If you ask ten social media experts how to increase reach, you will most likely get ten different answers:
“My focus is more on the production of video land (IGTV) content”.
“I try to hold live on various topics as much as possible”.
“In my opinion, targeted ads can be a powerful launch pad for any page.”
These comments are increasing day by day, and with the expansion of the possibilities that Instagram gives to users, we can expect an increase in marketing strategies in this social network.
In 2021, there are dozens of tricks that you can use to increase your page views: cross-promotion, using hashtags, stories, rails, and more. But newer tricks are related to Instagram SEO. You are familiar with website SEO and its various aspects, both internal and external SEO. But you need to know that SEO also includes social media platforms. So, by increasing the viewing rate, it can be expected to attract more users than competitors.
So, as we stated at the beginning, the topic of this article is Instagram SEO, and our goal is to be able to get a detailed and comprehensive answer to the following questions at the end of its study. Also, to study more in this field, it is better to register for an Instagram admin course.
What is Instagram SEO?
Why is Instagram SEO important?
How to successfully implement Instagram SEO?
In the following, we will explain each of the mentioned questions.
Table of Contents
What is Instagram SEO?
Instagram SEO is the process of optimizing your content to place your profile in higher ranks on the Instagram search results page. Although this discussion is not discussed as much as Instagram Live and social media advertising, it is necessary to pay attention to it in the same way for the development of your business. By following SEO practices on Instagram (which we will discuss below), you increase your chances of success for users to reach your page through relevant keywords.
For example, search “gardening” in the Instagram search bar. Then click on the “see more” option to see a list of suggested phrases. Click on “gardening ideas” to view this page.
Now let’s look at the top left post. If you refer to the page where this post is located, you will notice that it is about a small business.
Instead of spending a fortune on advertising, this business has chosen to improve its content to rank for relevant keywords. They do it this way because they know that people interested in this phrase will probably react positively to buying gardening tools. So this is an example of Instagram SEO.
Now, you need to know that Instagram advertising is an effective method used by many businesses. But you should be careful that these ads should be used as a supplement along with Instagram SEO and in no way can you mention ads as a substitute.
It is interesting to know that Instagram SEO is not only for your posts.
Suppose the term “gardening” is entered by the user in the search bar. Usually, users prefer to enter profiles when searching on Instagram. Of course, in this example, there is no doubt that the page of this business is ranked high when this phrase is entered, and this is only because of the strong SEO of this business.
Now that you are familiar with the definition of SEO on Instagram, we are going to discuss the importance of this topic in the next section. So stay with us!
Why is Instagram SEO important?
Instagram SEO becomes important because it can connect you to users who are looking for content related to your business.
Let’s look at this from another perspective: every time a user searches for a term related to your business, it’s an opportunity for you to drive quality traffic to your page (and by extension, your website). Instagram SEO is an opportunity to capture all of this relevant traffic, a way to engage with users who are more likely to convert than others.
But the question that may be raised: Is the goal of Instagram users now to communicate with different businesses and brands? Is it worth spending your time optimizing content on Instagram to get higher rankings?
Of course, the answer is yes! According to the Espresso report, on average, more than 200 million Instagram users view the content of business pages every day. 66% of this number are users who do not follow the relevant page yet. Also, 60% of people active in this social network have admitted that the information they get about new products of different brands is usually through this popular social network.
So, relying on these statistics and other statistics that show the importance of this platform, it is obvious that many people are looking for new businesses, new brands, and of course new products on the market on Instagram.
Searching for different words is just one of the ways users discover new brands. Instagram Ads show different areas, which is what Explorer does. Therefore, SEO will not be the only solution to progress on Instagram, but it must be used along with the other mentioned items.
However, SEO is the only way to {naturally} connect your business to potential customers who have shown positive signs towards you.
Instagram Ads are not a natural (organic) method and have less loyalty compared to the SEO of the user it attracts (maybe the user’s desire to enter your page from Ads may not completely match your activity).
Explorer can be considered as one of the organic methods. However, this strategy may not attract the target user to you.
