Domain verification using CNAME records

Thursday, August 02, 2012

It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). Check out our current documentation on how to verify your site ownership.

In order to use Google services like Webmaster Tools and Google Apps you must verify that you own the site or domain. One way you can do this is by creating a DNS TXT record to prove your ownership of the domain. Now you can also use DNS CNAME records to verify ownership of your domains. This is a new domain verification option for users that are not able to create DNS TXT records for their domains.

For example, if you own the domain example.com, you can verify your ownership of the domain by creating a DNS CNAME record as follows.

1. Add the domain example.com to your account either in Webmaster Tools or directly on the Verification Home page.
2. Select the Domain Name Provider method of verification, then select your domain name provider that manages your DNS records or "Other" if your provider is not on this list.
3. Based on your selection you may either see the instructions to set a CNAME record or see a link to the option Add a CNAME record. Follow the instructions to add the specified CNAME record to your domain's DNS configuration.
4. Click the Verify button.

When you click Verify, Google will check for the CNAME record and if everything works you will be added as a verified owner of the domain. Using this method automatically verifies you as the owner of all websites on this domain. For example, when you verify your ownership of example.com, you are automatically verified as an owner of www.example.com as well as subdomains such as blog.example.com.

Sometimes DNS records take a while to make their way across the Internet. If we don't find the record immediately, we'll check for it periodically and when we find the record we'll make you a verified owner. To maintain your verification status don't remove the record, even after verification succeeds.

If you don't have access to your DNS configuration at your domain name provider you can continue to use any of the other verification methods, such as the HTML file, the meta tag or Google Analytics tag in order to verify that you own a site.

If you have any questions please let us know via our Webmaster Help forum.

Posted by Pooja Wagh, Software Engineer