Instagram has become a popular place for consumers to research products, discover recipes, and find local businesses. In fact, 67% of the GenZ population uses Instagram for search and discovery.
This makes Instagram a crucial part of your marketing mix. However, to get found by potential buyers, you need to invest in the best Instagram SEO practices.
Optimizing your IG posts for relevant keywords and tags helps the app’s ranking algorithms understand your content. They will likely show your account in the app’s related searches, Explore pages, and suggested content feeds.
However, SEO for Instagram is more than just adding keywords. In this article, we will share actionable tips (with examples) to help you boost the visibility of your content on Instagram. This includes optimizing your IG profile, posts, Stories, and Reels for greater reach and engagement.
Let’s dive in!
What is Instagram SEO?
Instagram SEO is the process of optimizing your Instagram profile and content to make it rank higher in the app’s search results. It can help boost your visibility and reach, increase engagement, and attract new followers to your account.
Overall, using the best SEO practices for Instagram helps you build a solid presence on the platform.
How Does Instagram SEO Work?
When a user searches for a keyword, Instagram displays the top content, accounts, audio, tags, places, and Reels ranking for that word or phrase. The “top” results are what Instagram considers the most relevant to the search query.
While keywords, hashtags, popularity, and user activity are key ranking factors, signals affect how often people see your content.
The app analyzes the content people like and comment on to show them content they’ll most likely engage with. How you tag and format your posts also plays a role in your search presence on the app.
Here’s what Instagram says:
How to Do SEO on Instagram: 10 Effective Tips
Below, we will discuss how to do Instagram SEO effectively to get found by your ideal target audience. This includes optimizing different parts of your profile with niche keywords and addressing the top Instagram SEO ranking signals.
1. Research Keywords to Use in Your Instagram Content
The most important part of an Instagram SEO strategy lies in identifying the keywords you want to target. These include the search terms people use to find businesses, products, or services like yours.
To conduct keyword research for Instagram SEO, you can:
- Start searching for broad terms related to your niche in Instagram’s search bar. See what suggested topics, hashtags, and accounts appear.
- Check out your Google Analytics reports to find search queries bringing traffic to your site. You can use similar terms on social media as well.
- Use audience and keyword research tools such as Ubersuggest, AnswerThePublic, or Google Trends to identify other popular industry keywords.
Save the most relevant keywords to your business and use them naturally in your bio, captions, and content. Make it a habit to look for new Instagram keywords every week or bi-weekly to keep your topics and content fresh and relevant.
2. Optimize Your Instagram Profile Bio, Name, and Handle
Instagram bio is an important part of your profile. It is a critical place to include relevant keywords and search terms. When conducting Instagram keyword research for the bio, you must focus on two things:
- Choose words and phrases that accurately represent your brand, what you do, and what you offer to users.
- Include search terms that your ideal buyers will likely use to search for businesses, products, or services similar to yours.
Here’s an example: Lucas O’Keefe is a social media marketer and an Instagram growth coach. His bio includes terms such as “social media marketing,” “grow your Instagram,” and “Instagram guide.”
Another great Instagram SEO tip Lucas benefits from is choosing a strong profile name including the keyword, “Social Media Marketing.” See how his profile shows up when you search for the keyword.
Just like in the profile name, you can include the keyword in your Instagram handle too. If your brand is already popular, use the brand name as the handle. You can also use your URL slug in the handle name like we did.
Or, choose to include your niche keyword in your profile handle. For example, makeup artist and beauty influencer, Huda Kattan runs an IG account by the handle, “@hudabeauty.” Here, “beauty” is a niche-specific keyword for her account.
3. Use Instagram Keywords in Your Post Captions
Your Instagram post captions are another sweet spot to include keywords and niche-specific terms.
For example, if you sell dog accessories and create carousel posts showcasing your top products, look for relevant keywords to include in the captions. You can use keyword research tools like Semrush to find related terms and check their search volume and interest trends to see how they change over time.
However, instead of adding generic niche keywords, ensure the keywords you include are contextually relevant to the post topic. For example, don’t include “luxury dog accessories” while promoting a normal product.
I found the above post when searching for “#dogaccessories” on Instagram. However, if you notice, the post’s caption doesn’t include this hashtag. It still ranks in the Instagram search results as it contains keywords such as “launched this harness” and “all about dogs.”
So, relevance is the key to getting your content found by people looking for it.
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You can easily copy-paste these captions or tweak them to align with your brand’s voice.
4. Create Content That Drives More Sends
“Instagram focuses more on sends over saves, primarily because they want to help connect people. Sharing content creates a social experience while saving content is more of a solo experience.” – Adam Mosseri, the Head of Instagram
This implies that getting more people to share/send your content to others (friends, family, or acquaintances) will help your content rank better in searches and appear more frequently in user’s feeds.
For this, create content that:
- Focus on making it relatable and engaging. Your content should tap into experiences and emotions that your audience can resonate with and will be inclined to share with their family and friends.
- Incorporate humor in your posts as funny content receives a lot of shares and engagement. Memes are a great example.
- Share useful information such as life hacks, tips, tools, and processes that people can share within their circle. This type of content also encourages people to save your posts, which is another ranking factor for Instagram SEO.
For example, a pet supplies brand, Collarbones shared a video tutorial on how to put on the harness on your dog.
People are likely to send it to their friends who keep pets, increasing its reach and visibility on Instagram.
- Capitalize on current industry trends, news, or challenges to encourage user interactions and engagement.
Along with creating relevant and engaging content, encourage user activity (likes, comments, saves, sends, Story replies) to make your content rank higher in Instagram searches. Adding CTAs to your captions and interactive elements to your Stories is a good way to start.
