Verify your domain with Meta (Facebook)

  • facebook
  • meta-business-suite
  • verification
  • domain
  • customizer

Updated

To verify your domain with Meta, open Settings → Brand safety → Domains in Meta Business Suite, add your root domain (yourdomain.com, without www or https://), and choose the meta-tag method. Paste Meta's tag (or just the code inside it) into your site's head, then click Verify domain. On a Dirigible site the tag goes in the Facebook Domain Verification ID field, so you don't need a plugin.

Why verify your domain

Verifying tells Meta that your business portfolio owns the website. It's free. With a verified domain you can:

  • Control who can edit the link previews of ads and posts that point to your site.
  • Choose which of your Pages can edit ads that link to your domain.
  • Use domain verification to complete business verification, if you don't have a business phone number or your email domain doesn't match your website.

Meta may also ask for it if you register for the news Page index or sell on Facebook commerce surfaces. See Meta's When to use domain verification.

This is separate from the Meta Pixel. The Pixel tracks visits and conversions; domain verification proves ownership. To add the Pixel, see Add tracking codes to your site.

Before you start

You need:

  • A business portfolio in Meta Business Suite (older guides call it Business Manager), with full control of it.
  • Access to edit your website, or to your domain's DNS settings.

Add your domain in Meta Business Suite

  1. Open Meta Business Suite settings and go to Brand safety → Domains.
  2. Click + Add, then Create a domain.
  3. Enter your root domain only: yourdomain.com, not www.yourdomain.com or https://yourdomain.com. Verifying the root domain covers its subdomains, www included.
  4. Click Add. Meta then shows three ways to verify.

Which method should you use?

Method Choose it when
Meta tag You can edit your site's head. This is the easiest on a Dirigible site.
DNS TXT record You manage your domain's DNS and would rather not touch the website, or your home page can't hold a tag.
HTML file You can upload a file to your site's main folder, for example through your host's file manager.

Not sure who manages your DNS? See Get your domain, hosting, and logins from a former web developer.

Verify with the meta tag

  1. Choose the meta-tag option. Meta shows a tag like this:

    <meta name="facebook-domain-verification" content="abc123…" />

    The code is the part between the quotes after content=.

  2. Paste it into your site's head (see the next section) and save.

  3. Check it's live: open your home page in a private window, view the page source (in Chrome, right-click and choose View page source), and search for facebook-domain-verification.

  4. Back in Meta Business Suite, click Verify domain.

Once the domain shows as verified, Meta says you can remove the tag without losing verification.

On a Dirigible site

  1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Scripts & Embeds → Analytics & Tracking.
  2. Paste Meta's whole meta tag, or just the code, into Facebook Domain Verification ID. Dirigible keeps just the code either way.
  3. Click Publish, then click Verify domain in Meta Business Suite.

Dirigible adds the tag to the head of every page for every visitor. It doesn't depend on your tracking settings or the cookie banner. Don't also paste the tag into Custom Embeds.

The field holds one code. If it says "This doesn't look like a Facebook domain verification code", you've pasted something else, such as the Pixel code. If it says the field takes one ID and you pasted several, paste only the tag Meta is showing you now.

On other WordPress sites

Use a field your theme or SEO plugin has for Facebook or Meta domain verification, or a plugin that adds code to your site's header. The tag must be in the HTML WordPress sends. Meta's crawler doesn't run JavaScript, so a tag added through Google Tag Manager won't be found.

Verify with a DNS TXT record

  1. Choose the DNS TXT option and copy the TXT record Meta shows.
  2. Sign in where your domain's DNS is managed (usually your domain registrar) and open its DNS records.
  3. Add a TXT record with Meta's value, following your provider's instructions.
  4. Check the record with a DNS TXT lookup tool, then click Verify domain. New records can take a while to show up.

Verify with an HTML file

  1. Choose the HTML file option and download the file. Don't change it.
  2. Upload it to your site's main (root) folder.
  3. Click the link Meta shows to check the file opens on your site, then click Verify domain.

Verification failed? Common causes

Meta shows an error message when it can't verify. Fix the cause below, then click Verify domain again.

  • Your site is showing an old copy. Meta checks the home page a logged-out visitor sees. Hosts with a page cache or CDN (Rocket.net and Cloudflare, for example) may still serve a copy from before you added the tag. If the tag is missing from the page source in a private window, purge the site's cache in your hosting dashboard or caching plugin, or wait for it to refresh. See Fix WordPress changes not showing on your site.
  • The tag is in the wrong field. On a Dirigible site it goes in Facebook Domain Verification ID, not Facebook Pixel ID or Google Site Verification ID. Pasting it into a page, post, or Custom HTML block puts it in the page body, where Meta won't find it.
  • The code doesn't match. Copy the tag again from Meta Business Suite, exactly as shown, with no missing characters.
  • The tag was removed before you clicked Verify. A theme change, a new SEO plugin, or clearing the field takes it off the page. Check the page source again.
  • You entered www or a full address. Meta wants the root domain only (yourdomain.com). A subdomain, a path, or https:// gives an "invalid domain" error. Make sure yourdomain.com without www opens your home page too.
  • The tag is added by JavaScript. Meta's crawler only reads the HTML the server sends. Use a theme field or a header plugin instead of Tag Manager.
  • Something hides your home page. A coming-soon or maintenance plugin, a password, or a login screen stops Meta seeing the tag. Turn it off while you verify, or use the DNS method.
  • Another business already verified the domain. Ask that business to share the domain with yours. This can also happen after a domain changes owners and the old owner verified it.

To see exactly what Meta's crawler sees, paste your home page address into Meta's Sharing Debugger, then open the Scraped URL link and search for facebook-domain-verification. If the page there is old, click Scrape Again. Meta's full list of errors: Troubleshoot why you can't verify your domain.

Related guides

Verifying your site with Google works the same way, with a different tag and field. See Add your WordPress site to Google Search Console.

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