Custom meta tags: verifying your site with Google, Bing, and Pinterest

Some services ask you to prove you own your site by adding a small meta tag to it. You can add those yourself — no developer needed. The most common reason is verifying ownership with Google Search Console, but the same works for Bing, Pinterest, and anything else that uses this method.

Adding a tag

1. Go to Site → Details and open the Custom Meta Tags tab.
2. In Paste a meta tag, paste the whole tag you were given — for example:
   <meta name="google-site-verification" content="abc123">
3. Click Add tag. The name and content fields are filled in for you.
4. Save.

You can also click to add a tag and type the name and content fields by hand if you'd rather.

Your tags are added to the <head> of every page on your site, which is exactly where verification services look for them.

Verifying with Google Search Console

Google offers several verification methods. Choose the "HTML tag" method — that's the one that gives you a tag you can paste here.

Don't use the HTML file method. It gives you a filename like google1a2b3c.html to upload, which isn't a meta tag and won't work here. If you paste that by mistake, you'll see a warning telling you to switch methods — go back to Search Console, pick HTML tag instead, and paste that.

Once your tag is saved and your site has updated, return to Search Console and click Verify.

Limits and rules

• Up to 20 custom meta tags.
• Name: up to 100 characters; letters, numbers, and : . _ - only (no spaces or quotes).
• Content: up to 1000 characters, no line breaks.
• Duplicate tags are ignored.

Tags you can't add here

A few meta tags are managed by your SEO settings and are blocked in this tab: description, keywords, title, robots, rating, viewport, and anything starting with og:.

That's deliberate — those control how your site appears in search results and social previews, and they're set under Site → Details → SEO Meta. See Your logo, membership perks, and SEO settings.

Good to know

• Custom meta tags are invisible to visitors — they're instructions for other services, not content on your pages.
• Only paste tags from services you trust and are actively setting up.
• Once a service is verified, leave its tag in place — removing it can un-verify your site.
• If verification fails, give your site a few minutes, clear your cache, and try again — see Content not showing up on your site? Clear the cache.