facesærch blog

interesting. when you try to verify a site via the great google webmaster tools you get three requests.

1. GET /noexist_aa78573zbb9821c2f.html
2. GET /
3. GET /aa78573zbb9821c2f.html

if the first one returns an HTTP 200 you can’t verify. it must be an HTTP 404.
think the second one must not be an HTTP 4xx. (it can be an HTTP 3xx)
the third one must be an HTTP 200.

so basically you can work around the “you can’t verify your site because you do not return any 404 statuses” if you just roll out a “/noexist_yourwebmastertoolskey.html” file, too. but nonetheless HTTPs 404 are a great tool. better fix your server first.