One of the most active and dynamic social media outlets in the world is Instagram. Since 2010, Instagram has been a platform for billions of users to share photos of an endless amount of places, people and much more. Additionally, the social media giant has evolved to enable users to post videos or reels. Doing so has allowed users to become more creative in sharing their content with their followers. Most importantly, this brought a new ball game for marketers: Instagram SEO.
Because of the large amount of activity of users and followers on Instagram, businesses use Instagram to promote their products. Moreover, successful Instagram celebrities build millions of followers through entertainment, educational topics, and more. Whether it is a meme page, fashion store, or any other platform, all of these Instagrammers have one thing in common – successful marketing strategies. A huge part of an effective marketing strategy for a platform is the knowledge of SEO and social media.
SEO, or search engine optimization, are several practices to help potential customers to find your brand online. The goal with SEO is to garner more attention for a brand when users are searching for a topic online. When a potential consumer of your brand visits their platform on Instagram, it is the first step for these users to follow the account. Moreover, if the brand is promoting a product or services, these followers can purchase what the brand has to offer. However, SEO for social media is only successful with the following tips to keep in mind.
Using Hashtags Correctly
Hashtags are added to a post description with the goal of being viewed by users searching for posts related to that hashtag. It is an effective tool for your brand’s platform if used correctly. One of the biggest mistakes that many Instagram brands make is using a hashtag that has billions of posts. You are more than likely to be buried by the overwhelming amount of other posts using that same hashtag.
Thus, your chances of users seeing your posts plummets. It is better for your business to be more specific to hashtags that are more specific to your topic. This garners attention for your target audience, improving your chances for these users to visit your platform. Moreover, you do not want to add too many hashtags. Adding over thirty hashtags will automatically be hidden from your followers. Therefore, your likelihood of your brand being marketed is also hindered. You can monitor the effectiveness of your hashtags using Instagram’s hashtag analytics feature.
Revisiting Your Profile
Keywords are words that, when placed in your content, can help your platform stand out in search results. On Instagram, these can especially be helpful for your brand when strategically placed in your platform’s profile. This could take the form of typing a keyword in your brand’s username or bio. By doing so, the algorithm on Instagram will detect these keywords on your platform. When this happens, the algorithm will allow your account to have a higher ranking in search engines like Google.
Including Alt Texts
Instagram allows users to customize their alt texts in their photograph posts. Alt text allows your post to rank higher in Instagram for the specific topic your platform is based on. Alt text is a description of your photo, which can also be automatically written by Instagram’s algorithm. For example, if your niche is about bats, you may have a photo posted about bats. Instagram will automatically scan the photo and pick up that the topic is about bats. From there, it will write an alt text about the photograph. Additionally, when someone searches for bats on Instagram, this post will be understood by Instagram to be relevant information and may appear on the search list.
Want to know more about Instagram SEO practices? At V12 Strategies, we take pride in helping brands in improving their marketing strategy. Come learn more about V12 Strategies today.
