Trying to give your agency or freelancer access to Google Search Console? Or are you requesting access to a client’s property? Follow these steps (with screenshots) to add users to your Search Console and learn about the types of permission levels available. 💻

Collaborating on SEO with your team, agency, or freelancers? You’ll likely need to share or add them as a user in Google Search Console.

This guide explains the various permission levels and shows you the steps to give access to someone. Need to change a user’s access level or remove them? We’ve got that covered, too.

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Types of users and roles #

When we talk about giving access to Google Search Console, it mainly refers to adding a user to a Property, which is either a domain (leadsie.com) and all its subdomains, or a URL prefix (leadsie.com/blog).

Each Property has at least one verified owner. You can add up to 100 users (non-owners) and even more owners. These are the user/admin roles and their differences:

1. Owners: This is usually the person who set up the Google Search Console Property, but additional owners can be assigned anytime. Both types have the same permissions.
   • Verified owner: To add or remove a verified owner, you’d need to make minor tweaks to the website code to prove your affiliation with/control over the website.
   • Delegated owner: Can be assigned to someone without the need for token verification through the website.
2. Users: Can view data and take some action (but cannot add another user or admin).
   • Full user: Can view all property data and has access to certain features, such as disavowing links and submitting a sitemap.
   • Restricted user: Has simple viewing rights to most data, including the Performance tab and reports.
   • Associated users: These are users or accounts that you authorize to take certain actions on your behalf without being able to open or view your Search Console account or data directly. An example is linking your Google Ads account with Search Console.

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What permissions should I assign to somebody? #

🏠 Keep Owner roles for people you trust, such as your business partner, cofounder, content manager, or in-house SEO lead. Owners have full control, including adding and removing people, deindexing URLs, and deleting the entire property.

👥 Add everyone else as a User. Teammates, agencies, and freelancers who work on your SEO and marketing can be assigned Full users. Other freelancers or content writers can be added as Restricted users if they mainly need view-only access.

🔑 Important tip: Owner roles should be reserved for key decision-makers. To keep your Search Console property safe, consider having just one or two Owners.

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How to add a user to your Google Search Console #

If you’re an Owner of a property, simply follow the screenshots and steps outlined below. If you are not an Owner, jump to the last section for instructions on requesting access to Google Search Console.

Step 1. Go to Google Search Console. If you’re not signed in yet, click on Start Now and log in. You’ll be redirected to the dashboard.

Step 2. If you manage multiple properties, check that you’re in the correct one. Need to change properties? On the left-hand menu, click on the name of the current property you’re in. This will expand the dropdown list. Select the property you want to add a user to.

Step 3. Now, scroll down in the left-hand panel. Click Settings.

Step 4. Under General Settings, click Users and Permissions, or get there using this link.

Step 5. The Users and Permissions screen shows all current users and their access levels. Click the blue Add User button.

Step 6. A popup will appear. Type in the email address of the person you want to add. Then, choose their permission level (Owner, Full, or Restricted) based on their role within your website. 

Step 7. Click Add, and you’re done ✅.

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Removing users or changing permissions #

💡 Only Owners of a Property can remove a user or another owner!

To remove a user or owner:

1. Go to the property in Google Search Console.
2. Go to Users and Permissions.
3. Click the three-dot icon next to the user, then select Remove access.
4. Then, click Remove User in the pop-up to confirm.

🔐 Security tip: When removing a delegated owner, you might see a popup list showing all the verification tokens associated with their access. They can use these tokens to regain ownership.

To prevent that scenario from happening, you’d have to take additional steps to remove all of these tokens. See how to find and remove ownership verification tokens.

You can also check on tokens by clicking on Unused ownership tokens in the Users and Permissions tab.