Problem with adsense and their bot finding ads.txt

[SPX]

Put the ads.txt code file into the appropriate vb admin > options > google search engine.... >Google ads.txt page

I can see the ads.txt on my site.

The ads.bot doesn't find it and the adsense says to fix this problem.

I have It showing on google search console and updated the sitemap.

It is getting maddening and over a week and half without the bot finding it.

VB tech say it all looks good. I have no access to the robots.txt which google suggests adding a couple of lines so the ads.bot can view it. They punted me to contact google but they only give support through a bulletin board.

What do you suggest?

[Mitch]

Please keep this updated if you find anything out. I have been getting that same message for years. I also can see it on our site.
Gave up trying
Thanks

[SPX]

Yes, do you post google ads? Cloud customer need more access to the robots.txt file so it allow access to 3rd party txt robots

[Mitch]

I have ads for guests only. Yes I’m on cloud. It seems nobody complains on the VB forum.. I gave up getting things right with no warning notice. I still get some revenue tho. Not sure if it is reduced because of this

[SPX]

You are losing revenue then because only visitors can see them.

I think the cloud version needs major updates that they are not addressing. It is confounding with both these .txt problems. I believe with the downloadable version allows for modification of the robots.txt file. We need a mod and I will pay

[Mitch]

You are losing revenue then because only visitors can see them.

Yes but for my site that is reality. My members do not want to see any ads period. I’m fine withy that. Fwiw, I have asked Glenn in the past about this issue. Seems there is no easy answer

[SPX]

Wonder with the new Shopify integration if that will aid in adding the ads.txt verification process.

[glennrocksvb]

I have a client who is running a vB4 forum and has the same issue with ads.txt not being found even if it's there. I made different kinds of changes but to no avail.

Here are the things I tried. See if one of these will work for you.

1. Made changes so that all variations of forum URLs with http, https, www and non-www will all redirect to the configured forum base URL and thus it lets Google find the ads.txt file using any of the URL variations.
   1. https://www.domain.com/ads.txt
   2. http://www.domain.com/ads.txt
   3. https://domain.com/ads.txt
   4. http://domain.com/ads.txt
2. Re-created the ads.txt file.

I forgot what else I did but I certainly did more than those 2.

[SPX]

Are you referring to google search console and having them index it?

Anything I can do, where I store my domain? I have shared hosting there . I have the ssl encryption switched to auto forwarding to https. Probably to have unselect that feature?

[glennrocksvb]

You should keep the https forwarding. You should have a redirect from non-www to www. Without www, your site is not accessible and so is ads.txt.

[SPX]

Ok, fingers crossed. Did an url redirect:

source: /
Type: permanent
destination: http://www.domain.com

Source wouldn't let me put domain.com said " / " would be the root.

[glennrocksvb]

Try doing it in htaccess file:

# Redirect non-www to www
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

[SPX]

redirect on my domain server didn’t work. I have been looking for the htaccess in vb cloud. Any way to show a screenshot of the admin cp location.

[glennrocksvb]

htaccess file can't be directly edited in vBCloud. You have to ask vB to edit the file for you.

[SPX]

Yea that is what I thought about htaccess. Tried doing on my domain server.

Getting runaround from vb support. Telling me I need to contact Google. Biggest joke ever like trying to speak with the almighty above.

This is with vb. I sent vb a request late last night for them to put in htacces code in. I am losing time and money. This has been an ongoing problem for years with no resolution by vb

btw, thanks Glenn