Instagram SEO helps brands achieve greater organic reach for free. This is how to do it right.
Instagram is the world’s third most-used social platform with 2 billion active monthly users who spend an average of 12 hours per month on the app. This global community shares an average of 66 thousand photos per minute – making the task for brands wanting to stand out particularly hard.
As the average reach on Instagram keeps falling and the cost per click of Instagram ads keeps rising, many are turning to organic reach - the percentage of your followers who see your posts without spending money on ads.
That’s where Instagram SEO, or Search Engine Optimization comes in: it helps you optimize your organic posts so they reach more people on the app without having to spend money on ads.
What is Instagram SEO?
The goal of Instagram SEO is to optimize a profile and content to improve their visibility in Instagram’s search results. This strategy can expand reach, attract more followers and boost conversions.
When users search for something on Instagram, SEO techniques help the most relevant posts appear among the top results. This includes not only the content but also the audio, tags, and associated locations.
Instagram SEO in action
To make Instagram consider the content you publish relevant, it is crucial to optimize every aspect of your profile and posts, from your bio to the smallest details in your content.
Despite Instagram SEO shares some principles with traditional SEO (search engine optimization), it also has unique aspects specific to the app, granting businesses a new way to optimize their business account. This new feature means higher reach and interaction.
Benefits of Instagram SEO for brands
Instagram SEO is essential for businesses for a couple of fundamental reasons.
Reach a Target Audience Faster: By optimizing your Instagram content with relevant keywords and hashtags, your posts become more discoverable to users interested in your niche. This targeted approach ensures that your content reaches the right audience quickly, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
Increase Brand Visibility: Effective Instagram SEO helps your brand appear in search results and explore pages, enhancing your visibility on the platform. This increased visibility can lead to more followers, higher engagement, and greater brand recognition, ultimately strengthening your brand's online presence.
Drive More Traffic to Your Website: Optimizing your Instagram profile and posts can lead to more clicks on your bio link, directing more traffic to your website. This can boost your website's SEO and increase opportunities for sales, newsletter sign-ups, or other desired actions.
Enhance Engagement: Instagram’s median engagement rate is 0.43% across all industries. That’s 6.8x higher than Facebook posts and 14.8x higher than a tweet. By using SEO strategies to connect with users who are genuinely interested in your content, you foster a more engaged and loyal community.
Instagram’s median engagement rate is 0.43% across all industries - 6.8x higher than Facebook
Improve Analytics and Insights: Leveraging Instagram SEO allows you to better understand which keywords and hashtags drive the most engagement. This data helps refine your content strategy, making it more effective over time. With detailed insights, you can tailor your campaigns to better meet your audience's needs and preferences.
How to improve Instagram SEO
On average, Instagram posts optimized for SEO see a 30% increase in reach and twice as many likes than does not optimized. Upping your game on Instagram and making your brand stand out in the crowded social media landscape is possible with the right Instagram SEO strategy. These are the most relevant techniques to take into consideration.
1. Research Instagram keywords
Instagram has an independent search engine, so you must work on the main keywords within the app to assure a good ranking for your business.
Instagram posts optimized for SEO see a 30% increase in reach and twice as many likes
Use the search bar to discover relevant keywords. When you start typing in a keyword, the app will suggest other keyword phrases that might be relevant for you to add.
2. Optimize Your Profile
Once you’ve researched relevant keywords, include them in your Instagram username and name field. For instance, if you're a fitness coach, consider using terms like "fitness," "coach," or "trainer" in these fields.
If "Nail polish" and "Vegan nail polish" are relevant keywords, these search terms should be included on the second most important part of an account’s profile: the Bio section. Describe what your brand does and include a call-to-action (CTA) with a link to your website or landing page.
3. Create High-Quality Content
Write informative and engaging captions that include relevant keywords and hashtags. Captions, in particular, can significantly enhance your post's discoverability. Ensure your photos and videos are high quality and visually appealing. Good visuals attract more engagement, which can boost your SEO on Instagram.
4. Optimize your videos
By adding captions to videos on Instagram, it not only improves accessibility, but it is also great for optimizing SEO. Instagram auto-generated subtitles for videos provide additional context for search engines, both within Instagram and in web search.
This allows search engines to understand the content of the video in more detail, increasing its visibility online. To activate automatic captions on Instagram videos, just follow a few simple steps: Access your settings in the app, go to Accessibility and activate the captions option.
5. Use relevant hashtags
Having at least one hashtag increases the probability of engagement. However, having more than 5 hashtags brings a post down on the search list. Instagram itself advises creators to use between 3 and 5 hashtags, depending on the variety of keywords that are relevant to your brand. Also, don’t use hashtags that have nothing to do with the content you are posting.
