Verify domain ownership in Google Search Console

Google Search Console provides several ways to verify domain ownership. Mosaic only supports the HTML file upload method for verification. Follow the steps below to do this on your Mosaic site.

 

This process uses a service external to Mosaic

The guidance below includes steps within Google Search Console. These steps were correct at the time this help page was written, but as the service is external to Mosaic, the process may change from the guidance below without notice.

Also, as the service is external to the Mosaic platform, we're unable to provide support for issues you might encounter with it. For help, we suggest speaking to knowledgeable people in your unit or finding help online.

 

 

Get the HTML file from Google Search Console

  1. Go to your Google Search Console account
  2. Click 'Add property'
  3. In the 'Select property type' popup, use the 'URL prefix' option and enter your domain in the form 'https://[your domain]'
    Note: the domain you enter should be the main, public-facing domain for your site. If your site uses a custom domain, enter the custom domain marked as 'Primary' in your Site Settings > Domains tab
  4. Click 'Continue'
  5. In the 'Verify ownership' modal, download the HTML file. The file should have a name in the format: 'google[unique-alphanumeric-string].html'

Create a plain text file from the HTML file

  1. Open the HTML file in your web browser
  2. Copy all of the text content — i.e. "google-site-verification: google[unique-alphanumeric-string].html"
  3. Open a new document in a plain text editor (for example, Microsoft Notepad)
  4. Paste the text
  5. Save the file with the name 'google[unique-alphanumeric-string].txt'

Upload the text file to your website and edit the file's alias

  1. Login to your Mosaic site
  2. Go to Manage Content > Files > Add file(s)
  3. Upload the file named 'google[unique-alphanumeric-string].txt'
  4. Once uploaded, view the Files screen and click the 'Edit' link for the file
  5. On the file's Edit screen, go to the 'URL path settings' tab
  6. Uncheck the 'Generate automatic URL alias' checkbox and change the URL alias to: "google[unique-alphanumeric-string].html" — i.e. remove "file/" from the start of the alias and change the "txt" to "html"
  7. Save the edits
  8. The HTML file content should now be visible on the URL 'https://[your site's domain]/google[unique-alphanumeric-string].html'.
    Test this by opening a private/incognito browsing session and loading the URL. If successful, the text "google-site-verification: google[unique-alphanumeric-string].html" will be displayed on the page
    Note: Google provides help for troubleshooting common verification problems

Verify the property in Google Search Console

  1. Go back to the 'Verify ownership' modal in Google Search Console
  2. Click 'Verify'

Google Search Console will verify your ownership of the domain by checking that the file containing the unique alphanumeric string is available on your domain.

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