What Are Instagram SEO Ranking Factors

A strong Instagram SEO is all you need to reach your relevant audiences on the Instagram platform. Brushing up on your Instagram SEO skills will help you promote your brands more naturally.

Today in this article, we will talk about all the ranking factors that affect your Instagram search results and the penalties you need to be aware of while optimizing your Instagram profile for SEO.

SEO For Instagram – Yes, It Exists

SEO exists for every platform. This is why you get YouTube, Facebook, Linked and all the others results on the search engine results page.

SEO on Instagram is all about tailoring your profile content with the right keywords so that it is visible to use and relevant to searches.

While Instagram SEO was not a big thing a few years back, it has certainly become an important factor in boosting your discoverability.

The more people find your content on Instagram, the greater your chance to boost your followers and sales.

But how does Instagram SEO Works?

Like SEO, where algorithms control all the results, Instagram algorithms process every piece of information on the platform. It gathered all the information and determined what the post was all about and who might find the most interesting.

And while the Instagram algorithm does everything automatically, there are a few things that you control to push your Instagram search results to rank higher.

If you want your business to get more relevant audiences and boost revenue, you need Instagram marketing. And for that, you need to have an Instagram account.

If your business doesn’t have an Instagram profile, download the application from the pirate bay and optimize the account to start Instagram Marketing.

Instagram SEO Ranking Factors

Optimizing your Instagram for SEO is just one part of the complete equation. Instagram Algorithm takes a whole bunch of different factors to give a search result.

According to Instagram, the most important factors you need to be aware of are as follows.

1. Search Text

Search text is the most important signal to show relevant results. Based on what users have searched on the Instagram platform, Instagram looks for relevant usernames, business profiles, pages, captions, hashtags, and locations.

After going through all these search elements, it filters out the most relevant information and then shows it to users.

Now the question is, what does this mean for the brand? The answer is – the brand needs to be aware of what its audiences are looking for and whether or not the brand is eligible to give them that.

Use tools like Google Analytics, Instagram insight, or other social monitoring tools to have insightful information about your social presence.

2. User Activity

The next ranking factor you need to be aware of is user activity. Just like in conventional SEO, a lower DA site creates backlinks to a high DA site to get SEO juice. Accounts and hashtags can interact with other accounts with high followers to get the most out of their Instagram SEO.

You must understand the hashtags you are using. Ensure that the hashtags are targeting relevant audiences and helping you engage with them.

You must know that someone looking for a brand will never engage with someone who they have never seen before. They will always go for a brand they have seen and engaged with, even though they don’t follow it.

3. Popularity Signal

Content that is popular on Instagram is more likely to rank higher in the search results. The popularity of the signal can be easily calculated using –

Clicks.
Impressions.
Likes.

Shares.
Follows.

Brands who are using Instagram to market their brand and boost sales must keep track of the best performance time of their content. That early engagement signal will help the brands know which content is performing, still relevant, and fresh.

Instagram Search Penalties

Just like search engines have search penalties, violating Instagram content publishing guidelines can get you content demoted in Instagram rankings.

When a profile is found violating to guide, it will be shadow banned. The concept of shadow banned is similar to deindexing the page for violating guidelines. The only way to view the content is to visit the post from the account directly.