How to Get Your Instagram Content on Google (2025)

I sat down for a chat with Instagram Growth Expert and Social Media Strategist Mary Isokariari at Socially Curious Agency, to talk about the recent July update that Instagram profiles and posts can now be indexed by Google, meaning your content can appear in search results, and even found in AI search.

In this 4-minute video highlight from our Instagram Live, we cover why this strategy matters and how to grow your reach as small business owners without spending on ads.

Mary: So as you might not have heard, from July the 10th of this year, your Instagram content is now going to be visible on Google search results, which is massive for small business owners, content creators, your freelancer, creator, a brand, a small business owner, even an SME, medium size, and you’re trying to grow organically, you have no money for ads, then this is big news. This means that your name, your username, All your content, reels, posts, carousels, your captions, your hashtag, SEO, all going to appear on Google.

And that means people that are off Instagram can access your content. That’s new followers, new high reach, that’s new customers, more money in your pocket without spending a dime. Without lifting a finger. Just change a few things and add a few tweaks in your captions and alt text to make it visible.

You don’t just optimise for Instagram, you optimise them for AI. So if you’re going to Italy, you search for “what’s the top 10 restaurants in Italy that have the best pasta”, And your post on instagram had the specific keywords that someone typed into Google Gemini, Chat GPT or Claude; typing in chat GPT for example: “top 10 best restaurants for pasta in Venice” or so forth – your Instagram post, reel or carousel could pop up in chat GPT, their AI bot will recommend your content to that person. So not just for Google, it’s beyond Google, it’s for AI as well, which is amazing.

Sam: I’ve seen that even your Instagram content can now rank above someone else’s website if you optimise it in the right strategy. So it’s crazy because it’s like even websites should be scared!

Mary: Firstly, make sure that your name is distinctive and be specific about you, who will use it as a brand. Don’t put something like Sarah 542, be specific in your niche.

If you’re a florist, you might say Sarah | Florist | London, LDN, or London.

So people know you’re based in London, you’re a florist, you’re named Sarah. And that’s being more specific. You can do that because your username and your name is so important.

Mary: People ask me about hashtags. Hashtags are, not relevant now for reach. Alex, the head of IG, Alex Messori, actually said himself, out of his own words, that hashtags are great for categorising, but not for reaching new people.

When you have a caption, you can literally put keywords in your caption, in your alt text, and that is for people who are visually impaired, but also it’s great for categorising your content. Now, what is it? Is it pasta? Is it flour? Is it chocolate? What is it? And you can actually go back to your old posts and actually click on a free dot on a right-hand corner and then literally just amend your post and go to alt text. Videos can’t do that. So if you upload in a video, just save it as the keywords and then upload it.

Sam: It’s amazing that, yeah, you can go back and repurpose old content. It’s not wasted. It’s like screen content. So it’s stuff that principles, if you’re offering value through some tips or some infographic, like you can really almost re-boost it without paying for it, but just by cleverly putting in some high intent keywords or commercial keywords, the right ones, you know, you can draw more attention back to it.

Mary: If you’ve got a personal account, obviously you can’t, you won’t show up in Google, but if you have a creator account or a professional business account, and you do not want your content to show up, you can actually go to privacy settings and turn a toggle off.

Sam: This is just privacy, isn’t it?

Mary: Yeah, yeah. But I think it would be crazy not to want to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s free visibility, free reach. So why would you not want to gain as many customers and followers and change your business as a whole?

Quick Practical Tips to Optimise Your Instagram for Google + AI Search:

1. Use Keywords in your Name Field Example: “Tina | Fitness Coach | East London” or “Glow Studio – Natural Skincare | York” 2. Use SEO-friendly Captions Include relevant keywords naturally (AI and SEO should reinforce your message, not replace your voice.) 3. Repurpose Old Content with alt text + keywords Add alt text and refresh captions on your top-performing posts and evergreen content to increase long-term visibility. 4. Switch to a Business or Creator Account Only these accounts are eligible to appear in Google search results. Personal accounts remain private and aren’t indexed by search engines.  

If you’re curious to learn more about how Instagram content can rank in search engines and AI, watch the full conversation on Instagram.