Whether it’s a potential customer, client, employee, or "it girl," having someone stumble across your page can open the door to future opportunities. At the very least, being discovered online can increase general brand awareness. SEO stands for search engine optimization and measures how likely your platform is to be seen by users scrolling through search results. Boosting SEO can help increase your reach and open limitless doors of connections with users from all over the Instagram world.
Optimizing SEO means skyrocketing up the search results page and seeing increased traffic overall. We've rounded up four ways to boost SEO.
Keywords in your captions
Keywords are oftentimes what create the list of users' search results, and determine what shows up on the explore page. A correctly used keyword is a word that has anything to do with what type of company you are or what you’re trying to promote.
You should incorporate keywords within your captions. Plus, having well-written, descriptive captions that use keywords can group your profile with similar profiles, leading your posts to end up on more users’ explore pages.
Keywords in your profile
Another way you can incorporate keywords is through your username and bio. It is especially important to be a straightforward while “naming” your company to increase the chances of gaining attention toward your page. Don't sweat if your company name doesn’t really describe the type of business you are. You can include industry keywords in your social media bio, too!
For example, our business name is set as our username on Instagram (@nesscessity), but our actual name/title that shows up on our profile is set as Social Media Experts. People who don’t know about our company yet are not likely going to search for “Nesscessity”, but people interested in social media may search for keywords like “social media” or "social media experts," which could potentially lead them to check out our company!
Hashtags
Notice how there's an entire hashtag section when you search for content on Instagram? Utilizing hashtags can be super beneficial, as long as you make sure you’re keeping it simple and timely.
It's important to make sure each hashtag is relevant to the actual post, even if you feel it's relevant to the brand. For example, if someone searches for the words “winter coat” in hashtags, they aren’t very likely to click on a graphic about that brand's website, even if your brand does sell winter coats.
Alt Text
Alt-text is the text you can add (in addition to your captions) to your photos and videos. These are typically used as a more detailed description of your content. Adding this to your posts can make your account more accessible, and increase your chances of people seeing it while browsing through related content. (It’s also just another opportunity to use keywords!) Following the common theme here, be sure to stay consistent and straightforward with what you’re describing.
The alt text feature can be found under the advanced settings tab of the posting menu.
If you're not optimizing SEO strategies on social, you're missing out on possible hundreds of potential customers (and hundreds-thousands of dollars in revenue)! That's a brutal reality to face. So, don't! Start using these SEO tactics today.