Question

Google Search Console ownership verification for App Platform domains

Posted on April 7, 2021
DigitalOcean App Platform DNS
Asked by arosiclair

I have an App deployed and I have setup CNAME records for the “bare” and www domains (website.com and www.website.com) via Namecheap DNS. This works well after adding those domains to the app.

However, to verify ownership of the domain in the Google Search Console, I must add a TXT record on these same domains. This is not possible with an existing CNAME record.

I attempted to replace the CNAME record on the bare domain with both ALIAS and URL redirect records, however visiting the page returns a “404 Not Found” page with “Code: NoSuchWebsiteConfiguration”.

How are people setting up Google Search Console verification while also configuring CNAME DNS resolution for their Apps?

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arosiclair • April 7, 2021

Accepted Answer

The 404 errors we’re indeed caused by DO issues with static sites and haven been fixed.

Using an ALIAS record for the bare domain does work correctly after this fix.

Kamal Nasser

DigitalOcean Employee

• April 7, 2021

Hi @arosiclair, the 404 Not Found error is unrelated, it was caused by an incident that has since been resolved: Intermittent 404 Errors with App Platform Static Sites.

The CNAME record that Google Search Console requires for ownership verification should not be identical to your actual site. But if that is not working, you can also use the HTML file or HTML tag methods.

Details on the different verification methods.

alexdo

Site Moderator

• April 7, 2021

Hello, @arosiclair

If Namecheap DNS panel does not allow adding TXT records for domains that already have existing CNAME records you will need to find a workaround. I will recommend you to reach to their support team and ask if there is a solution.

An alternative is using our nameservers and control the DNS from your DigitalOcean account.

Hope that this helps! Regards, Alex