Your Instagram posts and reels will now pop up on Google and Bing searches: How to enable, disable this setting
Instagram is making a big change that could affect how your posts show up online. From this month, the platform will allow public posts from professional accounts to be seen on search engines like Google and Bing.
That means your Reels, photos, and videos could now appear in search results—even for people who don’t use Instagram.
This update applies only to Business and Creator accounts that are public and run by users over 18. Personal accounts, private profiles, and accounts owned by underage users are not included.
Content shared through Stories, Highlights, comments, or direct messages also remains unaffected.
Instagram quietly confirmed the shift in an update on its Help Centre, where it explains how search engines interact with content on the platform.
The platform states: “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…”
However, the company goes on to clarify that there is now an important exception to this rule: “We allow search engines to index photos and videos from public reels and posts that were uploaded or posted from January 1 2020 onwards from accounts that meet all criteria listed below.”
This marks a clear shift in policy. While content was previously kept mostly within Instagram’s own app, eligible public Business and Creator accounts—run by users over the age of 18—will now have their posts made visible to search engines like Google and Bing. This includes Reels, single-image posts, carousels, and videos, as long as the content was shared after January 1 2020, and the account settings allow it.
Starting now, public posts from professional accounts—going back as far as January 1 2020—will be eligible to appear in search results by default. If users don’t want this to happen, they can turn it off in settings, switch to a personal account, or make their profile private.
Why is Instagram doing this?
Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is hoping to make content more discoverable beyond the app. As platforms like TikTok and YouTube continue to dominate search-driven discovery, Instagram is looking to give its creators and brands more reach. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has previously admitted that the app’s own search tools aren’t great. Letting Google and Bing index posts could help content live longer and reach more people—even outside the Instagram ecosystem.
It’s also a helpful move for creators, freelancers, and small businesses who may not have their own websites. Now, a well-crafted Instagram post could serve as a sort of digital portfolio—visible not only to followers, but also to search engine users worldwide.
What shows up in search?
- Posts shared publicly from Business or Creator accounts
- Reels, photos, carousels, and videos
- Captions, hashtags, and alt-text (which may help your content rank)
- Content from January 1 2020 onwards
Stories, private content, comments, DMs, and anything from personal or underage accounts will not appear in search results.
How to opt out
By default, eligible posts will now be indexed—but users can choose to opt out:
- Go to Settings → Privacy → Search Engine Indexing and toggle it off
- Switch your account type to Personal
- Set your profile to Private
- Archive or delete posts you no longer want visible online
What are the pros and cons?
There are definitely some benefits to this update. If you’re a creator, small business, or freelancer, your posts can now reach more people—even those searching on Google, not just Instagram. It also means your content can stay visible for longer, instead of disappearing down the feed. And if you don’t have a website, this gives your work another way to show up online.
At the same time, there are a few things to watch out for. Your posts might show up in places or to people you didn’t expect. Old posts could reappear in search results, even if you’d moved on from them. And sometimes, deleted posts may still hang around in search for a bit.
In the end, it’s a mix of more reach and less control. It could be a great chance to grow—but it also means being more mindful of what you post and who can see it.
Sci/Tech