Where does the HTML file get uploaded during site verification?

Hi Henry,

Good question in relation to the HTML file. Site Kit doesn’t actually insert a HTML file when setting up any site, on a primary domain or network enabled site. For verification purposes a Site Kit used a HTML file upload method but there is no physical file added, as evident when checking your file manager or site via FTP. I can check with the team if you wish, for any plans to change this verification method? For the moment all sites added to Search Console via Tag Manager are verified without placing a visible file within your WordPress install.

Let me know if you have any questions on this and I’d be happy to help.

Thanks for your reply @jamesosborne

How is the verification performed then if no HTML file is added? Obviously in a network install, site admins can’t verify using DNS

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Henry Wright.

Hi Henry,

Any WordPress administrators can login, setup the plugin and verify the site with Search Console. If they have full administrator roles then they already have access to the website files an WordPress templates, should users wish to verify their site manually. Being able to setup the plugin and using the OAuth authentication method ensures an administrator is verified for that site.

Note that Site Kit doesn’t support network installs at this point however there is an open GitHub issue for this. You can however setup Site Kit individually for each site on the network, there is no need to manually verify a site within your network.

Independently of using Site Kit if using a subdomain setup as opposed to a subdirectory users can setup DNS records for each sub site if they wish. There is also the option of verifying a site using a domain type property which will cover all domain variations.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above. While the product experts at the Search Console Help Center may be best for verification queries I’m happy to provide further insights in relation to any Site Kit setup.

Hi @jamesosborne

In a network install, the site admin (note I’m not referring to the super admin of the entire network) can’t access the file system. This isn’t a permission they have for security reasons. In a network install, if public registration is open, anyone can be a site admin (again note the distinction from the super admin in change of the entire network).

If I activate Site Kit as a site admin, I can’t access the file system or DNS. Hence my question really. I’m wondering how verification can happen on sub sites when the site admin doesn’t have the necessary permission to upload a HTML file or create a DNS record

Hi @henrywright,

Thanks for the additional insights and sharing your user case. Administrators (non super admins) don’t need to be able to access the file system. Any WordPress administrator role can setup the plugin and there is no requirement for these users to be able to upload a HTML file or to gain additional permissions at host level.

As mentioned the HTML file is only the verification method that appears within Search Console, without the file being placed. I agree that this can cause confusion if checking the verification methods and I will put this forward to the team based on your query. I can then let you know if there are any plans to change the verification method.

Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Thanks @jamesosborne

If a HTML file isn’t added for verification then adjusting the wording will help. Clarifying the method used isn’t necessary but I would be interested to know ??

Agreed, that would be appropriate. I’ll report back to you here once I have an update. It may be a case that this was the most appropriate option when using the Search Console AP. If so any changes would be at Search Console level. I will however let you know as soon as I have an update. Thanks for the suggestion!

@henrywright Thanks for your patience on this. I’ve checked your query with the team and there are no plan to use other verification method at present. If the dynamically generated response that verifies ownership of your site (via the HTML file method) fails the plugin does fall back to a HTML tag verification.

In addition the reason we use the HTML file method is to avoid potential conflicts with caching or security plugins due to the uniqueness of the URL it uses.

Let me know if you have any further queries on this.

Hi @jamesosborne. Thanks for writing back

Do you know where in the file system the HTML file is added? Is the file removed when verification is complete? Multisite is what I’m using so depending on the number of sites created in my network there may be many HTML files added by this plugin.

Hi Henry,

There is no file added to your file system or WordPress directory. How the verification method appears as a “HTML file” verification in Search Console comes from a dynamically generated response via Site Kit when this file is requested – without a file being created or added.

Multisite is what I’m using so depending on the number of sites created in my network there may be many HTML files added by this plugin.

As there is no HTML file actually placed you’ll be happy to know this isn’t a concern.

Hopefully the above is of use. Let me know if you have any further queries on this.

Got you! That’s perfect. I offload part of my file system to an S3 bucket so it is good to know there is no verification file added.

Thanks for taking the time to explain.

No problem at all, happy to help! Reach out if you have any further queries.