How to Rank High on Instagram Search to Reach Thousands of Users

Disclosure: When you buy something through one of the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. We only recommend products we use and/or believe will deliver value to you.

You dream of reaching thousands of Instagram users when you publish on the platform.

With over a billion monthly active users, Instagram has more than enough users to help you achieve this dream.

But how?

You need to pay more attention to ranking on Instagram searches. 

If you rank for your business’s valuable keywords, there’s no limit to the number of users you can get to your profile. And when users visit your profile, you’ve started the journey of engaging and converting them to customers.

In this post, I’ll show you 7 practical ways to get discovered on Instagram search. You’ll also see examples of brands that exploit these tactics.

Let’s go into the details. 

But before we go on;

What is Instagram search?

Instagram search is a feature in the “Search & Explore” section of the social media platform that allows you to find people and hashtags. 

In addition to that, Instagram search helps to find places related to your search term. When a user puts a search term into the search bar, Instagram considers many factors to deliver relevant results to the user. 

These factors include the accounts you follow, the accounts you engage with, what’s popular among your followers, photos and videos you like on Instagram, and other factors. 

Even though Instagram hasn’t revealed all the factors that determine search results (just like Google search), there are steps you can take that will improve your chances of showing up for your preferred keywords. 

1. Optimize your Instagram profile details

The first place to start improving your Instagram search rank is on your profile. How do you optimize your Instagram profile to appear in more searches?

You can start with a single keyword that defines what you do. 

This could be your niche, product, or even name. Whatever keyword prospects are most likely to search for when they need your product, it has to be in your Instagram name and @username. As a result, you have a higher chance of ranking for that keyword. 

Here’s an example of a search for “bakery:” 

You’ll see that every profile in the result has “bakery” in its name or username. 

Apart from your keyword, you can also add your location to your business name if you operate a local business (for instance, a restaurant). 

After optimizing your business name, you have to optimize your Instagram bio. Put simply, your bio provides an opportunity to describe your business. 

As a matter of fact, you should have your primary and secondary keywords in this description. Another option is to add important hashtags. After all, tags have a dedicated tab in the search results. 

This means some of your prospects will search for hashtags rather than a word. Having this hashtag in your bio increases your chances of ranking high in the results. 

Here’s Dainty Affairs Bakery using secondary keywords in their bio:

Here, there are keywords like cakes, desserts, and butter-cream which are all related to the main keyword “bakery.”

2. Share lifestyle posts

While Instagram users want to interact with businesses, that’s no excuse to make every post about your products. The best way to build engagement and increase reach is to show the human side of your business. 

Rather than just promote your product, you can feature it in a real-life setting. This way, your followers will understand the benefits of your products. 

Furthermore, these posts will attract higher engagement. When you build such a reputation, your posts about products will have more impact than if you’ve always been salesy. 

For instance, in a study, 60% of Nike’s Facebook posts for a year featured lifestyle content while only 32% of Adidas’s posts did the same. When they posted their traditional call-to-action posts, Nike received an average of 993 shares a post while Adidas got an average of 122 shares each. 

How does this help to improve your presence in Instagram search? These types of posts draw more engagement and lead to an increase in followers. 

Ultimately, as you widen your reach, you show up in more searches. As Instagram stated, the accounts a user follows and the posts they engage with influence their search results. 

Here’s an example from Craft and Mason Coffee:

Here, they feature a view of the La Marzocco Cafe. Even though this is not an advertisement for their products, it shows how people benefit from them in real life. 

3. Add a location tag to show up in “Places”

When users search on Instagram, one of the factors Instagram considers for the results is the location of the searcher. That’s why it makes sense to add your location tag in your posts. 

By adding this tag, your updates can show up in the “Places” tab for search results. Here are Instagram posts tagged with the location “Times Square” in New York:

Among the posts, here’s a post by The Knot House, an arts and crafts store, calling people to their booth:

Without the tag, it would have been almost impossible to find the post. Apart from tagging your Instagram posts, you can also tag your stories. At the top of the search, you can see stories tagged with the location. 

Adding location tags provides an opportunity to show up on the “Places” tab and attract local customers.

4. Use the right hashtags

One of the most popular features on Instagram, the hashtag has many functions. Among them is that it increases your chances of ranking for a term. 

