What is the “Explore” page on Instagram?
The “Explore” tab, which Instagram officially calls “Search and Explore,” is a personalized selection of posts that Instagram thinks you might like. Similar to Facebook’s algorithm, Instagram analyzes all of your behavior on the app and shows you posts that they think might interest you.
Since it’s primarily based on your interactions with users, posts, and the app itself, the Explore page will look different for each user. “Explore” consists of both images and videos that you’ve liked, as well as posts that have been liked by people whose posts and videos you’ve liked and followed.
Guess what kind of posts I interact with frequently? 😀
Posts you’ve interacted with
Instagram monitors your behavior, your interactions, and shows you posts on Explore pages based on that behavior. This means that if you engage with posts of cute dogs, the Explore page will automatically fill up with posts in that niche. This is not only the case with Instagram, but also with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The goal of Instagram and co. is that you use the apps as long as possible.
You don’t even have to actively interact with a post (like, comment, save or share), if you look at a post longer than the other posts (based on your usual behavior), Instagram will also track this as a form of engagement (albeit a passive form) and show you more posts in the same niche.
Every now and then, you’ll notice that Instagram will suddenly show you posts in niches you’ve never searched for before. They are thus testing your user behavior. This happens very often on YouTube. There, videos are suddenly recommended to you that are either very old or that you have never even begun to search for.
Posts that other users have interacted with
Apart from your interactions, the Explore page also looks at interactions with other people’s posts. Mostly, though, from the accounts you follow and like posts from.
For example, if you follow accounts that post soccer posts and they like pictures of soccer players, there’s a good chance those posts will also appear on your Explore page. Even if you don’t follow the footballers’ accounts and have never liked any of their posts.
Of course, the same goes for your followers; there is a chance that your posts will show up on their followers’ Explore page. At Instazeal.com, we’ll show you how to use this to your advantage and get more followers as a result.
