarding? The first thing you should do is go to your web browser and type in your URL. Pay attention to the address field. When I hit the enter key, you will notice that the URL changes. This is due to domain forwarding. If this happens to you, highlight the URL, and copy it.

Open up Sitemap Automator and click on the New Sitemap button. Then paste the URL that you just copied. Next, click on the Create Sitemap button. Depending on how many pages your site has, this could take a few minutes. After the sitemap is completed, you can click on the Generate Sitemap button.

The next thing we have to do, is publish our sitemap. You can do this within RAGE Sitemap Automator. The program has the option of publishing to FTP or Publishing to iDisk. If you are publishing to your iDisk, you will need to enter in your MobileMe username and password, as well as your Site Name. If you are unsure of what your sitename is, open up your site in iWeb, and your Site Name will be located above the rest of the files within your site. In this case, this site’s name is Photos By Matt.

After you’ve published your sitemap, clicking on the Notify Search Engines button will prompt you to verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools. If you do not already have a Google Webmaster Tools account, click on the create account button.

After you create your account and sign in, you will be taken to a page similar to this one. To add your site, click on the Add A Site button, and type in your URL and hit Continue. Next, you will be taken to a page that says that your site is Not Verified. It will give you two methods for verification. Uploading an HTML File is the easiest method so select that option. Then highlight the HTML file name, and then copy it.

Go back to Sitemap Automator and click on the File Menu and select Publish Verification File. In the box that appears, paste the file name that you just copied. Afterwards, you can publish the file to FTP or to iDisk. If you are publishing to FTP, you must have all of your FTP details inputted. After you publish, you can press the verify button in your web browser, and if you did everything correctly, your verification status should show as verified.

All that is left is then going back to Sitemap Automator, and selecting Notify Search Engines, and then click on Already Added to Account, and Sitemap Automator will submit your sitemap to Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.