Your Instagram posts, TikToks, and YouTube videos can show up when somebody searches on Google. Until now, Google Search Console mostly told you how your website performed in Google. It can now also show you when your social content itself appears in Google results, what people searched for, and whether they clicked.
Key Takeaways
- Your social content already shows up in Google. Now you can see the searches behind it. Search Console reports impressions, clicks, position, and the actual queries for your Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube content.
- The queries are what to watch. Your social platform tells you a video got views. Google can now tell you what somebody typed before they saw it, which is a useful clue about what your ideal clients are actually looking for.
- Connect the accounts today so you don’t lose any data. Google won’t show you anything from before you verify, so every week you wait is information you can’t get back.
There’s a second new connection worth setting up too, over in Google Analytics. Both of these point in the same direction: a better view of your online presence.
What Search Console Tells You
Connecting your social accounts doesn’t tell you how your Instagram post performed inside Instagram. It’s not telling you how many people clicked from X (Twitter) to your website. This is specifically about your social content showing up in Google. If somebody searches a question on Google and Google shows them one of your YouTube videos, Instagram posts, TikToks, or posts from X, Search Console can now give you data about that visibility.
Google calls these Platform properties. You verify the social account inside Search Console, and Google begins reporting on the content from that account that appears across Google Search, Discover, and News.
The Search Queries Are the Useful Part
You’ll see impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and average position, which is what you’d expect. The query data is the part worth your attention.
Your social platform tells you a video got views. Search Console can now tell you what somebody actually typed into Google before your social content appeared.
You may discover people are finding your videos for a customer question you didn’t realize had much search demand. Or that one topic consistently shows up while another gets almost nothing from Google. On YouTube you can also compare Shorts with longer videos and see how each is showing up.
That doesn’t mean you start making everything for Google Search. You still make your social content for the people you want to reach. This just gives you another signal about which questions and topics people are actively looking for.
Connect the Accounts Before You Need the Data
One setup detail you shouldn’t put off. Google won’t show you anything from before you connect the account. Your data starts the day you verify the social property, and there’s no way to go back and pick up the history.
So even if you don’t plan to study this report every week, connect the accounts you care about now and let the information start accumulating.
Business Profile Activity Inside Analytics
The second update fills in a different part of the picture. You can now bring activity from your linked Google Business Profile into Google Analytics.
Google is adding seven Business Profile metrics: interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings, and menu activity. Several of those never touch your website at all. Somebody can call you straight from your Business Profile or ask for directions and never become a website visit.
This is the same data that you get in your Business Profile reports, but now it is also visible in Analytics along with the rest of your traffic. (If you want the background on how Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google Business profile differ, we covered that back in episode 436.
What You Can’t Do With It Yet
If you have multiple locations, Google combines those Business Profile numbers in Analytics. You can’t break them down location by location there, so you’ll still need Business Profile reporting itself for that detail.
Action Steps This Week
Three things, and the first one takes about ten minutes:
- Open Search Console and verify the Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube accounts that matter to your business so the social search data starts accumulating now.
- Once you have some data, look at the actual Google queries and the social content appearing for them, and use those patterns to help shape future topics.
- Check whether your Google Business Profile is linked to Google Analytics so you can see local actions like calls, directions, bookings, and website clicks alongside the rest of your reporting.
Your website still matters. But somebody may first see your Instagram Reel in a Google search, watch your YouTube Short, call directly from your Business Profile, or ask for directions without ever following the neat path we sometimes imagine people take through a website. These changes give you better clues about what’s actually working.
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Links in this episode: Google Search Console now connects social content to search demand
