Google Now Indexes Instagram Content: What This Means for Hotels & SEO Strategy – By Apollos Gause – Image Credit Unsplash+   

It used to be that when someone searched for your business on Google, your Instagram pages wouldn’t appear. That’s finally changing, as Instagram has decided to allow Google to display public posts, reels, and videos in external search results.
This change opens a new path for organic reach and discoverability. With Instagram content now visible outside the app and directly in search results, it optimizes visibility for search-first intent. This latest move strengthens the connection between SEO and social media, creating new opportunities for businesses to reach their audiences.
How does Instagram indexing benefit hotels?
The ability to showcase real travel experiences through Instagram content enables hotels to connect more effectively with potential guests. When users can access this level of experiential content on search engines, hotels will experience numerous benefits:
1. Increase in search visibility through user-generated content
As AI-generated content becomes more widespread, the demand for genuine and authentic content grows. AI-powered search engines now prioritize original and user-generated content (UGC).
While travelers are often drawn to picture-perfect photos and videos when planning trips and booking hotels, they also seek real, unfiltered insights into a hotel. Travelers want to see authentic experiences to get a true sense of a potential hotel stay. This change makes Instagram’s decision to allow Google to index posts, reels, and videos a significant turning point.
2. Expanding the audience
Instagram’s audience is growing rapidly. With Instagram posts now being indexed, this creates an opportunity for hotels to significantly grow their reach. For example, if someone searches for “Best Rooftop Chicago,” a captivating reel could easily catch their attention. That’s why engaging visual content is more important than ever for search rankings.
3. Boosts local SEO
Using keywords in Instagram captions and hashtags helps users find relevant content. This means that when users make common searches like hotels near popular attractions or the best things to do in a specific neighborhood, properties have more chances to appear and rank higher. Tagging the hotel’s location and sharing authentic, local experiences increases engagement and helps people connect more directly with the hotel’s presence in the area.
4. Enhanced and trusted brand presence
Honest reviews of visitors’ experiences boost user trust. It also strengthens your brand by increasing opportunities to build your property’s search visibility through posts, reels, and stories. Potential guests may feel more confident and at ease booking a stay when they can find engaging content about your hotel.
How to optimize your Instagram content for SEO
Since Google search engine indexing is more important than ever, brands must create social media content with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. Here are some key elements that can influence how and whether Google indexes an Instagram post in search results:
Conclusion
Instagram’s decision to make its content searchable by Google will significantly impact the hospitality industry, where potential guests search for travel content online. Currently, visibility is essential; you need to appear where your audience is already looking. This feature creates a new opportunity for organic reach and discovery and offers hotels an excellent chance to combine social media and SEO through authentic storytelling.
Hotels can boost their visibility on social media and search results by optimizing their Instagram content with the right hashtags, keywords, alt tags, and engagement techniques. Businesses that move quickly to align their social media strategies with search behavior will lead in visibility, trust, and bookings as social media and SEO become more interconnected.

Apollos Gause – SEO & Growth Innovator. Connect with Apollos on LinkedIn.
About Cendyn
Cendyn is a global hospitality cloud-based technology company that enables hotels to Find, Book, Grow – driving revenue, maximizing profitability, and creating deeper connections with guests through its integrated solutions.
Serving hoteliers for nearly 30 years, Cendyn has over 32,000 customers in more than 150 countries including brands Outrigger Hospitality, Hyatt, IHG, Aman Resorts & Hotels, Relais & Châteaux, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Coraltree Hospitality, and Onyx Hospitality Group – generating more than $20 billion in annual hotel revenue. The company supports its growing customer base with offices across the globe.
To find out more, visit cendyn.com.
 
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From scaling engagement to ad targeting, AI is changing the way influencers and brands create social media content and connect with customers.
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Using artificial intelligence (AI) to sharpen social media marketing strategies isn’t new—companies have been using AI-powered content recommendations and ad targeting since the early 2000s. But the arrival of more advanced AI tools is having an undeniable impact on how brands use social media: 66% of marketers say that AI has improved their influencer marketing campaigns, while 63% reported an increase in revenue.
