How to Add a User to Google Search Console (and Set Permissions)

To add a user to Google Search Console, open the property, go to Settings > Users and permissions, click ‘Add user’, enter the email address of that person’s Google account, choose the permission level (Full or Restricted) and save. Only a property owner – verified or delegated – can do this. A user with full access can’t add other people. The same screen is where you change permissions and remove access, and with a former verified owner you also have to remove their verification tokens.

Want to add a domain or a site to Search Console rather than a person? That’s a separate process (a new property plus ownership verification) – I walk through it step by step in how to add a site or domain to Google Search Console.

I start any SEO work by going through the data in Google Search Console. Whether it’s an SEO audit, checking the health of your own site or plain curiosity, GSC is a tool worth using regularly. Whether you analyse the data in the tool itself, in Looker Studio reports or in your own solutions is secondary. A site connected to GSC is a must-have.

If you already have a site verified in Google Search Console, sooner or later you’ll need to share the data with someone else: an SEO specialist, a developer or a colleague. Or maybe you’re moving data from one Google account to another and want to add another account of your own? Whatever the reason, below I show you how to add and remove a user in Google Search Console and which permissions to choose.

Most important of all: never give anyone the login and password to your Google account, especially if it’s your private or company account. And don’t create a new Google account just to give someone access, either. Handing over your login details puts you at risk of losing data and control over the account – whether it’s your wife or husband, your best friend or a company you’ve signed an NDA with. Search Console has a system of users and permissions for exactly this.

How to add a user to Google Search Console properly

First, you must be an owner of the property (or of a parent property, e.g. a Domain property that covers the URL-prefix property in question). It doesn’t matter whether you’re a verified or a delegated owner – both types have the same permissions. Full access is not enough. A user with full or restricted access can only see details in the user list and can’t add or remove anyone. If someone shared a property with you without owner permissions, you can’t pass that access on.

In Settings (the link in the left-hand menu), in the ‘Ownership verification’ section, you may see a message saying you’re not a verified owner, as in the screenshot above. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t manage users. A delegated owner, who can add users, sees this message too. The real test is simpler: if you see ‘Users and permissions’ in Settings, with an ‘Add user’ button inside, you’re an owner. If you don’t have that option, you’re not an owner.

To get to Settings, select the property you’re interested in and scroll down the side menu. You’ll find the ‘Settings’ link (with the cog icon) almost at the very bottom, below the report sections. If your permissions are sufficient, you’ll see something like this:

That’s your sign that you can go ahead. If you need higher permissions, contact the property owner and ask for them. You can also verify ownership yourself, which I cover below.

How do you get higher permissions in Google Search Console without the domain/property owner’s consent?

Sometimes low permissions are simply the owner’s mistake – they may not have known how to grant higher ones, for example. You can, however, get higher permissions yourself if you have FTP access to the site, access to a panel that lets you edit the <head> section, or access to the domain’s DNS.

The point is that you can verify ownership of the site on your own account and become a verified owner. The existing owners won’t be ‘kicked out’, because a property can have many owners. The other owners may, however, get a notification about the new owner, so a ‘silent takeover’ of the site is off the table. And that’s a good thing, because it’s an important safeguard.

What do you need to do to verify the site? Go to Settings and choose ‘Ownership verification’.

Once you choose this option, you’ll see several site verification methods.

If you have FTP access, just upload the right HTML file. If you can edit the <head> section, add the HTML tag. You can also verify via Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager or a DNS record. The process is the same as when you add a site to your account for the first time – the only difference is where you start the wizard.

I describe all verification methods step by step, for both Domain and URL-prefix properties, in a separate article: how to add a site to Google Search Console.

Adding a user to Google Search Console

Adding a new user takes just a few clicks:

1. Open the property in Search Console (select it in the property selector at the top).
2. Go to Settings > Users and permissions. This page is visible only to property owners.
3. Click Add user.
4. Enter the email address of the new user’s Google account.
5. Choose the permission level and save the changes.

You can also go straight to the user list at https://search.google.com/search-console/users and then choose the property at the top.

Then, in the window that appears, click the blue ‘Add user’ button.

Pay attention to the list of people who already have access to your property. If you see addresses you don’t recognise there, or people you no longer work with, remove them (more on that below).

