What access to give an SEO agency

An SEO provider needs to see how Google sees your site. It rarely needs the ability to change who else can see it. Search Console’s permission levels let you separate the two.

The four levels

• Owner. Full control of the property, including adding and removing users.
• Full user. View rights to all data and permission to take some actions, such as submitting a sitemap, removing URLs or disavowing links. A Full user cannot manage users.
• Restricted user. Simple view rights on most data.
• Associate. A person or account that can perform certain actions or access certain data for the site, without opening the Search Console account directly.

Only property owners can add or remove other users^[2].

Which level at which stage

While a provider is auditing, Google’s guidance is to grant only read access to Search Console, not write access^[1]. The Restricted user level, which gives view rights, is the nearest match in Search Console’s own levels. Once you have chosen a provider and the contract says what it will do, move to a Full user if the work needs actions such as submitting sitemaps. Keep the Owner role yourself throughout.

Checking and removing access

Look at the users list when you start and every few months afterwards, and remove anyone who no longer needs access. Since only owners can do that, make sure at least one owner is a person in your business and not an outside supplier. Apply the same rule to your analytics account.

The method for comparing providers is in how to choose an SEO agency in Dubai, and the questions the scorecard asks about access are in the SEO proposal scorecard. If you are comparing me with others, my SEO audit offer is the kind of work where you should ask me what access I would need and give me no more than that.