Since their introduction, AI applications in social media have evolved to include advanced analytics, logo recognition, and, most notably, content creation at unprecedented scale. Experts project that by 2026, roughly half of all social media posts by businesses will be generated by AI. But James Nord, founder of Fohr, an influencer marketing platform, doesn’t see AI as a replacement for human creativity; he sees it as a tool to enhance it.
“We gave everyone in the world a camera [in their smartphones], but there’s really only a small number of people who can use that tool to tell interesting stories that are worth consuming—AI is the same.” The key for brands, James emphasizes, is connecting with your audience through storytelling. Read on to learn how to unlock the ROI of AI social media tools while fostering an authentic connection with your audience.
As both analytical and generative AI tools have evolved, their capabilities are redefining what’s possible in social media marketing and content creation. But just because these capabilities are trending now doesn’t mean they have staying power.
Emerging uses for AI in social media include:
AI can analyze vast amounts of data and produce insights more quickly than previous technology, enabling brands to analyze user behavior in more nuanced ways.
Here’s an example. Knowing when and how to post—a foundational element of social media strategies—is no longer a matter of guesswork. AI can track user behavior and engagement patterns to pinpoint the highest-performing content and recommend the optimal times to publish social media posts, thereby increasing visibility and audience engagement.
At Fohr, James and his team take this a step further, using AI to analyze content and audience sentiment at scale. Within their proprietary influencer marketing app, James’s team uses AI to categorize their creators’ content (e.g., travel, parenting, outdoor, fashion), identify the highest-performing creators within a specific category at any given moment, and report emerging trends to clients.
“If you look across, say, 50 influencers’ posts, you might be able to say, ‘When your face is in it, it does 20% better, but when it’s just a photo of a landscape, it doesn’t do as well,” James says. “AI can help you understand what seems to be working across all these different people and these tens of thousands of posts.” 
But he also emphasizes the importance of achieving statistical significance with a big, diverse data set, and cautions creators and strategists from overanalyzing their feed on an individual level. “A lot of creators only post in-feed maybe 10 times a month,” James explains. “There are too many variables to be able to pinpoint exactly what’s happening. Ultimately, it would give you more false positives than insights.”
Thanks to tools like DALL-E and Midjourney, influencers, brands, and social media teams can generate content in seconds. These AI-generated images, which can be further improved with automated editing tools and filters (like what’s available with Shopify Magic) are often used for branded social media posts, ad creatives, and product mockups.
Heinz gained notoriety for an early expression of AI-supported creativity when it asked DALL-E 2 to generate images of ketchup. This reimagining of its human-centered “Draw Ketchup” campaign, which asked customers to draw the condiment from memory in 2021, yielded a collage of Heinz-esque visuals that it used in print and social media ads.
In addition to expanding a creator’s abilities to produce digital art, image generation tools can expedite performance insights by allowing brands to generate and split test multiple versions of content almost instantaneously.
Brands are also capturing cost savings by using AI to augment creative output for campaigns. For example, digital content agency Shuttlerock revealed its AI-enabled creative process for a Pinterest campaign for Corona Extra. Repurposing existing brand assets and adding AI-generated images allowed the agency (and the brand) to do more with less time and money.
While AI-assisted creativity can drive conversation or cost savings, James emphasizes the importance of human creative direction, point of view, and audience connection for success on social. “If a creator is using AI to supplement their workflow, what you’re paying for is still the community and the viewpoint,” he says. “Creators are still the ones directing it; they’re just using a different tool instead of using a camera. So actually, it doesn’t change the fundamental basics of the space.”
Tools like ChatGPT and Jasper can help brands write captions, ads, and campaign headlines faster than previously possible. AI tools aim to create content that’s optimized for tone, sentiment, and keyword usage, and most can be trained to mimic your writing style.