Once you click ‘Add user’, a window appears where you add the new person:

You need to enter the email address of an active Google account. A Google account doesn’t have to be a Gmail inbox – you can create one for any email address, e.g. a company one. You can’t, however, add a group address (e.g. a mailing list). Next, you choose the permission level. In my experience with SEO audits and quotes, ‘Restricted’ access is usually all that’s needed:

Grant ‘Owner’ permissions only to people you trust 100%. An owner can add and remove other users – including you, if you’re only a delegated owner. Full access is useful for an SEO specialist or agency that will actually work on the property: submit sitemaps, validate fixes, request URL removals or file a reconsideration request. A good agency will tell you itself what level of access it needs and what for.

For a company that’s preparing a quote or an SEO audit, restricted access is usually enough, as it gives insight into the performance reports, links and most of the indexing data.

Two things worth knowing when adding users:

• Limits: a property can have up to 100 non-owner users (full and restricted access plus associates). Delegated owners can be added until the combined number of verified and delegated owners reaches 500. There’s no limit on the number of verified owners.
• The error ‘This user can only be added as an owner’: it means the person is already an owner of a parent property (e.g. a Domain property), so they automatically have owner rights to the child property. You can’t add them with a lower permission level.

Permissions in Google Search Console

Every user of a Search Console property has one of these permission levels:

• Owner: has full control over properties in Search Console. Can add and remove users, configure settings, view any data and use all the tools. A property must have at least one verified owner. Otherwise no user will have access to it. There are two types of owner, with the same permissions:
  • Verified owner: a person who has confirmed ownership of the property with a token (e.g. an HTML file uploaded to the site, an HTML tag or a DNS record). To add or remove a verified owner, you have to add their token to the site or remove it from the site.
  • Delegated owner: a person who was given owner status by another owner without using a verification token. A delegated owner is added and removed on the ‘Users and permissions’ screen, just like a regular user.
• Full user: can view all data and take some actions (e.g. submit sitemaps, inspect URLs, validate fixes). Can’t add users.
• Restricted user: can view most data, but in many tools has view-only access.
• Associate: people or accounts that can take certain actions on behalf of the site (e.g. the Chrome Web Store). They have no direct access to the Search Console account and data.

What exactly can each level do? Below is a shortened table based on Google’s documentation (✓ = full access, — = no access):

Feature	Owner	Full access	Restricted access
Add/remove owners	✓	—	—
Add users	✓	—	—
Manage users	✓	details only	details only
Associate with a Google Analytics account	✓	—	—
Change of address	✓	view only	view only
View all reports, Performance, Links	✓	✓	✓
Index status	✓	✓	view only
URL Inspection	✓	✓	fetch only
Submit a sitemap	✓	✓	—
Validate fixes	✓	✓	—
URL removals	✓	✓	view only
Disavow links	✓	✓	—
Reconsideration request	✓	✓	—
Share report links	✓	✓	—
Property settings	✓	✓	view only
Associate with a Merchant Center account	✓	✓	view only
Receive messages	✓	✓	only those about that user

The information comes from Google’s help page: Manage owners, users and permissions in Search Console. The full table also includes a few less frequently used features (such as the Data Highlighter and shipping and returns).

What happens next with Google Search Console access?

Once you’ve entered the correct email address and chosen the permissions, click ‘Add’. The user will get an email saying they’ve been given access, and the property will appear in their account. The new person will also show up in the user list:

If you want to change the access level later, click the menu (three dots) next to the user and choose ‘Change permission’. This works for everyone except verified owners. A verified owner can’t be ‘demoted’ – they can only be removed.

Managing users in Google Search Console

As I mentioned earlier: if you see people from outside your company in the user list, people you’ve stopped working with or, worse still, addresses you don’t recognise at all, take their access away.

It takes a few clicks. Click the three dots to the right of the user and choose ‘Remove access’:

Confirm the message and you’re done – the change takes effect almost immediately. If you remove someone by accident, or it turns out an employee needs access on a different account, for example, you can always add them again.

Removing a verified owner and their tokens

Here’s a trap many people don’t know about. Removing a verified owner from the user list takes their access away immediately, but their verification token (an HTML file, a tag in <head>, a DNS record, the Google Analytics or Tag Manager association) may still be on the site. As long as it’s there, the former owner can re-verify ownership at any time. All current owners will get a notification when that happens, but the access comes back anyway.

