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January 13, 2006
Today, we wanted to review a few things that we get a lot of questions about.
I tried to verify and I got a message that said "pending verification". Why
If we can't process the verification request right away, we'll add it to a queue and process it as
soon as possible. While your request is in this queue, the status will show as pending. Once we
successfully process your request, your site will show as verified. If the request is
unsuccessful, you'll see a status of "not verified". You can read more about
reasons the request might not be successful
or take a look at our
documentation.
I submitted my Sitemap and it now as a status of "Timed out downloading robots.txt". I don't have
a robots.txt file on my site. What happened
Any time we access your site, we first check to see if you have a robots.txt file that restricts
our access. If we get a timeout from your server when we do this check, you'll see this message.
This is probably a temporary problem. Once your server is accessible again, we will be able to see
that you don't have a robots.txt file, and will then access your Sitemap. If you continue to see
this error, make sure that your webserver is up and responding to requests.
I submitted my sitemap at https://www.example.com/mysite/ and verified it. But now you are asking
me to verify at https://www.example.com/. I can't verify at that location because I don't have
access. Why are you asking me to do this
Some stats we can only show if you
verify at the root level.
If you don't have access to this location, we will
show you all the information we are able to
(such as errors we had crawling your site). Verification doesn't impact Sitemap submission or
indexing in any way, and there is no penalty if you can't verify at the root level.
I've submitted my Sitemap, verified my site, and you've downloaded my Sitemap, but many of my
stats show "Data is not available at the time time". Why?
We show you stats about what we know about your site. If we haven't yet crawled and indexed much
of your site, we may not have many stats to show you. As we crawl more of your site and learn
more about it,
you'll start to see more stats.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eSite verification status may show as "pending" while it's being processed and will update to "verified" or "not verified" once completed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eA "Timed out downloading robots.txt" error on your Sitemap likely indicates a temporary server issue, even if you don't have a robots.txt file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eVerification might be requested at the root level of your domain for comprehensive stats, but it's not mandatory and won't affect indexing.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eLimited or unavailable site stats are normal initially and will gradually populate as Google crawls and gathers more data about your site.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Verification requests may be \"pending\" if processing is delayed; successful requests show as \"verified,\" otherwise \"not verified.\" A \"timed out downloading robots.txt\" error occurs when the server doesn't respond during a robots.txt check, likely a temporary issue. Root-level verification is needed for certain stats, but lack of it won't impact indexing. \"Data not available\" for site stats indicates limited crawling; more stats appear as the site is crawled and indexed.\n"],null,["# Answers to Friday questions\n\nJanuary 13, 2006\n\nToday, we wanted to review a few things that we get a lot of questions about.\n\nI tried to verify and I got a message that said \"pending verification\". Why\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nIf we can't process the verification request right away, we'll add it to a queue and process it as\nsoon as possible. While your request is in this queue, the status will show as pending. Once we\nsuccessfully process your request, your site will show as verified. If the request is\nunsuccessful, you'll see a status of \"not verified\". You can read more about\n[reasons the request might not be successful](/search/blog/2005/12/more-query-stats-verification)\nor take a look at our\n[documentation](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080).\n\nI submitted my Sitemap and it now as a status of \"Timed out downloading robots.txt\". I don't have\na robots.txt file on my site. What happened\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nAny time we access your site, we first check to see if you have a robots.txt file that restricts\nour access. If we get a timeout from your server when we do this check, you'll see this message.\nThis is probably a temporary problem. Once your server is accessible again, we will be able to see\nthat you don't have a robots.txt file, and will then access your Sitemap. If you continue to see\nthis error, make sure that your webserver is up and responding to requests.\n\nI submitted my sitemap at https://www.example.com/mysite/ and verified it. But now you are asking\nme to verify at https://www.example.com/. I can't verify at that location because I don't have\naccess. Why are you asking me to do this\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nSome stats we can only show if you\n[verify at the root level](/search/blog/2005/12/verifying-site-located-in-subdirectory).\nIf you don't have access to this location, we will\n[show you all the information we are able to](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080)\n(such as errors we had crawling your site). Verification doesn't impact Sitemap submission or\nindexing in any way, and there is no penalty if you can't verify at the root level.\n\nI've submitted my Sitemap, verified my site, and you've downloaded my Sitemap, but many of my\nstats show \"Data is not available at the time time\". Why?\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nWe show you stats about what we know about your site. If we haven't yet crawled and indexed much\nof your site, we may not have many stats to show you. As we crawl more of your site and learn\nmore about it,\n[you'll start to see more stats](/search/blog/2005/11/if-you-dont-see-full-range-of-stats).\n\nPosted by [Vanessa Fox](https://www.vanessafox.com/)"]]
