Google can't find my website

Can't verify

[teaandbiscuits]

I have moved my .co.uk site and transferred it to a .com.

I have added the 301 redirects and it all directs fine,but,for some reason google webmaster tools won't let me change sites in the settings as it can't verify the site.

I get this message.

"Verification failed for http://www.example.com/ using the HTML file method (less than a minute ago). We were unable to connect to your server."

I tried all the method options,but they all fail.

A little bit of history of the .com domain. I used to use it for another site,and it worked fine and was indexed by google,but I didn't have the time to run the site so as it was a good domain name I thought I would add it to my domains catalogue on flippa, I had to change my dns settings in my registrar to do so,so in theory this could be the issue,but,I removed the changes and even added a google txt snippet there,so why aren't they finding my new site?

[not2easy]

Rather than trying to change the settings you have in GWT, try adding it as a "New" domain there. If it is set up correctly you should be able to verify it as a "different" domain, and then deal with the "old" domain.

For sitewide domain changes, Google has some helpful information here: [support.google.com...]

When you "removed the changes" did you point the DNS to the nameservers of the host where the domain is hosted? If you use a tool to check the headers, what does it show you when you type in (or paste in) the domain name that you have entered in GWT?

[lucy24]

Can you yourself browse the site? I don't mean FTP-or-similar, I mean in a browser like any other visitor. The part about "redirects fine" implies yes, but it's the obvious first question.

[teaandbiscuits]

I have tried adding my site on its own merits (Not change site settings) It still won't verify.

While my domain was listed on flippa it was set with the registrar nameservers,now it is set back to my own.

I can view my site fine and browse and do everything as normal,so can everyone else who uses it,though I did get an email from one member who said he could only access it through a proxy,he did mention something to do with google.

I have noticed bing bot on there and msn bot. No others thus far though.

[lucy24]

I did get an email from one member who said he could only access it through a proxy

Any chance of getting more information? Do your logs show a 403 request from this user at his "real" IP, or could they not even reach the server in the first place?

he did mention something to do with google

Uhm... what to do with google? Is your visitor a google employee surfing your site on his lunch break? Or are they using Chrome, or some google-related browser plugin?

Crystal ball says the explanation will turn out to be something both embarrassing and irrelevant, such as a stray line of code that you forgot to delete before repurposing the site.

[teaandbiscuits]

Still having trouble with this.

I have added my url to google via the add url,so it has some links on there now,but I still don't see it crawling my forum and I still can't verify it in my webmaster tools,something I need to do so that google knows my address has changed and my new url isn't just some copy site.

Some of my members still can't access my site either,heres what one said.

The server at http://www.www.example..com can't be found, because the DNS lookup failed. DNS is the network service that translates a website's name to its Internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the Internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Chromium from accessing the network.
Error code: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN


Also:

$ nslookup
> server 8.8.8.8
Default server: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53
> http://www.example.com
Server:8.8.8.8
Address:8.8.8.8#53

** server can't find http://www.www.example.com: SERVFAIL

How do I fix this?

[edited by: phranque at 2:23 am (utc) on May 14, 2015]
[edit reason] unlinked URLs [/edit]

[engine]

I would certainly look more closely at the dns issues. Do some detailed research, and you can find plenty of dns checkers online, including some of our own. [freetools.webmasterworld.com...]

check out for canonical issues, too.

[teaandbiscuits]

That is interesting,I just tried that DNS tool,it came up with an X,I tried some different sites of mine,they got a tick,what was different though was,the one that failed didn't have an IP address,it just had the URL in its place?

[lucy24]

what was different though was,the one that failed didn't have an IP address,it just had the URL in its place?

That's pretty much a tautology. DNS lookup failed = they couldn't find an IP address = DNS lookup failed.

[teaandbiscuits]

I think I may be on to why I was having problems.

In my dns i did

ns1
ns2

But checking my other sites,they are all set to

ns2
ns1

Not sure why they were done that way around.

So I changed to ns2 ns1 and now I get a tick on the dns look up and ping site works aswell.

Just tried google,still dosen't work,but maybe I just need to leave it for a while before trying again.

[lucy24]

So I changed to ns2 ns1

If the difference is that significant-- to the point where DNS could fail entirely-- I'd suspect there is something wrong with ns1. Are they entirely different companies, or two branches of the same one?

:: trying to avoid corollary question of what's the point in having two or more name servers if sources only check the first one ::

[RhinoFish]

"The server at [www.example..com"...]

Are there really two sets of www's in there?
Looping rewrite rule?
In WMT, the form you enter matters - meaning if you use non-www, you need to enter [domainname.com...] and if you use www version, you need to enter [domainname.com....]
In WMT, these two choice, non-www and www, would require TWO WMT domains to be added, one to administer each version.
If your www rewrite is adding a second set of www's, WMT will also not "see" the double-www via a single-www setup there.

[teaandbiscuits]

I got all this working finally,once I switched the ns2/ns1. I still don;t know why it's set up that way,may be I did it that way when I set up my own nameservers for my site a while back and they are all just stuck that way.

I still had to do another step to confirm site name change before webmaster tools would let me add the change,just one wasn't enough for them,I guess it's a security thing.

Thanks for all the replies.