How the Instagram Algorithm Works

How the Instagram Algorithm Works

From SEO to social media, algorithms are often what determine who actually sees the content you publish and who doesn’t.

As these algorithms change, yesterday’s marketing tactics might become less effective tomorrow. That’s why your strategy on each platform needs to constantly evolve too.

Instagram has been around for 11 years.

While the app was initially meant for still images, content creators and everyday users can now share photos and videos in various forms, like Story posts, Instagram Reels, and longer-form videos on IGTV.

How does the Instagram algorithm actually work?

If you’ve spent any time on Instagram, you’ll know that the algorithm can behave in mysterious ways.

But once you understand how the elusive algorithm actually works, you can tailor your content strategy to work alongside it.

Three main factors determine what you see in your Instagram feed:

1. Interest: How much Instagram predicts you’ll care about a post, with higher ranking for what matters to you, determined by past behavior on similar content and potentially machine vision analyzing the actual content of the post.

2. Recency: How recently the post was shared, with prioritization for timely posts over weeks-old ones.

3. Relationship: How close you are to the person who shared it, with higher ranking for people you’ve interacted with a lot in the past on Instagram, such as by commenting on their posts or being tagged together in photos.

Beyond those core factors, three additional signals that influence rankings are:

1. Frequency: How often you open Instagram, as it will try to show you the best posts since your last visit.

2. Following: If you follow a lot of people, Instagram will be picking from a wider breadth of authors so you might see less of any specific person.

3. Usage: How long you spend on Instagram determines if you’re just seeing the best posts during short sessions, or it’s digging deeper into its catalog if you spend more total time browsing.

Visit Instagram Website to know more bout its algorithm and ranking factors.

Succeeding on Instagram is not just about posting content regularly. You also need to understand how the algorithm works and leverage its makeup to your advantage. While changes to the algorithm will always happen, staying on top of the trends will help you ensure that you’re prepared for them when they do.