What it means for a Dubai business
There is no single algorithm. Instagram has said Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore each rank differently. Feed leans on accounts a person already follows. Reels and Explore show more from accounts they do not follow yet. Across all of them Instagram predicts what someone will watch, like, share or save and ranks by those predictions.
For a business the practical signals are watch time and sends. A post people watch to the end and send to a friend travels further than one they scroll past, whatever the hashtags.
Example
An interior design studio posts a carousel of one villa living room with the brief in the caption. People swipe through all eight slides and two send it to a partner with “this is what I meant”. That behaviour tells Instagram the post is worth showing to more people like them.
Common mistake
Chasing hacks: posting at a magic minute or stuffing 30 hashtags. Instagram’s own head, Adam Mosseri, has said repeatedly that original content people choose to watch and share matters most. The steady habit of posting work your buyers care about beats any trick.