Much like image generation, AI text generation works best when it’s used to make writing more efficient, not as a replacement for utilizing your unique voice. One way to inject creativity into AI-generated text is to repurpose your long-form content, such as blogs, podcasts, and books. Tools like OwlyWriter AI by Hootsuite, Feedhive, and Spiral automate the process of repurposing long-form content into social media content that’s optimized for various social channels.
Ultimately, AI-generated captions and content enable businesses to manage more accounts, campaigns, and content streams without increasing their headcount. With AI tools for social media management, even small teams can effectively scale their marketing efforts. A recent McKinsey report shows that 37% of companies using AI in their marketing efforts saw a decrease in marketing costs of up to 19%.
One of the most headline-grabbing AI trends is the rise of AI-generated virtual influencers like Shudu, Miquela, and Imma, which have partnered with notable brands such as Fenty, Prada, and TEDx, respectively (with mixed reviews). In addition to deeper control over messaging, brands can save a significant amount of money by working with AI influencers—a report by Harvard Business Review reveals that, while celebrity partnerships can cost up to $250,000 per post, a post with one of the most popular AI influencers costs only $9,000.
But James is skeptical of the potential to build enduring brands with AI-generated influencers, because he believes it’s out of step with the reason why people spend time on social media in the first place. “If, all of a sudden, we started spending our time looking at content from people who don’t exist,” he elaborates, “that would signal a fundamental shift in what we desire as humans: connection with other people.”
Human influencers are also using AI to scale their reach and engagement via chatbots that interact with fans on their behalf. These bots can mimic influencer voice and tone to engage across comments, tagged mentions, and direct messages. Combined with AI-powered social listening, brands or influencers can respond to audience members around the clock.
Chatbots like these bring up important questions about disclosure, so that users can understand when they are chatting with a bot versus a human. James also questions if influencers actually want to automate user engagement with their fans.
“If you talk to most creators about their DMs,” James says, “there are plenty of people who say, ‘I bought this thing you suggested, thanks!’ But there are also people who say something like ‘I moved to New York because of you, or you helped me through a really hard time in my life.’ I don’t think people want to have that kind of parasocial relationship with a machine.”
Find influencers to drive sales with Shopify Collabs
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As AI becomes increasingly embedded in social media, its long-term impact remains unclear. “AI is going to be a huge part of social, but I think in some ways it’s going to be more and less impactful than people think,” James predicts. “The ethical side of [using AI in social media] will be a big part of the conversation.”
The conversation surrounding AI on social media raises complex ethical questions that brands cannot ignore. From deepfakes to data privacy, the social media tools that enable creativity and efficiency blur lines around trust and transparency. “This will be a complex [problem] for the platforms to figure out,” says James.
AI thrives on data, but without proper safeguards, it can cross ethical lines in how it collects and uses customer data, potentially violating data privacy laws and norms. The FTC recently reported that large social media companies, such as ByteDance and Meta, gather substantial amounts of user data without providing insight into how it’s used by their artificial intelligence systems and social media platforms.
AI-generated content can blur the line between fact and fiction. Deepfakes and synthetic media (content created or modified by AI) challenge the authenticity of user-generated content, raising concerns about the transparency of online information. AI-generated avatars based on the likeness of influencers or paid actors further blurs the line between user-generated content and ads.
Deepfakes, identified as a key global risk in 2024, are on the rise; they increased by 550% between 2019 and 2023, according to a Deloitte report. This proliferation has been fueled by wide access to generative AI tools, which have made it easier for bad actors to scale deepfake content and spread misinformation.
AI reflects the biases inherent in the data it is trained on. That means that automated community moderation or content generation can inadvertently reinforce harmful stereotypes or exclude marginalized voices. For example, a study conducted by the Pulitzer Center found that AI algorithms embed harmful stereotypes about women into social media platforms.
In some cases, though, AI’s bias can be harnessed for good. The Human Rights Research Center reports that AI can be a powerful tool for detecting and moderating hate speech, flagging misinformation, and identifying human rights issues on social media platforms.
