: How to verify that someone owns a website? I'm trying to think of ways to, as securely as possible, verify that a user owns a website that they claim to own. Here are some ways I've seen:

@Sims2060225

Posted in: #Ownership #Php

I'm trying to think of ways to, as securely as possible, verify that a user owns a website that they claim to own.

Here are some ways I've seen:


Upload an obscurely-named HTML file to the root directory with given contents
Include a meta tag or other comment somewhere in the home page source
Send an email to an address @domainwearetryingtovalidate .tld with a verification link
Check a CNAME or TXT record
Check WHOIS records
Physically validate by calling or emailing the support line, manually updating records


And here are the problems with those methods, in order:


Some website configurations may not allow for simply uploading a file to the root
Poor site design might allow a user of that site to add this meta tag themselves
Websites which provide email services make this useless; take gmail.com for example
That's too complex for most small website owners to figure out how to do
Those are public; anyone can claim to be whoever. Not to mention most often inaccurate.
Huuuuge waste of time


Are there any other ways to verify that a user on your site owns a particular website? Of the methods I listed, which of these are best and worst? I ordered them from best to worst in my own opinion, but I'd like to see what others think as well.

I plan on implementing one or more of these in PHP.

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