Verify site ownership
Prove ownership to an external service using a file, a meta tag, or your own domain's DNS.
A search engine or another service may ask you to prove that you control your site. Use a verification method that service supports for your published address.
Connecting a custom domain in Reforma does not complete an external service's ownership check.
Choose a method
| Address you use | Available approach |
|---|---|
| Reforma-provided address | Use a verification file or HTML meta tag when the external service supports it. You cannot add DNS records for the Reforma address. |
| Your own domain | Use a supported file or meta-tag method, or add the service's verification record at your domain's DNS provider. |
For Google Search Console, file and meta-tag verification work with a URL-prefix property. A Domain property requires DNS verification. Follow Google's ownership verification instructions for its current requirements.
You need an Owner, Admin, or Editor role to add and publish a verification file or tag.
Add a verification file
- In the external service, choose its file verification method and obtain the exact filename, file contents, and required URL.
- Open your Reforma project in the editor and select Chat in the editor rail.
- Give the agent the filename and complete contents. Ask it to serve the file unchanged at the exact path requested by the service, then select Send.
- Review the changes and the agent's response. Adding a file as a chat attachment alone does not make it available at the required website URL.
- Open Publish in the editor header, select Make it live, and wait for successful publication. See Publish and update if a different publication action is offered.
- Open the exact verification-file URL on the live site. Check that it returns the required file contents and is accessible without signing in to Reforma.
- Return to the external service and run its verification check.
Add a verification meta tag
- Copy the full verification tag provided by the external service.
- Open your Reforma project in the editor and select Chat in the editor rail.
- Paste the tag and ask the agent to add it to the homepage's HTML
<head>, preserving the supplied verification value. Select Send and review the changes. - Open Publish in the header, select Make it live, and wait for publication to succeed.
- Open the published homepage and use your browser's page-source view to check that the tag is present in
<head>. - Return to the external service and run its verification check.
Use the exact address the service is verifying, including the intended hostname. Adding the tag to an editor preview does not make it available on the public site.
Verify your own domain through DNS
If you control a custom domain and choose DNS verification, add the service's record at your DNS provider. These may be additional records beyond the ones used to connect the domain to Reforma.
Use the name, type, and value given by that external service. Keep the verification record in place for as long as the service requires it.
If verification fails
Check the exact hostname and URL the external service is testing. A record for the root domain is not automatically the right record for a subdomain, and a file on one hostname may not verify another.
For a file or tag, inspect the published file or homepage source without signing in to Reforma. Check that the filename, path, or tag value matches the external service's instructions exactly.
External services can recheck ownership. Keep the required verification material available after the first successful check, following that service's instructions.