Applies to: Domains, SSL Certificates

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Verifying domain ownership with HTML or DNS

This article will outline how you can verify that you control the domain you’re requesting your SSL certificate for.

When requesting an SSL certificate, we might require you to verify that you are in fact the owner of the domain name you’re requesting the certificate for by using one of the methods listed below:

Please note: HTML verification will only issue your SSL certificate to your Common Name (i.e. ‘example.co.uk’) and will not be applied to your ‘www’ Subdomain (i.e. ‘www.example.co.uk’).

If you wish to issue an SSL certificate to both your Common Name and Subdomain, please use DNS verification.

HTML Page

  1. You will receive an email from us that contains a unique ID relating to your SSL certificate. Copy this unique ID and paste it into a new Notepad or TextEdit file, which you should save as html.
  2. This new file should only contain your unique ID.
  3. Create a new directory in the highest-level directory of your website – which will likely be your site’s root directory – and call it: /.well-known/pki-validation
    Please note: if you are using a Windows server, you will need to name your folder: /.well-known./pki-validation
  4. Place your ‘html’ file into your new folder. Once done, the file’s new URL will be ‘http://yourdomain.com/.well-known/pki-validation/starfield.html’
    Please note: Your ‘well-known’ folder will be a hidden folder. If you’re struggling to locate this folder, you will need to tick the option Show hidden files and folders within your File Manager.
  5. Make sure that you can access ‘starfield.html’ in your web browser and then follow the instructions in the Verify Your Domain Ownership section below.

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DNS Record

You will receive an email that includes a TXT value you can include as a new record on your domain.

Please note: you’ll only be able to create the TXT record through the company that’s hosting your domain name.

If your domain is hosted with 123 Reg, you can create a new TXT record by following these instructions but be sure to change the associated values to the following:

  • Hostname: @
  • Record Type: TXT/SPF
  • Destination: this will be the TXT value you received in your email

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Next Steps

If your SSL certificate is being associated with the primary domain of a website that’s hosted on our cPanel Web Hosting package, we will automatically install your SSL certificate for you.

If, however, your server is with a separate company, you’ll need to download your SSL certificate.

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