Changes to how Instagram interacts with Google Search have shaken the digital marketing world, with some experts saying it could alter how businesses and creators post on social media.
According to an in-app notification, search engines will automatically be permitted to show photos and videos posted on public accounts on Instagram’s platform from July 10.
Instagram’s parent company Meta has confirmed its indexation rules are changing, exposing posts and reels to an entirely new audience.
But Meta said it started changing its indexation policy well before July 10.
Here’s what you and your business need to know about the changes.
What is indexing?
Put simply, indexing is the process search engines like Google and Bing use to organise and display the information published online.
Indexing allows those search engines to quickly and accurately display results for specific searches.
Beyond simply providing users with the information they are looking for, indexing can benefit businesses: websites that are more easily indexable will show up higher in someone’s search results.
Indexing is crucial to digital marketing.
The entire field of search engine optimisation (SEO) tries to help brands by making their websites more favourable to those indexing algorithms.
What does Instagram say?
Some Instagram users report receiving a notification saying their public photos and videos may soon appear in search engine results.
“This means more people could discover content from your professional account outside of Instagram,” it said.
The notification said users could change their indexing preferences in their account privacy settings.
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What does this mean for my brand?
It means the information you publicly share on Instagram could help you ‘rank’ in Google searches, like content uploaded to your website.
For example, if your Instagram captions reference the fact your business is a cafe in the Melbourne CBD, your content could rank for searches like ‘Melbourne CBD cafe near me’.
This could make the strategic wording of your Instagram captions more important to your broader SEO strategy, instead of just providing information to your followers.
Importantly, Instagram Stories and live stream videos do not appear to be affected by the indexation change.
What was Instagram’s policy before?
Historically, Instagram allowed Google to index profile information, but not the content of posts.
According to its help centre resources, “Instagram generally requests that search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing do not index the content of users’ photos and videos from stories, reels, posts, and highlights”.
There are several reasons for this, the first being privacy.
Users sharing publicly on Instagram might not want those photos easily accessible through Google.
The second reason is the ‘walled garden’ effect.
Making it harder to see videos and photos through Google might encourage users to spend time on Instagram itself.
That policy appears to have eased off in recent years.
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Help centre resources state photos and videos from public reels and posts, shared online since January 1, 2020, can be indexed.
Wait, 2020?
Yes.
Despite the most recent notification about July 10, 2025, Instagram appears to have allowed search indexation of posts for some time.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany, a spokesperson for Instagram parent company Meta said, “this is not a new feature”.
“We have been offering this in the US for years and are gradually rolling it out globally to boost discoverability for creators and businesses,” they said.
“Our approach is in line with how other platforms show public content in search results.”
What brands will be affected?
“This feature is only for people with 18+ professional IG accounts, and only applies to public posts and reels,” the spokesperson said.
Instagram’s own help centre confirms account owners must be 18 years or older, with a professional account that is currently set to ‘public’.
Videos posted to Instagram that are ‘remixed’ by other users may also become indexable.
Can I turn this off?
Yes.
Users have the ability to turn off the ability for their public photos and videos to appear in search results.
The option can be found in the account settings section.
Users can also turn their professional profile to personal mode to cut off indexation, or set their account to private.
That process might not be instant, as those search engines operate independently of Instagram itself.
“It may take time for these third-party search engines to de-index and remove your public photo and video content from search results, even if you delete your account,” according to Instagram’s help resources.
