How to add a user to Google Search Console
The steps, which permission to give whom, what each level can do in Google's own table, and what to do when the invite doesn't work.
Short answer
Open the property in Search Console, go to Settings, then Users and permissions, click Add user, enter the person's Google account email, choose Full or Restricted and save. Only an owner can do this. Give Full to anyone who does SEO work on the site, Restricted to people who only read reports, and Owner only to someone who must manage users or link Google Analytics.
Copies the steps and the permission guide as Markdown, with tick boxes, to send to the site owner.
Add a user in six steps
From Google's help. You must own the property or a parent property; full and restricted users can't add anyone.
Open the property in Search Console
Sign in with a Google account that owns the property, or owns a parent property such as the Domain property above a URL-prefix one. Then pick the property in the property selector.
Go to Settings, then Users and permissions
Google shows this page only to property owners. If you can't find it, your account is not an owner of this property, and an owner has to add the person.
Click Add user
Then enter the email and choose the permission level.
Enter the person's Google account email
It must be a valid Google account. Google doesn't accept an email group, so add each person on their own.
Choose the permission
Full for anyone, or any tool, that submits sitemaps or fixes issues; Restricted for people who only read the reports. Owner only for someone who must manage users or link Google Analytics. See which to pick below.
Save
The person then signs in to Search Console with that same Google account and picks the property in the property selector.
Which permission to give
Google has three levels for people (Owner, Full, Restricted) and a fourth, Associate, for linked accounts. Give the lowest level that lets the person do their job.
- Owner
Google: “Has full control over properties in Search Console. Owners can add and remove other users, configure settings, view all data, and use all tools.”
Give it to: Only people who must add or remove users or link Google Analytics. A verified owner proved ownership with a token such as a DNS record or HTML file. A delegated owner was made owner by another owner, with no token. Both have the same rights.
- Full user
Google: “Has view rights to all data and can take some actions.”
Give it to: An agency, freelancer or SEO tool that does the work: submit sitemaps, use URL Inspection, remove URLs, verify fixes. This is the right level for most outside help.
- Restricted user
Google: “Has simple view rights on most data.”
Give it to: Someone who only reads the reports, such as a client, a manager or a writer who checks their own pages' clicks.
- Associate
Google: “Associates are people or accounts that can take certain actions on behalf of your site, or access certain data.”
Give it to: Accounts linked to your site through an association, such as a Chrome Web Store account. Associates can't open Search Console or see its data.
What each level can do
Rows from Google's permission table that matter most when you share a property. View only and Fetch only are Google's own labels.
| Feature | Owner | Full user | Restricted user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View all reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Index Coverage | Yes | Yes | View only |
| URL Inspection | Yes | Yes | Fetch only |
| Submit sitemap | Yes | Yes | No |
| Remove URLs | Yes | Yes | View only |
| Verify fixes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Share report links | Yes | Yes | No |
| Disavow links | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reconsideration request | Yes | Yes | No |
| Link Google Analytics account | Yes | No | No |
| Add users | Yes | No | No |
| Add / remove property owners | Yes | No | No |
Restricted users also receive only the messages that affect them. Google's full table has more rows, such as Change of Address and Data Highlighter; see the first source below.
Change or remove a user
Do this when a contractor's work ends. Removing a verified owner takes one more step.
Open Settings, then Users and permissions
Same page as above, so you need to be an owner.
Open the menu next to the person
Pick Change permissions to move them up or down a level, or Remove access to take them off the property.
Check for leftover verification tokens
If the person was a verified owner, Google warns that they could regain access. Remove the tokens it lists, such as their HTML file, meta tag or DNS record. You can find them again under Unused ownership tokens.
You can't lower a verified owner's level, only remove them. Google says changes take effect very quickly; if the person doesn't see the change, they should refresh the page.
When adding a user doesn't work
The problems people hit most, with Google's reason and the fix.
- There is no Users and permissions page
Google shows it only to property owners, so your account is not an owner of this property.
What to do: Ask an owner to add the person, or to make you a delegated owner. If nobody can, verify ownership yourself (for example with a DNS record), which makes you a verified owner.
- “This user may only be added as ‘Owner’”
The person already owns a property that contains this one, such as the Domain property above a URL-prefix property, so they already have owner rights here.
What to do: Add them as Owner, or leave it: they already have owner rights here. Google doesn't allow a lower level here.
- The person says they can't see the property
Check two things first: they may be signed in with a different Google account, or added to a different property for the same site.
What to do: Check the exact email in Users and permissions and ask them to switch to that account. A Domain property (example.com) covers http, https and every subdomain. A URL-prefix property (https://www.example.com/) covers only URLs that start with that prefix.
- You can't add more people
A property can have at most 100 non-owners (full, restricted and associate users).
What to do: Remove people who no longer need access. Delegated owners have a separate limit: 500 owners in total.
- A removed owner got access back
They were a verified owner and their verification token is still on the site, so they could verify again. Google notifies all current owners when that happens.
What to do: Remove them again, then delete every token in Unused ownership tokens that belongs to them. Take care: the same token can also verify other Google services.
- The only verified owner left the company
A property needs at least one verified owner. If all verified owners are removed, everyone else loses access after a grace period. Google keeps collecting the data.
What to do: Verify ownership yourself with your own token, then remove the old owner's tokens.
Giving an SEO tool access
Serpwright doesn't get its own Search Console user. You sign in with a Google account, and it works with the access that account has.
- Add the Google account you will connect as a Full user, or connect an owner's account. Then connect the tool with that account.
- Serpwright picks, or lets you choose from, the properties your account can open as an owner, full user or restricted user. With Restricted it can read your search data, but Google lets only owners and full users submit sitemaps, so the sitemap step after each publish fails and shows in the article's publish log. Full avoids that.
- Serpwright never adds or removes users, properties or verification. Disconnecting removes the connection and asks Google to revoke Serpwright's access.
Serpwright reads your Search Console queries, suggests articles for the searches you already show up for, publishes them to WordPress, Webflow or Shopify, and submits your sitemap after each one.
3 days free, no card.
Page listed as not indexed once you are in? What Discovered and Crawled - currently not indexed mean.
Turn Search Console data into articles
Connect the property once. Serpwright suggests titles from the searches you already show up for, writes them, and by default waits for your approval before it publishes.
3 days free, no card.