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This Is How Instagram Search Works
Have you ever wondered how Instagram search works? Why does the application suggest certain profiles over others?
This function enables you to find content on Instagram through its search engines.
In this post, you’ll learn how Instagram classifies the results when displaying them.
Instagram Search Engine
Instagram’s goal with its search function is to help you find useful content that is of interest to you.
To do so, it applies parameters to classify and sequence the content that it displays you in your search.
What sequence does it follow?
How Instagram classifies content
When you start writing in the Instagram search bar, the social media begins to suggest different profiles that may be of interest to you, as well as hashtags and even audios.
This is how Instagram chooses how to show you the content you’re searching for:
⚡️ The text you write
The most important part of your search, which Instagram considers crucial, is the text you type in the Instagram search bar.
As you write, Instagram works to match your text with usernames, hashtags, biographies, and locations related to your search.
⚡️ Your activity on the application
Your Instagram activity is a criterion that the application takes into account when displaying results: that is, it puts the accounts you follow above those you don’t.
This activity that Instagram registers considers not only the profiles you follow but, also how you’ve interacted with them and which posts you’ve seen.
⚡️ Profile popularity
If the results are too extensive, Instagram considers the account’s popularity rating.
It measures this “popularity” according to likes, clicks, shares and hashtags.
So now you know how the Instagram search engine works. How can you make it work on behalf of your brand’s account?
Improving your positioning in Instagram
Instagram advises you on the guidelines to follow in your content strategy to climb positions in search.
Implement them to boost your chances of appearing at the top of the rankings:
⚡️ Use a suitable name
If you use a username or other name on Instagram that is related to the type of content you share, you are more likely to appear at the top of the searches. For example, if your content is marketing, including the word “marketing” is going to help you rank higher.
Likewise, if you are known by other specific names or nicknames in other channels, remember to add them to your username.
⚡️ Add biographical information
Your Instagram bio allows you to add several bits of info to personalize it however you want: description, links, calls to action, etc.
Information like location or keywords related to your business may help your account appear at the top of the Instagram search list.
⚡️ Use keywords and hashtags
An Instagram caption isn’t just an aesthetic feature that explains the content of your post but also helps improve your ranking in search results.
Remember to add keywords in the text that go with your post, as well as the appropriate hashtags, as long as they are in the text itself and not in the comments.
💡 Not sure what hashtag to add to your Instagram post?
Metricool’s tool to generate Instagram hashtags can help you choose the best ones for the content you’re posting in order to boost your account’s positioning on Instagram.
The Instagram Search Engine of the Future
The Instagram search engine is constantly improving its features to make its search engine more accurate and more useful in helping you find what you’re searching for.
These improvements include:
- Expanding keywords: Instagram focuses on the results of keywords in English, but one of its future projects is to add support in other languages.
- Improving the experience: Currently, when you do a search on the social media, only profiles, hashtags and locations appear. Instagram’s plan is for images to also appear with the search results.
Be careful with your content!
Instagram warns that it will avoid showing any content that violates its recommended guidelines in the search results.
These accounts may appear at the bottom or even be eliminated.
So now you know how Instagram works and how you can improve your ranking in social media.
If you want to know more about how to improve on Instagram