How to rank Instagram Posts in Google – James Dooley Interviews Jesper Nissen
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What Does “How to rank Instagram Posts in Google - James Dooley Interviews Jesper Nissen” Talk About?
This episode of the James Dooley Podcast dives into a practical and underexplored SEO strategy: ranking Instagram posts in Google Search. James Dooley interviews Jesper Nissen, an expert in social media SEO, who explains how a recent change by Meta to Instagram's indexing rules now allows Google to crawl and index Instagram profiles and posts without any extra effort from the account holder. The conversation covers why Instagram posts can rank well, particularly for long-tail keywords and local SEO, and what steps to take immediately after publishing a post to accelerate Google indexing using a tool called Prime Indexer.
Jesper breaks down one of the most actionable tips in the episode: the first seven to twelve words of an Instagram caption function as the SEO title, meaning your target keyword needs to appear right at the start of the post. The hosts also explore image SEO in depth, including how saving images as JPEGs allows for more EXIF data, which can be used for additional optimisation. James shares his own experience repurposing five-star Google Business Profile and Trustpilot reviews as branded image posts on Instagram, which led to those images ranking prominently in Google Images. The two discuss whether Google's ability to read text inside images could further boost the ranking of those posts in organic web search, touching on concepts like query fan-out and online reputation management.
“When you have posted on Instagram and you click publish, you get presented with a pop-up. I am talking about from the browser. I am not using my phone to post. Then you get the pop-up with done, and you can click on your post and see the URL for that post. That URL is what you grab, and then you send it to the indexer.”
— Jesper Nissen
Who Are the Guests on “How to rank Instagram Posts in Google - James Dooley Interviews Jesper Nissen”?
Jesper Nissen is an SEO and social media strategist who has built a growing following by teaching people how to rank content from platforms like Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and Facebook in Google Search. He is the creator of Prime Indexer, a tool designed to help Googlebot crawl URLs quickly, and runs a consultancy practice advising clients on how to leverage social media as a search engine optimisation channel. His approach is highly practical and rooted in testing real platform behaviour, such as identifying how Meta's indexing rule changes affect Instagram's visibility in Google.
James Dooley is the host of the James Dooley Podcast and a well-known figure in the SEO and digital marketing space. He is particularly focused on online reputation management, using strategies like repurposing customer reviews and testimonials into branded visual content to dominate brand-related search queries. In this episode, James brings his own real-world experimentation to the conversation, sharing how his team has been successfully populating Google Images with positive reviews sourced from Google Business Profile and Trustpilot.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “How to rank Instagram Posts in Google - James Dooley Interviews Jesper Nissen”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- Meta's change to Instagram's indexing rules means Google can now crawl and index Instagram profiles automatically, making it easier than ever to get Instagram content to appear in search results.
- Placing your target keyword within the first seven to twelve words of an Instagram caption is critical because those words are treated as the SEO title for that post in Google.
- Using a tool like Prime Indexer to submit the Instagram post URL immediately after publishing can significantly speed up the time it takes for Google to crawl and rank the content.
- Instagram posts do not require likes, comments, or a large follower count to rank in Google Search, meaning even accounts with as few as 80 followers can achieve organic rankings.
- Repurposing five-star reviews and testimonials as branded image posts on Instagram can populate Google Images with positive social proof, supporting brand reputation and potentially boosting search visibility through Google's ability to read text within images.
“I have almost no followers. I have around 80 on Instagram or something like that. So it does not matter at all.”
— Jesper Nissen
Is “How to rank Instagram Posts in Google - James Dooley Interviews Jesper Nissen” Worth Listening To?