Brands and influencers can use AI to enhance their social media marketing strategies in numerous ways. These include analyzing audience behavior data, optimizing content performance, automating engagement, and generating content and images.
While the future of AI in social media is in flux, it will likely help creators with personalizing content at scale, identifying emerging trends, and generating branded visuals and copy.
Overreliance on AI in social media can lead to the production of inauthentic content and a decline in trust. There are also some ethical concerns surrounding transparency and data usage.
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The Key to Better SEO Actually Comes From Your Customers — Here’s How  entrepreneur.com
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Ranking on Google isn’t magic—it’s methodical. Google, Bing, and other search engines use sophisticated algorithms to surface the most helpful, reputable websites, which is why some sites dominate search results while others remain buried.
Understanding search engine algorithms (and how to work with them) is called search engine optimization (SEO) and it’s essential if you want shoppers to find your store. This guide breaks down the basics so you can boost your visibility without feeling overwhelmed.
Here’s how you can help search engines understand your website’s content and value so they’re more likely to surface your site in search results.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of editing and adjusting a website to improve its search engine rankings. Your goal is to appear on the first page of Google results for queries your customers actually type, using organic tactics like keyword research, quality content creation, link building, and enhancing site performance. Google is, by a wide margin, the most dominant search engine on the internet, with more than 79% of searches conducted via its platform, compared to roughly 12% for runner-up Bing. Because of this, most people’s SEO efforts are specifically geared toward improving Google search results.
When people talk about SEO, they may refer to several different ways of optimizing your website for search. Here are some SEO categories to be aware of:
On-page SEO.On-page SEO involves optimizing a website’s content and source code for performance. This might include improving your page loading speed, website copy, URL structure, meta data, and code cleanliness.
SEO content marketing.SEO content marketing is about publishing more content on your website in an effort to target additional keywords, including long-tail keywords (or specific phrases people search for), and appear in broader Google search results. To do this, you must create high-quality content that provides value to your target audience. 
Off-page SEO. This involves actions beyond your own site to improve rankings, primarily through earning high-quality backlinks (links from other websites). It also includes brand mentions and social media marketing efforts.
Local SEO.Local SEO is about optimizing your online presence to attract local customers. Boosting your local Google rankings starts with creating a Google Business Profile and building local citations with accurate NAP (name, address, phone number) information.
Technical SEO.Technical SEO is about improving your website’s infrastructure for search engine crawling and indexing. If you picture your website as a physical building, this is like making sure the roads leading to that building are well-maintained and the signs pointing to it are easy to understand.
Mobile SEO. This is about ensuring that a web page loads quickly and responsively on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
SEO has a reputation for being a mysterious art, thanks in part to all of the jargon SEO professionals use. Here’s a primer on some common SEO terms to help you start your SEO journey:
Search engines. Platforms like Google and Bing provide people with links to information on the internet in response to a search query. 
Search engine optimization (SEO). The practice of improving your website to increase organic traffic from search engines.
SERP. Stands for “search engine results page,” the page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s search query.
Organic search results. The web pages displayed on a SERP organically, or without the publisher paying to show up.
Paid search results. These are the web pages displayed high on a SERP due to paid advertising (e.g., Google ads).
Organic search traffic. The flow of website visitors who navigate to your website via organic search results. Often abbreviated to just “organic traffic.”
Keyword research. The process of identifying which words and phrases (called keywords) users are searching for, often by using a keyword research tool.
Keyword rankings. Where your website appears in the organic search results for a specific keyword; a higher ranking typically means more organic search traffic for that high-ranking page.
Target keyword. A specific keyword you try to rank for.
Seed keywords. Also known as “head terms,” these are basic, broad keywords with high search volume. 
Long-tail keywords. More specific keyword phrases that have at least three words.
Search volume. The number of times a specific keyword is searched within a given timeframe, usually one month.
Google Search Console. A free tool linked to a Google Ads account that helps you see which keywords your website ranks for and any errors affecting your performance in Google search. 
