How to add a service account as Owner in Search Console

The Indexing API authenticates as a service account, and Google will only accept its requests for a property the service account verifiably owns. Adding it as an Owner is the one setup step that everything else depends on — get this right and the 403/permission-denied errors never appear.

Step 1 — Create the service account (if you don't have one)

1. Go to Google Cloud Console → IAM & Admin → Service Accounts, and pick or create a project.
2. Create a service account (any name) — you don't need to grant it any project roles for the Indexing API.
3. Open the account → Keys → Add key → JSON. Download and keep this key file safe; it's the credential that signs API requests.
4. While you're in Cloud Console, enable the Indexing API for the project under APIs & Services → Library.

Step 2 — Find the service account email

It looks like [email protected]. You'll find it on the service account's detail page, or in the JSON key file under the "client_email" field. This email — not your personal Google email — is what you add to Search Console.

Step 3 — Add it as Owner in Search Console

1. Open Search Console and select the property whose URLs you'll submit.
2. Settings (left sidebar) → Users and permissions.
3. Click 'Add user'. Paste the service account email.
4. Set Permission to Owner — this is mandatory; Full or Restricted will fail with a 403.
5. Save. The grant is usually effective within a minute or two.

Verify it worked

• The service account email now shows as Owner under Users and permissions.
• A test publish request to the Indexing API returns 200 with a notifyTime, not a 403.
• If it still 403s, confirm the property type matches the URL and that the Indexing API is enabled in the right project.