How To Share Access: Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics
Admittedly, this is not really the best first post topic, we could’ve went with a generic “company news” post BUT we wanted to have a place where we could point our clients to, that would show them how to share access to their Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics.
Why does a digital marketing or SEO company need access to Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT) and Google Analytics?
1. Data – We can’t just make things up. We need to know how your site has fared so far, what it’s strengths are and it’s weaknesses. With hard data, we can identify where you are making the most returns and even where you can potentially make more money.
2. Estimates – It’s very hard to do estimates in this industry. Having data will give us a better perspective on how much work will be needed, what kind of things we need to apply and what we are going up against. You wouldn’t want us to just magically come up with numbers.
Sharing Access to your Google Webmaster Tools
1. Open your browser and go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
2. Find your site (Assuming that you already added it in there) and click on “Manage site” and then “Add or remove users”
Click on the “Manage site” button and choose “Add or remove users”
3. Add the Gmail (Google account) email address
4. Select the permission for the newly added profile.
Choosing “Permissions” for the newly added profile
If you don’t fully trust the person yet, you can start with “Restricted” (Most options are restricted to “View only”)
Once you are ready, you can then switch it to “Full” so they can have more access. Don’t worry, they cannot remove the users and sites. More details below.
Here are the Differences between Full and Restricted Permissions on Webmaster Tools
Sharing Access to your Google Analytics
Legacy Version – Accounts that are still not migrated to the new version of Google Analytics
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account. (Make sure your site was already added before so we can make use of the data.)
2. Select your website
3. On the upper right side of the page, you will see the “Admin” button. Click it.
Click on the Google Analytics Admin Button
4. Click on the “Users” Tab & click on “+ New User”
Click the Users Tab on Google Analytics
5. Add the email address (Google Account, Gmail email address)
– Select “User” if you just want him to have “Read Only” access to reports and he won’t be able to modify anything.
– Select “Administrator” if you want to allow him full access to your data. This will basically allow him to have access permissions like the owner.
– You can then choose to Notify him about this event by checking the checkbox below
– Click on the “Add User” button to finalise.
Add the Email Address and Select the Role (Permission Level)
Latest Version – For people with accounts using the new version of Google Analytics
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account. (Make sure your site was already added before so we can make use of the data.)
2. Select your website
3. On the upper right side of the page, you will see the “Admin” button. Click it.
4. You will see 3 columns. On the left side of the screen, you will see “Account Settings” on the first column. Click it.
Click on Account Settings on the Left
5. On the left side of the next screen, you will see User Management. Click on that.
Click on User Management
6. On the right side, you can see that there is a textbox. Enter the email address of the person you want to share access to. Check the box to notify the user about it. On the right side, you can just leave it at “Read & Analyze” so access is limited. If you fully trust the person, then you can check the other boxes.
7. Click “Add” and the person will be notified thru their email (as long as you checked the “Notify this user by email”)
Choose your permissions type and enter the email address
Below are Google’s explanations for each type of user permission:
Manage Users: Can manage account users (add/delete users, assign permissions). Does not include Edit or Collaborate.
Edit: Can perform administrative and report-related functions (e.g., add/edit/delete accounts, properties, views, filters, goals, etc., but not manage users), and see report data. Includes Collaborate.
Collaborate: Can create personal assets, and share them. Can collaborate on shared assets, for example, edit a dashboard or annotation. Includes Read & Analyze.
Read & Analyze: Can see report and configuration data; can manipulate data within reports (e.g., filter a table, add a secondary dimension, create a segment); can create personal assets, and share them, and see shared assets. Cannot collaborate on shared assets.
Linking Google Webmaster Tools to Google Analytics
Now, you might be asking why would you want to do this extra step when you already gave access? Well, it gives a ton of information in one look within Analytics which greatly improves the efficiency of the SEO assigned to your campaign.
Google has limited the keyword data that you get as you will mostly get [not provided], which is their version of “you can’t have these so you need to pay for Adwords so we can make more money.”
You Get a Lot More Keyword Data With Both Linked Together
Kidding aside, Google Webmaster Tools actually has BETTER keyword data (aside from showing you actual average rankings) so connecting it with the website’s Google Analytics account will help by showing you more keywords to go along with the other things that it already tracks.
How To Link Google Webmaster Tools to Google Analytics
Step 1. Go to Google Webmaster Tools and click on your website
Click on the “Gear” icon and select Google Analytics Property
Step 2. Click on the Settings button (the Gear) at the upper right of the screen. Select “Google Analytics Property”
Step 3. Select your website there and save.
That’s pretty much it. Just a few extra steps and this will go a long way.
These might look simple and not that important but it will be a big help to the SEO company/consultant/digital marketing company you hire (hopefully, it’s us) to have access to your past data so they can identify penalties, problems on your website that are hindering your growth, obsolete link building practices, future strategy implementation, as well as your potential ROI.
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Dennis Seymour is an entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of LeapFroggr Inc. 
