Does adding a DNS TXT record slow down loading times?

Question

Google Webmaster Tools offers several methods to verify ownership of websites. Meta tags, DNS records, linking to a Google Analytics account, or uploading an HTML file to the server. My website has already been verified through the HTML file method, but I'd like to make my verification more resilient with Google (yes, they do actually recommend more than one method of verification). I don't want to make our usage of Google any more public than it already is, so adding meta tags is out of the picture - as well as using a Google Analytics account, as we don't utilize that for visitor reporting.

This brings up my original question, if I choose to add a DNS record in the form of the following:

TXT Record google-site-verification=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How would adding this TXT record affect site loading times and overall performance - especially in terms of new visitors who must perform a new DNS lookup? Substantial, marginal?

Most likely marginal, but we're pinching at pennies here and trying to squeeze ever last bit of optimization out of our server box. Any feedback and/or your own speed tests would be more than welcome!

Answer 1

Typical users will not see the TXT records. They'd only request for A (or AAAA) records to access your services. People interested in the TXT record need to ask for it explicitly:

dig TXT your.fqdn.com

So there is no effect on site load times.