Instagram Share More Info on How They Rank Content in Search

Ranking in Instagram search is different from Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore because your input helps them figure out what to show you.

In addition to the text you type into search, they use information from accounts, hashtags and places — called signals — to rank your search results. The most important signals they use, in order of importance, are:

• Your text in Search. The text you enter in the search bar is by far the most important signal for Search. They try to match what you type with relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places.
• Your activity. This includes accounts you follow, posts you’ve viewed, and how you’ve interacted with accounts in the past. They usually show accounts and hashtags you follow or visit higher than those you don’t.
• Information about the search results. When there are a lot of potential results, they also look at popularity signals. These include the number of clicks, likes, shares and follows for a particular account, hashtag or place.