How Instagram’s New Google Ranking May Impact Your Content Strategy
Instagram business posts now appear in Google search results. Discover SEO strategies to maximize your brand's visibility and reach new audiences.
Optimizing your strategy to rank on Google’s SERP
Starting July 10, 2025, public Instagram posts and reels from professional and business accounts now rank on Google search engine results page (SERP). This is a game changer for brand visibility—Instagram posts will now show up alongside websites, blog posts, news articles, and more. But what does this mean for your social media plan and content strategy as a whole?
What’s the difference?
This update presents many opportunities. First, your social media posts will have a longer-term impact; awareness won’t just come from users’ feeds, explore pages, and scrolling, but also directly from Google search. This means your Instagram posts might have a longer lifespan, especially if they are search engine optimized.
Google ranks webpages based on the “E-E-A-T” framework, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. As the search engine crawls your content, it determines its value in each of these four categories—the better it ranks in these categories, the more likely it is to appear at the top of the search results page and in featured snippets.
This change also opens the doors for new possibilities within your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Some SEO tactics you currently use for webpages can now apply to Instagram posts. One tactic, for example, is to create educational content that addresses a specific, commonly-searched question. Now, you have the potential to address those keywords and questions in a brand new way.
Optimizing your strategy to rank on Google’s SERP
It’s time to reconsider your Instagram strategy moving forward. How can you stay true to the content your audience loves while optimizing it to reach new audiences through Google?
- Consider users’ search intent.
Research relevant keywords to include and address with your content. If your audience is often searching for answers to a specific question, use your platform on Instagram to answer it. Pay attention to keyword placement; the earlier you place a keyword in your caption, the more likely it is to capture attention. Tailor some of your content to be more evergreen so it remains relevant over time.
- Use SEO best practices in your Instagram captions.
Optimize your Instagram captions to observe SEO best practices, including descriptive, keyword-rich language without keyword stuffing, strategic hashtags that prioritize quality over quantity, and adding alt text to images.
Note: Alt text is used for accessibility purposes. We don’t recommend compromising accessibility to prioritize keywords, and you should only add them if it fits in the context of the image.
You can also retroactively edit past posts you feel would be valuable to users with a specific search intent, as well as content you want to increase exposure for.
- Develop content pillars around search opportunities.
Switch up the types of content you create! In addition to your typical content pillars, incorporate FAQ-style content, produce step-by-step tutorials, and lean into industry insights and tips.
- Leverage Instagram’s existing features for maximum search visibility.
Start with your Instagram bio—does it need a refresh? Be sure to include keywords and clearly communicate your business’ purpose. We also recommend developing a content series (or multiple) to help your Instagram page build authority for niche subjects.
- Monitor and measure your SEO performance.
What’s the secret to being great at SEO? Always improving on your current strategy. Track your posts’ search rankings with tools like Google Search Console to monitor which types of content perform best. Analyze engagement patterns to see how content with higher engagement metrics impact search rankings. Then, revise your strategy as needed to improve your contents’ ranking ability.
Ready to boost site visibility and traffic? Download our guide to learn how to build your SEO strategy!
Instagram’s integration with Google’s search results represents a pivotal shift in how brands can approach their marketing content strategy. Now, Instagram is not just a platform focused on real-time engagement, but is instead a dual-purpose tool that serves both immediate social interaction and long-term search discovery. By treating your Instagram posts as searchable content assets, you're essentially doubling your brand's digital real estate and creating multiple pathways for potential customers to find you.