Instagram Goes Public on Google: A Win for SEO & Creators

Instagram is no longer just a scroll-and-swipe app. On July 10, 2025, the platform quietly rolled out a major update that allowed public content from professional accounts, specifically Business and Creator profiles run by users aged 18 and above, to appear in search results on platforms like Google and Bing. And this is a radical change to the long-standing walled garden approach within Instagram, where content existed within the app. Rather, the instance-owned site is currently shifting in line with the rest of the web, thus creating new search optimization chances to creators, influencers, and brands. Instagram is also growing in capacity, and in other areas, where it has not been available, the public postings can be searched on Google.

This marked a major shift in the walled-garden category, which is highly visible to people within Instagram only. This move brought Instagram a step closer to the open-web model implied by platforms such as YouTube and signaling a strategic shift in how parent company Meta intends to approach the sector.

Search-Engine Ready Since Jan 2020 Content

Instagram has made clear that eligible content, and photos, Reels, carousels, and videos, loaded into Instagram since January 1, 2020, would now be indexed to be sought. The movers were pushed out with the in-app alerts and updates to the Help Center of the platform. This was explicit: this was applicable only to the professional positions in the government. Nonetheless, there were still some types of content that could not be indexed. It was still not possible to find posts of personal accounts, private accounts, Stories, highlights, comments, and DMs in search engine results.

Auto-Enabled, With Opt-Out Available

Auto-Activated, but Opt-Out Is Wanted. There was a default setting of the indexing feature on eligible accounts. Still, those individuals who did not want their material to be found through search engines got an escape. They would simply have to switch the setting off on their privacy settings or use a personal or private profile to remain out of view of any outside searches.

A Win for Creators and Brand Visibility

This update made Instagram more than a social feed and a content repository, with long-tail discoverability becoming a thing. Niche creators and brands in the realm of travel, food, fashion, local services, and wellness were bound to gain the most. Using searchable posts, Instagram gave the opportunity to creators to repackage their work into cherishable, more like blog posts or YouTube videos. SEO strategy became the priority as well. Instagram recommended its users to be even more attentive to alt text, captions, and hashtags, which stopped being used only to engage people on its platform and started to contribute to the quality of external search ranking.

This move was part of a larger evolution underway at Instagram:

• Spotify sharing in real-time
• Profile grid reordering
• Content originality crackdowns
• Tightened AI-generated content guidelines

The move by Instagram to allow the searching of posts has shifted the way in which the tool fits into the social media and content landscape. Professional accounts no longer needed to be exclusively short-term and were now capable of having posts live longer, expand their reach, and deliver a value that increases over time. Having merged with the search engines, Instagram not only removed the limitations of its ecosystem but created new avenues of increasing discoverability, which creators and brands can seize regardless of being in the app or not.