Domain Verification

Confirming your website is yours

Before we read every page of your site and write advice about it, we need to know the site belongs to you. Tracking where you appear on Google needs no permission, because anyone can look that up. Reading your pages and telling you what to change does, so this one step unlocks the rest.

Two ways to do it

Either one works and you only need one of them. Which is easier depends entirely on how your website was built, so start with the first and move to the second if you cannot find the box it asks for.

A line of code on your homepage

Most site builders have a box for exactly this, usually called header code or custom code. You paste a line in, save, and we find it within seconds. Nothing appears on the page and nobody visiting your site will ever see it.

A record at your domain provider

This goes wherever your domain is managed rather than on the website itself. Use it if your site builder has no code box, or if you cannot find one. It usually works within minutes, though it can take longer to spread.

Route one, the line of code

Your own line is on the setup screen, with a button that copies it. It looks like this, with your own code in place of the example:

The shape of it

<meta name="rankingiq-verification" content="your-code-here">

Copy the whole line, including the angle brackets. It goes in the head section of your homepage, which every site builder calls something slightly different. It does not matter whether your builder tidies up the spacing or the quotation marks afterwards, and it does not matter whether it ends up first or last. Leave it there once it is in.

WordPress with Rank Math

Works, but the field is hidden by default

Rank Math has a field for exactly this, though it only appears in Advanced Mode. Easy Mode shows Google, Bing, Baidu and Pinterest only, and hides the custom one.

Open the Rank Math dashboard and switch it from Easy Mode to Advanced Mode.
Go to Rank Math SEO, then General Settings, then Webmaster Tools.
Scroll to the field called Custom Webmaster Tags and paste the whole line in.
Click Save Changes, then come back here and check.

WordPress with Yoast

Yoast cannot do this one, here is what to use instead

Yoast has a section called Site connections that looks like the right place, but it only accepts codes from Google, Bing, Baidu and Yandex, and it checks the format against each of them. Ours will be rejected. This is a limitation of Yoast rather than anything wrong with your code.

Install a small plugin that adds a header code box instead. WPCode, previously called Insert Headers and Footers, is the usual choice and is free.

In WordPress, go to Plugins, then Add New, and search for WPCode.
Install it and activate it. You can leave Yoast exactly as it is.
Open its header and footer settings and find the box that adds code to the head of every page.
Paste the whole line into that box and save.

WordPress with no SEO plugin

Same answer as above. Install WPCode, paste the line into its header box and save. It is safer than editing your theme files, because a theme update will not wipe it out.

Wix

Needs a published site with your own domain connected

In your Wix dashboard, go to Settings and open Custom Code.
Click Add Custom Code.
Paste the whole line into the code box and give it a name you will recognise, such as RankingIQ.
Set it to apply to All pages, and under Place Code in choose Head.
Save, then publish your site if it is not published already.

Wix only runs custom code on a published site with a domain connected to it, which needs a paid plan. If your site is still on a wixsite.com address you will not see the Custom Code panel at all.

Squarespace

Not available on the entry level plans

Go to Settings, then Advanced, then Code Injection. On newer dashboards the path is Website, then Website Tools, then Code Injection.
Paste the whole line into the Header box, not the Footer box.
Click Save.

Code Injection is not included on every plan. On the older plans, Personal does not have it and Business and Commerce do. On the newer plans, Basic does not have it and Core, Plus and Advanced do. If you cannot find the option at all, that is why, and route two below will work instead without changing your plan.

Shopify

In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store, then Themes.
On your live theme, open the actions menu and choose Edit code.
In the Layout folder, open theme.liquid.
Find the opening <head> near the top and paste the whole line on the next line down.
Click Save.

Two things catch people out here. Some newer themes use a different layout file rather than theme.liquid, so if the tag does not appear on your live site, check which layout your theme is actually using. And if your store still has a password page switched on, nobody can see your homepage, including us, so verification cannot succeed until you remove it.

