Google Webmaster Tools verification - Knol Reshared

Source Knol: Google Webmaster Tools verification


Why verify your site?

Privacy is important to Google, which is why Google Webmaster Tools asks you to prove you own a site before showing you stats and data about it. Verification doesn't affect PageRank or affect your site's performance in Google's search results.

To verify that you own a site, you can either add a meta tag to your home page (proving that you have access to the source files), or upload a specific HTML file to your server (proving that you have access to the server). Webmaster Tools will check to see that the file or tag is present. If it is, Google considers you a site owner and will show you site details.

FAQs
Q: I'm getting an error when trying to verify my site with an HTML file, even though my file is visible in my browser.
A: Look at the specific error that Webmaster Tools is showing and read the help content for that error.
The Live HTTP Headers Firefox extension or an online HTTP result code viewer such as Web-Sniffer can be helpful in figuring out what status code a page is returning. Your homepage should return a HTTP result code 200. If you use file-based verification, the verification file should also return a HTTP result code 200 and must contain only the content provided by Webmaster Tools.

Q: Does it matter whether my Webmaster Tools verification meta tag is in HTML or XHTML?
A: We'll be able to find your meta tag no matter which format you use. Webmaster Tools provides the meta tag in XHTML by default, but you're welcome to change it to HTML; this won't prevent you from verifying ownership of your site. The meta tag version that you choose does not affect Google's ability to crawl and index your website.

Q: How can I give someone else access to my Webmaster Tools account?
A: Verified owners can add additional owners to a site. Click the "Manage" link next to the site's name on the home page and select "Add or remove owners" to go to the Verificatio details page. From this page, you can click the "Add an owner..." button and add another Google account.

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