How Instagram ranks content in 2023: Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels, Search

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by Lindsey Francy Jun 1, 2023 News
How Instagram ranks content in 2023: Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels, Search

The new resource explains how ranking works in each part of the app.

What makes us care? If you want to maximize your visibility and engagement on this platform, you need to know how to rank.

What has changed? Most of the changes are fairly minor. It's of note.

  • Separated Feed and Stories into two separate sections.
  • Put a heavier emphasis on following its Recommendation and Community guidelines.
  • Added a section called Personalize your Feed and Stories, adding new tips on how to personalize Feed and Stories.
  • Expanded its discussion around Shadowbanning.

Instagram uses multiple algorithm

One algorithm isn't used to rank content on the photo sharing website. Each process serves a specific purpose and determines what users see on the photo sharing site.

Different parts of the app have different rankings.

How Instagram ranks Feed

There is a mix of content from accounts that a user follows. There is a lot of different formats.

Thousands of signals are taken into account when ranking Feed. The user, the creator and the post are all in one bucket.

The user is signaling.

  • Engagements – likes, shares, saves, comments and time spent interacting with a post.
  • Accounts the user has recently followed.
  • Accounts a user has recently liked or engaged with.
  • Format preference (e.g., Instagram will show more images if you engage more with images vs. videos or other formats).
  • History of interacting with another account.
  • Recent posts shared by the accounts a user follows.
  • Posts from accounts users doesn’t already follow that Instagram thinks they might be interested in. As Instagram explained:
    • “These are educated guesses at how likely you are to interact with a post in different ways. There are roughly a dozen of these. In Feed, the five interactions we look at most closely are how likely you are to spend a few seconds on a post, comment on it, like it, share it, and tap on the profile photo.”
  • Account preferences.

The creator is signaling.

Information on the post.

  • Popularity:
    • Number of likes.
    • How quickly people like it.
    • Number of comments.
    • Number of shares.
    • Number of saves.
  • Time it was posted.
  • Location.

A lot of these are shown in a row.

  • Posts from the same person.
  • Suggested posts.

How Instagram ranks Stories

The inputs that are looked at for stories include:

  • Shared by accounts you follow (that don’t violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines).
  • Viewing history (how often a user views an account’s stories).
  • Engagement history (how often a user engages with an account’s stories – eg., a like or a DM).
  • Closeness (a user’s relationship with the creator and how likely they are to be connected as friends or family).

How Instagram ranks Explore

Explore is where photos and videos from accounts that a user doesn't follow are recommended. Feed and Stories are both ranked in Explore.

The social media site looks at:

  • A user’s past Instagram activity (e.g., post likes, saves, shares and comments).
  • A user’s past Explore activity (posts a user has liked, saved, shared or commented on; how the user has interacted with posts in Explore).
  • Post information (how many and how quickly other users like, comment, share and save a post). Instagram said “these signals matter much more in Explore than they do in Feed or in Stories.
  • The user’s history of Interactions with an account.
  • Creator information (e.g., the number of times users have interacted with that creator in the past few weeks).
  • Whether the content follows Instagram’s Recommendation Guidelines.

How Instagram ranks Reels

The most important signals are looked at by the photo sharing service.

  • User activity (Reels a user has liked, saved, reshared, commented on, or engaged with).
  • The user’s history of Interactions with an account.
  • Reel information (e.g., popularity, the audio track, visuals in the video).
  • Creator information (popularity signals include number of followers, engagement level).

If they are, they can be less noticeable.

  • Low-resolution.
  • Watermarked.
  • Muted or containing borders.
  • Mostly text.
  • Focused on political issues.
  • Previously posted on Instagram.

How Instagram Search works

There was no mention in the newest resource of how the search is done on the photo sharing site. That was done in a post by the social media site in 2021.

What signals are important in a search on social media.

  • The query. Instagram tries to match that to relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places.
  • User activity. Accounts a user follows, posts they’ve viewed and how often they have interacted with an account in the past. Instagram more often shows accounts and hashtags that a user follows or visits.
  • Popularity signals. The number of clicks, likes, shares and follows for accounts, hashtags and places.
  • Choose an Instagram handle or profile name that’s related to the content of your posts.
  • Include relevant keywords and locations in your bio.
  • Use relevant keywords and hashtags in your captions.

You can add more than one link in your bio on social media.

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