It is vital that you control who has access to the data and functionality within Google Search Console. Some functions, such as the Removals tools, can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

The permissions settings associated with user types limit who can access these parts of GSC.

Owner – There are two types of owners: either the user has verified their ownership via one of the verification steps listed above or has had ownership delegated to them by an owner. This level of user has full control over the property up to complete removal from Google Search Console.

Full – This type of user has access to almost all the functions of the property Owner. However, if the Full user removes the property, it only removes the property from their list of sites, not from GSC entirely.

Restricted – This user can only view the data within GSC. They are unable to make any changes to the account.

It is important to note that Google recently enhanced Search Console security by introducing a new feature for managing ownership tokens under Settings > Users and permissions > Unused ownership tokens

Tokens are simply those unique codes in HTML tags you set up in your head tag, HTML files you upload, or DNS TXT record values you set when verifying your website.

Now imagine a scenario where a website had multiple verified owners via HTML tag upload, and one of them left the company. If you remove that user from the search console, the issue is that the person can still regain access to the search console if you don’t remove their token from the unused ownership tokens page. This is an important feature, as website owners can now remove outdated verification tokens to prevent unauthorized access by former owners.

Work with our SEO Agency to solve all your permission related issues on your Google Search Console