How to get featured on Instagram’s Search and Explore

Being featured in the search results or in the Explore section of your target audience can help to expose your brand to people outside of your follower base. You could also get more engagement on your posts and gain more followers. Here are a few ideas on how to get featured.


| Read more on Instagram for real estate here: How real estate agents can use Instagram to grow their brand


 1. Add a location tag and hashtags

For your posts and stories to appear in a search result, you’ll need to add a location tag or hashtags to your post.

You can add up to 30 hashtags per post but TrackMaven found that Instagram posts with nine hashtags perform the best in terms of engagement.

2. Time your posts

When you tap into a search result, the latest post will appear first (apart from the top posts.)

To optimize your posts for Instagram search, you’d want to publish when your target audience are most active (when they are scrolling through Instagram and searching for posts).

This way, there’s a greater chance of your post appearing near the top of the search result when your target audience is finding photos and videos on Instagram.

If you have an Instagram business profile, you can find the day and the hour of a typical day when your followers are the most active, in your Instagram Insights.

3. Create great, relevant content

In a search result, the top nine posts take up the most prominent space.

According to Instagram, the top posts are selected based on its popularity (i.e. engagements such as Likes, comments, and shares). So the best way to have your posts in the Top Posts section is to create great, relevant content that your followers will engage with.

Here’re a couple of tips for creating content that could become a top post:

  • Use high-resolution photos: We noticed that high-resolution photos on Instagram tend to get more Likes and comments.
  • Use a niche hashtag that your target audience follows: As there is less competition for the hashtag, there’s a higher chance of your post making it to the Top Posts section.

4. Go live

Instagram features the top live videos in the Search and Explore tab.

Admittedly, having your live video featured on the Search and Explore tab might be much harder to achieve than the other tips above. But it’s definitely worth a try!

The featured live videos are the ones that are trending due to the number of viewers, engagement, and proximity to the user’s location.

 Here’re some ideas on how you can use Instagram live video:

  • Office hours or Q&A sessions
  • Sneak peeks at a show house
  • Take people behind-the-scenes
  • Interviews, collaborations, and takeovers



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