Verifying the site rights

Data about the indexing of your site's pages by the Yandex indexing bot may contain confidential information. That's why Yandex needs to make sure that the user has the rights to manage the site and view the data about it.

If you're the site owner or you have direct access to the site, verify your management rights in Yandex Webmaster using one of the available methods. Once site ownership is verified, you'll receive the Owner role.

If you don't have direct access to the site, contact the user with the Owner role. They'll assign the permissions required for your job. This way, you won't have to verify site ownership.

To view the list of owners and users with roles, go to Settings → Manage access.

Yandex regularly checks the site for changes verifying the rights to manage it. If the necessary changes aren't found during such a check, the site is considered unverified. A message about the site management rights not being verified will appear on the My sites page, and you'll also receive a notification.

Verification of rights can take up to 24 hours.

Verifying site ownership in Yandex Webmaster

After you verify site ownership, you'll get the Owner role and full access to manage your site in Yandex Webmaster. You'll also be able to assign roles to other users.

Note

You can verify site ownership via a site builder (CMS) where the site was created.

Add your site to Yandex Webmaster, then go to Settings → Access rights and choose your preferred verification method:

HTML file in the root directory (recommended)

To verify your rights using an HTML file in the root directory:

  1. Create an HTML file with a unique name and content we provide and place it in your site's root directory.

  2. Make sure that the file contains only the code above. If additional content is automatically added to the HTML file, such as design elements, check your server settings. If you can't create a file with the specified content, use a different method to verify your rights.

    If the site works for both IPv4 and IPv6, make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

  3. Click the Check button.

Meta tag on the home page

  1. Add the special meta tag in the HTML code of the site's home page. Place it in the head element.

    Example
    <head>
...
<meta name='yandex-verification' content='XXXXXXXXXXXXXX' />
...
</head>

    If you add the meta tag to another section of the home page, you won't be able to verify your rights.

  2. Go to your site's home page and make sure that the meta tag appears in the head element in the page's HTML code. To do this, in the browser menu, select Source code of page. On some sites, it may take a few minutes to update the meta tag.

    If the site works for both IPv4 and IPv6, make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

  3. When the metatag has updated, click Check.

If you have trouble verifying your rights with the meta tag, use a different method or contact support.

TXT record in the DNS

  1. In the site's DNS records, add a TXT record containing the specified unique value.

  2. Make sure that the URL of the site for which you are verifying your rights in Yandex Webmaster matches the URL of the site for which you are creating a DNS record. For example, URLs with and without the www prefix are considered different sites. It may take a long time to update the records.

    If the site works for both IPv4 and IPv6, make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

  3. When the DNS records have updated, click Check.

If you have several sites, you need to verify the rights to each of them separately.

How to verify the rights to subdomains

If you verified your rights to the site's primary domain, you can use the verification code generated for the primary domain to verify your rights to subdomains.

An example of verifying the rights to a subdomain using an HTML file:

  1. Add the site's primary domain to Yandex Webmaster.
  2. Add the HTML file with the verification code generated in Yandex Webmaster to the site's root directory.
  3. Add the site's subdomain to Yandex Webmaster.
  4. Add the HTML file generated for the primary domain to the subdomain's root directory.

Similarly, you can verify the rights to a subdomain using a meta tag and a TXT record in the DNS.

If you were assigned ownership rights to the main domain by another user, you can't use the main domain's verification code when adding subdomains to Yandex Webmaster. Verify your management rights for each subdomain separately using one of the methods listed above.

Verify your rights in a site builder (CMS)

You can verify your management rights in the site builder (CMS) that you used to create your site. The verification instructions for popular CMSs are listed below.

If you couldn't find the instructions for your CMS, use the Yandex Webmaster instructions.

Select the site platform:

If you have questions about the rights verification in a specific CMS, you can contact the support team of the platform your site was created on.

FAQ

I placed the HTML file on my site, but I can't verify my rights

  • Check the path to the file. It should be placed in the site's root directory.

  • Check the HTML file's contents. To do this in Yandex Webmaster:

    1. Go to Tools → Server response check.
    2. In the Poll URL field, enter the page's URL and click Check.
    3. After a while, the Server response check page will display a Page content section. Expand it and compare the contents of your HTML file with what you see in Yandex Webmaster.

If for some reason you are unable to create an HTML file with specific content, check the server settings. It may automatically add code when creating the page. In this case, verify your rights using a different method.

If the problem remains, contact support.

I added a TXT record to the DNS, but I can't verify my rights

The record couldn't be found in your site's DNS. This could happen for the following reasons:

  • DNS information hasn't been updated yet (this may take some time). Try verifying your rights the next day.
  • A non-TXT record was created in the DNS.
  • A DNS record was created for another site. A search engine treats http://www.site.ru and site.ru as different domains, and TXT records for each of them are created separately.
  • The site supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

If you don't know how to make a DNS TXT record, contact the support team of the service to whose DNS servers your site is delegated. For example, this can be a domain name registrar.

If the problem remains, contact support.