5. Maintain a Regular Posting Schedule
Posting on Instagram consistently keeps your audience engaged and coming back for more relatable content. And, engaged users send good signals to Instagram’s algorithms, helping your content rank better in searches.
Engagement activities such as likes, comments, sends, saves, and Story replies, show that your content is entertaining or inspiring. It vouches for your popularity on the platform and makes IG show your content to more new people).
Are you struggling to maintain a consistent posting schedule for Instagram?
Batch create and auto-schedule your content for publishing at the peak engagement times of your audience with SocialPilot! Our Instagram scheduling feature lets you schedule posts, Stories, and even Reels for multiple Instagram accounts. Get creative and let SocialPilot handle all the mundane tasks of Instagram publishing!
While Instagram allows you to add up to 30 hashtags per post, using 5-10 targeted hashtags in your captions is a great way to get discovered by new audiences.
You can find relevant hashtags by:
- Researching your competitor accounts and the hashtags they frequently use
- Finding hashtags that industry influencers use
- Using hashtag research tools to sort relevant hashtags by their popularity and engagement-generating potential
Also, use hashtags in Instagram Stories to make your content reach new audiences. If they engage with your Stories, they’ll likely be shown your content and account under suggested recommendations and may also start following you.
When using hashtags, ensure that you avoid certain banned and restricted hashtags to avoid getting shadowbanned on Instagram.
7. Use Alt Text on Instagram
You can add keyword-optimized alt text for your Instagram photos and videos just like you do for your web images. A descriptive alt text enhances the accessibility of your visuals to those with visual impairments, enhancing its reach.
Alt text also helps Instagram understand what your image or video is about and whether or not it is relevant to a user’s search query. You can easily add it while creating your posts.
When adding the alt text, be descriptive. Ensure it accurately reflects the gist of the image.
8. Tag Locations to Reach Local Communities
People are actively using the “Places” search feature on Instagram to discover nearby cafes, restaurants, shops, and other local businesses. They also use this feature to plan their itinerary for places they want to travel to.
Adding location tags to all your posts can significantly increase your engagement and local discovery potential by making it rank higher in the Places search results.
Instagram’s searchable maps allow users to search nearby spots, including cafes, sights, hotels, parks, and bars. It’s a great way to find hot spots in any location, which entices users.
When a user engages with the listings, they get to view posts, videos, and Reels tagged with those spots. You can view user stories to look at what the place offers and decide whether or not to visit.
Now, take a look at this from a business point of view.
When your business appears in the Places search and people view stories from users at your cafe or store, it will likely increase your local discovery and footfall. That’s why you must do location tagging and also encourage customers and guests to tag your place in their Instagram posts.
When using location tags for Instagram SEO, follow these tips:
- Be specific with the location name. Ensure that you spell it correctly.
- Your location tag should accurately reflect the place where the associated photo or video was taken. Don’t fool users.
- Add your business location to your bio for better discoverability.
- Interact with local users to further increase your visibility in a specific city or place.
9. Add Subtitles to Your Instagram Reels and Videos
Instagram’s algorithm can read the text in your videos. So, you can optimize your Instagram Reels and video posts by adding relevant keywords in subtitles. It will help increase your content’s discoverability.
Moreover, subtitles make your content more accessible by helping it overcome language barriers. For example, even users who don’t understand a particular accent can read the subtitles to consume your video content.
However, when adding subtitles:
- Ensure the text is readable.
- It should match the voiceover and reflect the context of the video.
- The subtitles must not cover the entire video screen or disrupt the viewing experience for users.
Here are some other Instagram SEO tips for Reels and videos:
- Focus on creating high-quality videos for Instagram. The platform doesn’t want to serve its audience any low-quality, blurry videos or videos with messy watermarks that make the viewing experience less satisfying. They shared this Instagram Reels SEO tip on their “@creators” account.
- Use music from the Instagram music library for your videos.
- Ensure your Reels content is entertaining and fun. It should be relatable to your audience, make them laugh, or inspire them to join the trend.
10. Build Meaningful Connections to Grow
When you search for a keyword, Instagram shows you related accounts that your mutual connections already follow or interact with.
This means building the right connections is also very important to grow your reach on Instagram. Following accounts of industry influencers can help you show up in your targeted users’ search results and feeds more often.
Why is Instagram SEO Important?
Creating content for Instagram (or any platform in general) is too much work and effort. You would want it to drive maximum reach and engagement. However, your content will compete against millions of posts per day as the median posting frequency across industries is 4.7 posts per week.
While Instagram users discovered new content via hashtags and the Explore page earlier, people now use the Instagram search bar more often. This means incorporating relevant keywords in your profile name and bio, captions, video subtitles, Story text, Reels, and alt text has become more important than ever.
Instagram also offers suggested accounts and suggested content feeds, recommending accounts that users will most likely want to engage with.
Instagram SEO is important as it helps you connect with people who are actively searching for products/services or businesses similar to yours. This could be through the app’s search results, Explore pages, suggested accounts, or the suggested content feeds of relevant users.
Your account gains visibility in the feeds of users who don’t follow you yet but have an inclination toward the type of content you share or the products/services you offer.
So, basically, with Instagram SEO, you can serve your content to highly relevant users and capitalize on the opportunity of nurturing targeted leads for your business growth. It is also the most cost-effective way to increase your reach (paid ads or boosted posts will cost you a lot).
Conclusion
You can boost your discoverability on Instagram using these best SEO tips.
Include keywords in your captions, add location and people tags, and consistently schedule posts for publishing at peak engagement times. It will help you master the app’s search algorithm.
This means more visibility for your content in searches related to niche keywords and higher chances of your account being shown in suggested content feeds.
So, are you ready to amplify your account’s reach and engagement on Instagram? Start optimizing your content for SEO today.
