Google Webmaster Tools - Verifying Site via DNS on Site5
It's an odd situation, but I found myself in it and so other people might, too.
I have sites (such as this) which use domain names registered at Site5.com, but are otherwise hosted somewhere else (such as Posterous or Tumblr). This means I have limited control over the content of the sites. In particular, I wanted to use Google Webmaster Tools for a site hosted on Tumblr, but was having trouble verifying that I did, indeed, own the site.
Google Webmaster Tools gives you several ways to verify ownership of a site:
- Add a meta tag to your site (can't do this on Tumblr)
- Upload an HTML file to your site (can't do this on Posterous or Tumblr, as far as I can tell)
- Link to your Google Analytics account (only works if tracking code is in the site header, which one cannot do on Tumblr)
- Add a DNS record to your domain (aha! I can do this)
Update: Actually, you can add a meta tag on Tumblr if you are using custom HTML for your theme. Not sure why I completely did not notice that. But the instructions below may still be helpful, so...
Get Your Verification Code
- Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools
- Click "Add a site..."
- Put in your domain name
- Select "Add a DNS record to your domain's configuration"
- Select "Other" from the Instructions dropdown
- Note the Verification Code
Adding a TXT DNS Record on Site5
- Login, go to SiteAdmin and click on your site name to manage it
- Go to Manage My Domains > DNS Zone Files
- Select your domain name and click "View/Edit Zone File"
- Scroll down to the first empty line (it will be the first with a drop down box for the fourth column
- Change type to TXT
- Put "@" in the first column and "IN" in the third column
- Put your Verification Code in the 5th column, but put it in quotes
- Click "Submit Zone Changes"
- Check the zone file again. It should look like this (notice the quotes):
If the zone entry only shows "google-site-verification" and not the result of the value, you probably forgot to put it in quotes.
Verification
It takes a few minutes (at least) for DNS changes to propogate. Once you have clicked "Verify" once in Google Webmaster Tools, it should continue checking automatically. If you are impatient, though, you can click "Verify" every few minutes until the change goes through.
