In John Mueller’s hangout, one webmaster was concerned about an issue they were having with Google Analytics 4 connecting properly to their third-party analytics software—specifically, Teradata software.
They had already tried everything, including adding the HTML tag and all other troubleshooting steps.
They were not able to get GA 4 to integrate with their third-party software.
John’s suggestion was to post in the Google Search Console Help Forums. While Google staff does hang out there, experts with quasi-expert knowledge about the product are there too.
If it’s a technical issue on Google’s side, it can likely be escalated, if necessary.
This discussion occurs at the 00:34 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
I’m having some issues with the Google Search Console. We put the tags on a certain web page and I tried to verify it with both analytics and with putting the tags on, and it still comes back unverified, and I’m just wondering where I can go from here.
John 0:54
Okay, so which tags did you use? It’s like that with the meta tag verification?
Webmaster 1 1:00
The analytics, just whatever it says in the Search Console.
John 1:08
Okay, and you use the analytics method to do the verification?
Webmaster 1 1:13
I tried the analytics method to verify it. It’s been a while since we’ve logged into analytics with the particular account. And it said to upgrade to version four, and I did that and it seemed like it gave some more stuff. And I’ve tried working with the software itself. It’s a third-party software, Teradata software. And they’ve said that they’ve put the tags in the right place, to their knowledge, I’ve tried working with—I work at a university—and tried working saying, “Hey, we don’t, we don’t want to deal with this.” Basically, don’t ask us, ask your father. And I’ve already asked my father, you know.
John 1:51
Okay. I suspect what you’re running into is, with the new version of Google Analytics, we don’t automatically pick that up for verification in Search Console. So basically, by shifting over to GA 4 that makes it so that you have to use a separate method for verification in Search Console. Which could be maybe the meta tag is something that’s possible to implement, maybe the file itself is an option there. But the Google Analytics method wouldn’t work automatically.
Webmaster 1 2:28
I’ve tried the option number one, the HTML file—adding that, and it still doesn’t work.
John 2:36
Okay. I would almost recommend, maybe, posting in the Help Forum for that with the URL of your site and the URL of that file so that someone can take a look and see if there’s something specific to point out. Because it sounds like you’re doing things right. And I, I feel it’s probably something very small that is just kind of, like blocked.
Webmaster 1 3:05
So it’s in the Search Console forum, or, where?
John 3:09
Yes.
Webmaster 1 3:13
Do you have a specific link you can put in the chat, maybe?
John 3:19
Sure. Um…short link…I think this should work.
Webmaster 1 3:24
Okay, let’s see. Okay, I got it. Okay, I’ll try doing that. And you’re saying that Google personnel monitor that and or someone else can help?
John 3:39
They’re different people who are quasi-experts on the product who can help with that. It’s not specifically someone from Google, but they can escalate it to someone from Google if there are issues on Google’s side.
Webmaster 1 3:52
Okay. All right. That’s all I need. Thank you very much.
