There are more than a billion active accounts on Instagram. It’s one of those social media platforms that turn into an addiction for people. Thus, if you have an online business and want to drive more sales, Instagram should be a part of your digital marketing strategy.
However, you alone are not the only business out there from a particular industry. If you are selling women’s products on Instagram, chances are there are thousands of others. And the same goes for all kinds of high-ticket products.
Hence, it’s vital to be aware of the best SEO practices for Instagram. This article will walk you through five of the best Instagram SEO tactics that will help you to boost your organic reach and get more business.
1.Optimize Your Profile for Search
Instagram SEO starts from profile optimization. Like any other platform, it’s a great practice to fill in all the relevant information while creating an Instagram profile, including your location and bio.
Since it’s going to be a business account, make sure the information fed is 100% correct. From your contact number and email to your physical address, working hours to your product/service, everything should be there.
There’s an option to only enter your city name, but that’s not recommended. The more specific you get the better chances you have of attracting the right audience.
Also, turn on the slider bar for Display contact info. Sprinkle a few keywords here and there, if they make sense. But make sure you use your real brand name over a fake name based on keywords, this does more harm than good.
2.Use Keywords in Captions
Please note that the advice “use keywords in the caption” doesn’t imply that you are supposed to write 10 different variations of a keyword in a single caption. This never works.
Even if you have optimized your caption for a dozen different keywords, who would enjoy reading that meaningless rubbish?
This is where you’d need a copywriter to write SEO-optimized captions for your brand without ruining the quality of the captions. They should be short, crispy, witty, and engaging.
A common feature of Instagram is it provides content recommendations based on a user’s interest and previous interactions. Writing descriptive captions with relevant keywords will boost your chances of showing up on the Explore page of relevant users.
3.Use the Right Hashtags
Alongside powerful captions, you need the right hashtags to attract the right type of people. That’s where hashtags are of immense importance. They help in ranking your post whenever a relevant query is being searched by a user – all the posts with similar tags pop up, you must have noticed.
However, keep in mind that you are not supposed to overload the caption space with hashtags as it looks spammy. Instagram lets you add up to 30 hashtags, but a post with so many hashtags would be an eyesore.
There are two ways to search Instagram hashtags: tools to find the best hashtags or manual research to find out the common hashtags.
Tools save you time but of course, you’ve to pay a few bucks for them. Manual research can be time-consuming but it lets you know what’s been trending. Also, you must consider the timing of a particular post before selecting the best hashtags.
4.Use Alt Text to Send Ranking Signal
If you have been using Instagram for a while, you must have noted that there’s a feature that lets you write text to describe your photo in detail. This is similar to the Alt tag available in websites images.
If you use this feature intelligently, you can further boost your reach on Instagram. Don’t just write a vivid detail of the picture but also add a few keywords here and there.
But once again, don’t overload this description with keywords. Use them wisely, the description should make sense and don’t look spammy. To write this alt tag, select “Advanced settings” and then share your image on your profile.
5.Adhere to Rules & Regulations, Never Spam
This is true for any online platform, not just Instagram. If you tread on the platform’s TOS, don’t expect the platform to treat you with dignity. Accounts that go against the guidelines are bound to be penalized in search rankings, or may not appear in search at all.
So make sure you read the community guidelines before you begin promoting your products or services online. In worst cases, your account can be taken down and you might not be allowed to sign up from the same email again.
The following things can cause problems for you:
- Clickbait
- Exaggerated health claims
- Plagiarized
- Misleading content
- Fake likes
Original content quality and spam-less marketing remain at the core of Instagram marketing.
Conclusion
When done right, Instagram marketing can bring massive results for your business. But for that, you must learn the art of Instagram SEO to get noticed on the platform.
Not sure how to go about it? Connect with an SEO company Dubai to manage your Instagram and make sure it’s optimized for SEO.