Now that we understand the value of Instagram SEO for business pages, we are going to introduce 4 tricks to facilitate the Instagram SEO process of your page.
4 tips for successful Instagram SEO:
As you can see the following points, don’t forget the main goal:
“Raising your profile and page posts as much as possible in words that matter to you”.
In the following, we will mention 4 points.
Identifying and prioritizing keywords
Which group of words is more important to you? Which word would you like to rank better? What terms should the user encounter on your page when searching? It is necessary to fully answer these questions before making the slightest change on your page.
For this, you must first distinguish between main keywords and long tail keywords.
Main keywords (such as gardening) are terms that have a high search rate and have a lower financial aspect in the user’s mind. For example, the term “coat model” can be considered as part of this category.
Long-tail keywords (such as gardening ideas) are terms that have a low search rate and have a stronger financial aspect in the user’s mind. For example, the phrase “buying a coat” can be considered as part of this category.
Which is more important to you: increasing page traffic or having a higher conversion rate? If your choice is the first, then you need to focus on the main keywords. If your priority is conversion rate, it is better to focus on the second category.
Although both of these goals are close to each other; For example, if your goal is to improve conversion rates, having high traffic will help, and in the end, you will most likely optimize your content for both keywords and long tail keywords. In any case, it is necessary to specify your priorities in your SEO planning, and do not forget that all optimizations will not have the same importance and effect.
Tip: If you are having trouble with Instagram keyword research or don’t know how to go about this process, you can get ideas with the help of the Instagram search bar or hashtags and by entering words related to your business.
Key performance indicator design
Now suppose some time has passed since your page started working. How do you want to know your progress? How are you going to measure your on-page SEO efforts?
Measuring the impact of your efforts is a big part of the optimization process because it helps you understand which of your actions are more effective than others.
To ensure your success, be sure to set several key performance indicators. Using the Instagram Insights section, you can monitor these things:
- impression
- Rich
- Page views
- followers
- Click on the website
Now you can consider the impact of your actions more carefully by monitoring the selected index.
profile optimization (username and bio)
Now that you know which keywords to target and how to measure your actions, it’s time to optimize your profile. We present this discussion in two sections: profile optimization and page post optimization.
To optimize your profile, it is necessary to choose your username and bio carefully. If you were careful, we explained in the previous section that the effect of all actions is not the same, username and bio are among the parts that can be changed. It can significantly affect the performance of your page.
Your username should be expressive and clear, which means you should use your main keywords in it.
But what if we have already chosen our brand name and it is not possible to change it? Instagram has also thought about this problem and for this purpose, in addition to the user name section, it has also created a section under the title of the business name.
But if your business is new and you haven’t chosen a username yet, try to choose a phrase consisting of your brand name and your main keyword as a username.
Also, bio optimization is one of the things that you should be very careful about when writing. The bio allows you to use the main keywords that you did not use as a username to describe your activity.
By optimizing your username and bio, your page will have a standard look.
Now, as the fourth and last point of this series, we will examine the points that you need to do to optimize the posts.
Optimizing posts (writing descriptions and hashtags)
Is optimizing a post as important as bio optimization? Of course not!
Let’s go back to the post we saw in the previous section. Most likely, the person who put this post on the page used the term “gardening ideas” in its description. If he did not do this, was his page, product, or website visible? of course not!
So, considering the effort and little time that optimizing the description of a post will take from you, there will be no reason not to write it.
As you know, hashtags play an effective role in the ranking of this post. However, this was not the only word targeted by the admin.
In general, when you want to optimize a post, you should:
Use descriptive text to target keywords.
Use hashtags to emphasize these words and use secondary keywords.
So always pay attention to using the words that are most related to the content of the post in the text of your description. It is also necessary to use words that have the minimum amount of search for hashtags.
Do not ignore Instagram SEO!
Instagram SEO is a free and productive method for all people who are looking to increase their traffic, reach, and conversion rate. Although the results may not be as high as Instagram ads, it is still growing.
If you are looking at Instagram as a tool to expand your business, then there will be no room for SEO!