# How to give an agency access to Google Search Console

SEO agencies need Search Console to see how your site shows up in Google: search queries, indexing problems and
sitemaps. Only an **owner** of the property can add people.

## Steps

1. Open [Google Search Console](https://search.google.com/search-console) and pick the property.
2. Go to **Settings › Users and permissions**.
3. Click **Add user**.
4. Enter the email your agency gave you and choose **Full** or **Restricted**.
5. Click **Add**.

## Full or restricted

| Permission | What the agency can do |
|---|---|
| Restricted | see most data |
| Full | see all data and take some actions, like submitting sitemaps and requesting indexing |
| Owner | everything, including adding and removing users |

![Permission ladder in Search Console: Restricted, Full, Owner, with Full highlighted](/guides/images/search-console-permissions.svg "Full covers sitemaps and indexing requests.")

**Full** is enough for most SEO work. Keep **Owner** for your own team.

## Domain or URL prefix

If your site has a **domain property** (for example `example.com`, covering all subdomains and http/https), add the
agency there. A **URL-prefix property** (for example `https://www.example.com/`) only covers addresses starting with
exactly that prefix.

## If you are not an owner

Ask whoever set up Search Console to add the agency, or to make you an owner first. The email has to be a Google account.


## Frequently asked questions

### Can the agency verify a new property for me?

Only an owner can verify properties and add users; a full user cannot.

### Does Search Console access give access to Google Analytics?

No. They are separate products with separate users.

## The quicker way

Search Console access is one of the steps in an Agency Client Onboarding link: the client sees these steps with the
agency's address already filled in, and the agency can check from its side that access arrived.