Google Analytics. A free tool for tracking SEO basics including website performance, user behavior, and the ebb and flow of inbound traffic.
Google Keyword Planner. Another free tool that’s used to discover valuable keywords and leverage them for SEO.
Link building. The process of getting backlinks from other websites and other sites, an important search engine ranking factor.
Sitemap URL. A file that lists all the important URLs of your site to help search engines crawl and index your content efficiently.
Title tags. Also known as a meta title, this is an HTML element that defines the clickable headline shown in search engine results. Title tags help both users and search engines understand what a page is about.
Meta tags. Snippets of HTML code that provide information about a webpage to search engines and browsers.
Meta description. A specific type of meta tag that describes the content of a particular web page.
You don’t need advanced SEO knowledge to set your website up for success. Here are the eight essential steps to help your website rank higher in search results: 
Your first order of business is making sure that search engines know your site exists, and Google is by far the most important of these search engines. Submit your XML sitemap through Google Search Console so the crawler can discover and index every important page. This helps ensure your content can appear in organic search results.
Before creating or optimizing your website’s content, you need to understand what your target audience searches for and what type of language they use when they search. Use a keyword research tool to uncover the terms your site, your competitors, and key publishers already rank for, then look for gaps you can fill. 
An SEO competitor analysis is a systematic review of the websites you’ll compete with for search engine ranking, with the goal of learning how you can improve your site’s position. By studying top-ranking pages, you can spot common structures, content angles, and technical elements worth emulating.
Make a list of your top competitors, which might include both competitors to your business and competitors for relevant keywords. For example, if you’re a footwear brand specializing in women’s sandals, you might look at other women’s footwear retail sites and women’s fashion magazines that publish articles about sandal trends. Then start a systematic study of their website content. What makes it good, and where does it fall short? Summarize your learnings and take them forward in your overall SEO process. 
Use your research to start creating new or updated high-quality content for your site. The content you create should be genuinely useful to a reader, and it should reflect your brand’s expertise and authority. You’ll want to incorporate SEO terms into your copy, but don’t overuse them, as keyword stuffing can negatively impact your site’s performance. Watch out for duplicate content on multiple pages as well. 
Optimize your website’s technical aspects, focusing on:
Site architecture. Organize your site logically, where all pages are just a few clicks away from the homepage. This makes it easier for crawlers (and customers) to navigate your site to find what they want quickly.
Site speed. Ensure your site loads as fast as possible on mobile and desktop. Compress images, use a content delivery network (CDN), and remove unnecessary code to shave off precious seconds. 
Mobile friendliness. Make sure your website is fast, responsive, and navigable, and display content and design elements such as text, buttons, and links on various screen sizes, devices, and orientations. 
Security. Make sure your site is using HTTPS rather than HTTP. Installing an SSL certificate authenticates your store and protects shopper data.
You may have already used keyword tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ubersuggest to research competitor keyword metrics. You can go back to these tools time and again for new keyword data. Paid platforms like Semrush, Ahrefs, and the upper tier of Ubersuggest can suggest new related keywords to target with new content and ways to optimize your existing pages. 
Backlinks—links back to your site from other high-quality domains—are one measure of authority in the eyes of search engines. Start your backlink efforts by creating content worth linking to—think original data, how-to guides, or interactive tools. Then promote them through guest posts, partnerships, and digital PR.
SEO is an ongoing process for any website owner. Track your keyword rankings and monitor your organic traffic. Use Google Analytics and your website’s own analytics tools to keep tabs on which pages bring in traffic and which do not. It’s also smart to regularly publish new pages with content that reflects your keyword research.
To embark on SEO, first make sure your site is indexed by Google. Then make sure your website is well structured with no dead links or duplicate content. Next, create high-quality material filled with keywords related to your industry.
To ensure Google indexes your site, submit your XML sitemap URL through Google Search Console and check for any technical issues that might be blocking crawlers.
The most important rule of SEO is to create valuable content that your target audience will want to consume. You can use public information published by search engines to optimize your site for search; this is called white hat SEO.
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