Google Search Console adds tracking for social and YouTube discovery

Google is adding platform properties to Search Console, giving creators and site owners a new way to see which search terms lead people to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube content. The change extends Google’s measurement tools beyond websites and into the social platforms where audiences now discover creators.

The new feature builds on Search Console Insights, which Google first tested in a limited experiment announced on December 8, 2025. That early version offered a unified view of websites and social channels, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and surfaced total reach, content performance, search queries and audience location. Google said the initial rollout was restricted to a small set of automatically identified sites and channels.

The broader move fits a year of new Search tools aimed at publishers and creators. On June 4, 2026, Google launched Search profiles in the United States for eligible publishers and creators with a sizable following on at least one major social or video platform. Those profiles can include an avatar, bio, website, social media links and video platforms, and may trigger a knowledge panel. Google said the profiles are designed to help people find accurate, up-to-date information and follow creators’ work across the web and Discover.

Search Console’s core performance reports already show clicks, impressions and queries for websites, and Google says the new platform properties will extend that framework to social channels tied to a property. That matters because referral data is one of the few ways creators can tell whether discovery is coming from search, from a video platform or from a social profile that surfaces in Google results.

The update also lands as Google tries to keep publishers and creators inside its own measurement system while search behavior shifts. In June 2026, Google said AI Overviews had more than 2.5 billion monthly active users and AI Mode had surpassed one billion monthly users. As more questions are answered inside Google’s products, the company is offering new visibility tools at the same time it is reshaping where attention starts and how traffic is counted.