Instagram SEO: How to maximise organic reach & visibility

As search and discovery play growing roles in social experiences, Instagram SEO optimises for visibility beyond ad impressions. You can build long-term relationships with an engaged audience of followers who regularly view your content and interact with your brand – no matter how much you’re spending on ads.

How important is Instagram SEO?

With over 2 billion monthly active users in 2024, only Facebook and YouTube have larger audiences than Instagram. TikTok’s meteoric growth over the past five years set the social landscape alight, but Instagram still has 500 million more active monthly users.

Instagram and TikTok are both emerging as important search channels for younger audiences, too.

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Back in 2022, Google recognised that younger people are using Instagram and TikTok to find places for lunch while more recent data shows 67% of Gen Z use Instagram over Google to find local businesses.

For the longest time, Instagram users primarily found new content on the platform through hashtags and the Explore feed. This is no longer the case. Instagram (and social users, in general) are now turning to the search bar to actively seek out content.

According to Hootsuite insights, Instagram posts optimised for SEO achieve 30% more reach on the platform and receive twice as many likes.

Do I need Instagram SEO if I’m already doing PPC?

Instagram advertising is great for reaching a wider audience fast, but organic visibility offers a lot of things you can’t get from paid campaigns.

Here are the key reasons you need Instagram SEO, even if you’re already paying for ads:

• Weak organic reach means you end up paying for visibility you could earn for free
• Combining organic and paid visibility maximises reach
• Audiences can get sick of constantly seeing ads
• Organic posts allow you to be less promotional and concentrate on engagement
• Organic engagement builds genuine, long-term relationships
• Paid vs organic performance varies across post types (eg: feed posts vs stories)
• With paid campaigns, you lose visibility as soon as you stop paying for ads

With the right account/campaign setup, you’ll always get the best results from combining Instagram SEO with paid ads. It’s not simply a case of more is better, but both channels enhancing the other’s performance.

How does Instagram’s algorithm work?

At this moment in time, Instagram consists of five core experiences: the Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels and Search. As Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, explains: “Each part of the app… uses its own algorithm tailored to how people use it”.

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So, to maximise organic visibility in each part of the app, you have to optimise for slightly different signals.

Instagram Search

Search is the only Instagram experience where users are actively looking for accounts and content. This is the only opportunity to intersect user activity with relevant posts.

The most important ranking factors for Search are:

• Search text: Users may search for account names, brands, hashtags, keywords, etc. – relevancy is the key here.
• User activity: Accounts users interact with, the posts they engage with, topics they’re interested in, etc.
• Mutual connections: Users connected with your existing followers are more likely to see your account, posts, etc. in search results.
• Engagement signals: The more clicks, likes, shares, follows, saves, etc. your posts get, the more often they’ll show for relevant searches.
• Post information: Signals like recency, location, topic, etc. also play a key role.

Instagram suggests relevant accounts your contacts follow as you type in the search bar.

As users increasingly turn to Search on Instagram, marketers need to keep a keen eye on trends and their audience’s interests.

Instagram Explore

Explore is designed to help users discover new things and the most important signals here are users’ previous activity and post popularity/engagement, overall.

• Post engagement: How many (and how quickly) your post is liked, shared, saved and commented on – Instagram says these signals “matter much more in Explore than they do in Feed or in Stories”.
• Users’ Explore activity: The kind of posts users have previously engaged with – clicked on, liked, shared, commented, etc.
• User interactions with poster: You’re more likely to show in Explore for users who have previously interacted with you.
• Account engagement: Instagram wants to show posts in Explore from accounts with plenty of engagement during the past few weeks.

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Most of the content users see in Explore is from accounts they don’t follow, so this is one of the biggest organic opportunities for reaching a wider audience on Instagram.

Instagram Reels

Like Explore, Reels are designed to help users discover new content/accounts, so the majority of what they see is from accounts they don’t follow.