This episode is worth listening to because it translates a technical SEO opportunity into a simple, step-by-step process that virtually any business or individual can act on immediately. Rather than speaking in abstractions, Jesper Nissen walks through the exact workflow: post from a browser, grab the post URL, and submit it to an indexer within minutes of publishing. The insight about the first seven to twelve words functioning as an SEO title alone is the kind of actionable detail that can change how someone approaches their entire Instagram content strategy.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is the unexpected direction the conversation takes when James Dooley introduces the idea of using branded review images for Google Images optimisation. It opens up a broader discussion about online reputation management and how social media platforms can be used not just for engagement but as structured assets in a search visibility strategy. The combination of Jesper's technical knowledge and James's real-world testing results makes for a well-rounded conversation that leaves listeners with concrete ideas they can test right away.
Who Should Listen to “How to rank Instagram Posts in Google - James Dooley Interviews Jesper Nissen”?
This episode is ideal for:
- SEO professionals and digital marketers looking to expand their organic search strategy beyond traditional web pages
- Small business owners doing local SEO who want additional ways to rank for location-based long-tail keywords
- Online reputation managers interested in using visual content on social media to control how their brand appears in Google Images
- Content creators and personal brands who want to increase their search visibility without building large social media followings
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What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The tip about putting your keyword in the first seven to twelve words of an Instagram caption was something I had never considered before. I tested it the same day I watched this and already have one post appearing in Google within 48 hours. Really practical content.”
“James and Jesper have great chemistry and the conversation flows naturally between technical SEO and real business applications. The section about using five-star reviews as branded images on Instagram to fill up Google Images was a lightbulb moment for me. Immediately started doing this for my agency clients.”
“I appreciated that Jesper was upfront about Instagram being harder to grow compared to LinkedIn or X, but explained that follower count simply does not matter for ranking. That kind of honesty makes the advice feel credible and worth following.”
This video explains how to rank Instagram URLs in Google Search using Instagram posts as part of a social media SEO strategy. James Dooley and Jesper Nissen discuss why Instagram posts can now index more easily because Meta changed how Google can crawl Instagram content. Jesper explains that the first seven to 12 words of an Instagram caption often act as the SEO title, so the target keyword should appear at the start. They also cover Prime Indexer, Google crawling, long-tail keywords, local SEO, image SEO, EXIF data and JPEG uploads because these elements can help Instagram content appear in organic search and Google Images. The discussion also explores reviews, testimonials and branded image posts because visual proof can improve online reputation and support wider search visibility.
James Dooley: How to rank Instagram URLs in Google Search. Today I am joined with Jesper Nissen, who has been growing a large following because of his strategies with ranking different social media platforms. Today’s podcast is about how to rank Instagram posts in Google.
Jesper Nissen: Last year, Meta changed their indexing rules for Instagram. That is something you should be aware of. If you post to Instagram, your Instagram profile will be crawled, and in most cases it will also be indexed by Google without you having to do anything. So that is just something to keep in mind. These Instagram posts rank relatively well. Not as well as Facebook and X, but they do rank relatively well for long-tail keywords, especially if you are doing local SEO. What you need to do is have an Instagram account and then just start posting. When you have posted on Instagram and you click publish, you get presented with a pop-up. I am talking about from the browser. I am not using my phone to post. Then you get the pop-up with done, and you can click on your post and see the URL for that post. That URL is what you grab, and then you send it to the indexer. In my case, that is Prime Indexer, which I created. You can choose anything, but if you want it to index and rank, you do need to make sure that Google actually crawls it. So you send it to the indexer, and within a couple of minutes or a couple of hours, it appears in Google. When it comes to Instagram, you can post text about your business, your services, your products or your personal brand. You can also insert links, but with Instagram, the links will not be clickable. I am not sure if they are going to change that. When you have a Facebook company page, you have a link and it is clickable, at least for now. But with Instagram, that is not how it works. So you cannot use it for traffic from the Instagram post. Of course, people who find you on Google can see the link and copy it, but they will not be able to click it. What you do is make sure the first seven to 12 words of the Instagram post are your target keyword because those words will be used as the SEO title. Otherwise, it is just good to go. Post, publish and then send it to the indexer.
