How to Use a Service Account with Index Worker

Index Worker can access the Search Console API through OAuth or a service account.

The URL Inspection API has quotas for each Search Console property and each Google Cloud project.

Using a service account from a different Google Cloud project can distribute project-level quota in some cases.

This can help when requests for many properties are concentrated in one project and cause rate limit errors.

✅ Reference: What are service accounts?

📌 Using a service account does not change the combined limit of 2,000 URLs per day and 600 URLs per minute for one Search Console property. Every job that uses the same property shares these limits.

Setup

Google Cloud Setup

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console.

2. Select a project or create a new project.

3. From the navigation menu, select “IAM & Admin” > “Service Accounts.”

4. Click “Create service account.”

5. Enter the service account name, ID, and description, then click “Create.”

6. Select the service account you created from the list, then click “Manage keys.”

7. Select “Add key” > “Create new key,” choose JSON as the format, then click “Create.”

8. Store the downloaded JSON file in a safe place.

9. Next, grant permissions to the service account you just created from Search Console. Log in to Search Console.

10. From “Settings” -> “Users and permissions” in the lower-left corner of the screen, add the service account you just created (for example, hoge@fuga.iam.gserviceaccount.com) with “Full” permissions (full permissions/full user).

Amethyst Setup

1. Log in to Amethyst.

2. From “Workspace settings” -> “Service accounts” -> “Choose file” in the lower-left corner of the screen, upload the JSON file you downloaded.

1. This completes service account registration in Amethyst. The final step is to use the service account.

2. Select “Search Console Properties” in Index Worker.

3. Select ”+ Add” in the upper-right corner of the screen.

4. Set the account used to reference properties to the service account you created.

5. Select any Search Console property.

6. Complete the property addition from “Review selection.”

7. You can now select Search Console properties that the service account can access when creating or editing Index Worker jobs.

   If project-level quota is concentrated, using a service account from a different Google Cloud project can distribute requests in some cases.