Is Google Favoring Instagram In SERP’s ‘What People Are Saying’ Section?

Users are noticing a rise in Instagram posts appearing in Google Search. Google’s AI-organized results seem to favor Instagram in their ‘What People Are Saying’ sections. I discuss the possible ways Instagram is getting favored by Google in this article.

google shows instagram more in serp now

We are seeing some rapid changes in Google search, aren’t we? With AI-organized results, multiple sections of horizontally scrollable news, and now the ‘What People Are Saying’ section which was also tested as the ‘Perspective’ section a while back- Google is giving us a lot to talk about!

Until not too long ago, we were seeing X/Twitter posts as the primary social media highlight for a keyword. Google showed X posts as an insight into what people were talking about on a certain topic.

Now, my guess is that Google is going more toward Instagram.

X is getting highlighted for a topic that’s more about real-time discussions. Google is putting X posts in a section called “Live updates”.

Here’s what the section looks like:

X Posts are being shown in the live updates section on Google

Instagram is getting highlighted in the “What People Are Saying” alongside Reddit, review sites, and other social media and forum discussions.

It might be just about Google identifying Instagram as a better source for highlighting social media discussions; Or, it may have something to do with the secret deal between Meta and Google that was in the news not too long ago.

Even though the deal now is said to have been ‘scrapped’, the intentions are still there. The deal allegedly allowed Meta to bypass Google’s rules about how teens should be treated online.

Now, for popular news terms and topics popular among teens, like celebrity gossip, sports, trending news, and more, Instagram’s rise in SERP might again be considered part of the long-term planning Google and Meta are working on.

Instagram feeds in Google Search are pretty highlighted

We already know how catchy and shiny Instagram’s logo is. And that’s a good thing a company can do for itself- be catchy!

But Google’s SERP is showing Instagram feed in an even highlighted manner. We are getting the same dimensions as Google web stories do in Google Discover feeds.

‘What People Are Saying’ already seems to have the biggest thumbnails in search results. That means they get extra visibility.

The same goes with Reddit and other results shown in the section but Instagram reels are being shown with much bigger thumbnails than Reddit posts.

I mean look at this screenshot:

Instagram is getting boosted in the 'What people are saying' section in Google search

Notice how Instagram has bigger thumbnails compared to Reddit.

And it’s not about Reddit having a bigger title. Instagram captions are much bigger than Reddit post titles because they are usually descriptions.

Even in the above screenshot, you can see that Instagram’s captions are truncated whereas Reddit post titles aren’t. That gives Instagram thumbnails more space and a highlighted appearance in search results.

There’s another difference in how Google is treating Instagram compared to others

I noticed another difference between the Reddit post and Instagram reels in the ‘What people are saying’ section.

Even though Reddit has upvotes and Instagram has comments, Google somehow prefers to show the number of comments on Reddit posts whereas it shows the number of likes on an Instagram post.

That again gives Instagram an edge. We all know that on any social media post, the number of likes always surpasses the number of comments. Liking a post is quicker and doesn’t require you to think much, commenting however requires extra work, time, and thought.

Even in the above screenshot, we can see how Instagram results have 900+ likes whereas the Reddit post has 40+ comments. That automatically triggers users to go towards the bigger number or indirectly favors Instagram.

No, I don’t think Google is going to be biased towards Reddit, no way! Google loves Reddit now, we all know that. Google loves Reddit more than it loves any other platform! But it’s about how Instagram is suddenly seeming to gain an edge in Google searches.

So are Reddit and Instagram going to be your go-to platforms for Search Engine Marketing in the future?

Is Google forcing webmasters and businesses to post more on Instagram?

Are we going to see Threads getting similar attention too?

Well, there are so many questions to ask!

(This is an opinion piece and all the claims made in this article have been researched using industry-acknowledged tools)


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