How to add Google DNS Verification Record to WordPress

Google Webmasters tools are incredibly useful to track your SEO on your WordPress website. It can tell you what people are searching for that land on your site, giving you great insights into how your website is being used.

Getting your WordPress website verified and set up properly in Google Webmaster tools is a little difficult if you're not used to proper web hosting techniques. When first adding a website to the dashboard, you'll need to verify your website.

Why do I need to verify my website in Webmaster tools?

This is an important step in setting up your Webmaster dashboard because you need to prove this website is YOUR website.

Otherwise anybody could add your website to their Webmaster tools, and they could easily use the data they find to outrank you on Google. They would have insight into what specific keywords and phrases you are targeting, what's working for your website, and use it against you. This would help them outrank you and you would loose out on valuable traffic.

By verifying your website, you are proving the website is yours and you are the person who should have access to this data.

Add a new Property to Google Webmasters

After first signing up with Google Webmasters, click "Add Property"

Enter your domain on the left side of the two options, then click "Continue".

You will now be presented with a line of random code that should be uploaded via DNS records. Don't worry, this is actually pretty easy!

Copy that long line of text and store it somewhere for now on your desktop.

1. If you have access to your hosting provider:

Access Your Hosting Providers Dashboard

Login to your hosting account. Navigate to your hosting section, then look for something called "Login to cPanel" (or very similar).

Once you're in CPanel, search for "DNS Zone Editor"

Add a new record with the type listed as "TXT". For the Name, just put the name of your domain. For "Record", paste that long line of code we copied before. For TTL, put 600. This will be the shortest amount of time we can put to refresh the DNS records (making verification faster).

Now head back to the Google Webmasters dashboard, and click "Verify". You might get a message saying they don't see it yet, if so don't worry. You might need to wait up to 10 minutes for your DNS to refresh. So go grab a cup of coffee, wait at least 10 minutes, and try again.

Once it says you're verified, you're in!

2. If you don't know your hosting providers login:

There unfortunately is not a way to do this only through the WordPress admin panel.

To find your hosting provider, contact the person in charge of your website or who put it together for you.