Failed to load home page

The Yandex Webmaster robot failed to view the main page of your site. This could happen for the following reasons:

  • The home page of your site redirects to another page (for example, to /index.html). In this case, we recommend changing the server settings so that it responds to the robot named Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexWebmaster/2.0; +http://yandex.com/bots) with HTTP code "200 OK".
  • The home page of your site is not available. Check the page’s availability using the Server response check tool in Yandex Webmaster.
  • The site supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

If the problem remains, contact support.

When verifying the rights, the robot received a response other than 200 OK

When the main Yandex robot or the Yandex Webmaster robot accesses documents on your site, the server responds with a code other than 200 OK. Therefore, your rights can't be verified.

Check your server settings. Yandex robots are represented in logs as follows.

Configure the server so that it responds to a file request with an HTTP 200 OK status code. The rights to your site in Yandex Webmaster should then be verified successfully.

If the site works for both IPv4 and IPv6, make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

If the problem remains, contact support.

How to find the site's root directory

Your site's root directory is the main folder storing all the files and folders necessary to keep the site running. The web server takes files from this folder to display your site in the user's browser. It's a top-level folder that isn't nested in any other directory. This folder typically has the same name as your site's domain.

To find the root directory, you can use:

  • The dashboard of your site builder (CMS). Go to the section with files. This section can be named Files or something different depending on the CMS.
  • The hosting control panel. Go to File manager and open the directory with your domain's name.
  • Your FTP client. Enter your credentials and the site URL.

If you can't find the root directory, contact your site developer or the support team of your CMS.

How do I view information without verifying my rights?

Information provided by Yandex Webmaster and directly related to a site is confidential and is intended for the site's owners or other authorized individuals. This is why you first need to verify your access rights to the site before you can start managing it.

Some tools in Yandex Webmaster can be used without verifying these rights, but their functionality will be limited until you do. To learn more, see How to use Yandex Webmaster without selecting a site.

If you don't want to verify your rights to a site, you won't be able to get detailed information about it in Yandex Webmaster.

Contact support

Tell us what your question is about so we can direct you to the right specialist:

To add a site to Yandex Webmaster, the server must respond to the main Yandex robot and the Yandex Webmaster robot with the HTTP code 200 OK (or redirect to a page that responds with the HTTP code 200 OK).

Check your server settings. Yandex robots are represented in logs as follows.

This error occurred because the required record wasn't found in your site's DNS. This could happen for the following reasons:

  • DNS information hasn't been updated yet (this may take some time). Try verifying your rights the next day.
  • A non-TXT record was created in the DNS.
  • A DNS record was created for another site. A search engine treats http://www.site.ru and site.ru as different domains. Therefore, TXT records for each of them are created separately.
  • The site supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

If you don't know how to make a DNS TXT record, contact the support team of the service to whose DNS servers your site is delegated. For example, this can be a domain name registrar.

To verify your site management rights using an HTML file, make sure the file content is strictly the same as specified in the service. If the file code contains page design elements, meta tags, or any other additional code, you won't be able to verify your rights.

If for some reason you are unable to create an HTML file with specific content, check the server settings. It may automatically add code when creating the page. In this case, use other methods of rights verification.

If the website works for both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

The Yandex Webmaster robot failed to view the main page of your site. This could happen for the following reasons:

  • The home page of your site redirects to another page (for example, to /index.html). In this case, we recommend changing the server settings so that it responds to the robot named Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexWebmaster/2.0; +http://yandex.com/bots) with HTTP code "200 OK".
  • The home page of your site is not available. Check whether it opens in the browser.

  • The site supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

If there are no redirects from the home page and it opens freely in the browser, but you still can't verify your site management rights, contact us.

Check the following:

  • The meta tag that's required for verifying the site management rights should be placed inside the head element of the HTML code of the site's home page.

    <head>
...
<meta name='yandex-verification' content='XXXXXXXXXXXXXX' />
...
</head>

    If you add the meta tag to another section of the home page, you won't be able to verify your rights.

  • The site supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

When the main Yandex robot or the Yandex Webmaster robot accesses documents on your site, the server responds with a code other than 200 OK. Therefore, your rights can't be verified.

Check your server settings. Yandex robots are represented in logs as follows.

You need to configure the server so that it responds to a file request with HTTP code 200 OK. The rights to your website in Yandex.Webmaster should then be verified successfully.

If the website works for both IPv4 and IPv6. Make sure that the site responds correctly at all IP addresses.

When you delegate the rights, the site isn't automatically added to the account of the user the rights are delegated to. You should do this manually. After the site is added, the delegated rights are confirmed automatically.

You should also keep in mind that a search engine treats https://www.example.com, https://example.com, http://www.example.com, and http://example.com as different sites. Therefore, add exactly the same site address as was added by the user the rights are delegated from.

Verified site management rights may be revoked if the service robot fails to find the verification code during the next check, or if the site is unavailable.

The verification code is checked regularly and automatically. Therefore, we recommend that you not delete the code to ensure that your rights aren't reset. To restore the revoked rights, just verify them again by any means. This will not affect the site statistics collected.

Information provided by the service is confidential and is intended for site owners or other authorized individuals. Therefore, managing a site in Yandex Webmaster requires verification. If you don't want to verify your rights, you won't be able to use the service.




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