Google Search Console Can Now Track Your Social Content, Here’s Why That Matters for SEO

In July, we discussed in our monthly search insights that search is no longer just about the pages on your website. Your wider digital presence, including reviews, videos, social content and accurate business information, also helps Google understand who you are, what you offer and why potential customers should trust your business.

With Google Search Console’s new Platform Properties feature, businesses can now see how content from Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube is being discovered through Google Search. That matters because search behaviour has, and continues, to change. People are not always clicking straight through to a website. They might find a YouTube video, an Instagram post or a TikTok first. Until now, that part of the search journey has been much harder to measure. Platform Properties gives businesses a better view of how their wider content is performing in Google and, more importantly, gives us another source of data to improve SEO and content decisions.

What are Platform Properties?

Platform Properties are a new type of Google Search Console property for social and video accounts. Once connected, you can see how content from those platforms is appearing in Google Search. At the moment, Google supports:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• X
• YouTube

For businesses already investing in SEO, social media and video, this starts to connect channels that have traditionally been measured separately.

Why does this matter for SEO?

SEO is increasingly about more than where your website ranks. Google is surfacing different types of content depending on what someone is searching for, including videos and social posts. So if your YouTube video, Instagram post or TikTok is appearing for an important search term, that tells us something useful: Google believes that content is relevant to what people are looking for. That insight can then help shape the rest of your marketing. For example, if a particular video or post is consistently getting visibility in Google, it may be worth:

• creating more content around that subject
• expanding the topic into a website page or guide
• answering related questions on your site
• improving an existing landing page
• creating more video content in the same area
• reviewing whether the topic has commercial search potential

This is where the feature becomes more than another set of numbers.

What can you actually see?

Platform Properties gives you Search Console data for your connected accounts, including:

• Clicks from Google Search
• Impressions
• The search queries people used
• The posts or videos appearing in Google
• Recent performance trends
• Your strongest-performing content

The reports can also be exported if you want to combine the data with your wider SEO or marketing reporting.

The real opportunity: better content decisions

The biggest benefit is not simply knowing that a post received 500 impressions. It is understanding why it received those impressions in the first place. The search queries behind the data can reveal:

• topics your audience is actively interested in
• questions people are asking
• content Google already associates with your business
• subjects worth developing further
• gaps between your social content and your website

That can make content planning much more informed. Instead of choosing topics based purely on what feels relevant or what performed well inside a social platform, you can also look at what people are actively finding through Google.

Social, SEO and search are becoming less separate

Businesses have traditionally treated SEO, social media and video as different channels. From a customer’s point of view, they are not. Someone might:

• Search for a question on Google.
• Watch your YouTube video.
• Search your brand.
• Visit your website.
• Come back later and enquire.

Or they might discover an Instagram post directly in Google before ever visiting your website. The journey is rarely as neat as a single click from a search result to a conversion. Platform Properties gives us a little more visibility into that journey, and the better we understand how people are discovering a business, the better decisions we can make about where to invest time and budget.

Does this replace your existing analytics?

No. Platform Properties should not be treated as a replacement for Instagram Insights, YouTube Analytics or your wider website reporting. Each platform still tells you different things. What Search Console adds is a specific view of how that content performs within Google Search, which makes it particularly useful when combined with your existing SEO data. For example, we can compare:

• what your website ranks for
• what your social content appears for
• which topics generate clicks
• which subjects attract impressions but not traffic
• where there may be opportunities to strengthen your overall visibility

That is much more valuable than looking at any one report in isolation.

What should businesses do now?

If your business regularly publishes content on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or X, it is worth connecting the relevant accounts. You do not need to completely change your content strategy because of one new report. Start by looking for patterns and ask:

• Which topics are appearing most often?
• Which posts are generating clicks?
• What searches are bringing people to your content?
• Are those searches commercially relevant?
• Could those topics be strengthened on your website?
• Are there subjects where social content is performing but your website is not?

That is where the useful opportunities tend to be.

How to add a Platform Property

If you want to start tracking how your social or video content is being discovered through Google, follow the steps below.

1. Open Google Search Console.
2. Open the property selector.
3. Choose Add property.
4. Select the platform you want to connect.
5. Sign into the relevant account when prompted.
6. Follow Google’s verification process.
7. Once verified, open the new property and allow time for data to populate.

You can then start reviewing how that account is being discovered through Google Search.

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Artemis client? Give us access to your Search Console

If your account manager has sent you this guide, there is one more important step: add Artemis as a user in Google Search Console. This allows us to access and review the data without you needing to share any login details with us.

How to add Artemis as a user

1. Log into Google Search Console.
2. Select the correct website property from the property selector.
3. Click Settings in the left-hand menu.
4. Open Users and permissions.
5. Click Add user.
6. Invite the Google account email address supplied by your account manager.
7. Select Full permission unless your Artemis contact has asked for a different level of access.
8. Click Add.

Once you have done this, let us know. We can then confirm that the access is working and take it from there. If you cannot see the Add user option, you may not currently be an Owner of the Search Console property. In that case, the existing property owner will need to add Artemis for you.

What Artemis will be looking for

For us, this is not about adding another dashboard to a report. It is about using another layer of search data to make better decisions. We will be looking at questions such as:

• Is social content appearing for valuable searches that the website currently misses?
• Are certain topics consistently performing across both website and social?
• Are videos gaining visibility where traditional website content is struggling?
• Can strong-performing social topics be turned into better landing pages, guides or FAQs?
• Are we seeing early signals of subjects worth investing more heavily in?
• Is Google rewarding a particular type or format of content for searches relevant to the business?

That is where this data can become commercially useful. Because ultimately, the aim is not to generate more reports. It is to understand what people are searching for, what content they are finding, and how we can turn that visibility into more relevant traffic and enquiries. If you would like Artemis to review how your website, social content and wider search visibility fit together, get in touch with the team.