Instagram SEO: Ways to Increase Your Discoverability
You may already know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is key to gaining traffic to your website through Google or other search engines. However, SEO on Insatgram is also an important way to increase your reach, gain new followers and increase your engagement. SEO on Instagram will improve your content and your profile to make them more searchable. But how do you increase your discoverability on Instagram? In this post, we will go over six ways to do just this and help you stand out on social media!
How to Improve Instagram SEO
1. Use hashtags
You can use up to 30 hashtags on each IG post. But there’s no use slapping up any 30 in a rush and hoping for the best. Using relevant hashtags is one of the oldest and still most effective ways of increasing your reach on social media.
2. Add Alt text
The alt text feature is used to help people with visual impairments view content on social media. However, you can also use this feature to your advantage for SEO purposes by including keywords in your alt text post description.
Instagram will automatically create an alt caption for your posts if you don’t specify it yourself. However, as you can imagine, the descriptions the bot comes up with are usually less than perfect so it’s best to take a minute to write your own.
3. Optimize your profile
Your profile needs to be spot on to achieve maximum reach through search. This includes the following:
Use keywords in your IG name and username.
Add your location
Follow accounts in your niche
Stick to your niche
Speaking of following accounts in your niche, always ensure your content falls within your business niche. Posting content that covers different topics may confuse the algorithm, and you may end up with fewer followers by trying to attract everyone.
4. Write keywords in your captions
As well as writing captions that people want to read and engage with [link to article 1 from this order], ensure you use relevant keywords that your audience may be searching to find content like yours.
In the early days of Instagram (shout out to heavily filtered photos with blown-out lighting effects), the app didn't consider what you wrote in the caption unless it had a # in front of it. Now, the app is more sophisticated and can detect what your content is about through the keywords in the caption!
5. Include location tags
Lastly, use location tags on every post and in your bio.
Users can search locations the same way they can search keywords, so it’s worth adding one to capture a search for a particular area.
Using location tags is especially important if you are a small business with a local customer base, such as a café, hairdresser, or other service-based business!
Get Optimizing!
Now you know how to optimize your Instagram’s SEO, it’s time to put these strategies into action. Most of them can be done in just a few clicks, and it’s worth doing as many as you can to improve your reach long-term.
If you want to know more about SEO or how to increase your Instagram reach, feel free to enquire about our social media management services and see how our team of friendly females can help you achieve your goals this year!