Quick answer · Yap & Done study
Does Instagram SEO work for Reels?
Partly. Reels with a search phrase in the on-screen headline got +10% views against the same creator's other reels, and captions that didn't name the topic got -15%. Putting search words in the caption, on screen and out loud together made no clear difference (+2%).
+10%views for reels with a search phrase in the on-screen headline
The numbers
What we found
- Name your topic in the words on screen, the way people would search for it.
- Write a caption that names the topic; leaving it out cost views.
- On TikTok the same check found a bigger effect: +22% views for search words in all three places.
Search words and Reels views
Against the same creator's other reels.
How we know: Gemini read the caption, the on-screen headline and the first 6 seconds of 2,809 Instagram Reels from 201 creators and checked whether each names the topic the way people search. Each reel is compared with the same creator's reels from the month either side. A smaller sample than TikTok's, so the ranges are wide.
FAQ
Related questions
Do hashtags help Instagram SEO?
We couldn't test it: almost no captions in our sample were only hashtags.
Cite it
Yap & Done (2026). Does Instagram SEO work for Reels? 10,799 TikToks from 777 creators in 10 advice niches, picked without looking at how they did. Each video's views are compared with the same creator's other videos.does-instagram-seo-work/