Webflow

Needs a paid plan, and a publish afterwards

Open Site settings and go to the Custom code tab.
Paste the whole line into the Head code box.
Click Save changes.
Publish your site. Nothing goes live until you do.

A site built by hand, or by a developer

Paste the line anywhere between <head> and </head> in your homepage file, then upload it. If somebody else built your site, forwarding them the line and this paragraph is usually a two minute job for them.

Route two, the record at your domain provider

This one does not touch your website at all. It goes wherever your domain is managed, which is usually the company you bought it from. You are adding one small record that only we will ever look at.

What to enter

TypeTXT

Host, or Name@ or blank, if blank is allowed

Valueyour code on its own

TTLleave it alone

Your code is the part of the line on the setup screen that sits between the quotation marks after the word content. Not the whole line, just the code itself. The host field is the one people get wrong: it needs to be @, which means the domain itself. Typing your domain name in there, or a word like rankingiq, creates the record in the wrong place and we will never find it.

GoDaddy

Sign in and open your Domain Portfolio, then select your domain.
Open DNS, then click Add New Record.
Choose TXT as the type, enter @ in the Name field, and paste your code into the TXT Value field.
Leave the TTL at its default and save.

123 Reg

Sign in and open the Control Panel, then choose your domain and click Manage.
Under advanced domain settings, click Manage DNS, then open the Advanced DNS tab.
Choose TXT/SPF from the drop down.
Enter @ in Host Name and paste your code into the Destination TXT field, then save.

IONOS

Sign in and find your domain, then click Manage Domain.
Add a TXT record.
Enter @ in the Host Name field and paste your code into the Value field, then save.

Namecheap

Sign in and open Domain List, then click Manage next to your domain.
Open the Advanced DNS tab and click Add New Record.
Choose TXT Record, enter @ in the Host field, and paste your code into the Value field.
Save the record.

Cloudflare

Open the Cloudflare dashboard and select your domain.
Go to DNS, then Records, and click Add record.
Choose TXT, enter @ as the Name, and paste your code into the Content field.
Leave TTL on Auto and save.

Somewhere else, or you are not sure

Every provider asks for the same three things under slightly different names, so the table above translates. Look for DNS, DNS records, or an advanced DNS editor, then add a TXT record with a host of @ and your code as the value.

One thing to check first: your DNS is managed wherever your nameservers point, which is not always the company you bought the domain from. If you moved your domain behind something like Cloudflare at some stage, the change has to be made there rather than at the original provider, and making it in the wrong place looks exactly like making it correctly and having it not work.

When it says it cannot find it

You saved it but did not publish

Wix, Webflow and Squarespace all keep a saved change separate from a published one. Saving puts it in your editor, publishing puts it on the website. We can only see the published version.

You used the DNS route and checked straight away

A code box on your website is live the moment you publish. A DNS record is not. It usually appears within a few minutes, but it can take several hours and occasionally up to two days to spread properly. If everything looks right, leave it and try again later rather than changing it.

It is on a different page

We only look at your homepage. If your builder let you add the tag to one specific page and you chose another one, move it to the homepage or set it to apply to all pages.

Your site is not on https

We look at the secure version of your address only. If your site still loads over plain http, the tag route cannot work until that is fixed, and it is worth fixing regardless, because Google treats an insecure site less kindly than a secure one. The DNS route is unaffected by this.

Your builder stripped it out

A few builders quietly remove tags they do not recognise, and some free plans do not run custom code at all. Open your homepage, view the page source, and search it for the word rankingiq. If it is not there, the builder has not kept it, and the DNS route is the way round it.

Still nothing

Write to support@ranking-iq.co.uk with your website address and which route you tried, and a person will look at it. It is usually something small and it is usually quicker for us to spot than for you to hunt.

What happens if you skip it

You still get

Your positions checked and recorded exactly as normal, your score, and the first twenty five pages of your site read, which is enough for a first set of changes.

You do not get

The rest of your site read, which on most sites is where the useful advice is. You can come back and confirm at any point, and everything unlocks from there.

Ready to carry on?

Head back to setup and check, or read the rest of the questions.

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