They say it takes time to grow a following on Instagram. Although this is true, you may have also wondered how are some brands and businesses, that seem to have only just popped up on the platform, are increasing their visibility so quickly? How are their brands getting discovered on Instagram organically with no advertising to help push it along?
Well, there can be a number of factors at play. However, one of the key factors is the brands’ or business’ SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy. A well thought out and executed SEO strategy is essential to increasing your brands’ or business’ discoverability on Instagram organically. This will allow you to reach a bigger, more relevant audience and build a following of users who genuinely like what you are offering – whether it’s to provide a product or service or connect people and build a community.
Now that you know why a strong SEO strategy is important, here are our top 3 tips on what you should do to help increase your discoverability on Instagram by the right audiences.
Tip #1: Optimise Your Instagram Profile
So often the profile section is put together without much thought, missing a real opportunity to utilise this section to its fullest for increasing discoverability. Firstly, your profile should be complete. Identify your brand with a clear profile picture and outline of what your brand or business is or does. You should also aim to include a link which drives traffic to your website. But if you’re hoping for your brand or business to show up when users search for a specific keyboard, then use that keyword in your bio, especially in your name and/or username, as users can search for both of these.
See for example our business, Social Media AOK. Both our name and username contain the words social media; one of our key service offerings.
Tip #2: Include relevant hashtags
Adding hashtags to a post is still regarded as one of the best ways to increase discoverability on Instagram. Often, hashtags are an afterthought, when they should really be carefully selected as it may just be how you get in front of your target audience. So, what exactly are we talking about here? Hashtags can be thought of as keywords. Think about and research the keywords that are relevant to your brand, business and audience and that you would like to rank for. So when a user types the keyword into Instagram’s search field, your post will show up on that hashtag’s results page.
To get started in picking the right hashtags for your brand or business, think about who your audience is, what is important to them, what is your message to them and what do you offer?
You can use resources such as SEMRush or Hashtagify to find the relevant hashtags and keywords that are linked to the keywords you want to be discovered on.
As an example, see Social Media AOK’s use of hashtags below.
Tip #3: Include keywords in your captions
One of Instagram’s recent updates included adding the ability to search Instagram explore using keywords. This update has contributed to a recent shift towards more well-thought out and generally longer captions. Although it is usually the image that captures the eye of your audience, the importance of the caption cannot be denied. Especially now. Why? Because now when you write a descriptive caption which incorporates keywords relevant to your brand, business and audience, your post will be visible to users who search using that keyword.
See for example, the highlighted keywords Social Media AOK used in one of its recent posts below. These keywords are relevant to Social Media AOK’s brand and business.
We’ve shared with you three of our top tips for increasing your discoverability on Instagram organically. Put these tips to use but remember, consistency is key. Like with algorithms on any platform, it takes time to teach them and steer them in the direction you want. The more consistent you are with applying the above tips, the sooner you will become more visible and discoverable and the sooner your reach will increase.
Need a bit more guidance with your social media marketing? Contact us, we’d love to catch up for a coffee and find out more. Alternatively, read more about our social media services here.
