If you are using Instagram to market your business, optimizing your account is the best way to guarantee success. You might have heard that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) plays a key role in digital marketing, therefore, it is necessary for Instagram marketing too. Your chances of driving sales increase with your reach.
Instagram is one of the best ways to boost your brand just by taking a little help from SEO. you can check out these stats to know the advantage of Instagram for SEO
- Instagram has over 1 billion active users. You can reach these users with the right Instagram SEO tactics.
- Users aging 34 years or younger constitute two-thirds of the total Instagram user base. Millennials and GenZ are crucial for the sales market. An analysis by YPulse found that these two age groups of Millennials and Gen-Z combined were close to the $3 trillion mark.
- People spend 53 minutes approximately per day on Instagram.
- 83% of people use Instagram to find new products or services.
In this guide, we will show you some of the best ways to use Instagram for SEO and how to do that in the first place. These will also help to increase engagement on Instagram.
1. Optimize your Instagram profile for search
The Instagram search function performs a bit like Google. It delivers the most relevant profiles based on the user’s search term. According to the Instagram algorithm, other than the simple SEO techniques, the search results also depend on several factors such as the accounts you follow and the ones you are connected to. Also, the posts you like have a major influence to determine relevance.
Keywords play a critical role in Instagram SEO. Here’s how to use keywords to show up in relevant searches.
- Name and Username- Incorporating a primary keyword in your Instagram name and username is a great way to improve your chances of appearing in relevant searches.
You can choose your Instagram name according to your niche and popular keywords but usernames are quite complicated. You can play around with your brand name and prepare a unique word for it that is easy to search.
- Bio- Your Instagram bio is a great place to include keywords that you want to rank for. You can use it to describe your business with relevant keywords.
- Write descriptive captions- captions are a great way to reach more people on Instagram. Use keywords in your posts’ captions that are relevant to your brand, niche, and content of the post. This will help the Instagram algorithm to understand what your post is about and it will show the post in the relevant searches.
Related: How to Get More Followers on Instagram: 19 Tips to Grow Your Real Audience
2. Get tagged
So far we have discussed how to optimize your Instagram profile and content for increased search and discovery. But there is another key factor that can help drive the discovery of your profile on Instagram- Tags and Mentions.
Although Tags and Mentions are much harder to control, they are a lot like backlinks on the web. When someone tags your account in their posts or stories, others who see that post can also visit your profile by clicking on the tag. It is a great way to drive discovery.
You can increase your chances of getting tagged and mentioned by promoting UGCs. you can host contests, giveaways or simply ask users to post their feedback for your product and service on the platform. These will also act as a vote of confidence for your brand and also increase your visibility on Instagram or you can even buy instagram followers on your profile.
3. Consider hashtags as keywords
On Instagram, hashtags function the same as keywords do in regular search engines. They help users in discovering relevant content. When you search for a certain hashtag, it will show all the posts tagged with that hashtag. Similarly, adding a certain hashtag to your post means that it will appear when someone searches for that particular hashtag.
So, it is extremely crucial to tag your posts with popular hashtags relevant to your content, niche, and brand, so that you can attract the right audience. However, try not to overload the caption space with a lot of hashtags as it can be an eyesore. Although you can use up to 30 hashtags, up to 11 hashtags are more than enough for one post.
4. Make the most out of Alt Text
Instagram has a feature that lets you write Alternative text to describe your photo in detail. The algorithm then uses a screen reader that reads the image description to know what the photo contains. This Alt text feature was intended to help users with visual impairments in order to understand Instagram’s visual content. In addition to enhancing the app’s experience for visually impaired users, this feature helps you Instagram SEO too. The idea is to use relevant keywords in your alt text to assist the Instagram algorithm in understanding what the image contains and how it can be useful for certain users.
Although Instagram automatically develops Alt text for your pictures, make sure you edit it to make it more descriptive.
Conclusion
Your Instagram account can make all the difference between being just another business or a winning brand. So, drive up your visibility on the platform with effective Instagram SEO strategies and boost your brand awareness among your target audience. Make the most of these Instagram optimization tips mentioned above to get found on the platform.
