Is it safe to connect Google Search Console? What read-only access really means

Connecting any account to a third-party service deserves a moment of suspicion — good instinct. So here's a straight answer about what happens when you connect Google Search Console to RealRank, with no hand-waving.

The exact permission we request

One scope: webmasters.readonly. The word readonly is the whole story. It lets RealRank read the search-performance data for properties you already own — clicks, impressions, the list of your verified sites. It cannot change your settings, submit or remove URLs, alter sitemaps, add or remove users, or touch anything outside Search Console. There is no write access to give away because we never ask for it.

What we actually read, and store

For properties you choose to publish, we read your total organic clicks over the last 7 and 28 days — the minimum needed to compute momentum and volume. We don't pull your individual queries or URLs into the public board. Your Google refresh token is encrypted at rest and never exposed to the browser or to other users; it's used server-side only, to refresh those click totals on schedule.

You stay in control

• Nothing is public until you publish it. Connecting just lists your verified properties on your private dashboard. You pick which — if any — go on the board.
• Unpublish anytime to remove a site from the public leaderboard.
• Revoke access in one click from your Google account permissions page — that instantly cuts off our read access, independent of RealRank.

Why read-only is the honest design

A leaderboard has no legitimate reason to modify your Search Console. By requesting the narrowest possible scope, the worst-case blast radius is bounded to "someone could see the click totals you already chose to publish" — which is the entire point of a public board. That's the same trust-through-verification idea behind the whole verified-leaderboard movement. Ready? Connect Search Console.