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Johanna Voss's avatar

Yvette Marquez just clued me in you also have a substack! Happy to be here :) This was a great insightful one.

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Sandie Markle's avatar

Glad you're here!

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Sally Ekus's avatar

Helpful post Sandie! Question, is this IG update for pro accounts only? Or for personal ones too? Is there a difference if someone pays for the checkmark verification or not?

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Sandie Markle's avatar

Hey Sally 👋🏾 As of now, only public content from professional accounts (like business or creator profiles) are eligible to appear in Google search results. Personal accounts are not included in this update.

As for the verification checkmark, it doesn’t directly impact search visibility, but verified accounts may (?) benefit from more trust signals and visibility within Instagram itself. The key factor for search engine indexing is having a public professional account.

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Sally Ekus's avatar

Thanks! Can a person be a business?

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Sandie Markle's avatar

Yes, totally! I think you're asking about Instagram specifically (?) so yep, it's about how the account is set up. You can be a person running a business, but if you want to show up in search (especially with the new update), your account should be set as a professional or business account.

For example, I run Blueberri as a business, so I have a business IG for it. Even if you're a solo creator, switching to a pro account helps with insights, visibility, and now… searchability.

😉

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Sally Ekus's avatar

Good to know! Thank you

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