Search Console Can Now Track How Your Social and Video Content Performs on Google Search_

Picture this: you're a content creator with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, but you've never owned a website. Your videos keep showing up in Google results—through Discover, or video search—but you've been completely blind to that data. How many people are finding you through search? What are they actually typing? Search Console, the go-to tool for website owners, has never been able to help, simply because you don't have a domain to verify.

On July 7, 2026, Google finally closed that gap.

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What Are Platform Properties?

Google has introduced Platform Properties, a new property type in Search Console built specifically for creators and publishers whose content lives on social and video platforms rather than a website. With this feature, you can connect an Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube account to Search Console and see how that content performs on Google Search and Google Discover—complete with clicks, impressions, and the exact search terms that led people to your posts.

The feature was announced directly by Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead for Search Console, on the official Google Search Central blog.

A few key facts:

• Four platforms supported at launch: Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube.
• No website required at all. The feature is explicitly aimed at creators who've never had a way to measure their search performance because they don't own a domain.
• Verification works differently from a regular property. Instead of proving domain ownership through DNS or a verification file, you simply authorize Google to connect to your account on the relevant platform.

Rewriting Search Console's Old Rules

For years, Search Console only recognized two kinds of properties: a full domain or a URL prefix, both of which required proving you owned the site. Platform Properties breaks that rule.

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 SEARCH CONSOLE: BEFORE                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Supported Property Types:                                    |
|  1. Domain (requires DNS verification)                        |
|  2. URL Prefix (requires a verification file/tag on the site) |
|  -> Hard requirement: you must own a website                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                  SEARCH CONSOLE: NOW                          |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Supported Property Types:                                    |
|  1. Domain                                                    |
|  2. URL Prefix                                                |
|  3. Platform Property (Instagram / TikTok / X / YouTube)      |
|  -> Just authorize your social account, no domain needed      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

How to Set Up a Platform Property

1. Open Search Console.
2. Go to the verification page, or click the property selector dropdown and choose "Add property."
3. Pick one of the four available platforms: Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube.
4. Follow the on-screen steps to securely authorize the connection to your account.

Worth noting: the rollout is happening gradually over the coming weeks, so there's a chance this feature hasn't reached your account yet by the time you read this.

Three Reports You Get Access To

Once a Platform Property is verified, you unlock three types of reports:

• Performance report — total clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position, filterable and sortable by post or by search query.
• Insights report — an overview of trends and your top-performing posts.
• Achievements — milestones tracking your content's performance over a given period.

How It Differs from "Search Profiles"

Don't confuse this with Search Profiles, another feature Google launched earlier in 2026. A Search Profile is a public-facing page that showcases a creator's content to their audience. Platform Properties, on the other hand, are purely a private analytics tool—visible only to the account owner, not a page meant for public viewing.

Why This Matters

For a long time, SEO teams and social media teams operated in separate lanes: SEO chased what people searched for through keyword research, while social chased whatever was trending inside the app. Platform Properties finally gives both worlds a shared dataset to work from.

The feature also continues a trend Google has been building over the past several months, steadily expanding what Search Console covers—from the "social channels" experiment in December 2025 (which back then covered YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook), to the Search Generative AI performance reports introduced in June 2026. Notably, in this July release, Facebook has been swapped out for X—a hint about where Google currently sees search-driven content discovery heading.

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Conclusion

The launch of Platform Properties marks a real shift in how Search Console works:

• No website needed to start measuring your content's search performance.
• Four major platforms supported from day one: Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube.
• Three full reports—Performance, Insights, and Achievements—give a complete picture of how your content gets discovered.
• Gradual rollout, so check back periodically in your Search Console property selector.

The line between "social content" and "search asset" keeps getting thinner. A post you make today just for engagement could become tomorrow's long-term discovery asset—and now you have official data straight from Google to prove it.

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Sources & Further Reading

• Official announcement: "See how content from social and video platforms performs on Google Search" — Google Search Central Blog
• Additional coverage from Search Engine Land