📌 What this article covers
Some onboarded sites stay marked Inactive and show a Domain Authority under 20, even when other tools report a score around 30 or higher. This article explains what that status means, whether a verified site must have its meta tag added again as it grows, and whether the tag has to stay on the site.
🔍 What Inactive means
Inactive is a publication status, not the same thing as a failed first-time verification. A site that has not yet passed verification is usually pending validation, which the publisher dashboard shows as verify to go live. Search Atlas can later set a verified publication to Inactive if the ownership tag is missing on a later check, or for a separate reason such as Domain Authority below 20, traffic, spam, price, quality, or publisher deactivation. A verified site can therefore remain Inactive even though verification itself succeeded.
Verification confirms that Search Atlas can find the ownership meta tag for that site. It does not by itself make the publication active. After the tag is found, the site still has to pass the publication approval checks, such as Domain Authority, traffic, spam, quality, and price. A verified site can remain pending, rejected, under review, or Inactive.
📊 Why Domain Authority can look lower
Domain Authority is an estimate, and different products calculate it differently. A score under 20 in Search Atlas and a score near 30 elsewhere can both be normal. The meta tag does not raise or lower Domain Authority, and adding it again will not change the score.
- Compare the same root domain, not a subdomain or a single page.
- Expect scores to update on a delay after new links or content.
- Use the score as a guide, not as proof that verification is broken.
🛠️ Do verified sites need the meta tag again
No. A site that was verified does not need the meta tag re-added just because the site grows, publishes more pages, or gains authority. Growth does not expire verification.
Add the tag again only if it was removed or the platform shows the site as unverified. Keep the exact tag Search Atlas provides for that property. The current tag uses the publication's own verification code, although an older publisher-level tag may still be accepted.
💡 Must the meta tag stay permanently
Leave the verification meta tag on the site permanently. Search Atlas reads the saved site URL and looks for that tag in the page HTML, not only in the head. If a later ownership check is set to deactivate the site and the tag is missing, the site can lose its verified state and become Inactive, which can prevent it from being used as a publication. If that check is set to warn only, the site is not deactivated. VIP publishers do not use this tag check.
- Place the exact verification meta tag in the HTML of the saved public site URL. It does not have to be in the head. Search Atlas reads that page and looks for the tag anywhere in its HTML.
- Do not noindex, block, or hide the homepage from crawlers.
- After a redesign or CMS change, confirm the same tag is still present.
✅ What to check before escalating
- Open the live homepage and confirm the Search Atlas meta tag is still in the head.
- Confirm you are viewing the same domain that was onboarded.
- Do not assume Inactive means the meta tag failed. It is a publication status that can have several causes, including a removed verification tag, low Domain Authority, traffic, spam, price, quality, or publisher deactivation. A site still waiting for first-time verification is normally pending validation, shown as verify to go live, rather than Inactive.
- Domain Authority scores can differ between products, so a lower Search Atlas score alone does not mean verification failed. However, Search Atlas can set the publication to Inactive when its resolved Domain Authority is below 20. Treat a lower score as a metric issue unless the site is also unverified or its inactive reason says the verification tag was removed.
- Re-add the tag only when it is missing or the site is unverified.
💬 When to contact support
Contact support if the meta tag is present, the site still shows as unverified, or an Inactive status does not match the publication setup you expect. If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and send your message. A member of our support team will reply in the chat.