About site verification

Share

* Twitter
* Gmail
* Blogger
* Buzz
* Orkut
* Google Reader
* Bookmarks
* » More

Comment Print

Because privacy is important to Google, we need to know you own a site before we'll show you certain information about it or enable you to use our tools. Verification doesn't affect PageRank or affect your site's performance in Google's search results.

To verify that you own a site, you have a number of options. You can:

* Add a meta tag to your home page (proving that you have access to the source files). To use this method, you must be able to edit the HTML code of your site's pages.
* Upload an HTML file with the name you specify to your server. To use this method, you must be able to upload new files to your server.
* Add a DNS TXT record. To use this method, you must be able to sign in to your domain registrar or hosting provider and add a new DNS record.
* Add the Google Analytics code you use to track your site. To use this option, you must be an administrator on the Google Analytics account, and the tracking code must use the new asynchronous snippet.

Webmaster Tools will check to see that the specified tag, file, record, or code is present. If it is, we consider you a site owner and will show you site details.

We don't use the verification file we ask you to create for any purpose other than to make sure you can upload files to the site. Read more about our commitment to privacy in the Google Privacy Policy.

If you access Webmaster Tools via a web hoster, your site is already verified, and all your information is already available to you.