Google has introduced a new method for creators to get insights about how their social and video content performs in Search. The change involves adding a new property type to Search Console, dubbed platform properties, which opens access to search performance information for those who did not have websites before.
The current Search Console was designed for websites and verified users only. If you had a blog, online store, or company website, you could easily monitor which queries bring users to your webpages. However, if your only web presence was built on social media, you practically had no way to learn how Google surfaces your content. The new release changes this situation radically.
This gap has become increasingly obvious with growing popularity of platforms and declining use of websites. More and more publishers post news directly on Instagram or TikTok instead of publishing an article on their site. Until now, they had no analogue of the Performance report available for all website owners. Platform properties fill this gap by providing social-first creators with a similar toolset.
What Platform Properties Actually Do
Platform properties operate in much the same way as regular Search Console properties, but they track an account on a specific platform instead of a domain. Once you add a platform property to Search Console, the system begins to provide information about which search queries drive people to your posts and how your audience interacts with them.
The feature currently works with four platforms – Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. Anyone of these platforms may set up a property even without owning websites where their content is published. This is a quite important update, as it makes it possible for a TikTok creator who does not have any domains to get an insight into their Google Search and Discover footprint.
Platform properties were officially announced by Moshe Samet, the Search Console Product Manager, via his post on the Search Central blog. According to the introduction, the new feature is aimed at opening a visibility similar to that of website owners in Search Console for people who build their audience using social and video content.
The Reports Included With a Platform Property
Once added, a platform property provides a user with three main reports, each of which is based on specific features of social content performance.
The first one is a Performance report, which shows overall numbers of clicks and impressions for your content and allows to sort out which posts and search queries bring the most traffic. For more detailed analysis, you may export data and analyze it in some external tool.
The second one is an Insights report that sheds light on trends in recent traffic changes. In particular, it highlights the posts with the highest level of performance and helps to evaluate how exactly people discover your account with the help of Google.
The last one is Achievements that monitors your progress towards reaching certain goals. One of the examples provided by Google is getting a new total number of clicks during the 28-day period.
Together, these three reports provide the same functionality as a regular Search Console property, just modified to meet the needs of platform accounts.
How to Set Up a Platform Property
Adding a platform property follows the same steps as adding any other Search Console property. Open Search Console, go to the property selector or verification page, click Add property, select the platform you want (Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube), and authorize the connection.
After that, the reports will gradually start filling up with data depending on activity of your account in Search and Discover. As the release is being rolled out gradually, it is possible that it will not be available to everyone immediately.
It’s also worth noting that the authorization step here works differently from site verification. In the latter case, you confirm ownership of the website by uploading special files and adding DNS records. In contrast, here you only authorize Search Console to receive data from your account on the platform. As a result, this process should be easier, since there is no need to make any changes to code or hosting settings at all.
How This Is Different From Search Profiles
It is easy to confuse platform properties with Search profiles that were introduced earlier this year. The latter is a separate Google feature that helps creators and publishers with large enough following to create their public facing pages where their followers can easily browse content on Google.
Platform properties play a completely different role. While Search profiles present the content to the audience, platform properties are used exclusively for analytics. As a result, you will not be able to see your platform property in Google Search as a public page.
This new feature is also based on previous experiments. In December, Google performed the experiment of including data about social channels in Search Console. Platform properties seem to be its logical extension.
Why This Update Matters
For years, Search Console has been considered a tool exclusively for website owners. This update takes things one step further by recognizing that a lot of content creators now operate solely on social and video platforms without a website of their own.
With platform properties, those content creators finally get the same visibility into their search performance that website owners have long had. That can make a big difference for anyone analyzing the best performing topics/formats in Search, removing the need to guess based on the lack of data.
That will also affect the way creators think about optimizing their posts. Once they have access to the data on the actual search terms driving their videos/posts, they can create titles, captions, and posts that capitalize on that knowledge.
Finally, that is useful for brands/agencies who work with multiple accounts on different platforms. No need to collect data from individual platforms anymore – one can monitor search performance in Search Console and get a consistent view on how their content performs in Google specifically, as the audiences are very different there and that was never represented in social media reporting until now.
What Comes Next
Google will be rolling out platform properties gradually in the coming weeks, so it may take a bit before everyone gets access to this data via Search Console. Right now, Google supports four platforms and has published detailed help on how to set up platform properties in its Help Center. Also, Google has included a feedback link in the platform properties settings section and has created the Search Central Community for any questions/issues related to the feature.
As more creators get access to platform properties, it will be interesting to see if Google plans to extend the support to other platforms or to incorporate the data from platform properties to other sections of Search Console, such as combined reporting of website and social platform properties. For now, however, this is the first time when creators without a website can see their performance in Google Search directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What are platform properties in Google Search Console?
Platform properties are a new type of Search Console property that will allow creators to monitor how their posts on social and video platforms perform in Google Search and Discover.
Q 2: Which platforms currently support platform properties?
At launch, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube are supported, with Google planning to roll out the support to other platforms in the coming weeks.
Q 3: Do I need a website to use a platform property?
No. Platform properties are specifically designed for creators/publishers who do not have a verified website.
Q 4: What reports come with a platform property?
A platform property provides the following reports: Performance (clicks/impressions), Insights (traffic trends/top posts), and Achievements (for milestones). All the reports have filters and sorting to make it easier to find patterns.
Q 5: How do I set up a platform property?
To set up a platform property, go to Search Console, open the property selector, select Add property, pick your platform, and then complete the authorization procedure.
Q 6: How is a platform property different from a Search profile?
While a Search profile is a public page that shows off the content to followers, a platform property is a private analytics dashboard focusing on search performance. Data in the property is only visible to the owner.
Q 7: Can I export data from a platform property?
Yes. Performance report allows you to export the data so that you can analyze it in more detail.
Q 8: Who announced this feature?
This feature has been announced by Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead for Search Console, in his post on the Search Central blog.
Q 9: Is this feature available to everyone right now?
Not immediately. Google is rolling out platform properties gradually, so not all accounts may have access to it right now, and it may take several weeks before everyone who is eligible will get access.
Q 10: Does this replace the December 2025 social channels experiment?
It extends it. The experiment has provided Search Console with social channel data for the first time, and now platform properties extend this feature with additional reporting.
