Google Search Console helps you measure your site's Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results.
Ownership verification means proving to Google Search Console that you own a specific website. Site owners in Search Console have access to sensitive Google Search data for a site, and can affect a site's presence and behavior on Google Search and other Google services.
There are multiple options for verifying your domain, which will vary depending on whether you choose the Domain or URL Prefix option. Here we cover the steps to verify ownership with an HTML file for URL prefix verification or with a DNS record for Domain verification.
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URL Prefix Verification
TIP: See Google's documentation for more details on the available verification methods.
- Navigate to Google Search Console in your browser
- Enter the full URL for your website under URL prefix and click the Continue button
- Click the button next to Download the file
NOTE: If prompted by your browser to Save or Open the file, click Save - Log into cPanel
- Navigate to File Manager, located under the Files section
- Navigate to the site's document root
- Click the Upload button
- Click the Select File button and select the HTML file downloaded from Google
- Once the file has uploaded, return to the Google Search Console page and click the Verify button
Domain Verification
- Navigate to Google Search Console in your browser
- Enter your domain under Domain and click the Continue button
- Click the Copy button under step 3 to copy the provided record to your clipboard
- Log into cPanel
- Navigate to Zone Editor, located under the Domains section
- Click the Manage button next to the domain you need to verify
- Click the down arrow next to +Add Record, then click Add "TXT" Record
- Enter the following details
- Name: Enter your domain name
- TTL: Leave this set to 900
- Type: Leave this set to TXT
- Record: Paste the record you copied from Google
- Click the Save Record button
- Return to the Google Search Console page and click the Verify button