What is Platform Properties?
Nati Elimelech·Updated 29.07.2026 Platform properties are a Google Search Console property type that shows how social and video accounts perform in Google Search.
Search Console, Google’s free tool for seeing how content performs in Search, recognised one property type only: a website. Platform properties add a second one, an account on a social or video platform, and each account or channel connects as its own property with its own reports. As of July 2026 Google supports Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.
How platform properties work
Adding a platform property means picking a platform from the property list, then linking the account to the Google account through a direct platform login. No DNS records, no verification files. And per Google’s documentation, anyone who has already claimed a Google Search profile gets their verified accounts added as properties automatically.
First data appears, per the documentation, within a few days of setup, and there is no backfill: a new property shows only the days since collection started. The data covers Google Search, Discover and Google News, and the Discover and News reports appear only when there is traffic from those surfaces. The counting itself is broad: per Google’s documentation, even a click that opens a video inside Google’s own viewer is recorded as a click in Search Console. The viewer never reached the platform at all.
How platform properties relate to SEO and GEO
Google search data was always reserved for whoever ran a website. Platform properties show search data for social content for the first time, even with no website at all, so they matter to two teams in an organization: the SEO team sees how social content performs on Google, and the social team gets a metric that does not depend on the platform’s algorithm. Those accounts are also part of the brand’s entity, and their search performance is part of the picture of the brand itself.
The difference between platform properties and platform analytics
Platform properties show only what happens on Google. Per Google’s documentation, platform properties do not track impressions inside the platform itself, for example how many times a video appeared on TikTok. An impression in TikTok’s feed is counted in TikTok Analytics; an impression of the same video in Google’s results is counted in Search Console. The number in Search Console will be far lower, because it counts only what happened on Google. As of July 2026, Bing Webmaster Tools has no equivalent property type.
Questions about Platform Properties
Which platforms can be connected as platform properties in Search Console?▼
As of July 2026, Search Console supports connecting Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube accounts. Each account or channel connects as its own platform property with its own reports, and anyone managing several accounts needs to connect each one separately.
Do platform properties show data from the platforms themselves?▼
Platform properties show only what happens on Google: impressions and clicks in Search, Discover and Google News. Per Google's documentation, they do not track views or impressions inside the platform itself, so their numbers are far lower than the platform's native analytics. That gap is expected, not a malfunction.
Do I need a website to use platform properties?▼
Platform properties do not require a website. Per Google's announcement, they are meant for creators without a website of their own too, and until now Search Console search data came only from a website property. A supported platform account and a Google account are enough.
How long until data appears in a new platform property?▼
Per Google's documentation, first data appears in a platform property within a few days of setup, because collection and processing take time. There is no backfill: a new property shows only the days since collection started, so empty reports in the first days are the expected state.
What happens when a platform property's link breaks?▼
Google re-checks the link between the account and the property periodically. When the link breaks, for example after an external login expires, access to the reports pauses until re-verification. After re-verifying, the report comes back with its history, with no new wait for data.
Can platform property data be exported or accessed through an API?▼
Exporting a platform property's Performance report from the interface is documented by Google, in formats like Google Sheets, Excel and CSV. Access through the Search Console API or BigQuery bulk export is not documented for platform properties, neither as available nor as blocked.