Connect Search Console in about two minutes.

Your workspace gets its own read-only Google account. Add it to the properties you choose and pick one per project. No key to download and no token that expires in a week.

Step 1: Copy your workspace's account email

CrawlSpec: project settings, Search Console1 min

Open a project's settings and choose Search Console. The first time anyone in your workspace does this, CrawlSpec creates one Google account for the workspace and shows its email, which ends in .iam.gserviceaccount.com. Copy it.

Step 2: Add it as a Restricted user

search.google.com/search-console1 min

Open the property, then Settings, Users and permissions, Add user. Paste the email and choose Restricted: that role can view most data and change nothing. CrawlSpec only asks Google for read-only access. Google's guide to user roles

Step 3: Check access

CrawlSpeca few seconds

Back in CrawlSpec, press Check access. It lists every property you added the account to. Nothing yet? Google can take a minute to pass on a new user, so wait a moment and press Retry.

Step 4: Pick the property

CrawlSpeca few seconds

Properties that match the project's site are selected for you. Save, and the first sync starts. Each project picks its own property. The account is shared across the workspace, so for your next project you only check access and pick.

Start in your workspace: open a project, then Settings, Search Console.

Prefer your own Google Cloud account?

Some teams keep every outside account inside their own Google Cloud. Create a service account there, turn on the Google Search Console API, add the account's email to your property as a Restricted user, and download a JSON key. Then paste the key in your workspace settings under Search Console, Advanced. It is checked when you save it, stored encrypted, and never shown again. Your own key takes priority over the workspace account.

If your workspace settings show a key box instead of an account email, this is the way to connect.

Common questions

Why not sign in with Google?: An unpublished OAuth consent screen expires its refresh tokens every seven days, so a browser sign-in would silently stop refreshing data within a week. An account added as a property user does not expire. Google's note on token expiry
What can CrawlSpec see?: Search performance for the properties you added the account to: queries, clicks, impressions, CTR and position. Access is read-only, so nothing can be submitted, removed or changed in your property.
Is a password or key stored?: No. The workspace account has no key. Each time CrawlSpec syncs, it asks Google for a short-lived, read-only pass for that account.
How do I stop it?: Remove the account under Users and permissions in Search Console and access ends there. The account only ever sees properties you added it to, and it is deleted with your workspace.
What if I skip this?: The crawl, the issue catalog and the fix cards all work without it. Search Console is what ranks that work by the traffic actually at stake, and it is what makes the cannibalization report possible at all.

Stuck on the Google Cloud half, or the property is administered by somebody else? Reply to your welcome email, or write to us and we will do this with you on a call.