Google indexing Instagram posts: The search-social crossover brands can’t ignore
Another seismic change is coming to the internet – Instagram will now be indexable by Google. Suzie Shaw, APAC CEO of We Are Social, explores what this means for brands, marketers, and creators.
For years, Instagram has been a walled garden. Beautiful, yes. Powerful for building culture and community, absolutely. But invisible to Google’s search crawlers.
That’s just changed. Google is now indexing Instagram posts in search results. For brands, this is a fundamental shift in how social content drives visibility, discovery and long-term value.
Every Reel, carousel and caption has the potential to surface in Google’s vast ecosystem, where audiences are actively searching with high intent. Instagram content suddenly becomes more evergreen, with the power to influence customer journeys well beyond the moment it’s posted.
Darn.
I thought ‘social’ meant (roughly) a group of people who know and like each other. Apparently, it now means some account that you have never heard and never want to have them hammering your device without any permission.
Remember that the word ‘social’ derives from the Latin ‘socii’ meaning allies.