Adding Instagram and YouTube to Google Search Console

Google quietly extended Search Console past websites this month. A new property type called Platform Properties connects Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube accounts directly, and shows how that content performs inside Google Search and Discover, not just on the platform itself.

Setup is buried a little, but simple once you know where to look. Open the property selector in the top left of Search Console, scroll to the very bottom of the property list, and a new section appears with the option to add a platform. That opens a window where you pick Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube and authorise the connection. Same flow as verifying a website, just a few clicks further down the page.

We read the announcement on a Wednesday morning and had New Beach's and Rallee's Instagram and YouTube accounts connected before lunch. TikTok is sitting there too if you run content on it.

By the next day, Rallee's insights were already showing Instagram content picking up clicks from Google Search. That's a fast turnaround for a brand new property type, and reason enough to get it connected sooner rather than later.

Three reports come with it. Performance shows clicks and impressions broken down by individual post and by the search query that surfaced it. Insights gives a higher level read on recent trends and top performers. Achievements track click milestones over rolling 28 day windows.

The Performance report's query data is the one worth spending time in. Since Rallee's data started serving (pardon pun), we've been able to see exactly which search queries are leading people to specific Instagram posts, something Instagram's own insights simply doesn't show. That's a genuine window into search intent, and it points straight at which posts are already answering the calls people are making, and which gaps are still open.

Until now, whether Google was surfacing a client's Reels or YouTube videos in search results was a guess, and which search terms drove that traffic was a bigger one. Organic web performance lived in one tool, social engagement in another, with nothing joining them. Captions, titles and descriptions get written for a platform's own algorithm, because that was the only feedback loop that existed. With Platform Properties live, we can write for search intent too, and report real Google-driven reach for social content next to organic web numbers, rather than estimating it.

The next move is deciding which other client accounts earn a spot in this rollout, starting with anyone carrying a strong YouTube or Instagram presence, and whether platform performance becomes a standard line in monthly reporting rather than a one-off check.

Small feature, but it closes a gap that's been sitting there since Instagram and YouTube became search-relevant. Worth five minutes of anyone's time.