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Angie530

: Why won't Webmaster Tools let me set a preferred domain? (says to verify, but it should already be) I've got a domain that I apparently forgot to set a preferred domain for, so I just tried

@Angie530

Posted in: #Dns #GoogleSearchConsole #Seo

I've got a domain that I apparently forgot to set a preferred domain for, so I just tried to do it.
Webmaster Tools instead popped up a little box:


Part of the process of setting a preferred domain is to verify that you own www.example.com/. Please verify www.example.com/.

I'm running into some problems following these instructions:


As far as I can tell I already did verify sometime in the past. There's a TXT DNS record with the gibberish Google tells you to set for it that I couldn't have come up with myself.
…and nothing is telling me this information is bad.
So let's assume the site is somehow not actually verified. All the various methods' instructions start with "click the Manage Site button next to the site you want, and then click Verify this site." That button doesn't even exist on my screens. (It presumably goes away when you successfully verify?) Those instructions were all updated pretty recently, and the DNS one in particular just a couple weeks ago so it seems a bit unlikely they're inaccurate.
I am not using Apps, and won't be, so can't try out the verification through there.


Note that I also have another domain that I have not done any verification for which is showing the same behavior(no such button, being told to verify when it seems impossible etc.) so something appears to just be broken.

I already have a no-www process in place server-side, so we can skip that. I'm just trying to get the box checked off in GWT.

If I don't get any resolution, I'll eventually scrap the TXT record and see if the site gets un-verified(or whatever since it thinks it isn't), and see if I can just restart the process.
It's not urgent so I'm just trying to figure out if I've gone blind to something or what. Did the button move?

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@Harper822

If you have both example.com and example.com listed in the Webmaster Tools homepage already, try deleting the entry for example.com (under Manage site > Delete site) and then re-add and re-verify the record for example.com before setting the preferred domain.

If you currently have only example.com listed on the Webmaster Tools homepage, you'll need to add example.com as a separate site before you can select the preferred site.

(You mention that you've verified it in the past, but it's not clear from your question whether or not both example.com and example.com are listed as sites on your homepage in Webmaster Tools; if they're not, they need to be in order to set a preferred domain. You can delete the non-preferred entry after you've verified and set a preferred one.)

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