## **🧭 Overview**

After adding your site to the Search Atlas Publisher Dashboard and placing the required ownership meta tag, you may notice the site still shows an **Inactive** status — even days or weeks later. This article explains why this happens and walks you through the steps to resolve it.

## **❓ Why Is My Site Still Showing as Inactive?**

Verification is confirmed when Search Atlas detects and records a timestamp against your site's ownership meta tag (internally tracked as **domain\_ownership\_verified\_at**). If that timestamp was never recorded — or if the platform cached an outdated verification state — your site will remain inactive despite the meta tag being correctly in place.

A known issue caused some sites to display a stale verification status. The verification banner relied on an older data point (**pending\_validation**) instead of the actual ownership timestamp, meaning sites that met the requirements were sometimes still shown as inactive or unverified. This has been addressed, but manually triggering re-verification is the fastest way to resolve lingering cases.

## **✅ How to Re-Verify Your Site**

1. Make sure your ownership meta tag is still present in the **<head>** section of your site's homepage. Do not remove it.
2. Log in to Search Atlas and go to your **Publisher Dashboard**.
3. Locate the affected site in your site list.
4. Click **Verify ownership** on the site card or within the site's settings.
5. Wait a few moments while Search Atlas re-checks your meta tag and updates the verification timestamp.
6. Once successful, the site status will change from **Inactive** to **Active**.

## **🛠️ Before You Re-Verify — Quick Checklist**

- **Meta tag is present:** The ownership meta tag must appear in the **<head>** of your homepage, not just an inner page.
- **Meta tag is correct:** Copy the tag directly from your Publisher Dashboard to avoid typos.
- **Page is publicly accessible:** Search Atlas must be able to crawl your homepage. Ensure it is not password-protected or blocked by robots.txt.
- **No caching issues:** If you recently added the tag, clear your site's server or CDN cache so the latest version of your page is served to crawlers.

## **⏱️ How Long Does Re-Verification Take?**

In most cases, clicking **Verify ownership** triggers an immediate check and the status updates within a few minutes. If the status does not update after 10–15 minutes, confirm the checklist above is fully satisfied and try again.

## **📊 Checking Your Site Status**

You can monitor your site's verification status at any time from the Publisher Dashboard. If your site also appears under **Site Metrics** (left sidebar → **Site Metrics**), you can review domain-level data there once verification is confirmed.

## **💬 Still Need Help?**

If you have completed all the steps above and your site is still showing as inactive, If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be instantly connected with a member of our team.