How to add an agency as a user in Google Search Console

In Google Search Console, an owner of the property opens Settings > Users and permissions, clicks Add user, enters the agency person's Google account email, chooses Full or Restricted and saves. Only owners see that page, so the agency cannot add itself: it sends you the email address, and you add it.

This guide is for the business that owns the website. It covers who can add users, which permission to give, and one trap with site verification.

Who can add users

Google's permissions article says you must be an owner of the property, or of a property that contains it, to add or remove users. The Users and permissions page is visible only to owners.

There are two kinds of owner:

• Verified owner: proved ownership with a token, such as an HTML file on the site, a tag, or a DNS record.
• Delegated owner: made an owner by another owner, without a token.

If you set up Search Console yourself, you are most likely the verified owner. If a web developer or an earlier agency did it, ask them who the owners are.

Search Console has no way for a tool to do this for you. Google's Search Console API covers search data, sitemaps, sites and URL inspection, and has no methods for users or owners. So an owner does the steps below.

Steps

1. Open the property in Search Console.
2. Go to Settings > Users and permissions.
3. Click Add user.
4. Enter the Google Account email of the agency person.
5. Choose the permission.
6. Save.

The address must belong to a valid Google Account, and Google does not accept an email group. Add each agency person separately.

Full, Restricted or Owner

In Google's words:

• Full user: has view rights to all data and can take some actions. Google's feature table includes submitting sitemaps, removing URLs, the disavow links tool and reconsideration requests. It does not include adding users or owners.
• Restricted user: has simple view rights on most data, and receives only messages that specifically affect them.
• Owner: full control, including adding and removing users and changing settings.

For an agency doing SEO work, Full is the usual choice. Restricted suits an agency that only reports on search traffic. An agency rarely needs to be an owner. If it does need ownership for a specific task, make it a delegated owner and remove that later.

A property can have at most 100 users who are not owners.

Domain property or URL-prefix property

Search Console has two kinds of property, as Google's property article describes:

• Domain property (for example example.com): covers all subdomains and both http and https. It is verified with a DNS record.
• URL-prefix property (for example https://www.example.com/): covers only the addresses that start with that prefix.

Add the agency to the property it will work with. If you have both kinds, the Domain property gives the fullest picture of the site.

The verification trap

Search Console lets several people verify the same property, and anyone who verifies becomes a verified owner, the highest level. Google's verification article lists methods that use other Google tools:

• A person with edit rights for the Google Analytics account your site's tag uses can verify with that tag.
• A person with Publish or Admin permission on your Tag Manager container can verify with the container snippet.

So an agency with edit rights in Analytics, or Publish in Tag Manager, can also make itself an owner of a URL-prefix property in Search Console. That is not wrong in itself, but it means the list of owners can grow without you adding anyone. Look at Users and permissions when an agency starts and when it leaves.

Troubleshooting

You cannot see Users and permissions

You are not an owner of this property. Ask an owner to add the agency, or to make you a delegated owner.

"This user may only be added as 'Owner'"

Google shows this when the person already owns a property that contains this one, for example the Domain property above a URL-prefix property. They already have owner rights here, and adding them as a full or restricted user would lower that, which Google does not allow.

The address is not accepted

The agency person must use an address that is a Google Account, and not a group address. They can create a Google account with their work address.

You have reached the user limit

Remove users who no longer need access. A property can have 100 users who are not owners.

Remove a user, and an old owner

To remove a user or a delegated owner:

1. Open Settings > Users and permissions.
2. Open the menu next to the person and click Remove access.

If Google warns that the person might regain access, they were a verified owner and their token is still on the site. Click Unused ownership tokens on the same page to see the tokens left behind, and delete each one from where it lives: the HTML file, the tag in the page, or the DNS record. Until the token is gone, a removed owner can verify again, and Google notifies all current owners if they do. If you find an owner you do not recognize, Google advises treating it as a possible hack.

For the other platforms, see how to remove an old agency's access.

Doing it with an access link

Our access link covers this task as a guided step. It shows the steps on this page beside Search Console's own screen, with the agency's Google account to copy. Nobody signs in through the link for this: the owner adds the user and says when it is done, and the agency confirms once it can see the property. What an agency can ask for is on the Search Console integration page.