Only an owner can add a user to Google Search Console: open the property, go to Settings, then Users and permissions, select Add user, enter the person’s Google Account email, choose Full or Restricted, and save. The person gets access to that one property straight away, with no verification on their side.
The clicks take under a minute. What takes thought is the role, because a full user can submit removal requests and disavow links, and the way you remove a former owner. Removing a verified owner from the list doesn’t stop them coming back unless you also delete their verification token. Every rule below comes from Google’s managing owners, users and permissions help page, checked in November 2026.
Before you start
- You need to be an owner of the property. The Users and permissions page is only visible to owners, so if you don’t see it in Settings, you are a full or restricted user. Ask an owner to add the person, or verify ownership yourself.
- The property has to exist and be verified. If you haven’t set up Search Console yet, add the site first. A Domain property covers every subdomain and both http and https, and it can only be verified with a DNS record at your domain provider. A URL-prefix property covers one exact address and accepts an HTML file, an HTML tag, Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager as well (property types, verification methods).
- Get the right email. It must be a valid Google Account. Google doesn’t let you add an email group, so add each person separately.
- Know which property. Access is set property by property. If your account has both a Domain property and older URL-prefix properties, check that you are adding the person to the one they will actually use.
How to add a user, step by step
- Sign in to Search Console and pick the property from the menu at the top left.
- Select Settings in the left-hand menu.
- Select Users and permissions.
- Select Add user.
- Type the person’s Google Account email address.
- Open the Permission menu and choose Full or Restricted (or Owner, covered below).
- Save. The person now appears in the list, and the property shows up in their own Search Console the next time they open it or refresh the page.
Step 6 is the one that matters. You can change it later from the same screen, but whatever you pick is live the moment you save.
Owner, full or restricted: which role to give
Google has three roles you can hand out, plus a fourth kind of access for linked accounts:
- Owner. Full control, including adding and removing other people. There are two kinds with the same powers. A verified owner proved ownership with their own token (a DNS record, an HTML file and so on). A delegated owner was added by an owner through Add user, with no token.
- Full user. Sees all data and can take most actions: submit sitemaps, request indexing in URL Inspection, request URL removals, validate fixes, send reconsideration requests and disavow links.
- Restricted user. Sees most data, can run URL Inspection in fetch-only mode, and receives only the messages that affect them. Can’t submit or change anything.
- Associate. A linked account or product, such as a Merchant Center account, that acts for the site but can’t open your Search Console data.
The permissions that decide it
Google’s help page lists more than 20 features. These are the rows that usually decide which role someone needs:
| Feature | Owner | Full user | Restricted user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add users and owners | Yes | No | No |
| Link Google Analytics | Yes | No | No |
| Change of Address tool | Yes | View only | View only |
| Submit a sitemap | Yes | Yes | No |
| URL Inspection | Yes | Yes | Fetch only |
| Remove URLs | Yes | Yes | View only |
| Disavow links | Yes | Yes | No |
| Validate fixes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Share report links | Yes | Yes | No |
| Performance and all reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
A full user can’t add anyone, but Remove URLs and Disavow links are real powers. A temporary removal can hide pages from Google results, and a bad disavow file can undo links that were helping you. Give full access to the person doing the work, not to everyone who wants to look. Our guide to the removals tool shows what a removal request can hide.
How to give an agency or freelancer access
Say a made-up four-person accounting firm in Omaha, Nebraska hires a freelance SEO for six months. The partner who verified the site stays the verified owner. The freelancer gets Full, because they will submit sitemaps and request indexing. The two other partners get Restricted, so they can open the Performance report without being able to change anything.
Two habits make this go well:
- Add a named person, not a shared login. Each person’s own Google Account shows up in the list, so you can see exactly who has access and remove one without touching the others.
- Don’t let the agency be the only verified owner. If an agency verifies the property with its own DNS record or tag and is the only verified owner, the business depends on it. Google says that when all verified owners are removed, every other user and delegated owner loses access after a grace period. The data keeps being collected, but nobody can see it until someone verifies again. Keep at least one verified owner from inside the business.
If the agency needs to link Google Analytics or file a change of address during a site move, make them a delegated owner for that task, then move them back to Full when it is done. If you are setting up access for a client’s map listing at the same time, the Google Business Profile version of this process works differently, with owners and managers instead.
How to change a role or remove someone
To change a role, open Settings, then Users and permissions, open the menu next to the person, choose Change permissions, pick the new role and save. If that option is grayed out, the person is a verified owner. You can remove a verified owner, but you can’t downgrade one.
To remove someone, open the same menu and choose Remove access. Google says the change takes effect very quickly.
Removing a full or restricted user, or a delegated owner, ends there. Removing a verified owner needs one more step, and this is where most handovers go wrong. Their verification token is still on your site, so they can simply click Verify again and they are back. When Search Console shows a warning that the user might regain access, delete every token it lists:
- HTML file: delete that person’s file from the site’s root folder.
- HTML tag: delete only their
google-site-verificationmeta tag from the homepage. - DNS record: delete their TXT record at your domain provider.
- Google Analytics or Tag Manager: remove their access in that account.
You can find leftover tokens later under Unused ownership tokens on the same page. Be careful with DNS records: one verification token can also verify other Google services such as Google Workspace or Merchant Center, so check what else the record is used for before deleting it.
If a former owner does verify again, Google notifies all current owners. To review who was added, removed or re-verified, select Ownership history on the Users and permissions page.
What can go wrong
You don’t see Users and permissions. You are not an owner. Ask an owner to add the person, or verify ownership yourself with your own token. Adding a token doesn’t affect anyone else’s, as long as you don’t overwrite another owner’s file or tag (verification help).
“This user may only be added as ‘Owner’.” The person already owns a parent property, for example the Domain property that contains the URL-prefix property you are on. Giving them a lower role on the child would be a demotion, so Google only allows Owner there. An owner of a parent property can already add and remove users on the child.
The email won’t save. It has to be a single Google Account. Group addresses don’t work.
The person can’t see the property. Ask them to refresh Search Console and check they are signed in with the exact account you added. Then check that you added them to the right property, since a Domain property and a URL-prefix property for the same site are separate entries.
You hit a limit. A property can have up to 100 non-owners (full, restricted and associates combined) and 500 verified plus delegated owners. Verified owners have no cap. Few small sites get near these, but a large agency team can.
The only verified owner left the business. Verify the property yourself as soon as you can, then remove the old owner and their tokens. If you wait and their token stops being valid, Search Console warns the owners and, after a grace period, everyone loses access until someone verifies.
Once the right people are in, it is worth agreeing on what they will report on each month. Our SEO reporting template covers what a client should see, and Search Console vs Google Analytics explains why the two tools never show the same numbers.
FAQ
Does the person need to verify the site after I add them?
No. Full users, restricted users and delegated owners get access through your invitation alone. Only someone who wants to be a verified owner needs to add their own token.
Can I add a user to Search Console through the API?
No. The Search Console API’s sites methods add a property to your own account and report your permission level, but they don’t add other people. Users are managed in the Search Console interface.
Should my agency be an owner or a full user?
A full user, in most cases. It covers sitemaps, indexing requests and fixes. Make them a delegated owner only for a task that needs it, such as linking Google Analytics, and keep a verified owner inside your business.
Give the lowest role that does the job
Restricted for people who read, Full for the person who works on the site, Owner for the business. When someone leaves, remove them from the list and delete any token they added, then check Ownership history to confirm they are gone.
