We all are aware of the popularity of Instagram and most importantly for marketing, it is undoubtedly a workable platform for digital marketing. And the fact is that Instagram has around one billion active users. So, what do you think about how can you outshine in the sea of more than a billion active users? For this, Instagram SEO is a great way to initiate. Moreover, Instagram is more popular than the other giant social media platform with more and more users. That means there are lots of people waiting to see your content. So, how do you plan to reach all those users and make chances for them to engage with you? And the answer is that you should think about SEO for Instagram.
Fortunately, you can employ the same techniques you used to optimize web pages. You need your content to be promoted in search results so that it can help expand your organic reach. In fact, any business that wants to connect with new followers should understand first how SEO on Instagram works. Rather than using the same SEO techniques to power organic growth for the Instagram account. You should take Instagram as it’s own search engine. It has created it’s own search work that behaves like mini Google.
Instagram SEO
When we talk about Instagram SEO it means optimizing the Instagram content to be found in search results. It works in a way that if someone searches for an applicable keyword or a hashtag in the search box, your account or content pops up in the top list. This is how it works.
What are the SEO ranking factors for Instagram?
You can say that SEO is like a mixture of art and science and the same goes for Instagram. It is no different than this. Basically, if you are looking out for the exact formula through which you can take your account to the top of search rankings. Then there is no such thing as an exact formula. Here’s how you can govern what someone might see when they search for something and use the Instagram search bar.
Search text
The most crucial sign to search is what someone types in the search bar. Instagram finds valid usernames, captions, hashtags, and bios. And for that, you need to determine what people might search to find content like yours. Moreover, there are social monitoring tools to help give you an understanding of what kind of terms people use to search for your business.
User activity
This incorporates hashtags and accounts the subscriber has followed and connected with, and which posts they’ve seen previously. The accounts and hashtags rank higher when the users interact with them compared to those accounts with which users don’t interact. For instance, you have an account that you used to search for fitness training or fashion and followed some of the accounts related to that subject. The accounts you have followed will appear on the top of the search results because you interact with them more often.
Now imagine you have another account where you do not interact with those accounts, the results will be different from this account. Because you didn’t engage with fashion or any fitness content from this account previously. Instagram needs different signs to drive the outcome. Hence, it’s all about what you search for. Now, it’s your job to understand what kind of hashtags your targeted audience is going to use and fire up engagement through your posts.
Popularity signals
It is obvious that the content which is already really popular is going to rank high in the search result. Instagram decides popularity on the number of clicks, follows, shares, likes, etc. if you want to be popular you must have followers in a great number and make sure they are liking and sharing your content. So, that your profile or your content can appear on top of the list of search results of Instagram. Post your content at the right time like if there’s some trend or something going on, post related to it, and flare engagement. Most likely people will engage with your post and it is going to give your content a search boost while it’s relevant and latest.
5 useful Instagram SEO tips
Optimize your Instagram account
Do you know what is the best place to add keywords and other search terms? Your Instagram profile. The first thing you have to do is to select a profile name that is related to your content. If you or your brand name has popularity then this is best to initiate with. If there’s a chance that you can include the keyword in your profile name then you should include it.
Have you ever noticed that the accounts that appear in the result of your search contain the keyword? For instance, if you have searched for fashion, you will see that all of the results that appear would always contain the keyword “fashion”. Either in their name or in their bio. Also, ensure that you have added the relevant keywords in your bio and all about you, like what you do or who you are. Think of what type of content people expect to discover in your framework.
Now after everything, you need to add your location in the bio if it’s relevant for your business. The option for adding location is only for business and creator accounts, so you can say that this is one reason to change your account into a professional account. For adding a location in your profile bio for Instagram SEO open your Instagram app and select the profile icon. Select edit profile and then contact options. Now enter your address and ensure that you have turned the slider bar on to display contact information.
Ensure that you are using the right hashtags
Whereas it’s for quite some time been viewed as an insider stunt to stow away hashtags in remarks, it is affirmed by Instagram that the keywords and hashtags can be displayed directly in the caption to affect the search result. So, what do you think are the best SEO hashtags for your Instagram account? That actually relies on your audience and the business you do. If you want to know what are those hashtags bringing traffic towards your post, you need to see your account insights. Your every post insight will tell you about how many impressions you have gotten with the hashtags.
Besides, do you know that if you are using too many hashtags, you are not going to identify from which hashtag you are getting the traffic? Because Instagram analytics won’t tell you about it. But if you are using the same 2 or 3 keywords, you can easily discover through which keyword you are getting heavy traffic. You should also be looking around to find out what your competitors and the audience are using. And then you can use the search bar to know the popular keywords and hashtags in which people you follow are interested.
Here are some of the hashtag tips you can follow to show up in the search result.
- Only relevant hashtags should be used.
- Use a mixture of well-known hashtags.
- Limit the usage of hashtags up to 3 to 4 hashtags per post.
- Irrelevant and overly generic hashtags won’t be useful.
Also, it is now clear from the Instagram app that there is a limit to adding hashtags. Too many hashtags won’t help get any additional distribution.
Select the right keywords
Previously, keywords in the caption aren’t considered in the Instagram search but now these might be changing. Instagram SEO recommends adding keywords in a caption to be easily discovered. Earlier, the Instagram search result counted pertinent accounts, places, and hashtags. Now the keyword result pages are also included in the search results for browsing. And it happens to be a great thing for the less popular brand because now it provides an opportunity to discover your content without even searching for a specific name or account.
When you click on any keyword result page it will open a full page of content to browse. The keyword result page is fundamentally an explore page for the particular keyword. So, how are you going to choose the relevant keyword for your targeted audience? The search you have done for finding out the best keywords is going to give you the clue. However, to find out which hashtags or keywords are bringing traffic towards your site, you can use Google analytics. These are the tools good to experiment with, within your Instagram posts. Another good tool for discovering it is Hootsuite.
Ensure including alt text to images
Alt-text is basically an explanation about the picture or content attainable for those with visual displacements. If the picture fails to load in any case the alt text can provide an explanation. Moreover, the alt text you add to your content helps Instagram understand what is in your content. It is going to help the app to realize whether it’s relevant for a specific search or not.
If you want to add an alt text in your post, select the advanced setting. You can find this option at the bottom where you write your caption then select write alt text and use relevant keywords while adding a description in your post. This feature of alt text is too precise because it gives an opportunity to include keywords that people may use while searching for the content.
Quality content is necessary
Instagram has recommended guidelines that are based on search results. And if any of the accounts or profiles will go against the app’s guidelines. Their content is not going to appear at the top of the search result or will not appear in the search result at all. Or you can also say that Instagram guidelines are just like the community guidelines. So, if you intervene in the guidelines, the content you upload will be taken out from Instagram.
However, if you go at odds with guidelines, your content might still display but it would be hard to find. The most important thing is that Instagram is not going to recommend your content that is low in quality or sensitive. Also, the content that is inappropriate for some viewers would be taken down from the app. Here are some of the things that can be the reason your post was taken down.
- Engagement or clickbait.
- Content that is giving the wrong idea or impression about anything.
- Content that is copied from somewhere.
- Health claims that are overemphasized.
Conclusion
Essentially, SEO may be used for websites, but who says you can’t use it for social media optimization. Follow these tips and create your Instagram SEO in such a way that it can help build your reach.