Search Console now tracks social performance on Google

+ more local and AI SEO updates

August 10, 2026

Hey hey,

Here’s what happened last week in local and AI SEO 👇️

1. GSC can now track how your social content performs on Google

Businesses worldwide can now track how their Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X content performs across Google Search, Discover, and Google News.

Your posts may have flopped on social, but are going absolutely viral on Google, and this new feature will finally let you see that data. 

Learn how to connect your social accounts to GSC in this video and what to do with the data 👇️

@darrenshawseo

🚨 Huge Search Console update: Businesses worldwide can now track how their Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X content performs across Googl... See more

No TikTok? Watch on Instagram.

2. New research on Google reviews

We analyzed 765 Google Business Profiles to study the extra questions Google asks when you leave a review, like:

  • How much did it cost?

  • Did they have vegetarian options?

  • How is the parking here?

Those questions reflect exactly what customers want to know before they convert, and Google asks them to get as much first-hand information about your business as possible, so that their AI knows when to recommend you.

If you want to see the specific questions for your business category, as well as the 90 service options Google provides for the “What services did you get?” question, and learn how to use them to your advantage, read the full study by Miriam Ellis here 👇️

3. ChatGPT just got access to Yelp’s 330 million reviews

Yelp is licensing its reviews, ratings, photos, and business information to OpenAI, giving ChatGPT real-time data for local recommendations. 

Yelp branding and links will appear directly in the answers when its content is used. And soon, users may even be able to request a quote from a local service provider without leaving ChatGPT.

Someone could ask ChatGPT for a plumber, lawyer, dentist, or restaurant, see recommendations based on Yelp data, read reviews, view photos, and potentially contact the business, all without opening Google or Yelp.

For local businesses, the takeaway is pretty simple:

Your Yelp profile and reviews just became much more important for showing up in AI search.

Instagram Reel

4. Catch up on the pod

Google’s local results are being replaced by AI.

Joy Hawkins recently discovered the new AI-driven local results (which I’m calling the “AI Local 6 Pack”).

Here’s how to optimize your business for the AI Local 6 Pack:

  1. Continue doing SEO as usual. It is still the foundation of AI-driven results.

  2. Ensure your content answers the questions people are asking in the AI chats.

  3. Describe your business in semantic triples (subject-predicate-object).

  4. Most importantly, build your brand outside of your website and GBP:

    1. engage on Reddit and other communities in your industry

    2. post regularly on social media

    3. publish videos on YouTube (both long and short-form)

    4. repurpose those videos on Instagram, TikTok, your GBP, and anywhere else you can distribute them

Start doing these things now, and you’ll be ready when the AI Local 6 Pack becomes the default form of search.

Claire and I discussed this on last week’s podcast episode, as well as:

  • Claiming a Service Area Business (SAB) has changed (Vinay Toshniwal)

  • Why Google Business Profile address changes can disrupt local rankings (Claudia Tomina on Search Engine Land)

  • Who Owns Your Google Business Profile? The Complete Guide to Ownership, Security, Transfers & Recovery ( Ben Fisher)

  • AI Is Killing Content: The Only Way to Win (Ross Simmonds, Sterling Sky Inc)

  • Reddit Keyword Research with Claude: 3 Levels From Beginner to Pro (Usman Akram)

Watch the episode here 👇️

🎧 Or if you prefer listening, find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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