Google Search Console (GSC) is a free web service provided by Google that allows verified users to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot a website’s presence in Google Search results.
Adding users to Google Search Console means giving other people – like SEO specialists, developers, or marketing teammates – permission to access your site’s data. This way, they can check performance reports, submit sitemaps, or troubleshoot indexing issues without touching sensitive ownership settings.
Google Search Console offers three types of roles: Owner, Full User, and Restricted User. Each comes with a different level of access and control, so it’s important to match permissions to the person’s role on your team.
Sharing Google Search Console access step-by-step
If you need to add more users to Google Search Console (for example, an SEO specialist or your Marketing manager), follow this step-by-step instruction:
1. Log in to your Google Search Console account.
Make sure you use an account that is a Verified or Delegated Owner. Otherwise, you won’t be able to add new users.
2. Select the right property from the list in case you manage multiple websites
3. Navigate to the Settings menu
4. Click on Users and permissions
5. Select “Add User” in the top right corner
6. Enter the email of the person you’re sharing your GSC access with (it has to be a Gmail account) and assign the appropriate access level
Tip: If you’re sharing Google Search Console access with an SEO specialist, choose the “Full” permission
7. Click Add. You’ll see a new user added to the User list of Google Search Console.
And that’s it!
Keep in mind that Google Search Console doesn’t send access notifications to added users, so you might need to let that person know his access was granted.
Google Search Console user permissions
There are three User permission levels in Google Search Console:
- Owner
- Full
- Restricted
Let’s explore the access rights of each:
Owner
There are two types of owners in Google Search Console: Verified owner and Delegated owner.
The Verified owner is the one who actually verified the ownership of the property.
The Delegated owner is someone to who the Verified owner has granted Owner’s property permission. This role can be changed to Full or Restricted user.
Both types of owners have full control over GSC properties:
- can add or delete properties
- can add and remove other users
- can configure settings
- can view all data
- has access to all GSC tool
Full user
Has most of the permissions the Owner has with some restrictions. For example, a Full user can’t add or remove new users to the property.
Restricted user
Restricted users have mostly view rights in Google Search Console. They can’t submit pages and sitemaps for indexing, use removal and other tools, and manage other GSC users.
If they try, the buttons are inactive, and a GSC message “You must have full access to do this” shows up.
Why do you need to add users to Google Search Console?
If you hire a freelance SEO like me, for example, I’ll need to access your website’s Google Search Console to:
- analyze the website’s past performance
- see the search queries that online users find your website with
- analyze the performance of separate pages
- check for indexation and technical issues
And this is only a part of what can be done.
In addition, Google Search Console’s data will help me generate client reports so you could see the progress we make.
How to manage users in Google Search Console
In Google Search Console, you can change user permissions or remove a user’s access to the account.
To do so, navigate back to Settings > Users and permissions, click on the three dots next to the user’s permission, and choose the desired option to manage access.
What to do if you don’t have a Google Search Console account?
The only answer to this question is “Create it“. Either yourself or with a specialist’s help.
The most important thing is that as a website owner, it’s you who must have the “Owner” status of the GSC account with your email account (business or personal).
And then you can share the Google Search Console access. As you’ve seen from this short tutorial, adding a new user to Google Search Console is an easy task.