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User guide: Connecting Google Search Console

5. Connecting Google Search Console

SEO Control Center reads your Search Console data with read-only access and stores it on your server. The charts load from your own database, not from Google.

Connecting has two parts:

  1. Once per installation: create a Google "app" (OAuth client). This takes about 10 minutes, and only the administrator does it.
  2. Per workspace: connect a Google account, then link each project to its property.

Part 1: The Google app (administrator, once)

In the Google Cloud Console:

  1. Create a project, for example "SEO Control Center".
  2. APIs & Services → Library: search for Google Search Console API and click Enable.
  3. APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen (also called Google Auth Platform):
    1. User type External. Enter the app name, your support e-mail and your domain.
    2. Scopes: add .../auth/webmasters.readonly.
    3. Publish the app (status In production). While it stays in Testing, Google ends the connection every 7 days.
  4. APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → OAuth client ID:
    • Application type: Web application.
    • Authorized redirect URI: https://seo.example.com/integrations/google/callback. Use your own domain, exactly as in the site address.
  5. Copy the Client ID and Client secret.

In SEO Control Center, go to System → Google app, paste both values and save. The secret is stored encrypted.

"Google hasn't verified this app": because your app is new, Google shows this warning when you connect. It is your own app on your own server. Click Advanced → Go to … (unsafe) to continue. Verification by Google is only needed if many outside users connect.

Part 2: Connect your Google account

  1. Go to Integrations → Connect a Google account.
  2. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your sites in Search Console, and allow access.
  3. Your properties appear in the list. Refresh properties reloads them after you add a site in Search Console.
  1. Open the project and go to Settings → Google Search Console → Manage link.
  2. Choose the property: a domain property (sc-domain:example.com) or a URL property.

The first import starts right away:

  • The most recent days arrive within minutes.
  • Up to 16 months of history follow over the next hours.
  • After that, new data is imported every 6 hours. Google's data is 2–3 days behind, as in Search Console itself.

Good to know

  • Totals versus rows: the query and page tables leave out anonymised queries, as Search Console does, so they add up to less than the totals.
  • Disconnecting revokes access at Google and keeps all imported data.
  • "Needs reconnection": Google withdrew access (password change, revoked access, or an app still in Testing). Click Connect again. Imports resume by themselves.