Landing a spot on the Explore page is the best free exposure you can get on Instagram.
Explore is a discovery engine that helps users find new content, and getting featured there is instrumental to growing an audience on Instagram. Each user’s Explore page is curated based on their interests and behaviors on the platform, making it perfect for targeted discovery.
Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users, and the Explore page offers a ton of potential for reaching new audiences and gaining visibility beyond your current followers.
It primarily contains content from accounts users don’t already follow, greatly increasing the chance that fresh audiences will see your posts.
In this article, we will cover:
- How the Instagram Explore algorithm works.
- How to optimize your content for Explore page visibility.
- Other tips and recommendations for finding success on Instagram.
How Instagram Explore Works
While the Instagram home feed displays content from friends, family, and other people you follow – the Explore page surfaces content from accounts that users have no direct connection to.
When you want to change things up and dig into some photos and videos you haven’t seen before, Explore is where you can go to find it.
Every user’s Explore page is different, because it’s curated based on your specific interests and activity on the platform. Basically, it prioritizes content that’s similar to what you typically engage with.
Instagram Explore Ranking Factors
Instagram’s Explore algorithm uses the same signals as the main feed to rank content.
Those signals are:
- Information about the post: Including captions, hashtags, location tags, likes, comments, etc.
- A user’s activity on Instagram: The Explore page is personalized for each user based on what they engage with on Instagram.
- A user’s history with the content creator: Content is more likely to appear in Explore if it’s published by an account a user has interacted with before.
- Information about the content creator: Includes criteria such as the content they publish, how many followers they have, how much engagement their posts receive, etc.
Two-Stage Ranking System
Content goes through two stages before it ends up in the Explore recommendation system: the candidate generation stage (also known as sourcing stage) and the ranking stage.
Candidate Generation Stage
The algorithm begins by looking for “seed” accounts, which are accounts people have interacted with before. By analyzing the seed accounts, Instagram finds related accounts a person might be interested in.
After the Explore algorithm rounds up a selection of seed accounts, and similar-to-seed accounts, it analyzes the photos and videos the accounts have posted or engaged with.
The candidate generation stage is illustrated in the example below:
Screenshot from Instagram-engineering.com, November 2019“There are many different ways people can engage with accounts and media on Instagram (e.g., follow, like, comment, save, and share). There are also different media types (e.g., photo, video, Stories, and Live), which means there are a variety of sources we can construct using a similar scheme.”
At the end of the candidate generation stage, the algorithm will have compiled thousands of eligible pieces of content (candidates) to show a user.
Instagram then takes a sample of 500 of those candidates and sends them to the next stage.
Ranking Stage
The ranking stage filters the candidates in a three-pass filtering process, reducing them from 500 to 150, then to 50, and finally down to 25 high-quality and relevant posts.
All of this happens in the blink of an eye every time a user visits the Explore page or pulls down to refresh it.
The final 25 candidates are what is shown on the first screen of a person’s Explore grid.
How does Instagram select the 25 most relevant pieces of content from a pool of 500 candidates? The company explains:
“We predict individual actions that people take on each piece of media, whether they’re positive actions such as like and save, or negative actions such as “See Fewer Posts Like This” (SFPLT). We use a multi-task multi-label (MTML) neural network to predict these events. The shared multilayer perceptron (MLP) allows us to capture the common signals from different actions.”
Instagram predicts what actions people will take on a post after seeing it in Explore.
Likes, comments, and saves are all positive actions a user might take. Each action carries its own weight.
Instagram uses the weight of a predicted action to measure how relevant a piece of content is to a given user.
For example, if the action of saving a post is weighted higher than liking a post, then Instagram will select a post a user is likely to save.
Instagram does not provide any specific details about the weight of user actions.
It’s worth noting that the algorithm disregards multiple posts from the same seed account. So, it’s unlikely that you’ll see consecutive posts from the same creator in Explore.
How To Optimize Content For Instagram Explore
To improve your chances of being featured on the Explore page, focus on maximizing engagement and relevancy. Two easy ways to do that are:
- Using highly engaging formats such as Reels and carousels.
- Choosing posting times when your audience is most active.
You can also increase your chances of getting on the Instagram Explore page by optimizing content for its known ranking signals. To recap, those signals are:
- Information about the post.
- A user’s activity on Instagram.
- A user’s history of interacting with the content creator.
