Instagram Updates Its Indexing
What July’s Instagram Update Means for your Brand
“Your public photos and videos may soon appear in search engine results.”
You might have seen this notification pop up on your Instagram recently. But what does it actually mean in terms of exposure, and more importantly, what does it mean for your brand?
Let’s talk about it.
What’s changed?
As of July 2025, Meta has officially confirmed that public Instagram content like reels, posts, captions and hashtags will now be indexed and possibly presented in Google’s search results.
While this functionality might have quietly existed for some users already, the update marks a transparent, universal rollout for accounts that tick these boxes:
The account holder is 18+.
The account is public.
The account is a professional or business account.
Influencers, businesses, and brands now hold the power to push their social content beyond the boundaries of Instagram, with its visibility determined by relevance, performance, and how well it ties into SEO.
Eligible content could date all the way back to 1 January 2020, providing search engines access to five full years of valuable posts and videos ready to be crawled, indexed, searched, and viewed.
What this means for your social strategy:
“Google it” has long been the answer to anything unknown. But lately, Instagram has closely come to rival this capability as a visual search engine, answering lifestyle-led queries like “best date spots in Brisbane” “where to eat”, “what do they do”, “what are they like”, etc. Now, the boundaries are blurred between social and SEO.
The art of SEO is all about satisfying the right criteria to ensure your content is seen, ranked, and surfaced in the right search results.
Instagram is no longer a standalone platform, it's a powerful player in the broader digital ecosystem.
A post now has the potential to appear in Google results long after it’s published, shifting social content from fleeting to evergreen. Content could come up in a search at any point, moving impact beyond the passing moment of posting.
This means social media managers need to reframe their mindset: balancing trends with timelessness, and crafting posts that are both engaging and optimised for search.
Context and purpose have never been more important in the planning process - it’s time to revisit your strategy.
How to optimise your socials for search:
1. Choose your post’s purpose
There is social-first content, and then there is evergreen. Mastering Instagram means knowing when to use both.
Trend-driven posts often rely on context to land. This is done in such a way as to reward the audience and evoke the feeling of understanding an inside joke – they require a fair bit of screen time to decipher.
Engaging in trends leverages a moment of virality, and makes your brand look socially aware and switched on in the process. It also is an exercise in increasing reach and engagement, fit for social media’s primary function.
But, it won’t serve you in terms of searchability.
A post that explains will be the one SEO has its sights set on. “Check out our new menu for XYZ. Perfect for the winter months, perfect for Brisbane. Swing by XPM – XPM.” This taps into a number of searchable avenues, from location, where to eat, opening hours, etc. These keywords all ping Google and lets it know there’s substance here that’s indexable, relevant, and ready to share.
The meaning of these kinds of posts extends beyond the singular moment, evergreen in its ability to influence and inform decisions of viewers.
2. Conduct a post health check
Copy, imagery, alt-text, hashtags, meta-data – they are all important, and each need to be equally considered and carefully curated to make the most of indexing potential. Consider what each contribute to the post, if they combine seamlessly to paint a full picture, or if they are unconnected. Make your post make sense.
3. Fool-proof your past
5 years is a long time of posting history, particularly for those accounts that are highly active online. It is worth seeing what posts have gone live from your account, if they are reflective of your business or outdated, could use an alt-text alteration, or any edits if someone were to stumble across them tomorrow.
4. Try a search yourself
This lends itself to our next step – test and see for yourself what kinds of content are getting picked up in Google’s algorithm. Collate a list of your business’s top keywords, and conduct a manual search to see if Instagram filters through in the results.
5. Read EVERYTHING without context
Envision the content through the lens of it being someone’s first touch point with the brand. How does your brand come across in terms of its out of context content? Use these insights to inform your future direction. Is it strong enough to hold on its own? Do you know what the brand is, what it does, and who it is for?
6. Understand the intersect of education and entertainment
Education doesn’t have to be boring, and entertainment needn’t be shallow – edutainment content is the source of success and secret to cracking social media. You want to share your messaging and make sure certain details sink in, but the beauty of social media is finding the most engaging way to do so. This key category will be a driver in this new era of indexation.
7. Consider the customer journey
The customer journey is no longer a linear funnel, but a tangled web that can be entered at any touchpoint. This means, you have no control over when or how a person experiences your brand. What you can do is influence what it is they are digesting. When you are posting, ensure the posts bring value to your brand.
8. Leverage search behaviour
If someone is curious about your business – what would be their go-to search function? What keywords are they looking for, what answers are they seeking? Do your posts relate to these? Use Google Analytics to understand your customer’s actions and transform these into insights to fuel your social strategy.
9. Don’t Overdo It
There is a line not to be crossed – knowing that Instagram is indexable and content can now be considered for SEO purposes, does not mean a caption is just a junkyard of keywords. It still has to make sense for the platform. Try to keep really impactful language in your copy, but don’t try to check a box each time of how many buzzwords you can squeeze in – your audience will see right through it. Be authentic, and let your content do the talking for you. Find the right road for you between social and searchable.
These new changes hold great potential for you and your business to reach new audiences, amplify your Google presence, and bring fresh proof points that depict your brand favourably.
Need assistance navigating your content calendar? We have just the secret sauce to make your socials stand out. Reach out to We Are Brooklyn to define your new strategy today.