When Instagram was first being introduced, it presented its feed in a chronological manner. That means that its tabulated users’ posts based on how recently they were made. For instance, if you make your post right now, it will be placed at the top of the newsfeed. However, if someone else makes their posts a few seconds after you do the same, their post will rank higher than yours. There are those who liked this model because it was biased and everybody had a chance of appearing in the newsfeed. However, this method of tabulating posts wasn’t being fair to people who put in the hard work to ensure that their posts stood out. As a result, Instagram introduced what is now called the Instagram algorithm to regulate how posts are ranked on the newsfeed.
Since its introduction, so much has been said about how the algorithm works and different versions of the same story have been told over and over again. In this article, I am going to take a look at how the Instagram algorithm works so that you are better informed. This information will help you avoid being one of the people that say that the algorithm works in mysterious ways because it doesn’t. it works in a very specific way, based on factors that influence how high posts rank in the newsfeed and how long they stay there.
The Instagram Company itself has said that its algorithm bases on 6 factors to rank user posts. These six factors are interest, relationship, timeliness, frequency, following, and usage to rank posts in the Instagram feed. Your Instagram feed is usually based on the type of accounts and posts you have liked before. If the algorithm “thinks” that the chances of you liking a certain type of post are high, the more the post will appear in your feed. Your behavior of the platform determines what you see in your newsfeed. You will see feeds based on the type of posts you like, people you get tagged in the same posts with, and the accounts you interact with. It is for this reason that being consistent with how you appear on Instagram is important.
Another factor that plays into what you see in your feed is the kind of users you follow. When you follow so many people on the platform, Instagram’s algorithm will have a lot of options to pick from. If you are one of those people who follow a lot of ghost or inactive accounts, then your account’s algorithmic ranking may be affected. That is why it is usually advisable to always remove inactive accounts from your account every now and then. The presence of such accounts does not harm than good and you are better off without them.
On the flip side, you should do everything to gain more Instagram followers so that your posts appear in their accounts. There are many ways that you can use to gain free followers Instagram these days.
