How to Change the Order of Stories in Highlights on Instagram

You've meticulously crafted your Instagram Highlights, turning them into valuable resources for your followers and a powerful first impression for new visitors. But there's just one problem: they're not in the right order. This article breaks down the simple but not-so-obvious method to rearrange your Instagram Highlights exactly how you want them, putting your most important content front and center.

Understanding Why Your Highlights Are Ordered the Way They Are

Before fixing the problem, it helps to understand what's happening behind the scenes. Instagram doesn't have a drag-and-drop feature for ordering your Highlights. Instead, it operates on a simple principle: the most recently updated Highlight always appears first. The "first" position is on the far left, the spot everyone sees when they land on your profile.

When you add a new Story to an existing Highlight, the app considers that Highlight "updated." As a result, it automatically jumps to the front of the line, pushing all the others one position to the right. This is the single mechanism we will use to take control. You're not fighting the algorithm, you're using its own rule to your advantage.

Why the Order of Your Highlights Matters for Your Brand Strategy

Rearranging your Instagram Highlights isn't just about being a perfectionist. It's a strategic move that directly impacts how users experience your brand. On Instagram, your bio, profile picture, and Highlights create the first impression for new followers. If that valuable real estate is messy, you might lose a potential follower. These curated collections of Stories act as a navigation menu for your profile. Organizing them thoughtfully guides followers, answers their questions, and helps convert them into customers.

Prioritize Important Information

Think about the first thing you want a new visitor to know. For an e-commerce brand, that might be a "Shop Now" or "Our Products" Highlight. For a service provider, "Services" would be a priority. For others, it could be "Start Here," "About Us," "FAQ," or "Book a Call." By moving these critical pieces to the front, you reduce friction and give newcomers a clear path to follow. They don't have to scan through less important Highlights like "BTS" or "Team Fun" to find out what you do or how they can buy from you. This user experience is fundamental for customer engagement and your overall return on investment on social media.

Building out a Clear Narrative Experience for Followers on Instagram

Your Instagram Highlights shouldn't be random, they should tell a story and create a clear funnel for users to understand your business. You can arrange your Highlights to detail a journey for new visitors. For example, a business coach might order their highlights like this:

• About Me: Introduce who you are and build trust. This is a great place to highlight past successes, awards, or media features to establish credibility.
• Program Info: Explain what audiences can expect from your products or services. This Highlight saves you time by answering common questions about your offerings up front.
• Reviews and Testimonials: Let your happy clients speak for you through video testimonials or shared screenshots. Social proof is crucial on a crowded platform like Instagram, and positive reviews build the trust needed to convert followers into customers.

Each Highlight helps build trust, making visitors more likely to engage and convert. However, this is only effective if they see them in the right order. Without a logical sequence, important information can get lost in a sea of Highlights, negatively impacting follower engagement and growth.

Promoting Timely Campaigns and Events

Your Highlight order isn't set in stone. If you're running a special promotion, move a "Sale" or "Offers" Highlight to the front. Hosting a workshop? Bump your "Events" Highlight to the first position for maximum visibility. When the event is over, you can restore your previous order. This simple strategy gives your profile a sense of immediacy and ensures your followers are aware of your most time-sensitive offerings.

How You Can Change the Order of Your Instagram Highlights

Now that you understand the "why," it's time for the "how." Reordering your Highlights involves making Instagram think you've updated them, which moves them to the front. It's a simple trick that works every time.

Follow these three steps:

1. Select a Particular Instagram Highlight to Start With

First, go to your Instagram profile and identify which Highlight you want to move to the first position (the far left). For this example, let's say we want to move a "Start Here" Highlight.

Step 2: Add a Temporary Story to That Highlight

The core of this technique is to "update" the Highlight by temporarily adding a Story to it. This new activity signals to Instagram that this Highlight is now the most recent, and it will be moved to the first spot.

• Press and hold the Highlight you want to move.
• Select "Edit Highlight" from the menu that appears.
• Tap on the "Stories" tab. You will see your archive of past stories.
• Select any Story from your archive to add temporarily. It doesn't matter which one you choose, as you will remove it in the next step.
• Tap the checkmark on the story you selected.
• Click "Done" in the top-right corner. The Highlight will now appear in the first position on your profile.

Step 3: Remove the Temporary Story

You don't want the random story you just added to remain in your carefully curated Highlight. Now you just need to remove it without losing your positioning.

Simply repeat the previous process to delete the story you just added.

• Press and hold the same Highlight again.
• Choose "Edit Highlight."
• Go to the "Stories" tab once more.
• Unselect the story you just added.
• Press "Done" to save your changes.

The temporary story is now gone, but the Highlight remains in the front-of-the-line placement. You've successfully updated it without adding any unwanted content.

A Pro Strategy on How to Manage Your Instagram Highlight Order

Moving one Highlight is simple. But what if you want to arrange several Highlights in a specific sequence, like "Shop," then "FAQ," then "Reviews"? The process can get confusing if you don't follow a clear system.

How to Order Multiple Highlights

The key to ordering multiple Highlights is to update them in the reverse order of how you want them to appear.

• Start with the end in mind: Decide on your final desired order. For example, you want: 1. "Shop", 2. "FAQ", 3. "Reviews".
• Update in reverse: You will start by updating the Highlight you want to appear last. In our example, you would first update the "Reviews" Highlight using the add-and-remove method detailed above. "Reviews" is now in the first spot.
• Continue working backward: Next, update the "FAQ" Highlight. It will then jump to the first position, pushing "Reviews" to the second spot.
• Finish with your first Highlight: Finally, update the "Shop" Highlight. It will move to the first spot, pushing "FAQ" and "Reviews" to the second and third positions, respectively, achieving your desired order.

By following this reverse-order strategy, you can arrange all of your highlights perfectly within minutes.

Final Thoughts

The strategy to reorder your Instagram Highlights is to simply add and then immediately delete a story from your archive. This tricks the app into recognizing the Highlight as newly updated, automatically moving it to the front of the line. When arranging multiple Highlights, remember to apply this process in the reverse order of your desired final placement.

Planning and organizing your content strategy saves valuable time and ensures your brand message is clear and effective. Keeping track of all your channels can be a challenge, which is why we created PostBase. Our platform is designed to help social media managers and creators plan, schedule, and publish their content across multiple platforms from a single, user-friendly calendar. This streamlined workflow can help you stay consistent and focus more on growing your brand.