Jul 7, 2025

Domain Verification Process for SSL Certificates

OVERVIEW: This page walks you through the process performing domain verification from the Domain Verification Page of your SSL Certificate order. At the completion of this procedure, you will be able complete your domain verification for your SSL certificate. For certificate installation instructions, please refer to this guide.

Menu Option

• EMAIL VERIFICATION     

• HTTP VERIFICATION          

• DNS VERIFICATION        

IMPORTANT: If you ordered Organization SSL or Extended SSL, please refer to this guide for the domain verification method instructions. If you have questions or clarifications, contact support for assistance.

Email Verification

This method is ideal for customers who have access to email for their domain registered contacts or can receive email at a set of predefined domain mailboxes such as admin@example.com and hostmaster@example.com. 

This method is applicable to:

• Issuance of DomainSSL (DV) and AlphaSSL certificates
• Adding SANs to CloudSSL certificates 
• Adding OV domains to your MSSL account
• Domain self-validation process for Partner and Retail OV and EV SSL Certificates

ADVISORY: Effective July 15, 2025, CA/Browser Forum prohibits the use of domain approval email addresses obtained from WHOIS and DNS SOA. Any domains validated via WHOIS or DNS SOA will not be usable after July 14, 2025. To learn more about these changes, please refer to these blogs: DNS SOA, WHOIS.

How it works?

Customers can input an approver email in DNS TXT records to verify domains for Partner and Retail OV and EV SSL certificates. GlobalSign Certificate Center (GCC) will then obtain and use that address, displaying it on the pages where we list the approver emails for their selection.

Guidelines

1. Start the ordering process for your SSL Certificate. 

2. During the ordering process, select your preferred email verification from the list. 
   
   

3. Once you have completed the order process, an email will be sent to the selected email address containing the link of the approver page. Click the link to continue to the approver page. 

4. Click I Approve to authorize the issuance of the SSL Certificate. 
   
   

5. The domain has now been successfully verified, and the certificate will be issued. 

6. An email will be sent to you confirming the order has been completed with the details of your certificate. You can now install the certificate upon receipt of email. 

 

 

HTTP Verification

This method is ideal for customers who can easily modify their website.

This method is applicable to:

• Issuance of DomainSSL (DV) and AlphaSSL certificates

• Adding SANs to CloudSSL certificates 

• Adding OV and EV domains to you mSSL account

• Domain self-validation process for Partner and Retail OV and EV SSL Certificates

CA/B FORUM CHANGES: The CAB Forum has specified a new standardized location to be used by all Certificate Authorities when performing domain verification using the HTTP Verification Method. GlobalSign has historically referred to this as the Meta-Tag or URL verification method because we allowed users to insert a meta-tag in the head of the main index page. All customers must use the new location, which involves placing the Domain Validation Code (DVC) in this file http(s)://example.com/.well-known/pki-validation/gsdv.txt. Please see the example below for your reference:

Domain being requested	Valid location (domain)	Valid Location (page/URL) since October 31, 2016 and after February 27, 2017
a.b.c.example.com	http(s)://a.b.c.example.com http(s)://.b.c.example.com http(s)://c.example.com http(s)://example.com	/.well-known/pki-validation/gsdv.txt

Guidelines

1. Start the ordering process for your SSL Certificate. 

2. During the ordering process, select your preferred email verification from the list. 
   
   

3. Once you have completed the order process, you will be provided with a Domain Validation Code. 
    
   

   INFORMATION: You can also view the code in your GCC Account via Search Order History > Enter Order Number or click Search to view all orders > Click the order number > Scroll to the bottom and find Approver URL details.

4. Upload the file containing the DVC to your website in this location: <server selected below>/.well-known/pki-validation/gsdv.txt. 
   Note: For this example, the DVC is found here: https://domainssl.globalsign-support.com/.well-known/pki-validation/gsdv.txt
   
   

5. The email you received will also include a link, which once you have inserted the Domain Validation Code should be clicked to complete the verification process.   
   
   

6. Select the details of your domain using the provided radio buttons, then click Verify my Domain.

   IMPORTANT: If the site cannot be verified an error will appear. If you receive an error, check the insertion of the code and try again.

   
   

7. The domain has now been successfully verified, and the certificate will be issued. 
   
   

8. An email will be sent to you confirming the order has been completed with the details of your certificate. You can now install the certificate upon receipt of email. 

 

 

DNS Verification

This method is ideal for customers who can easily modify DNS records.

 This method is applicable to:

• Issuance of DomainSSL (DV) and AlphaSSL certificates
• Adding SANs to CloudSSL certificates 
• Adding OV and EV domains to you mSSL account
• Domain self-validation process for Partner and Retail OV and EV SSL Certificates

CA/B FORUM CHANGES:  The CA/B Forum has specified that a DNS Tag can be used for a maximum of 30 days only, after which, you need to cancel and reorder the certificate.

Guidelines

Please follow the instructions below to complete the DNS TXT Record Verification Method:

1. Start the ordering process for your SSL Certificate. 

2. During the ordering process, select your preferred email verification from the list. 
   
   

3. Once the purchase has been successful, you will be provided with the Domain Verifcation Code (DVC) that is needed for the TXT record via email. You can also obtain the DVC by going to the certificate details page in GCC.
   
   

4. Open a new browser page and go to the Domain Manager of the website where the SSL certificate will be installed.

5. In the DNS management page, add a TXT type DNS record and have the TXT value entered on the TXT Data field. 
   Note: This is an example of a DNS Manager page. The user interface may be different depending on the Domain Manager. 
   
   

6. The email you received also includes a link for the verification. When you have updated the DNS TXT Record, click on the link to complete the verification process. 
   
   

7. Select the details of your domain using the provided radio buttons. Click Verify.

   IMPORTANT: If the site cannot be verified an error will appear. If you receive an error, check the insertion of the code and try again.

   
   

8. The domain has now been successfully verified, and the certificate will be issued. 
   
   

9. An email will be sent to you confirming the order has been completed with the details of your certificate. You can now install the certificate upon receipt of email. 

WHAT'S NEXT: Once you have completed your domain verification, you can now install the certificate upon receipt of email. For certificate installation instructions, please refer to this guide.