How does IG SEO work? All social media platforms have their own unique algorithms that sort through all content to push relevant posts to the right audience. Traditionally, IG’s search function was through profile names, hashtags, and locations, but back in 2020, a major change was made. Now, users can search for content by keywords.
Once a word is searched for, all content, including that word will pop up, with popular, well-performing posts showing up first. This is awesome and completely in your favor, if you have an appropriate strategy.
If you search for the word "travel", for example, all posts and pages using that word will show up. The order in which they show up will depend on engagement, among other things (if you have interacted with similar content, how their profile performs, etc).
SEO also plays a part in what pops up for users' suggested posts. Suggested posts show up in your newsfeed and are from accounts you don't follow, but that share similar content to profiles you do engage with. So if both accounts use similar keywords, they’re essentially linked.
Why is SEO important? You may be questioning whether SEO really is even worth the effort. Let us assure you, it is. According to AdEsspresso, 66% of IG users visit a new page every day, and 60% consult creators when purchasing products or researching services.
If you are a brand with a product or an influencer with brand partnerships, SEO gives you better outreach to tap into that large group of users who want your opinion on their purchases and subscriptions.
Basically, Instagram is full of people looking for new products, brands, and creators to connect with. SEO helps you find the right people, brands, and creators.
Techniques for improving your Instagram SEO Let’s look at four specific ways you can begin your SEO journey.
Know your keywords Remember, keywords are what link you to searches for things related to your niche. You will need to do some research into what words people interested in your niche are looking for.
You can do a quick Google search for basic information on keywords, but this does not always translate directly to Instagram keywords. However, it's still a great place to start! It is the largest search engine in the world.
For hashtag research, you can use online tools such as Flick.Tech or Keyword Tool. This will give you an idea of general words and specific hashtags people are searching for.
As you are researching, take into consideration broad keywords and specific keywords. A broad keyword would be something like "fitness," which has thousands upon thousands of results.
Something more specific but still connected to your fitness niche would be something like "fitness at home." When using keywords for SEO, you want to use a combination of specific and broad words. Take note of commonly searched words as you will be using them later.
Optimize your profile and bio Your profile is a perfect place to include some of those keywords you searched for. If you are just now setting up your account, consider using a broadly searched keyword in your handle. If you already have a handle, include some keywords in your bio.
Continuing with the fitness theme, think of a way to incorporate the word "fitness" into the bio description of your page.
If your location is relevant to your brand, you can also include this in your bio. If you are a personal trainer in Atlanta, letting people know where your base is will give you access to potential clients in your area. Note that only business accounts can add a location.
Use quality hashtags There are mixed views on how many hashtags you should use. Some people say 30, and some say 4-6. The bigger issue is using quality, niche-related hashtags that are not all overly saturated. Remember when we discussed broad vs. specific keywords? This applies to hashtags as well.
Hashtags can be amazing for SEO. According to @creators 3-5 hashtags are recommended, however @instagram recommends 8-15. Overall what we have seen work is less is more. Using all 30 hashtags is confusing to the algorithm because they will be closely aligned.
It’s like going on a job interview and telling the hiring manager the 30 reasons why they should hire you, that never happens. They want you to give them 3-5 of the best reasons why. Those reasons they will remember and those they can develop a thorough analysis on you.
Hashtags are not always consistent, you have to determine what works for your account. Hashtags aren’t ever going to hurt your account. So for some people, they will see the most engagement with 3-5 hashtags, some niches see more success with 15 hashtags and some might max out on 30 and get the best results.
You want to use hashtags that still hold day-to-day discoverabilty - so not excessive competition but still solid viewership. So think of hashtags that are specific to your overall niche and the content you’re posting that have 25,000 - 50,000K posts.
It is simply preference and personal testing for your account at this point on the gram. Take time to research popular hashtags in your niche that are not over-saturated. You may think just using hashtags in and of itself is enough, but only using generic hashtags makes your content less likely to be found.
Using hashtags with fewer posts increases the chances of you being discovered through a hashtag itself. Generic tags like "#instagood" “#motivation” are so incredibly overused that they likely will not drive much traffic, if any to your page.
Take, for example, the fitness niche on Instagram.
There are currently 1.5 million photos associated with the tag "#fitness." If someone is scrolling through the hashtag itself, the odds of them finding your post are extremely low. Instead of relying only on generic hashtags, think of something directly related to you! Maybe you love practical and sustainable fitness.
The tag "#fitnessgram" only has 430K posts, which is amazing because it's small enough to rank and large enough to be discoverable. Your chances of getting found are much higher when using a niche-related tag, which, in turn, gives you the opportunity to own that space as you grow!
So don’t stress on hashtags, do what creates the most engagement and growth for your account. Focus on producing quality content, engaging content, educational and fun topics.
This means you need to be consistently testing hashgroups in order to achieve your personal ideal hashtag number for your account. We love to use Flick for this.
FYI - you can put hashtags in the comments or at the bottom of your post, we have found it doesn’t affect your reach negatively or positively where you place them.
It's also important to note that Instagram will not show you which hashtags are performing well if you are using more than about 6. If you keep hashtags minimal, in analytics you can see which tags are driving traffic and should continue to be used, and which ones might need to be adjusted.
Add alt text to images Alt text is used to increase accessibility. If you are not familiar with alt text, you can read more in-depth about it here , but it is essentially a way to enable people with visual impairments to enjoy the platform as well! Adding this feature to your posts boosts accessibility, which increases traffic to your page by the sheer fact that everyone can enjoy it.
To activate alt text for your posts, look to the bottom of the caption screen and select "Advanced settings" to generate the text. You can also select "Write alt text" where you can write your own text description of the content. Here you can include relevant keywords.
If you have already posted an image, click on the three-dot icon and click "Edit." From there, at the bottom right of the image, select "Edit alt text." Enter your alt tex, which is just a very literal description of what is going on in your photo or video and select the blue check mark!
Implementing SEO in Your IG Strategy SEO can be a little overwhelming initially, but it’s worth learning for your account’s success! Just start with these four tips and see how you progress. We know you will catch on quickly (it just takes a little practice). And if you want to learn more, we suggest purchasing our book, The Micro-Influencer’s Brand Partnership Bible. It dives deep into all things Instagram marketing and will help you figure out your SEO strategy. Start your journey to becoming an Instagram SEO master today!
