Site Verification

Verification is the process of proving Google that you own the site that you claim to own. Google needs to confirm ownership because once you are verified for a site or app you have access to its private Google Search data, and can affect how Google Search crawls it. Read Verify your site ownership for more information.

Verification screen appears right after you add web site property into Google's Search Console.

You can choose between various verification methods.

Use this tutorial to verify site ownership using HTML tag method offered by Google.

What you will need:

• access details to website's admin panel.
• browser of your choice

To verify site ownership using “HTML tag” method:

1. Copy offered meta tag from your Search Console :

2. Open Admin Panel of your SkaDate software. 3. Navigate to Admin Panel » Settings » Page Settings 4. Paste copied code into “Custom head code” section » Save Changes.

5. Go back to Search Console Page. Check “HTML” tag radio button and click “Verify”. Here is a result you should see:

To stay verified, don't remove the HTML tag from “Custom Head” section even after verification succeeds.

If verification using this method fails, try verifying via HTML file upload instead.

Use this tutorial to verify site ownership using HTML file upload method offered by Google.

What you will need:

• access details to server ( cPanel or FTP).
• browser of your choice

Be prepared to navigate back and forth between browser tabs. Do not close any tabs until you complete verification. Here is list of tabs that are expected to opened throughout this tutorial:

• tab with this tutorial.
• Google Search Console tab.
• File Manager's website root directory tab.
• .htaccess editor tab

To verify site ownership using “HTML file upload” method:

1. Download generated HTML verification file by clicking hyperlinked text within Search Console:

Do not close browser tab where Search console is opened until you finish verification.

2. Open your server using FTP client (ex. FileZilla) or cPanel's File Manager. In our example we will use File Manager.

• log in to cPanel using your browser.
• find and click the File Manager icon.
• if pop up appears, check “Show hidden Files” box within it. If not proceed further.
• navigate to your website's root directory. This is the place where rest of SkaDate software files are located it ( ow_version.xml, index.php and etc.)
• if you did not check “Show hidden Files” box earlier, click “Settings” button in upper right corner of File Manager's interface. Check “Show Hidden Files” box. Close pop up.

3. Upload downloaded verification file into your website's root directory using “Upload” button from upper navigation menu of File Manager.

Go back to your website's root directory.

4. Edit .htaccess file.

• find .htaccess file within list of files in your root directory
• right mouse click on .htaccess
• select “Edit” from opened action menu.
• editor will be opened in a separate browser tab.

• copy following line from this tutorial:

   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/googleXXXXXXXXXXXX\.html 

• paste copied line into your .htaccess file right after

   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index\.php 

Do not close .htaccess editor tab.

5.Copy file name uploaded at step #3.

• Navigate to a browser tab where File Manager showing your root directory was opened.
• right mouse click on .html verification file uploaded earlier.
• select “rename” from action menu. “Rename” pop up will be opened.
• copy name of the file from this pop up before “.html” part.
• click “Cancel” to close pop up. Do not actually rename the file. We opened “Rename” interface to simply copy file name.

6. Add your unique file name into. htaccess.

• navigate to a browser tab where .htaccess editor was opened at.
• replace googleXXXXXXXXXXXX with the file name copied earlier . Ex:

   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/googleba1cb17b3cae7e7a\.html 

• Save changes done within .htaccess file by clicking “Save changes”.

7. Confirm successful upload by visiting http://sitename.com/googlebaXXXXXXXXXXX.html in a separate browser tab. Where googlebaXXXXXXXXXXX must be replaced by your unique file name. You can easily click on this link from Search Console page. Here is a result you should see:

8. Go back to Search Console. Click “Verify” button. Here is a result you should see:

To stay verified, don't remove the HTML file and custom line added into .htaccess even after verification succeeds.