For roughly twenty years, Google Search Console has been a tool for people who own websites. If your business lived on Instagram or TikTok, you had no idea whether Google was sending anyone your way. You just posted, hoped, and squinted at the in-app analytics.
That changed in July 2026. Google introduced Platform Properties, which let you connect a social account to Search Console and see exactly how your content performs in Google Search and Discover. No website required.
This is the closest thing social media has had to proper search data. Here’s how to set it up, and more importantly, what to do with it once you have.
First, What Actually Is Google Search Console?
It’s a free tool from Google. You don’t download it, you don’t install it, and you don’t need a developer. You open it in a browser like any other website and sign in with a normal Google account – the one you use for Gmail is fine.
Find it here: search.google.com/search-console
That’s the entire barrier to entry. Which makes it slightly maddening that so few small businesses use it.
What Google Changed in July 2026
Search Console used to recognise two kinds of property: a whole domain, or a specific URL. Both required you to own and verify a website.
Platform Properties break that rule. You can now connect an account you don’t technically own the infrastructure for, and Google will report on how that content shows up in search.
Four platforms are supported:
- TikTok
- X
- YouTube
Facebook was included in Google’s earlier December 2025 experiment, but it has been dropped from the launch version. X was added instead. Read into that what you will about where Google thinks search-driven social discovery is actually happening.
One thing worth clearing up: Platform Properties are not the same as Search Profiles – the public creator pages Google rolled out in June 2026. A Search Profile is a shop window. A Platform Property is a dashboard. If you’ve seen the two mentioned in the same breath, know that they do completely different jobs.
How to Connect a Social Media Channel: Step by Step
- Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account.
- Click the property selector in the top left, then Add property.
- Choose your platform: Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube. Click Add next to it.
- Select the correct profile or channel. If you manage several brand or client accounts, slow down and check this properly. Connecting the wrong one is a tedious mistake to unpick.
- Sign in to that social account and authorise the connection. This is how Google confirms the account is yours. No code, no file uploads, no tech skills.
- Click Go to property.
Repeat for every account. Each one becomes its own separate property, which is pretty useful as your TikTok performance won’t get blended into your YouTube numbers.
Three things to expect:
- Your reports will be empty or patchy for the first few days while Google collects data. Don’t panic. That’s normal.
- This update is brand new and te rollout has been gradual, so if the platform options aren’t showing, check again in a week.
- Google re-verifies periodically. If authorisation lapses, reporting pauses until you sign in again.
How to Connect Your Website: Step by Step
Websites work differently, because Google needs proof of ownership rather than a login handshake.
Step 1. Sign in to Search Console and click Add Property.
Step 2. Choose your property type.
- Domain connects everything, including subdomains like blog.yoursite.com or shop.yoursite.com. Best option if you’re comfortable in your domain settings.
- URL prefix connects one address, such as https://www.yoursite.com. Easier, and perfectly adequate for most small businesses.
Step 3. Verify ownership. Google offers several methods and you only need one of them. Whatever platform your site is built on – WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix – there is a documented spot to paste the verification code, and a support article telling you exactly where it is.
Step 4. Click Verify. Data starts collecting immediately, but give it a few days before you go looking for insight.
What You’ll See
Once you’re connected, each property gives you:
- Clicks – how many people clicked through to your content from Google.
- Impressions – how many people saw it in results.
- Average CTR – what percentage of those who saw it clicked it.
- Average position – where you’re ranking.
- Queries – the exact words people typed before they found you. This is the good stuff.
- Top content – which posts and pages pull the most search traffic.
You can filter by date, country, and device, with separate reporting for Google Discover and Google News if your content appears there.
What It Doesn’t Do
It measures discovery through Google. That’s it.
It won’t show your total reach, views, watch time, saves, shares, likes, comments or follower growth. If a Reel goes viral inside Instagram and never surfaces in a Google result, platform properties will shrug at you.
For engagement you still need Instagram Insights, TikTok Analytics, and YouTube Studio. This sits alongside them, it doesn’t replace them.
Why This Is Worth Half an Hour of Your Time
The queries report is the reason to bother.
Until now, “social media SEO” was largely educated guesswork. You could optimise captions, put keywords into alt text, and hope for the best. But even if you had attended one of my social media workshops and knew exactly what you were doing, nobody could tell you for certain which search terms actually delivered a human being to a post.
Now you can see it. Which means you can:
- Find the topics Google already trusts you on, and make more of them.
- Spot the gap between what you think you’re known for and what people actually search before finding you. These are rarely the same thing.
- Repurpose deliberately. If a TikTok is pulling search traffic for a specific question, that question is a blog post, a carousel, and maybe also a lead magnet.
- Prove social ROI in a language finance teams understand – clicks, impressions, position – rather than vibes and screenshots.
Free discovery outside the app is the traffic nobody was measuring. Now it’s on a dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a website to use Google Search Console? No. Since July 2026, a creator with only an Instagram account can add it as a platform property and see search data with no domain involved.
Can I connect more than one account? Yes. Each account is added separately and reports independently. There’s no combined view across platforms.
Why is my report empty? Either it’s too new – allow a few days – or your content isn’t currently appearing in Google Search. Both are common. The default reporting window is 28 days, so give it a full cycle before drawing conclusions.
Does this show my Instagram Stories? Yes, where they surface in Google. Stories appearing in search results count as impressions, and clicks on them count as clicks.
Is Facebook supported? Not at launch. It was part of the December 2025 experiment but isn’t included in the current four.
Want to Do Something With the Data?
Connecting the account takes ten minutes. Knowing what to do with the queries report is the part that actually moves the needle.
That’s what Arcanum Academy’s social media and SEO workshops are for: practical, evidence-based sessions with frameworks you can use the next morning. No fluff, no upsell, no tips you could have Googled.
Tap here to see the upcoming dates.
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