James Dooley: On Instagram, Instagram is more media-based, so it is videos, images and things like that. Is it the first seven to 12 words that matter the most, or does the image matter? Could it literally just be a blank image, with the first seven to 12 words of the text becoming the most important part? Are you doing long-form statuses, or are you doing something almost like a tweet, where you ask the question in short form and directly answer it underneath?
Jesper Nissen: That is actually a good question. You have given me an idea now because we do know that Google reads the text on images. Of course, I always post something to my branded social media accounts, including Instagram, with something that matters. I never post blank images just to post. Normally, most of the time when I do post, it is just a screenshot. I grab something because that is the fastest. I save it as a JPEG because when you save an image as JPEG, you can have more EXIF data, and I use that to optimise my images. I actually had not thought about whether it matters that you post readable text on the image. That might be a benefit.
James Dooley: The reason I asked that is because recently we have become obsessed with reputation online. I want to try to improve reviews, testimonials, awards and case studies. What we have been doing, mainly with reviews and case studies, is when someone leaves us a five-star review on Google Business Profile or Trustpilot, we take that review text and put it into an image with our branding. Then we post it on Instagram, LinkedIn and other platforms, and we also put the text directly underneath it. So we are repurposing that same review and putting it on multiple platforms because it says how great we are. What I found very interesting, specifically on Instagram, was that the images for the testimonials and reviews started to rank really well. I was wondering whether Google was reading the text inside the image. I am talking about ranking in Google Images here, but we have now filled Google Images with loads of positive five-star reviews that look great. Previously, our brand plus reviews or brand plus testimonials in the image tab did not really have anything. Now it has all these nice reviews being presented. I feel like, as part of query fan-out and building reputation, would that also help rank the Instagram post for what you are writing at the top as well?
Jesper Nissen: Yes, for sure. What I normally use my Instagram posts for is to rank in Google organic search for long-tail keywords. I was not talking about image search, but when you talk about image search, of course, Instagram images are one of the best social media assets to rank in image search. Yes, that would definitely matter. That is a good idea. I am going to note that.
James Dooley: Keep us posted on how it goes because, from the image point of view, I think it could be great. But let us move on to rankings within web search. The first seven to 12 words matter the most, so make certain you get your target keyword in the first seven to 12 words. You are getting the Instagram post URL and loading it into Prime Indexer to try to get Googlebot to crawl it as fast as possible. Are you doing any likes, hearts or comments on there, or is there anything else you are doing?
Jesper Nissen: No. I find Instagram is different compared with X, Facebook and LinkedIn. On Instagram, I find it a little bit more difficult to grow my brand. I do not know if it is because I am doing SEO, but I do not get much interaction. I do not get many clicks, likes or comments on my Instagram posts. I still post, but they still rank, so it does not seem to matter if you get interaction.
James Dooley: Right. So the comments and likes do not matter. What about the power of the Instagram post? How many followers the profile has? Does that matter?
Jesper Nissen: It does not matter. I have almost no followers. I have around 80 on Instagram or something like that. So it does not matter at all.
James Dooley: Sounds good. Anyone who is watching this, I hope you liked the video on how to rank Instagram posts in Google Search. Make sure you check out the links in the description because there are several other videos where I ask Jesper Nissen questions about how to rank tweets in Google, how to rank LinkedIn posts in Google and how to rank Facebook posts inside Google. Jesper Nissen, if anyone is watching this, what is the best way for someone to reach out to you for consultancy or to hire you?
Jesper Nissen: They can find me on X, Facebook and LinkedIn, and my website jespernissen.com.
James Dooley: It has been an absolute pleasure. Cheers, Jesper Nissen. I hope you liked the video on how to rank Instagram posts inside Google Search.
Creators & Guests
Host
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.
Guest
Jesper Nissen is the founder of SEO Danmark APS, based in Aalborg. He build SaaS tools that solve real SEO problems. YACSS for backlinks, schemawriter.ai for AI-powered schema markup, primeindexer…