Instagram has published the second part of the “How Instagram works” series.
The new publication is dedicated to search on Instagram, while the previous one was about the social network’s algorithms in the feed, storis, rils and recommendations.
How Instagram search works
The principle of how Instagram search works is pretty simple – the social network relies on the keywords you use in a query to show the most relevant content.
Also, there are three main factors that form the search results for a particular user:
- The query text is the most important signal for searches. The social network tries to show results that contain the specified keyword: in the username, description, hashtags and places.
- In-app actions – search results will be picked up based on what you’ve looked at recently, what accounts you’ve visited and how you’ve interacted with the content before. Accounts and hashtags you’re subscribed to or visiting are shown above.
- Popularity. The more popular an account, hashtag, or location is, the higher it shows in search results.
Promoting in Instagram searches
Instagram also shares tips to help you boost your position in search results.
- Include keywords in your profile title. If you know what queries people use most often, try to include relevant keywords from those queries in your nickname and profile name.
- Include keywords and location in your profile bio. The principle is the same here. Your profile description should include the words that people are looking for you for. For example, if you provide repair services in Ryazan, you should include the words [repair] and [new york] in your profile description.
- Use keywords and hashtags in your publications. To make your post searchable, insert keywords and hashtags in the publication itself, not in the comments.
- It is worth noting here that search by post only works in English-speaking countries, but will soon begin to work in other languages. So, you need to be prepared and already make posts so that they can be found in search later.
Second – when searching, Instagram will not take hashtags into account in comments. Therefore, hashtags will need to be inserted into the post itself. Of course, this doesn’t mean that putting hashtags in posts will increase the reach of the publication, but given that it will increase the chances of appearing in search, it’s best to do just that.
Also, the article says that any accounts, posts and hashtags that go against social network rules (spamming, posting malicious content, etc.) will be excluded from search results or will be shown lower.
When will search for storis, posts and rils appear?
Instagram will soon introduce a search update and the social network will have full-fledged search results pages.
In addition, Instagram aims to show content not only based on keywords in the query, but also by meaning. For example, a search for “Space” for users in the U.S. will show space-related photos and videos. And in the example below, that query also shows a profile of astronaut Scott Kelly, even though the word “Space” is not in his name.
In the future (exact date unknown), content search will work in other languages.