Connecting Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is the connection that changes how Crawl Cove feels. Without it you get a deterministic audit ranked by severity, which is already useful. With it, every finding is weighted by the real impressions sitting on the affected pages, so "412 findings" collapses into "fix these 9 first." GSC also powers the Search Performance page, free keyword rank tracking, and per-URL query data. Crawl Cove does not import server logs, so this is also how it answers the crawl-visibility questions a log file analyser would otherwise be asked for.

The best part of the design: you connect one Google account once, and that token then serves every client you manage. Per client, you only pick the property.

Part 1: Connect the Google account (once, account-level)

1. Open the Connections page (or Settings → Google Search Console).
2. Click Connect Google Search Console. Your system browser opens Google's sign-in screen.
3. Choose the Google account that has your clients' sites in Search Console.
4. Grant the read-only scope. Crawl Cove asks for https://www.googleapis.com/auth/webmasters.readonly, which lets it read your Search Console data and never change it.
5. The loopback tab confirms the connection and you are done.

Crawl Cove never sees your Google password: the sign-in happens on Google's own pages, and the app completes it through a local loopback URL on your own machine. The token that comes back is stored encrypted on your machine via Electron safeStorage, and the app's interface only ever sees a configured boolean.

This step is account-level. You do it once, full stop. Every client that uses this Google account reuses the same token. No re-authorizing.

Part 2: Point each client at a property

6. Back in the client's Connections page (or step 3 of the onboarding wizard), pick the property for this client and click Connect. The matching domain is pre-selected, and Crawl Cove handles both Search Console property forms: sc-domain:example.com (domain property) and https://example.com/ (URL-prefix property).

The first 90-day sync

7. The first 90-day sync runs with visible progress. When it finishes, the Connections card shows the property, the last-sync time, and the row count, and your findings re-rank by impact immediately. From here, repeat step 6 for each additional client; no re-authorization is ever needed.

If a client's query-level numbers ever look lower than the totals you expect, that is usually anonymised queries, not missing data.

Multiple Google accounts are supported

You're not limited to one login. Crawl Cove can hold several connected Google accounts (shown by email), and you choose which account + property each client uses. So a client whose site lives in a different Google account syncs from that account, with no conflict. Connect each account once, the same way as above.

If a connection ever expires

Why this is worth doing first

Connecting GSC is what turns Crawl Cove from a crawler into an agency tool. The impact score (severity weighted by the log of GSC impressions on each finding's affected URLs) is what lets you walk into a client call and say "these nine issues sit on pages worth tens of thousands of monthly impressions; everything else can wait." That's a defensible, deterministic priority order, built entirely on free data that lives on your own machine.

Advanced: use your own Google Cloud OAuth client

Most people should skip this. Crawl Cove ships with a working Google client and the one-click path above needs nothing from you. But agencies who would rather authorise against a client of their own can, and the app keeps the option under Settings → Use your own Google Cloud OAuth client.

1. At console.cloud.google.com, create a New Project and select it.
2. Open APIs & Services → Library, search for "Google Search Console API", and click Enable.
3. Open APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen, choose user type External, fill in the app name and your own email for both contacts, then add the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/webmasters.readonly and add your own Google address under Test users.
4. Open APIs & Services → Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth client ID, choose application type Desktop app, and copy the Client ID and Client secret.
5. In Crawl Cove, open Settings → Use your own Google Cloud OAuth client, paste both, and Save. Then connect the account as in Part 1.

Next

• Prioritising with impact score: how GSC impressions turn hundreds of findings into a ranked to-do list.
• Search Performance: declining pages & striking-distance keywords: the reports GSC unlocks the moment your first sync finishes.