Google Search Console

Search Console is DispatchSEO's free data backbone: real impressions, clicks, and positions for your site, snapshotted hourly. How you connect it depends on where DispatchSEO runs: on dispatchseo.com it's one click with your Google account; on your own install it takes a service account.

On dispatchseo.com

Setup asks for it as one step, "Connect Google Search Console". If you parked it with I'll do this later, it comes back as the next-step card on Home.

1. Click Connect Google.
2. Sign in with the Google account that manages your site in Search Console.
3. Google asks for read-only access. Allow it. DispatchSEO can read your clicks, impressions and queries, and can't change anything on your account. You can revoke it any time.
4. You come straight back. DispatchSEO matches your site to its Search Console property on its own. If it can't, one more step asks "Which Search Console property is yoursite.com?" - pick it and it saves on the spot.

You don't need a service account or a JSON file, and there's nothing to paste.

Your site isn't in the list, or the step says "We don't see any properties on this Google account"? Either you signed in with a different Google account than the one that owns the site in Search Console, or the site isn't in Search Console yet. To add it:

1. Open Search Console with the Google account you want to use.
2. Click Add property, choose the Domain type, and enter your domain, for example yoursite.com.
3. Google shows you a DNS record. Add it wherever your domain is registered (Namecheap, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, ...), then click Verify back in Search Console. Verification is usually instant.
4. Back in DispatchSEO, open Search Console in the dashboard menu. If the property is now listed, click use this property next to it. If it isn't, click Disconnect, then Connect Google Search Console, and sign in with the account you just verified with.

The first snapshot arrives within an hour, and the dashboard's Search traffic page starts filling in. Keyword data is included in your plan - there is nothing else to set up.

Self-hosted: connect with a service account

On your own install, connecting takes a service account - a Google robot identity that can read your Search Console data without your password.

The setup wizard walks you through all of this with a check button at the end - this section is the same walkthrough in document form, every click spelled out. It's a one-time ritual: the same service account works for every site you ever add.

Create the service account

1. Open console.cloud.google.com and sign in with the Google account that can see your site in Search Console.
2. Create a project: click the project picker in the top bar → New project → name it dispatchseo → Create. (Already have any project? Reusing it is fine.)
3. Turn on the API: open the Search Console API page and click Enable.
4. Create the account: open Service Accounts, click Create service account, name it dispatchseo, click Create and continue, skip the roles screen (Continue), click Done. It needs no permissions - it just needs to exist.
5. Download its key: click the account you just made → Keys tab → Add key → Create new key → pick JSON → Create. A .json file downloads. That file is a password for your search data - keep it out of screenshots, chats, and git.

Grant it access to your site

1. On the service account's page, copy its email - it ends in .iam.gserviceaccount.com.

2. Open Search Console, pick your site, then Settings → Users and permissions → Add user.

   Site not listed? It isn't in Search Console yet - add it first: click Add property, choose the Domain type, enter your domain, and add the DNS record Google shows you wherever your domain is registered (Namecheap, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, ...). Verification is usually instant; then continue with the steps above.

3. Paste the email, set Permission to Full, click Add.

Give it to DispatchSEO

Open the downloaded .json file in any text editor, select all of it, and paste it where the setup wizard (or the dashboard's Connect Search Console card) asks. Press Verify connection - it asks Google right then and tells you whether it worked. If Google says no at first, wait a few minutes and verify again; permissions can lag.

Env-var installs can set it directly instead:

GSC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON=...   # the whole JSON, single line
GSC_SITE_URL=sc-domain:example.com   # or https://example.com/ for URL-prefix properties

Within an hour the first snapshot lands and the dashboard's Search traffic page starts filling in. Historical data backfills from what Google exposes (up to ~16 months).

The data tiers

On your own install, Search Console is the free floor. The tiers stack - start free, add keys when you want more signal:

Free mode finds keywords you can win. Paid mode also knows which ones are worth winning.