Sean Walsh
Sean is a Director at Intelligency heading up our digital marketing and client services operations. Sean has 15+ years experiencing working both in-house and agency with brands including Lloyds, Alstom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Viaplay, DFDS Seaways and Mercedes-Benz.
Google is testing a new feature in Search Console that brings social channel performance into the Insights report. It is designed to give marketers a clearer picture of how their website and social presence perform together in Google Search.
This update is currently an experiment and is only available to a small number of websites.
What is changing in Search Console
Google is expanding the Search Console Insights tab to include performance data from selected social platforms. The aim is to create a single view that shows how content performs across both websites and social channels.
At launch, the social platforms included in the test are YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
Google describes this as a unified view of search performance, rather than a replacement for existing analytics tools.
What Google has said about the update
Google confirmed that this is an early experiment and not a full rollout.
They explained that the updated Insights report will now include performance data from social channels that Google can automatically associate with your website.
This means Search Console will attempt to identify linked social profiles without manual setup at this stage.
Who will see these new insights
Not everyone will have access straight away.
Google has confirmed that the feature is only rolling out to a limited number of websites. If your site is included, Search Console will prompt you to review and confirm any social channels it has automatically linked to your domain.
If you do not see any mention of social channels in your Insights report, your site is likely not part of the experiment yet.
What data the social insights will show
The new social view mirrors the type of information marketers are already familiar with in Search Console, but applied to social platforms.
The data includes:
- Additional traffic sources such as Image Search, Video Search, News Search and Discover
- Total reach, showing clicks and impressions from Google Search to your social profiles
- Content performance, highlighting top performing and trending social posts
- Search queries that lead users to your social profiles
- Audience location, showing which countries users are searching from
This keeps the focus on search driven visibility rather than in-app social metrics.
How social channels are added
There is no manual setup process yet.
If your site is eligible, Search Console will automatically detect social channels it believes are associated with your website. You will then be prompted to review and add them within the Insights report.
If you are not prompted, there is currently nothing you can do to enable it.
Why this matters for digital marketers
For marketers, this update is less about new metrics and more about context.
Being able to see website and social performance side by side helps teams understand how search visibility supports social growth and vice versa. It also reinforces how important social profiles have become within Google Search itself.
One thing to note is that Search Console data can sometimes be delayed. When reporting is up to date, this combined view could be genuinely useful for content planning and performance reviews. Google says the goal is to help site owners better understand their combined performance across channels. If the experiment proves successful, it is likely we will see a wider rollout in the future.
