Hide and Seek

Verifying a site

To watch a site every week, prove it’s yours. There is one value for all your sites, shown on your account page once you’ve added one, and either of two places to put it. We check every few minutes until it’s there.

A DNS record

Add a TXT record at the root of the domain (the apex, not www), with your value after the name:

hideandseek=3b1f9c7e2a5d48e0b6c4f1a7d9e2c8b5

Any other TXT records at the root stay as they are; this one sits beside them. DNS changes can take a few minutes to an hour to be visible.

Or a meta tag

Put this in the <head> of the home page:

<meta name="hideandseek" content="3b1f9c7e2a5d48e0b6c4f1a7d9e2c8b5">

The value here is an example; yours is on your account page. Most site builders have a place for custom head tags, under settings or SEO.

How we check

DNS first; if the record isn’t there, the home page. Every three minutes for the site’s first day, then every hour, and whenever you press “Check now” on your account page. The moment it’s found, the site is verified and its first scan is queued.

What verification unlocks

  • The weekly count. A scan of the site every week, at your account’s hour, with its score’s trend on your account page.
  • Your North Star, every month, on every plan. You tell us three things: what you are, the problem you solve, and the sites you’re compared to.
  • The digest and the drop alert. One email a week with every site’s score and what changed, and a same-morning note if a site drops a letter.

Anyone can scan any site from the home page, once a day, without verifying anything. Verification is only for watching a site over time, and for asking about it. The plans.