The key ranking factors are:

• User activity: Reels users have liked, saved, reshared, commented on and engaged with recently.
• Engagement history: Although the user probably isn’t following you, any (recent) previous engagement with your account tells Instagram they might want to see your Reel.
• Popularity/engagement: How much and how quickly your Reel is getting engagement: likes, shares, etc.
• Reel info: Signals about the Reel content itself, such as the audio track or visuals in the video.
• Posting account: Instagram looks at signals like follower count, engagement levels, etc. to prioritise Reels that appeal to wide audiences.

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As things stand, Reels and Explore are your two biggest organic opportunities to reach new accounts on Instagram. Again, engagement is key and you’ll often find top-performing Reels stand the best chance of showing in Explore.

Instagram Feed

The Feed is Instagram’s primary experience when users open the map, a personalised feed of posts from accounts users follow, recommended posts and relevant ads.

The most important ranking factors here are:

• Previous activity: Posts users have liked, shared, saved or commented on.
• Post engagement: How many people have liked your post and how quickly people are liking, commenting, sharing and saving it.
• Post information: Recency and any location added to the post.
• Account engagement: How many times people have interacted with your account and posts during the past few weeks.
• Direct engagement: The amount and quality of direct engagement between a user and the posting account – eg: how often you’re commenting on each other’s posts.

Unsurprisingly, engagement is the key factor here and this is a two-way relationship. People are more likely to keep seeing your posts when you have regular, back-and-forth engagement. So, don’t let comments sit there without replies.

Instagram Stories

Stories are designed to help people share everyday moments. Users see Stories from accounts they follow, as well as promoted Stories from ad campaigns.

The key ranking factors are:

• Viewing history: How often users view an account’s stories, so Instagram can prioritise stories from accounts users don’t want to miss.
• Engagement history: How often the user engages with the account’s Stories.
• “Closeness”: How likely the user is to be a friend or family of the posting account.

While there’s a bias towards personal relationships (friends, family, etc.), viewing history and engagement history are the stronger signals.

Instagram SEO best practices to improve organic reach

Organic reach on Instagram is constantly evolving – what works, what doesn’t, the percentage of followers vs non-followers who see your posts, etc.

So, let’s look at some best practices that will help you maximise organic reach:

• Instagram profile: Optimise your Instagram profile with your brand name, logo, business information, primary keywords, location and a link to your website.
• Instagram keyword research: Know what your target audience is searching for and include keywords in your captions.
• Post consistently: Post a minimum of 3-5 original posts per week for the best results – better yet, every day.
• Prioritise engagement: Engagement is everything on Instagram so network with relevant accounts and always engage with your followers.
• Engage with relevant accounts: Engage with accounts that rank for your target keywords and those who are most likely to engage with your posts.
• Optimise hashtags: Use 3-5 of the most relevant hashtags for each post with a mix of well-known and niche tags.
• Optimise alt-text: provide text descriptions for visually impaired users and include your primary keywords.
• Add subtitles for video: Subtitles improve accessibility for users with hearing impairments and users with their audio turned off.
• Find the right time to post: Experiment with posting times and find the perfect moments to reach your audience when they’re active.
• Optimise for locations: Local interest is driving a lot of social media’s growth as a search tool – so lean into this by adding locations to your account/posts.
• Add trending sounds/songs to your posts: You can tap into audio trends by adding popular sounds and songs to your posts.
• Get personal: Don’t try to sell to your audience with every post – build genuine engagement with content your audience is interested in.

Instagram is constantly making changes to its algorithms – not so much the ranking signals, but which ones are most important. Meta is clearly paying attention to everything TikTok does and fighting to keep its place in the market.

As a result, organic reach/visibility is quite volatile, so you need to keep a constant eye on metrics and continuously experiment. A strategy that worked last year, won’t necessarily get the same results today.

Maximise organic visibility with Instagram SEO

With organic reach declining across social platforms, brands have to fight harder to win visibility. While many companies give up on organic reach and turn to paid ads, you’ll always get the best results with a combined Instagram SEO and PPC strategy.

Call our social team on 023 9283 0281 or send us your details to start building organic visibility on Instagram.