Defining secondary keywords to a business is an important part of SEO strategy, as these also must be placed as hashtags. On Instagram, 90% of brands are found by hashtags, which include services and products that a niche market is looking for on the app.
On Instagram, 90% of brands are found by hashtags
Using too global keywords as frequent hashtags, like #beauty (with over 500 million associated publications) is not as helpful. Brands should choose more descriptive words about the product or service they offer, for example: #sustainablebeauty #sustainablecommunity #vegancosmetics.
6. Interact with other accounts
Engagement is a significant factor in determining popularity on Instagram. That said, interacting with accounts that already rank for your target keywords is recommendable for maximizing your presence on the app.
It also helps Instagram categorize the account within a specific niche, leveraging user activity signals. Engaging with other users on Instagram fosters reciprocal engagement, increasing the likelihood of them interacting with your content in return.
7. Geotag your brand and posts
Adding a location to an Instagram bio, which is a feature only available for business accounts, can significantly boost its visibility, particularly if it's relevant for the business. Keep in mind that while your location appears exclusively on the app's profile page, it serves as a ranking signal for Instagram's search engine across both app and web platforms.
For added visibility, it is important to ensure that the location is taggable for Instagram's searchable map by linking the Instagram account to a Facebook Business Page and updating the address accordingly.
Also, tag your posts with the location where the photo or video was taken. This can increase visibility for users searching for content in specific areas and can attract local followers and customers.
8. Reinforce Instagram SEO with Alt Text
Alt Text is a feature of the app that allows brands to write customized alternative text, to increase content reach by its more detailed photo and video descriptions.
This option helps visual impaired users have a better experience (these users can hear the Alt text of the photo or video through the screen reader), but it can also be used as an SEO strategy.
Alt text editing must be done before the post is published, clicking on the bottom of the “Advanced Settings” page. In the section “Accessibility” there is the option “Write Alt Text”. Just click and edit this text box.
9. Maintain a consistent Posting Schedule
Post consistently to keep your audience engaged and to signal to Instagram that your profile is active. Use Instagram Insights to determine the best times to post for maximum engagement for your brand.
At Articulate, we built our own calendar tool that simplifies content management across multiple platforms. With our app, you can see every piece of content planned for Instagram, Facebook, your blog, and more, all in one place. Our calendar provides flexible views, including calendar, kanban, and task views, to suit your workflow preferences. Additionally, our tool sends automatic reminders to your team about upcoming posts, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks and your posting schedule remains consistent and effective.
10. Post Stories and Highlights
Regularly post Stories using relevant hashtags and location tags to appear in more searches. Then, organize your best Stories into Highlights on your profile. This makes it easy for new visitors to see your top content and understand what your brand is about.
Complementing Your Instagram SEO Strategy to Drive More Traffic
To maximize the impact of your Instagram SEO strategy and drive more traffic to your brand, it's crucial to integrate it with other marketing efforts.
Here are some effective ways to complement your Instagram SEO strategy:
Create Blog Posts: Develop high-quality blog posts that align with your Instagram content. Share insights, behind-the-scenes stories, and detailed information that your audience will find valuable. Promote these blog posts on your Instagram account with engaging captions and swipe-up links in Stories. This not only drives traffic to your website, but also provides your audience with more in-depth content.
Email Marketing: Use email marketing to nurture your Instagram followers and convert them into loyal customers. Send out newsletters featuring your latest Instagram posts, exclusive content, and special offers. Encourage your email subscribers to follow your Instagram account for additional content and updates. This cross-promotion helps increase traffic between your email list and Instagram profile.
Targeted Paid Ads: Invest in targeted Instagram ads to reach a broader audience. Use Instagram's targeting options to show your ads to users based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. This can significantly increase your visibility and drive more traffic to your profile and website. Combine this with retargeting ads to engage users who have interacted with your content or visited your website.
Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with influencers who resonate with your target audience. Influencer collaborations can amplify your reach and credibility, driving more traffic to your Instagram profile and website. Choose influencers who align with your brand values and have a genuine connection with their followers.
Utilize Cross-Platform Promotion: Promote your Instagram content across other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Share your Instagram posts and stories on these platforms to attract followers who may not yet be following you on Instagram. This cross-platform promotion helps increase your overall reach and drives more traffic to your Instagram profile.
By integrating these complementary strategies, you can enhance the effectiveness of your Instagram SEO efforts, reach a larger audience, and drive more traffic to your brand's online presence.
Articulate, expert Instagram SEO Services
With years of experience in optimizing Instagram accounts, we specialize in maximizing visibility and engagement through advanced Instagram SEO techniques. Connect with one of our Growth Specialists to discover how we can elevate your business's presence on Instagram and drive actual results.