Verifying custom domain for Github Pages

This post isn’t about all the pros of verifying our custom domain name in Github. You could read more about the advantages of verifying your custom domain for your Github personal account, if keen. Instead, this post is about the how-to do it, and the weird encounter.

At Github

1. Click on your profile picture at the upper-right corner of GitHub, then click on ⚙️ Settings followed by Pages.

2. Click Add a domain.

3. Enter your apex domain, e.g., internet.life and click Add domain. You only need to verify the apex domain and not the subdomains.

4. Use the information to create a DNS TXT record in Namecheap.

At Namecheap

1. Click on Manage for your matching domain.

2. Click on Advanced DNS. Under the “Host Records” section, Add New Record.

3. Select “TXT Record”, use the information at Github to complete the record. So interestingly when I first verify the domain, I’d to add the apex-domain to the host, and it worked for a while. Then Github said it couldn’t find the TXT record anymore and after removing the apex-domain, I was able to verify it again. YMMY, so toggle begin having and not having the apex-domain if you hit similar issue.

   Host: _github-pages-challenge-<Github-user-name>
   Host: _github-pages-challenge-<Github-user-name>.<apex-domain>
   Value: 7d77b2d16bab18xcec38b9007f7e63 (your value will differ)
   

4. Save the record. And wait for the validation to complete. Verify at Github.