Instagram has recently made an announcement that will likely change the the future of content. It is now allowing search engines like Google, Bing, and others to index and crawl its public posts from professional accounts. Analysts say that this new policy will significantly benefit creators, brands, and businesses as appearance on search engines will bring more traffic.
Instagram on Search Engines: What’s Changing?
Instagram will allow search engines to crawl and index public content which includes photos, videos, carousels, and reels that were published on or after January 1, 2020.
This means that the content of businesses and creators with public professional accounts can now appear in search engine results much like any other web page.
Instagram is the new SEO.
Google now indexes public Instagram content. Your Reels, your carousels, your photos, they’re all out there on the internet now, and they can show up in search results.
This changes everything.
The little skits you shot to promote your business?
They… pic.twitter.com/MmJRYNCrV7— Temi from SupaFast AI (@SupafastTemi) July 10, 2025
Who Is Eligible Instagram-to-Google Indexing Feature?
The new Instagram-to-Google indexing feature will only apply to professional accounts, which include business and creator profiles, and only if the account holder is 18 years of age or older.
Nothing will change for users with personal or private accounts. In addition, Instagram Stories and Highlights are excluded from this rollout, at least for now.
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Why This Matters for SEO
Thiese new updates are seen as a step in integrating Instagram content with search engine optimization strategies that were limited before this. Previously, Instagram posts were largely confined to the app itself, which limited the discoverability of its content.
For brands, businesses and IInstagram creators, this opens up new opportunities to gain traffic, leads, and visibility. Instagram accounts can now get traffic from people who don’t follow them or even may not even use the platform.
Key SEO Benefits For Instagram
The update offers several advantages for SEO:
The new changes will give you better visibility. Your Instagram posts can now appear in Google search results, which is especially useful for image-heavy searches such as food, travel, fashion, and design.
This will now help in long-term reach instead of Instagram posts having a short shelf life inside the app. But once indexed on search engines like Google, posts could continue to show up in search results for months or even years.
Keywords would be key for after these new changes. Just like websites, Instagram posts will now benefit from strategic use of keywords in captions, alt-text, and location tags, which will help them rank better in search results.
How to Prepare for the Instagram-to-Google Indexing Feature
So if you already have a professional Instagram account and your profile is set to public, your content will automatically be eligible for search engine indexing by default. However, to maximize the reach, you need to optimize your posts for search.
Here are some recommended steps:
Use clear, keyword-friendly captions by thinking about the terms someone might use to find your post. Also usse natural language to describe the photo or video you are uploading on instagram.
Write a good alt-text for the photo as Instagram allows you to add custom alt-text to describe your images. This will help both users and search engines understand the content and better search results.
You can geo-tag your content by adding a location tag which can help your posts show up in local search results.
On eof the important hack is to post consistently onthe Instagram. The more content you publish, the more opportunities Google has to index your posts, which will improve your overall search presence.
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