So:

1. Remove the owner in the same way as a regular user (‘Remove access’).
2. Search Console will show a pop-up with a list of their verification tokens. You’ll find the same list later under the ‘Unused ownership tokens’ link on the Users and permissions page.
3. Remove all these tokens from the site or domain: delete the HTML file from the server, remove the meta tag from <head>, delete the TXT record from DNS. If the person verified with several methods, remove every token.

Before you delete a token, check what else it’s used for. Google warns that the same verification token may also prove ownership in other services, such as Merchant Center or Google Workspace. Deleting a TXT record ‘blind’ can cut you off from more than just Search Console.

Be careful not to remove all verified owners. If you do, after a grace period all the remaining users and delegated owners will lose access to the property. Data will still be collected, but nobody will see it until someone verifies ownership again.

If you see someone in the list of owners whom you don’t recognise at all, Google warns that your site may have been hacked. A hacker can usually add their token again, so simply removing it isn’t enough. You need to secure the site, ideally with the help of a security specialist.

Transferring ownership (e.g. when you change agency or developer)

Search Console has no ‘transfer ownership’ button. A transfer looks like this:

1. The new owner verifies ownership on their own Google account (HTML file, tag, DNS etc.), or the current owner adds them as a delegated owner.
2. Once the new verified owner has access, they remove the previous owner on the Users and permissions screen.
3. They remove all of the previous owner’s tokens from the site (see above).

The order matters: first the new verified owner, only then remove the old one. If the only verified owner has left the company and can’t be reached, do the same: verify ownership with your own account, then remove their tokens.

Why should you remove inactive users?

Access to GSC data isn’t a direct threat to your site. It can, however, be used by, say, an agency that now works for your competitor. They’ll see what problems your site has and which content does well in Google, and they’ll get hints handed to them on a plate about what to change on their client’s site to do better in the search results.

Information is worth more than gold these days, and GSC gives you a wealth of valuable information about how your site is developing.

On top of that, you’ll avoid potential problems with site ownership across various Google services. These are rare, extreme cases, but better safe than sorry. I review the user list and unused tokens during every Google Search Console review, and I recommend you do the same, e.g. once a quarter.

Now think about it: that’s what mere view access makes possible. What would happen if someone got your login and password?

Don’t forget the tools connected to GSC

The ‘Users and permissions’ list isn’t the whole story. Tools such as Ahrefs Free (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) or Bing Webmaster Tools connect to Search Console through your Google account – and then they don’t appear in the property’s user list at all. If you’ve stopped using one of them, revoke its access in your Google account settings: go to myaccount.google.com/linkedapps, pick the app and remove its access to your account.

FAQ: users and permissions in Google Search Console

How do I add a user to GSC step by step?

Open the property, go to Settings > Users and permissions, click ‘Add user’, enter the email address of the person’s Google account, choose the permission level (Full or Restricted) and click ‘Add’. A property can have up to 100 non-owner users.

Why can’t I see the ‘Add user’ option in Search Console?

Because you’re not an owner of the property. The ‘Users and permissions’ page with the ‘Add user’ button is visible only to owners (verified and delegated). Ask the owner for permissions or verify ownership yourself.

Can a user with full access add another user?

No. Only an owner of the property or of a parent property can add, remove and change the permissions of other users.

Does the person I’m adding need a Gmail address?

They don’t need Gmail, but they do need an active Google account, which can also be created for a company address. You can’t add a group address.

What level of access should I give an SEO specialist?

For a quote and an audit, restricted access is usually enough. If the specialist is going to implement changes (submit sitemaps, validate fixes, request URL removals), they need full access. Owner permissions aren’t needed for that.

I removed a former owner and they have access again. Why?

They were a verified owner and their token (HTML file, tag, DNS record) stayed on the site, so they re-verified ownership. Check the ‘Unused ownership tokens’ list on the Users and permissions page, remove all their tokens and only then remove their access again.

Got a mess of access rights after a few agencies and no idea who’s who in the owner list? In an SEO consultation we can go through the users, tokens and connected tools together, so that only the people who should have access actually do.