Instagram will soon show images and videos in the search section of its mobile app. Alongside accounts and hashtags, there will be pictures and videos displayed of the relevant topic to aid users better.
This information was shared by Instagram on their official blog. In the blog, they shared how search currently works and how they plan on improving it. As of today, if you search for something on Instagram accounts and hashtags pertaining to the topic will be displayed. Instagram wants to replace this with images and videos.
Instagram shares how they use information from accounts, hashtags, and places. This is called signals and it helps to rank your search results. The most important signals used are your text in search, your activity and information about the search results. They also shared a few tips about how you can make yourself show up more on search results when friends and fans are searching for you.
Tips to show up better on Instagram search results
The three tips are:
- Use a fitting handle and profile name.
- Include relevant keywords and locations in your bio.
- Use relevant keywords and hashtags in captions.
When an account/user goes against the guidelines implemented by Instagram those accounts are avoided in search results. To quote them, “Accounts that post spam or violate our guidelines may appear lower in search results, and you may have to search their full username to find them” to which they added, “Accounts, hashtags and posts that violate our Community Guidelines are removed from Instagram entirely, which prevents them from showing up in Search.”
The new search results page will have images and videos shown at the top section followed by the account section. This is how they explain the new search page, “For example, your search for “space” will show you space-related photos and videos, too. This is especially helpful when you don’t have an exact username or hashtag in mind when searching for a certain topic.”
