While browsing around Webmaster Tools and needing to add a new client, I noticed Google have changed the verify ownership screen when you add a new domain. Before it used to be a list of the possible verification method, but now it’s been changed to a more modern tabbed system.
They also appear to be recommending DNS verification as the standard method rather than meta tags or HTML files. This is quite a strange change considering a lot of domain registrars don’t offer “TXT” domain records yet. This is proven if you select registrars such as 1&1 from the instructions drop down menu.
Even though DNS is now recommended, you can still choose the other verification methods if you like. These are still available by clicking on the second tab, and just like the original selection screen, you can choose which one you would like from the list.
We can only speculate on why Google made the change to recommend DNS verification rather than meta/html file verification. Perhaps it was an attempt at security, but this wouldn’t prevent a hacker from getting access to your site information, they would just have to add their own verification meta tag which they can obtain by adding your domain to their webmaster tools. Maybe it was to make it harder to accily un-verify your account? Maybe they just fancied a change? Whatever the reason, it has had zero impact on the way Webmaster Tools works and you don’t need to re-verify your site.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and SEO is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
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