What is Domain Verification?

Tell Facebook that you claim ownership of your website by following the process of everyone’s (not so) favorite step in Facebook advertising… Domain verification. Why does Facebook need verification? No, it’s not about Facebook’s trust issues. By verifying your domain, Facebook knows to associate your Page with your domain and gives only the rightful parties the green light to edit link previews and collect data for your website.

There are three different methods of verifying your domain in Facebook Business Manager, but you only need to choose one.

  1. DNS Verification
  2. Meta Tags
  3. HTML File Upload

Add Your Domain in Facebook Business Manager 

I know, I know – You’re eager to dive into the ways to verify your domain, but first things first. You need to actually add your domain in Facebook Business Manager before you can verify the domain.

As described by Meta for Developers, follow the steps below to successfully add your domain:

Start by opening Business Manager. 

1. In the lower-left corner, click the ‘Settings’ button.

Add Domain in Facebook Business Manager: Step 1

2. On the left, select the “More business settings” button.

Add Domain in Facebook Business Manager: Step 2

3. Select the dropdown menu on the ‘Brand Safety’ tab and click ‘Domains’.

Add Your Domain in Facebook Business Manager: Step 3

4. Enter your domain in the ‘Add a Domain’ pop-up and click ‘Add’.

Add Your Domain in Facebook Business Manager: Step 4

3 Ways to Verify Your Domain in Facebook Business Manager

Option #1: DNS Verification 

This approach involves adding TXT information to your DNS record.

Facebook Domain Verification - txt entry

  • To start, open your domain host and navigate to the DNS settings of your website.
  • In a separate tab, open Facebook Business Manager and once you’ve followed the proper steps to add your domain, select the desired domain.
  • Under the DNS Verification tab, you will find a provided TXT entry. Add the TXT entry from Business Manager to your DNS configuration, but note that some domains may require an @ symbol added to the entry field.
  • Once the changes have spread across the domain’s web servers, you can re-visit Business Manager and click the ‘Verify’ button at the bottom of the DNS Verification tab.

Note: Keep in mind that it can take up to 72 hours for the changes to spread across your website’s domain servers. You’ll know it’s complete once you see the status displayed as ‘Verified’ with a green dot. 

Option #2: Meta Tags 

Your meta tag is unique to your domain so with this method, you can verify your domain by adding a meta tag to the <head> section of your home page. After you add your domain in Facebook Business Manager, open the Meta-tag Verification tab for the selected domain. From there, follow the steps below to verify your domain in Facebook Business Manager using meta tags.

  • Under the Meta-Tag Verification tab, you will find the meta tag needed to add to your domain home page. Copy that code!
  • Open your domain’s home page and paste your meta tag to the <head> section in the HTML.
  • Before finalizing it’s recommended that you visit your domain home page, view the HTML source, and confirm the meta tag is visible.
  • Good to go? Click the ‘Verify’ button at the bottom of the Meta-tag Verification tab.

Be sure to leave the meta tag there on your domain home page since it may be checked periodically for verification!

Facebook Domain Verification - Meta Tags

Option #3: HTML File Upload 

Speaking of HTML… Try out verifying your domain by uploading an HTML file to your domain host. This works in a similar way to the meta tag verification. 

Facebook Domain Verification - HTML FIle Upload

Once you’ve added your domain to Facebook Business Manager, open the ‘HTML File Upload’ tab. Once there, you’ll find an HTML verification file that you’ll want to download. When the file is downloaded, open up your website, and upload the file to the root directory (or root folder) of your website. Before clicking ‘Verify’, confirm the file is uploading by visiting the link provided under the ‘HTML File Upload’ tab.

Does the file upload look good? Go ahead and click ‘Verify’! Similar to the last note in the meta tag method, make sure you leave the HTML verification file as is in your website’s root directory.  

How to Share Your Domain With Your Agency

If you are partnering with an agency for your social marketing needs rather than in-house, there are some additional steps you will need to follow to share your domain with them once it has been verified.

This all might sound like a lot of steps but, since you are the owner of your business’s website domain, the least complicated solution is for you to verify your domain in Facebook. Once the domain is verified, you are ready to share it with the agency in Facebook Business Manager.

How to share your domain with your agency

How to share your domain with an agency in Facebook Business Manager:

  1. Login to Facebook Business Manager.
  2. Click on ‘Brand Safety / Domains’.
  3. Click on ‘Assign Partner’.
  4. Click ‘Connect your domain using your partner’s business ID’.
  5. Enter the agency’s business ID (which should be provided to you by the agency) and select ‘NEXT’.
  6. Notify the agency, and they can accept on their end to finalize.

Wrapping It Up

For you to do what you want and need on Facebook, you need a verified domain so Facebook can associate your Facebook Business Page with your website domain. Choose one of the three methods described in this article to verify your domain, share it with a marketing agency, and start driving success on Facebook.

Hit any domain verification roadblocks along the way? Happens to the best of us! Take it to Meta For Developers to help you debug. 

 

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