- Information about the content creator.
Let’s explore those a little further.
Information About The Post
Write detailed captions that make it easy for Instagram to identify what’s in each post you publish.
Add relevant hashtags and keywords to improve discoverability. Hashtags help Instagram categorize content, while keywords within your captions can signal the algorithm as to the topics or themes of your content.
When applicable, include a location tag so Instagram can show it to users who enjoy local content.
A User’s Activity On Instagram
This is a tricky signal to optimize for because what other users do on Instagram is out of your hands.
For this one, start by thinking about who your ideal audience is and what types of accounts they’re likely to engage with. Then, think about what you can do to be similar to those accounts.
For example, if you want to attract users who engage with brand accounts, make sure your profile and content positioning are consistent with your brand identity.
A User’s History With The Content Creator
You have to go out there and get in front of the audience you want to attract.
Engage with other accounts in your industry or niche. Comment on posts, reply to comment threads, and maybe even share others’ content in your stories.
If they engage with you back, it counts as an interaction.
Now, you’ve just increased your chances of appearing in their Explore feed.
Information About The Content Creator (You)
Maintain a clear and focused profile.
In addition to completely filling out your profile page, it helps to build a content strategy around a defined niche.
Your goal is to make it clear what type of content creator you are.
If your niche is 3D printers, sharing pictures of your fishing weekend will only confuse Instagram’s algorithm.
There should be no doubt what your page is about.
Also, stay away from content that might trigger negative engagement. Other information about your account, like whether you have a history of being reported by other users, is considered as well.
Instagram avoids surfacing borderline content in the Explore feed. So, it’s a good idea to publish content that’s suitable for most audiences.
Other Recommendations
Post At The Right Time
Have you ever checked your Instagram insights to see when your followers are most active?
You should, because posting at the right time is key to getting as many likes and comments as possible.
Instagram’s main feed prioritizes freshness, and it’s the engagement you get there that will determine whether your content makes it to Explore.
If you have an Instagram Business account, you can check your Instagram Insights to see a breakdown of your followers, including when they’re active and what their demographics are.
Experiment with different posting times to see what works best for you.
Customize Your Video Thumbnails
After uploading a video, Instagram lets you customize the thumbnail before publishing it.
This is a feature you shouldn’t ignore because the Explore feed is 100% visual.
A thumbnail is the only way for someone to get an idea of what a video is about before watching it.
You can’t upload custom thumbnails like you can on YouTube, but you can pinpoint an individual frame to use as a thumbnail.
Take a video of a cooking tutorial, for example. A thumbnail of the finished dish is more informative than a shot of the raw ingredients.
A mediocre thumbnail can detract views from a video people may otherwise enjoy and share with their friends.
Unfortunately, they didn’t tap on it in their Explore feed because they didn’t know what it was about.
Stay On Top Of Updates
When it comes to optimizing content for social media algorithms, it never hurts to keep up with what’s new.
I don’t mean the latest memes or what’s trending in popular culture – I mean what’s new with Instagram itself.
Instagram is always upgrading its app with innovative new features or content formats inspired by competitive social media sites.
When Instagram introduces something new, the app raises awareness by boosting the visibility of whatever was recently added.
For example, when Instagram launched Reels, the format was immediately given a prominent placement in peoples’ Explore feeds.
Early adopters of Reels would have benefitted from greater exposure during the launch window, as there was a smaller pool of content to pull from.
If you jump on the new format early, whether it ends up being the next big thing or fizzles out in a few months is irrelevant.
Time invested in creating the content isn’t wasted if it helps amplify your reach.
How do you learn about Instagram’s latest features as soon as they launch?
Stay glued to our news updates at Search Engine Journal.
We filter through the noise to keep you informed about the features that matter to marketers and businesses.
Conclusion
Getting on the Instagram Explore page isn’t as simple as completing a checklist or following a formula.
In addition to building a brand and cultivating an engaged audience, you have to stay on top of platform updates and keep the machine fed with new content.
But it’s not impossible to get there. Accounts blow up on Explore every day. Follow the advice in this article, and yours could be one of them.
More Resources:
- How Instagram’s Algorithm Works & IG Content Best Practices
- Instagram Analytics Guide: 10 of the Best Tools to Get Insights
- Latest News And Actionable Tips For Using Instagram
Featured Image: MandriaPix/Shutterstock
