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Getting your Google accounts connected
On This Page
This page is a checklist, not a guide. It lists the Google accounts we need access to before we can start work, in the order that makes sense, with the reason for each. Work down it at your own pace and tick them off. You do not need to do all of them, only the ones that apply to what we are doing for you.
Every one of these grants access to us rather than handing over a password. You add our email address to your account, we get in with our own login, and you can see exactly who has access and remove us at any time. If a step ever asks you to send us a password, you have the wrong instructions and should tell us.
The list
- Google Analytics
Where we see what your website is actually doing. Without it we are guessing about which pages work and which do not. - Google Tag Manager
How tracking gets onto your site without editing code every time. Needed before conversion tracking or any ad campaign. - Google Search Console
Google’s own report on how your site appears in search, and where it tells us about problems. This is the one clients most often do not have set up at all, in which case say so and we will create it. - Google Business Profile
Your listing on Maps and in local search. Needed if we are doing anything local, and it is often the highest-traffic thing a local business owns. - Google Ads
Only if we are running or auditing ads for you. Skip it otherwise.
Do the first three even if we are not doing SEO. Analytics, Tag Manager and Search Console cost nothing, take about ten minutes between them, and mean that when you do ask us a question about traffic we can answer it from data rather than opinion.
If you get stuck
The two things that stop people:
- You are not an owner or admin on the account. The buttons simply are not there. Find out who set it up originally, which is often a former employee or a previous agency, and tell us the name if you can.
- Nobody knows whether the account exists. Very common with Search Console and Business Profile. Do not create a second one, because duplicates cause their own problems. Tell us and we will check.
What we need from you if a step fails
One line is enough: which account, and what you saw. You never need to diagnose it. If it is a case of nobody at your company having owner access any more, that is a recovery process with Google rather than a setting, and it is much better handled by us early than discovered later.
Never transfer ownership of an account to us. We only ever need access. Your Google accounts should stay owned by your business, so that if you ever stop working with us you keep everything. If any instruction anywhere asks you to make us the owner, stop and ask.
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