Unable to verify authenticated (Sharepoint Online) site in Search Console
nick....@best-start.org
About a month ago, our site got added to the Google Safe Browsing list due to an unwanted software violation. (https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=beststarteducare-my.sharepoint.com) We found the file referenced and removed it. It turns out a user had uploaded a file and then shared it to anyone with the link. I don't know how we got put on the block list in the first place though as the site is not crawlable, so I assume someone had a browser plugin that flagged it and submitted it to some site that then got us on the list.
The solution to that seems to be to add the site into Search Console and request it to be scanned again. We have tried every approach and they all fail for 1 of 2 reasons:
DNS Method: We don't control the DNS records because it is part of the Office365 platform.
All other: If you try to access any resource in the domain anonymously (i.e. like a crawler) you get redirected to an authentication page (www.microsoftonline.com). I have done the other methods (html file does exist where they want it, meta tags have been added, analytics tracking code added and can see them if requested when logged in) but the crawler always gets redirected because it's not authenticated.
I found this post earlier in the year where Google said that it was going to roll out auto-verification in Search Console to the owners of properties in Analytics. We have been using Google Analytics on this domain for years (and I am the owner) so I was hoping this would be our solution, but I don't know when this is supposed to happen?
We do have Analytics on other properties, and we do have them linked to Search Console on those domains, but they are just normal public facing sites.
I've spent an insane amount of time trying to get this resolved but so far haven't been able to find a solution.
Thanks.
Rene Wuggenig
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2018 7:50:22 PM
To: Google Safe Browsing API
Subject: Unable to verify authenticated (Sharepoint Online) site in Search Console
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