Furthermore, a hashtag helps to organize a group of Instagram updates. In an Instagram search result, you’ll find hashtags in the “Top” and “Tags” tabs. 

This means there are 2 possibilities of showing up in the results. Having said that, there are 2 types of hashtags to consider to improve your Instagram search rankings. They are:

Niche/topic hashtags

Whatever type of product you make, you’ll find many hashtags about it on Instagram. Some popular examples of hashtags you’ll find include #fashion, #shoes, #wristwatch, and others. 

However, you can add more than a single hashtag. Also, a more effective way to increase your chances of ranking is to add less popular hashtags. Because it’s difficult to rank for popular hashtags due to the tough competition. 

Just like Google search, “long-tail” hashtags are easier to rank for on Instagram and can be more profitable. For instance, #shoes hashtag has 102 million posts. 

But others like #shoesforsale, #shoestore, and #shoesaddict have fewer posts and are easier to rank for. Add the right niche hashtags to your posts to appear in more searches. 

Branded hashtags

While niche hashtags can get you in front of users who are ignorant of your brand, branded hashtags will differentiate your business in a niche. With branded hashtags, you can increase brand awareness and reach. 

Consequently, you can increase your follower count and improve search rankings. Here’s an example from Seiko to promote its watches:

Furthermore, you can use branded hashtags to organize and collect user-generated content (UGC). This is what you’ll see when you click on one of the hashtags. 

Here’s another example by Little Baberham where they feature their branded hashtag and other relevant niche hashtags. With this, they’ll get the highest exposure possible.

By using hashtags, you increase your reach, follower count, and the probability of ranking higher for valuable keywords.

5. Run Instagram contests

It’s no new phenomenon, people like gifts or winning prizes. When you run contests on Instagram, it pulls your audience’s attention.

Not only that, but you also increase your audience size as more people follow your brand to enter the contest.

According to Tailwind, Instagram contests get 3.5 times more likes and 64 times more comments than average Instagram posts. Furthermore, Instagram accounts that hold contests grow their followers 70% faster over 3 months than those that don’t. 

This is because running Instagram giveaways such as like/comment to enter and hashtag contests increases engagement on your posts.

In turn, this widens your footprint on Instagram. Users who follow, like, and comment on your posts are likely to see your brand when they search for related keywords. Likewise, their followers will see your brand in searches too due to the connection.

Here’s an example from an Italian lingerie brand, Cosabella:

For users to enter the contest, they had to like the photo, follow their account, and drop a comment. Moreso, with the right Instagram giveaway tools, running your contests is easy.

These actions will increase the company’s reach and chances of ranking for relevant keywords.

6. Collect and feature user-generated content (UGC)

Every day, people show off products unconsciously on Instagram. So if you give them a prompt, they will happily show your product to their followers.

Moreso, if you feature some of these posts on your profile, it’s a way of recognizing and appreciating your customers. To ensure that user-generated content is organized, you have to provide a hashtag that customers can use when they feature your products.

The best practice is to combine your brand name and keyword in this hashtag. 

Here’s an example from Fashion Nova:

The brand tells customers to use the hashtag #Novababe for a chance to feature on their Instagram page. When you click on this hashtag, you’ll discover that there are 1 million posts. The added benefit for Fashion Nova is that many of these posts will feature other fashion-related hashtags apart from #Novababe.

Likewise, these customers’ followers (friends of friends) will interact with their posts. As a result, Fashion Nova will show up in more searches.

7. Follow and collaborate with complementary brands

As big as your audience may be, you can reach a separate audience when you collaborate with complementary brands. For instance, if you sell wristwatches, then you can collaborate with a company that sells shoes.

Undoubtedly, people who are interested in shoes are likely to have an interest in wristwatches. Apart from this, you can also partner with a complementary brand to make a product relevant to your audiences.

Here’s an example from Stone Brewing:

They promote snacks for pups made by another company. As a result, this company reaches a wider audience and attract engagement.

Conclusion

Improving your Instagram search rank can increase your brand awareness and help you acquire more customers. After all, many of these Instagram users are looking for products or doing product research when they perform these searches.

Follow these 7 tips, and apart from increasing your followers and reach, you’ll also rank high for your business’s valuable keywords. 

Which of these tips are you going to use? Which ones have worked for you in the past? Let me know in the comments.