Your Instagram posts have been turning up in Google results for years. Someone searches for something, and a post appears in Search or in the Discover feed on their phone. Until now you had no way of knowing which posts, for which searches, or how often.
That changed this summer. Google has added a new kind of property to Search Console that covers social and video accounts, and as of the end of July it is available to everyone. Here is what it does and how to set it up.
What are Search Console platform properties?
Search Console has always been a tool for websites. You proved you owned a domain, and in exchange Google showed you what people searched to find it. If your business lived mainly on Instagram, none of it applied to you.
Platform properties are a new property type that changes that. Instead of verifying a website, you connect a social or video account, and Search Console reports on how that account's posts perform in Google Search, Discover and News.
Google introduced them on 7 July 2026 and rolled them out gradually. Since 29 July 2026 they have been available to all Search Console users.
Which platforms are supported?
At launch there are four:
- TikTok
- X
- YouTube
Facebook and LinkedIn are not supported at the time of writing. Google has not committed to adding them, though the way the feature is framed suggests the list may grow.
You do not need a website
This is the genuinely new part, and it is easy to miss. Platform properties do not require you to own or verify a website. You connect the account through an authorisation flow instead.
In practice that means a salon, a food van or a barber who has never had a website, and whose whole presence is an Instagram account, can now open Search Console and see Google data about themselves. It is the first time Search Console has been useful to anyone other than site owners.
How to add your Instagram account, step by step
- Go to Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account.
- Open the property selector at the top left, the dropdown showing your current site.
- Choose Add property.
- Pick your platform from the list: Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to authorise the connection to that account.
It takes a couple of minutes. The same steps work for TikTok, X and YouTube, and you can add more than one.
If the option is not there yet, you are probably looking at a stale session. Sign out and back in, and check you are using the Google account that administers the profile.
What data you actually get
Three reports:
- Performance. Total clicks and impressions, filterable and sortable by individual post and by search query. This is the core of it.
- Insights. A friendlier overview of what is working: which posts are doing well and how people are finding them.
- Achievements. Milestone tracking, for example passing a click threshold within a 28-day window.
The report worth opening first
The search queries. It is the same reason queries matter for a website: they tell you the actual words real people typed before Google showed them your content.
For a local business, that is free market research. If your posts are surfacing for a service you barely mention, that is a signal to talk about it more. If a town keeps appearing, that is where your audience is. And it tells you what to write on your website, not just what to post, which is where the two channels start reinforcing each other.
What Google has not told us yet
Worth being straight about the gaps, because plenty of articles will gloss over them. Google has not documented whether a newly connected property shows historical data or only starts collecting from the moment you connect it. The reporting delay is not published either.
The practical takeaway is simple: connect your accounts now, even if you have no intention of looking at the reports this month. If it turns out data only accrues from the connection date, you will be glad you started the clock early. It costs you two minutes and nothing else.
What it does not do
- It does not replace Instagram or TikTok insights. Those measure what happens inside the app: reach, saves, follows. This measures only what happens in Google.
- It does not make your posts rank better. It is a measurement tool, not a ranking tool. Nothing about connecting an account changes how Google treats your content.
- It does not cover Facebook or LinkedIn. Not yet.
Should a local business bother?
If social is genuinely part of how customers find you, yes, and it is free. That is most restaurants, salons, beauty and barber shops, trades that post photos of their work, and estate agents. We have written about how those businesses split the job between social and a website in websites for hairdressers and beauty salons and websites for restaurants and bars, and the short version is that Instagram is discovery while your site is where people decide and book.
What this feature adds is the missing measurement on the discovery half. Combined with the website side, covered in how to tell if your website is actually working, you can finally see both halves of how people find you.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website to use Search Console platform properties?
No. That is the main change. You authorise the social account directly, so creators and businesses with no website can use Search Console for the first time.
Can I add Facebook or LinkedIn?
Not currently. The launch covers Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube only.
Does this replace Instagram's own analytics?
No, and it is not trying to. Instagram insights tell you about your audience inside Instagram. Platform properties tell you how your posts perform in Google Search, Discover and News, which is a completely separate audience finding you a different way.
Is it free?
Yes. Search Console is free, and platform properties are part of it.
Will connecting my account improve my rankings?
No. It is purely measurement. Anyone telling you that verifying a property boosts your rankings is mistaken, and that has always been true of Search Console for websites too.
This is a rare thing in search: a genuinely useful free tool, brand new, that most local businesses have not heard of yet. Connect your accounts, leave it a month, then look at the queries.
If you would like help making sense of what those numbers say, or want your website and your social presence pulling in the same direction rather than competing, get in touch or take a look at our websites.