Never share the Google password behind your Analytics. Add your web company as a user with only the permission it needs, keep a business-controlled account with full permissions at the top, and remove access when the work ends.

The password in the email

A web company asks to see the site's Analytics. The owner, short of time, emails over the Google address and password that Analytics was set up with years ago.

It works. The web company logs in, sees the reports and gets on with the job.

It also now holds the key to everything else that Google account opens, and nobody has written down that it does.

Analytics has a proper way to share access, and it takes about two minutes.

What else that password opens

The first is the dangerous one. Whoever can read that inbox can reset the passwords on almost every other account the business has.

How access is meant to work

Analytics lets you add other people by their own Google accounts, each with its own permissions, without sharing anything.

A Google account can be made with any email address, including a company one, so nobody needs a Gmail address to be added.

Access can be given at three levels: the account, a property within it (usually one website), or a view within the property (one version of its reports).

Permissions flow downwards. Somebody added at the account level has the same rights over every property and view beneath it.

The settings are under Admin, where each of the three columns has its own User Management link.

The four permissions

Read & Analyze lets somebody see the reports and slice them as they like, without changing anything for anybody else.

Collaborate adds the ability to edit dashboards, segments and notes that other users have shared.

Edit allows changes to settings: goals, filters, linked accounts, and the views and properties themselves.

Manage Users allows adding and removing people. It is the permission that decides who controls the account.

Edit includes Collaborate, which includes Read & Analyze, while Manage Users is granted separately. Most people need only Read & Analyze.

Choosing the right level

Give the least that does the job.

A company setting up goals or linking AdWords needs Edit and Collaborate on the property. A consultant who only reads reports needs Read & Analyze on a view.

Staff who read the monthly figures need the same read-only access, on the view they actually use. Permissions can be raised later, so starting low costs nothing.

Few outside companies need Manage Users. Where one does, it should hold it alongside the business, never instead of it.

A worked example

A commercial cleaning company set up Analytics years ago under the owner's personal Gmail address, the same one that held his email, the business listing and the AdWords billing.

When a web company needed access, the owner sent the password. Each time they logged in, he received a security alert, and sometimes had to read out a code.

When a second person at the web company needed access, the password went round by email again.

The fix took ten minutes. The web company was added as a user with Edit and Collaborate on the property, and the owner changed his password and turned on two-step verification.

A G Suite account belonging to the business was given Manage Users and Edit at the account level, as a second owner that does not depend on one person's inbox.

Keeping the business in control

Analytics has no single owner. Whoever holds Manage Users and Edit at the account level controls it, so those permissions should belong to the business.

Give them to an account the business controls, such as a G Suite address, and to at least two people, so an absence or a departure does not strand the account.

If the property was created inside your web company's own Analytics account, ask them to give your business account full permissions there, and to tell you in writing that they have.

Settings that change the data

Edit is more powerful than it sounds. Filters permanently change what a view records, and data excluded by a filter cannot be brought back.

The same permission covers the data retention setting that now applies to user-level data, and the links to other accounts.

Keep one view with no filters at all, untouched by anybody, so there is always a complete record to go back to.

Removing access later

When work with a company ends, remove its users the same day. Otherwise its staff keep their access for as long as their Google accounts exist.

The same applies to former staff. Unless the business uses G Suite, closing somebody's work mailbox does not close the Google account made with that address, so it can still sign in.

Look down the user list twice a year. Anybody nobody recognises should go.

The other Google tools

Search Console, Tag Manager and Google My Business each keep their own list of users, and the same principle applies to all of them: add people, never share a login.

The business listing in particular should have an owner from the business and a manager from the web company, rather than the other way round.

A web company that set up all four should be able to tell you who has access to each.

The counter-case

A sole owner who has worked with one web company for years may be comfortable letting that company look after Analytics day to day.

That is a reasonable arrangement, provided the business's own account sits at the top with full permissions and the password is never part of it.

And a business that rarely looks at Analytics still needs this, because the question of who has access tends to arrive on the day something goes wrong.

Add people as users, at the lowest level that does the job, and keep the business as the account's final authority.

This week

  1. Open User Management at the account level.
  2. List everyone with access and their permissions.
  3. Remove anybody who no longer works with you.
  4. Give a business account Manage Users and Edit.
  5. Add your web company at the level it needs.
  6. Change any password that has been shared.
  7. Keep one view with no filters.

Step six closes the gap the others cannot, because a shared password gives access to far more than Analytics, and adding users does nothing about it.

What the new retention setting deletes, and why it deserves care, is covered in analytics data that will expire after May 25.

Frequently asked questions

Why not just share the Analytics password?

Because the same Google account usually opens Gmail, the business listing, AdWords billing and stored files. Whoever reads that inbox can reset most other accounts.

How do I give a web company access?

Add them by their own Google account under Admin and User Management, at the account, property or view level, with only the permission they need.

Which permission does a web company need?

Usually Edit and Collaborate on the property to set up goals or link AdWords. Someone who only reads reports needs read-only access on a view.

Who should hold Manage Users?

An account the business controls, such as a G Suite address, held by at least two people. An outside company may share it, never hold it alone.

What happens when staff or suppliers leave?

Remove them from the user list the same day. Closing a work mailbox does not always close the Google account made with it, so they could still sign in.

Why keep a view with no filters?

Filters permanently change what a view records. An untouched, unfiltered view keeps a complete record if a filter or setting goes wrong.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Web company logging in with your password?

Change it this week and add them as a user. We will check who else has access and at what level.

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