Last summer, Instagram announced a friendship. A friendship with Google. This friendship was defined by Instagram announcing that the platform would be enabling Google to index public content from professional accounts. What this means in layman terms is that Google can look at content on Instagram and rank it in search results, just like it does with your websites.
This is big because it now means that people can find your social media content in different ways than just being on the app.
This particularly matters to beauty brands because it is within our sector that highly visual, trend-led and discovery-driven content wins and brands that create this content stand to gain the most from this shift. Our Instagram pages are now mini-web pages that need to be ready to convince users to stick around.
Understanding the update
So, Google is now able to index public posts, reels, videos and carousels from professional accounts by default. But what exactly is being indexed?
Much like how Google indexes webpages with metadata, the elements on an Instagram post include captions, alt text, hashtags and location tags. This means that your SEO strategy and social media strategies need to be talking to each other more than we would have thought to do in the past.
If you’re sitting there thinking, does this apply to future posts or can I optimsie existing content? In the announcement, it was said that content posted all the way back in 2020 is eligible for indexing.
One thing to note is that Stories are not being indexed, so keep them alive as another route to your profile and getting people engaged with your posts.
Applying the update to your Instagram
So, this blog exists because we think this is a big deal for beauty brands, and we would be remiss not to highlight it.
We know that beauty customers that use search in a high intent, search driven sector. Users often turn to Google for reviews, routines and product inspiration. With Google now positioning reels and posts alongside websites, reviews and YouTube content, it acts as another path to purchase. Something your competitors will cease if you don’t.
Here are some of our steps you can take to start strengthening your Instagram profile for the judgey eyes of Google:
Consider your captions
This is the number one spot for Google’s indexing because it’s being used as a primary signal. This means that you should be thinking about the longtail-keywords you would want your products to be showing up for. To prosper with this update, you need to be less cryptic in your captions and more “keyword-aware”. Something your organic strategies might already have.
How you do that is like how you would optimise a webpage- do your research. Find out what keywords people are using to search for your products and write captions that include those keywords or phrases.
Google likes content that clearly explains what it’s showing on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), so give your captions just that. When you’re creating your captions, think about including what the product does, who the target audience is, the finish or result of the product and if it’s a routine or technique.
The optimal length of captions ranges from 125-150 characters, as this keeps the captions within the visible, non-truncated range. While you can use up to 2,200 characters, we find that shorter, punchier captions, up to 50 characters, often drive higher engagement. For optimal discoverability, we recommend aiming for 3 relevant keywords and a mix of broad and niche keywords.
Use your captions just like you do a blog.
Secure engagement
Like you needed to hear that.
But it’s nice to know that there’s another benefit for when you get a post that does really well, as Google considers user engagement as another signal. Especially when determining relevance.
Ensuring that your content is clear, high-resolution and engaging is key. We know this from analysing our clients’ assets, and it’s consistently the assets that are all three things that are the ones that attract and are engaged with the most.
Additionally, a quick way to get eyes and thumbs tapping on the screen is by staying aligned and on top of beauty trends. Creating content around your products like tutorials, texture close-ups, product benefits and before and after results are always in beauty lover feeds. If you’re creating a content calendar and aren’t always sure what’s trending, follow influencers and create content similar to theirs.
Lastly, if you did thorough keyword research, you’ll already know what questions your target audience is asking. Create content that answers those questions directly.
The reels are real important
Reels have historically been the most likely Instagram format to be indexed by Google, with millions of them already showing up in the SERPs. We could write a completely new blog post on how to create the best reel, but I’ll give you the cliff notes.
- They need to be engaging as we mentioned above, so make sure that the first 1-2 seconds have a strong hook that will keep users engaged with your video.
- Include the keywords you want to be indexed for on screen, but keep them relevant. This is still a new update but websites get penalised for “keyword stuffing” and it’s likely Google will take a similar approach here.
- Include Alt-text and hashtags with the keywords you want the content to rank for, as these are also being indexed.
- Post consistently.
Start ranking on Google with Instagram
Your Instagram profiles that you have worked tirelessly on are no longer discoverable only on Instagram. This is nothing but good news. It’s just another avenue for people to find your content.
The opportunity is massive for beauty brands to get more organic visibility just by optimising their captions, alt-text and hashtags. We’re always open to talk more about social accounts- including yours. Drop us a message if you want to chat more.
