You need to verify domain ownership if you want to submit your site to Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any other search engine. Through domain ownership verification, you prove that you are the real owner of the domain and it belongs to you. Once your domain ownership is verified, you can add your site to Google, Bing, or the relevant service that wants site ownership verification.
There are several ways to verify domain ownership. You can use HTML files, HTML tags, DNS providers, Google tag managers, and Google Analytics to verify your domain ownership in Google. If you submit your site to Bing, it allows you to use several alternatives to verify site ownership.
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Why do You need to Verify Domain Ownership?
Whenever you want to add a site to Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you have to prove that the site or the domain you are using belongs to you and you are the legitimate owner of the site. To use the search console, you have to provide domain ownership verification. Once it is proved, you become the administrator of your account and you can use a particular service provided by the verifying agency or site.
Almost every website uses Google service and every site owner submits sitemaps to Google Search Console.
Methods to Verify Domain Ownership
You can use several alternative methods to verify site ownership or domain to use a service provided by the verifying agency. As usual, the most used methods to verify domain ownership are HTML tags, HTML file upload, DNS provider, etc. Each of the methods is effective for domain ownership verification and you can use any one of them.
Let’s go through the following points to learn how to verify domain ownership:
HTML File Upload
HTML File upload is the most effective method for domain ownership verification. You need to download the file to your computer and upload it to your website’s root folder. When you add your domain or URL to the site of the verifying agency, they will show you several ways in which you can use it to verify site ownership. Choose the HTML file, download it and upload it back to the root folder of your site via cPanel or FTP clients.
Here is an example of an HTML file that I used to verify my domain while I added my site to the Google search console. Uploading it to your root domain verifies your site and indexes it more quickly. To let Google index your site faster, uploading the HTML file to the root of your website is most effective. After successful upload of the file to your root, come back and click on “Verify”. Your domain will be verified successfully and you can see it on-screen on your device.
HTML Tags
HTML tags too are used to verify domain ownership. Once you add your domain, the verifying site or service gives you HTML tags that you can copy and paste to your site’s homepage. Normally, you should place this line of codes in the <head> section that comes before the <body> of the page.
You can add HTML tags to your site’s home page by installing plugins like the Header and Footer plugin. Also, you can use popular SEO plugins like Rank Math or Yoast. These plugins have built-in sections to place the HTML tags. Just copy the line and paste it into the built-in section of the plugins. Once the codes are added and saved properly, come back to your verifying site and click on “Verify”. After verification succeeds, don’t remove the codes from your site. Using HTML tags are very easy to verify domain ownership.
Once your site gets verified, it shows you a success message on the screen.
DNS Provider to Verify Domain Ownership
You can verify ownership of your domain via DNS Provider. When you add your domain to a verifying site or service, you will be given TXT Records or CNAME Records which you can copy and paste to your domain provider’s DNS page via the DNS Zone manager. You can add it to your DNS page from your domain panel from within your domain registrar provided that your DNS remains at your domain registrar. On the other hand, if your site’s DNS is managed by the hosting provider, you can add the DNS Record from within the DNS Zone Editor.
Simply, log in to your web hosting service and locate the DNS Zone. Once you have located it, open it and add the DNS Record. Google gives TXT Record and Bing provides CNAME Record. To add the record, go through the following steps.
Here is an example of how to add the TXT Record to verify domain ownership.
Simply type @ or yourdomain.com in the field provided for Host Record. Some web hosting services may write Name or Alias instead of Host Record. Whatever name it is, it does not matter. Either leave it blank, enter @ or yourdomain.com—–Whatever is needed.
Copy the TXT Record or TXT Value from your verifying site’s page as I have shown above in the screenshots and paste it into the field provided for value.
TTL varies from host to host. It may take 1 to 4 hours. You get the value of TTL from your hosting service. It is 14400 for Bluehost, 3600 for GoDaddy, and 1800 for Namecheap. Also, you can leave the default.
Once you have filled out the fields properly, click save and wait until it gets updated.
Also, you can use the CNAME Record to verify domain ownership. To add CNAME Record to your DNS Zone, log in to your web host and locate the Domain. From the domain section, you can access the DNS Zone editor. Locate the CNAME Record and click on Add CNAME. Once it opened, you may look at the form as I have uploaded below.
When you add CNAME Records to your DNS, you have to fill out 3 or four fields. The following screenshots is from Bluehost. Here, there are three fields such as Host Record, Points to, and TTL. Some hosts give you an additional field like record type or simply type where you have to type CNAME.
Copy the CNAME Record from the verifying service that you get from your first window or tab. Log in to your domain host and locate Add CNAME. Paste the copied codes into the field labeled as Host Record, Host Field, Host Value, Label Field, or Name.
A CNAME Record may look like this ⏩ ” ay0hqlaenjdWap9ecsqQthfwif.example.com “
Type your verifying service’s domain with verifying and your domain having a dot between them, in the field labeled as “Points to, Target Field or Destination Field. Some hosts label it as a Record like GMBH. You can get this from your first window wherefrom you have got the CNAME Record or you can get this inside your domain manager while you are going to add it.
The value or record for the Destination Field may look like this ⏩ ” Verify.Bing.Com”.
Fill in the value for TTL which you may get from your domain host.
Once you have filled out the form properly, click save.
Thus, you can verify domain ownership using one of the methods that I have explained to you.
In addition to these methods, Google offers more ways to verify domain ownership like via Google tag manager and Google analytics.
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