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Domain Verification

The integrity of content on Facebook is a serious concern, and domain verification is a step towards ensuring that only verified owners can edit the way their content appears on Facebook. Many publishing apps use link editing to customize and create engaging content for the Facebook community. In an effort to preserve this essential functionality in a way that protects the integrity of publishers' content, verified link owners will now have the ability to overwrite link metadata when creating link page posts.

This document provides information about:

What is Domain Verification?

Domain Verification provides a way for you to claim ownership of your domain in Business Manager. This ownership allows you to control editing privileges of your links and other content to prevent misuse of your domain and to keep bad actors from spreading misinformation.

Who is Domain Verification for?

Domain Verification is the best way to handle ownership if:

  • You have a larger number of Pages that are difficult to maintain manually via Open Graph markup tags
  • You have adopted or have the ability to adopt Business Manager to manage your assets
  • You have the ability to upload HTML files to the web root directory or the ability to edit DNS TXT records
  • You can edit Link Page Posts that link to content you own—ownership will eventually serve as a means to determine who has access to link editing

If you are verifying a domain on behalf of a client (e.g. as an agency) please make sure that the domain is verified in the domain owner's Business Manager. They can always share access to the domain with your Business Manager later.

Implementation

To implement domain verification, you need to choose between two different methods: 1) add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record to confirm that you own the domain, or 2) upload an HTML file provided by Facebook to your web directory and confirm domain ownership in Business Manager.

You can still add Open Graph tags to your website to indicate ownership—this does not require the use of Business Manager. You can find more information about implementing the fb:pages tag in the Open Graph - Object Properties documentation.

Add your domain in Business Manager

  1. In Business Manager, click on the Business Settings button in the upper right corner.
  2. In the Business Settings, select the Brand Safety tab, and select Domains from the left side navigation list.
  3. Click on the Add button, and enter your domain in the Add a Domain pop-up dialog.
  4. If you have more than one domain listed, select the domain for which you desire to confirm ownership.
  5. Choose the method you wish to use to verify your domain: DNS Verification or the HTML File Upload. Note: You only need to use one method.

Add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record to confirm ownership

The DNS Verification tab of your selected domain provides the TXT information you will need to add to your DNS record.

  1. Navigate to the DNS record section of your domain host.
  2. Add the TXT entry to your DNS record.
  3. Add @ to the Host field (if it is required by your domain host).
  4. Once the changes have propagated across your domain's web servers, click the Verify button at the bottom of the DNS Verification tab for the selected domain.
    Note: Typically, this change takes only minutes to occur, however there are cases where it may take up to 72 hours to complete.
  5. Leave the TXT entry in your DNS record as it may be checked periodically for verification purposes.

The precise steps you need to perform to add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record may vary by domain host.

Upload an HTML file to your web directory and confirm domain ownership in Business Manager

The HTML File Upload tab of your selected domain provides the HTML verification file you need to upload to your website.

  1. Download the HTML verification file.
  2. Upload the file to the root directory of your website. You will be able to see that it is uploading at the link provided in the HTML File Upload tab.
  3. Once it is done, click the Verify button at the bottom of the HTML File Verification tab for the selected domain.
  4. Leave the HTML verification file in your website's root directory as it may be checked periodically for verification purposes.

You need admin access to your website's root folder to perform this type of verification.

Associate Facebook Pages with a Verified Domain

Including Open Graph tags that contain all relevant Page IDs on your website is not always ideal because it requires updating markup on your websites, which can be burdensome, and requires the maintenance of the list of Page IDs without any supporting tools. Having domains as an asset in Business Manager allows for easier maintenance of any list of Pages without any editing of your website's markup tags.

  1. Under Domains, select the desired domain, and select Pages in the Assigned Assets panel. On the right side click the Assign Pages button.
  2. You should see any and all of the Pages you have added to Business Manager. (If your Page is not available, make sure you have imported it into Business Manager under the Pages tab.) Select all the Pages you wish to add to the domain, and click Save Changes.
  3. You should now see any added Pages listed under Assigned Assets for your selected domain.

Domain Verification in Action

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