Google Search Console Now Tracks Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube; Update

Platform Properties Are Live: What Google Search Console's Biggest Update Means for Marketers 

There is something very annoying which has been going on for years. You would have been showing up in your Google Search results via your Reels, TikToks, or Shorts, but there has been absolutely no official way to track it until now. None of the tracking data, impression numbers, search queries, nothing. You may know that because Google knew everything, but you couldn’t find out anything. 

Until July 7, 2026. 

A platform property has been added to Search Console. This property type allows you to link your Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube properties directly to the Search Console, where you can analyze performance through Google Search and Discover in great detail. This update was introduced by Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead for Search Console, and was rolled out worldwide by July 29, 2026. This represents the largest evolution of Google Search Console from the time it first appeared. And for anyone serious about SEO Services and social media performance, it is the update that reframes literally everything! 

What Are Platform Properties for Google Search Console? 

Platform properties refer to a new Google Search Console property type which allows you to verify and get search performance data for a social media or video account such as Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube without having to verify a website. 

It is something totally new because Search Console was designed specifically for website owners. To see performance data about your site, you had to own and verify a website property using Search Console. Now platform properties allow you to get this performance data even if you are not publishing on your website but on a separate social media account. For instance, you can create a Search Console property for a TikTok channel where your site does not exist at all. 

Why Is This Important for SEO Services and Search Strategy? 

This update is important for SEO Services because it addresses the issue that prevented measuring the visibility of social content from a search standpoint, and it shows the convergence of social media and SEO strategies as separate specializations. 

Social content has already appeared in Google search results for many years. Short-form video content, Instagram Reels, X post, etc. all this content is being indexed and ranked by Google Search just like regular web page content. However, the problem has been that marketers had zero analytics data that would allow them to take some action based on it. Platform attributes address that concern since now it allows brands to see what type of videos and posts are ranking for particular search queries; what types of posts bring Discover impressions through Instagram, and what types of content work best when people discover it via Google instead of feed. 

So, What Does All This Mean for A Digital Marketing Company Working with Social Media? 

For every Digital Marketing company handling both social media and SEO, the introduction of platform properties makes a huge difference in how content performance is assessed as for the very first time ever there is a unified data layer between the two platforms. 

Up until now, social managers and SEO specialists have been operating in completely different worlds, using different data sources. The social media managers were looking at the analytics of their platform, while SEO experts were using Google Search Console. All this time, however, it has been impossible to see the intersection of the efforts, i.e., social content which is generating organic traffic on Google Search simply because the data has never been connected. 

Now, thanks to the platform properties introduced by Google, it is possible; that a digital marketing company can leverage this data for the benefit of its brand. 

How Should Brands Use This Data to Improve Content Strategy? 

The first and most immediate way that brands could leverage platform property data would be identifying any social media content that ranks on Google and creating similar content to capitalize on it. 

There is a 100% guarantee that the vast majority of brands will find content that ranks on Google that they were unaware of. Six months ago, a TikTok post may have been driving a steady stream of impressions on Google Search through a certain query. 

At Unify Wizards, we have already started integrating platform property data into the social and search strategies we build for clients. If your brand has social content that should be showing up in Google Search and you want to know whether it is; and how to make it perform better when it does, get in touch and let us show you what the data looks like!

Frequently Asked Questions
Platform Properties represent a new kind of Search Console property that enables users to link and manage their Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube accounts and analyze their organic performance within Google Search and Google Discover. This new feature was announced on July 7, 2026, and became available globally from July 29, 2026. As one of the first Search Console tools that can be used by accounts without a website, they provide creators and companies with insights into how well their social content ranks in Google searches.
There are currently four social platforms that Search Console is able to track: Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube. Each individual account needs to be linked separately as a platform property in Google Search Console. At present, it is unknown whether or not other platforms might become available in upcoming updates.
The platform property does not indicate performance data such as views on TikTok or likes on Instagram or watch time on YouTube from the home screen. Native platform analytics still provide platform performance insights, while platform properties provide an additional layer of information about the Google view of your data.
No, and this is possibly the most important aspect of this update. With platform properties, Google is providing its very first Search Console feature for use without a website. Content creators who publish on social networks without having an owned website can now have access to Google search performance data.
In most cases, a report will look like it is entirely blank when set up, but data will usually flow in after a few days have passed after setting it up and verifying the account. Then, the Performance report will contain information about impressions, clicks, and search queries, depending on how much of the historical and new content is indexed by Google.
Platform properties give you the ability to see what social content is already indexed in Google Search, even if you did not think it would be indexed. The best way to use this data is to pinpoint top posts that perform well for certain searches, to produce additional content that targets those specific search queries on both social media and the website in order to leverage the impressions data.
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