Hi friends 👋🏻

This week, a new feature from Google Search Console that provides data about Google Search traffic to your social media channels!

I'll explain how this works, what channels are included, and how to set it up.

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Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page​

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Google Search ➡️ Social Channels

You've probably noticed social media posts have been showing up in Google Search results for years now.

And despite these Google search results increasing the visibility of your social posts and potentially driving traffic to your accounts, there hasn't been a good way to measure the organic search impact on social channel performance.

Until now! (For some channels only ...)

Before you get too excited, here are the channels that are included:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• TikTok
• X (boooooo)

So if you were hoping for Facebook or LinkedIn, this isn't for you I'm afraid.

Earlier this month, Google announced "Platform Properties", a new type of property you can add in Google Search Console alongside your website property. Google said:

Google also published a technical guide to setting up platform properties, and covering what kind of data you'll see. It's not super complicated. You just need to be an admin/owner/etc. of the social channel you're connecting.

Start by logging in to your Google Search Console account. (Hopefully you already have your website property set up in there. If you don't you're missing out on an excellent free data source! Read more about how to set up GSC for your website here.)

In the Properties dropdown menu top-left, scroll to the bottom and click Add Property. Now – in addition to website properties – you'll see options to connect Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube. Just select the option you want and follow the prompts to authenticate the connection.

Things to note:

Separate properties for each channel

Each social platform is treated as a separate property, from the other social platforms and from your website. This felt a little counter-intuitive to me at first ... I was expecting to see all the Blue Hills Digital-branded properties together in one report. But no: you'll need to navigate between properties to explore the data, and there is not a unified dashboard that combines Search data to all of the social channels you connect.

Data takes a while to arrive

As when you set up a new domain or website property, initial data collection can take a few days. Be patient!

What data is available?

Depending on the platform and available data, Google Search Console may show:

• Total clicks
• Total impressions
• Average click-through rate
• Average search position
• Top search queries
• Top-performing posts or videos
• Countries
• Devices
• Search appearances
• Daily performance trends

Remember, the data in these reports is ONLY about impressions and clicks to the social posts from Google Search results! So this is just a slice of your social performance picture.

It doesn't count the in-platform impressions, engagements, etc. which you're already monitoring using each platforms' own reports.

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I'm already helping clients set this up, and I hope you'll check it out if you're active in one of these channels.

Once you have this data flowing, hit reply and share what insights you're uncovering!

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