As Instagram progressed from a simple photo-sharing app to a full-fledged social media platform, the Facebook-owned company has recently brought many changes to its app to improve the user experience. Among others, the Search and explore functionality on Instagram has evolved to become more relevant and user-friendly than ever before. So, in a recent detailed blog post, Instagram head Adam Mosseri explained how the platform’s search functionality works.
How Instagram Search Works
In the blog post, Mosseri explained some of the essential features that the search functionality on Instagram takes advantage of to deliver relevant search results for users while keeping them safe. So, when a user searches for a specific topic or account on Instagram, the company makes sure that they get the most relevant results.
Ranking search results
The first thing Instagram searches for is to rank the search results based on their relevance to users. To do this right, the platform leverages other data from accounts, hashtags and locations, essentially called signals, to rank and curate users’ search results.
Mosseri explains some of the elements that the search functionality on Instagram uses to rank your search results. They:
Your text in Search: One of the primary elements your Instagram search results will depend on is the text you enter into the search field. So, once you start typing text into the search bar on Instagram, the search tool matches the relevant username, location, and bio to deliver noticeable search results.
Your Activity: In addition to the search text, the search tool also considers your activity on the platform. This includes the accounts you follow, posts you’ve viewed, what charges you’ve interacted with in the past, and how. In this way, it can deliver exactly what you are looking for on the search results page.
Search result information: In the case of multiple potential search results, the search functionality also considers the popularity signals. These include accounts, posts or locations that have received many likes, shares, and clicks.
How Instagram Protects Search
Mosseri also explained the ways through which the company secures the search functionality for users. Therefore, according to the Instagram head, the company bans accounts that post spam or violate the guidelines to appear at the top of the search results. For these types of accounts, users will need to put their full username on the search bar to find them on the platform.
In addition, the company balances search results for sensitive topics with “additional security measures” to ensure that no harmful content appears on your search results page. Plus, the company completely removes accounts, posts, and hashtags that violate the Community Guidelines, which prevents them from appearing as search results.
How to appear at the top of Instagram search
Now, apart from explaining the technical details about Instagram’s search function, Mosseri has also provided some tips that will enable your account or post to appear at the top of the search results page.
That company says you should use a “fitting handle and profile name” for your Instagram account. This should match the content you share on the platform and enable other users to find your account on Instagram quickly.
In addition, you should use relevant hashtags, keywords and locations in your posts along with your Instagram profile bio so that you can appear at the top of the search results. These tips come from the head of Instagram, so you should include them in your profile to make them easily discoverable.
Future Plans for Instagram Search
So, these are some of the ways Instagram’s search function works. In the future, the company aims to introduce various new design improvements to Search to improve its performance and searchability capabilities. The company says it’s moving to “a complete search results page experience that makes it easy to go deep into your interests.
In addition, Instagram will further improve the keyword search function of its search tool and add support for more languages ​​other than English in the future.
This is how Instagram search works!
Now, Instagram’s search function works like this. So if you are a content creator or influencer, take this article as an instructive story and try to make the most of the tips and tricks to get discovered on Instagram. Plus, this way, you’ll be able to find more content on the platform while keeping your search results litter-free. If you found this educational resource helpful, do share it with other content creators and friends. Also, if you have any questions, do let us know in the comment section below.
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