How to get discovered and reach more people on Instagram using SEO
“How do I get discovered on Instagram using SEO?”
I get this question a lot.
Or I’ll hear “does SEO even work on instagram?”
The answer is absolutely YES.
An SEO strategy is key to expanding your reach on the platform. From mastering hashtags to optimizing alt text, I’m going to guide you through the process of making your content more discoverable, attracting new followers, and driving engagement.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
Here’s how I explain SEO to people who are new to this term.. (which dates back to 1997 by the way
Imagine you have a favorite book, but it's hidden in a huge library full of other books.
Now, let's say you really want your friends to find and read this book too.
So, what do you do?
You write down some keywords or phrases that describe what the book is about and stick them on the library shelves.
When your friends come looking for books on those topics, they'll see your keywords and find your favorite book more easily.
In the digital world, websites are like books in a library, and SEO is like those keywords you stick on the shelves.
When you use SEO on a website, you're making it easier for search engines like Google or Instagram or Facebook to find and show your website or profile to people who are looking for information about certain topics.
Just like in the library, the better your keywords match what people are searching for, the more likely they are to find your website. So, SEO is all about helping YOU get noticed.
SEO for Instagram
When it comes to Instagram SEO.. your goal is to optimize and tailor your content so that it appears in as many places as possible — from search results to the Explore Page.
SEO is an essential tactic for improving your discoverability.
The more people who discover your content, the greater chance you have at growing your following and building an engaged Instagram community.
How Instagram SEO Works: 3 Key Factors
Optimizing your Instagram posts for SEO is just one part of instagram’s algorithm. They process every single piece of content on the app to try and understand what your post is about.
Instagram says "in addition to the text you type into search, we use information from accounts, hashtags, and places — called signals — to rank your search results."
3 key factors: how instagram serves you content based on your search results.
The text: The text you type into the search bar is highly important. Instagram tries to match what you type with relevant keywords, accounts, hashtags, and places.
User activity: If Instagram thinks someone will be more interested in one post over another, it will prioritize that in the search results. It bases that off of your previous activity on the app — such as posts you’ve viewed, accounts you follow or interact with.
Information about the search results: so if there’s a search term that’s getting a lot of attention, it almost becomes a popularity contest to instagram. Whichever result gets the most clicks, likes shares is going to be favored.
Google is similar with how it ranks websites..
So let’s summarize SEO for instagram
When we talk about making your Instagram page more visible to others (which is what SEO is all about), the key is to help Instagram understand what your posts are about. So that instagram is more likely to show your stuff to people who are actually interested in it.
5 Instagram SEO Tactics To Reach More People
#1: Write Descriptive Captions With Keywords
You used to only be able to do a search on instagram using hashtags, but now when you go to the search section, you can type anything and instagram will provide results based off of hashtags, popular posts, accounts, audio, and locations.
So what does this mean for you? WRITE DESCRIPTIVE CAPTIONS
The keywords you put into your caption seriously impact your content’s discoverability.
Now keep in mind: When people search on instagram, keywords in the caption definitely play a significant role in what instagram serves you, but your username and page name ARE also important.
Instagram will look at your username and page name and rank content based off of that as well.
So use keywords in your captions, but also use them in your username and page name if you can!
For example: Social Marketing Queen (This was on purpose)
#2: Add keywords to your instagram profile name
Optimizing your bio is super important to instagram discoverability. I touched on this a little in episode #1 where I teach you how to get started with instagram marketing. (if you haven;t listened, I highly recommend going back and listening)
If you go to my Social Marketing Queen instagram profile, it’s the perfect example of how to incorporate keywords into your name and bio.
My username is socialmarketingqueen
My page name is: Katelyn Rhoades | Social Media Agency
And then I use the word social media again my bio
Just note: If you can’t fit a keyword into your username, adding keywords to your page name can be just as valuable.
Tactic #3: Include Relevant Hashtags
Instagram allows you to include up to 30 but I usually can only think of 5-10.
The thing with hashtags is: If you have a public Instagram account and add a hashtag to a post, that post will be visible on the corresponding hashtag’s results page.
Please keep in mind that hashtag stuffing is NOT the right way to do things.
You only want to use hashtags that either relate to your post or your industry or niche.
Some people will try to trick the algorithm by stuffing popular hashtags.. But that’s not going to get you in front of the RIGHT PEOPLE.
Your goal is to get discovered by your target audience, people that are going to want to buy from you.
#4: Add Alt Text to Your Instagram Posts
Instagram alt text is a feature that allows you to write custom alternative text for a richer description of your photos. And while the feature was mainly designed to improve accessibility on the platform, it can also be used for SEO purposes too. But, make sure you're putting accessibility at the forefront — don't keyword stuff just for the sake of it. At the moment, Instagram automatically generates alt text for your photos, but you can add them manually too. The way to add alt text > go to the advanced settings on your post and then you’ll see something that says Alt Text.
Tactic #5: Be Consistent With Your Niche
The more you post about the same type of things, the more the algorithm starts to learn what your account is about so it can serve you up to people that make sense for your business.
This is why content pillars are so important. When we work with new clients, we try to build out 3-5 content pillars which are little topics based around their main offering.
So for example:
If you’re a Motherhood Creator, your pillars may be:
New Mom Tips
Funny New Mom Memes
Styling Tips for New Moms
Newborn and Infant Education
All of those little clusters are based around being a new mom.
If you can implement these 5 SEO for instagram tactics into your strategy, you’re sure to start being seen by algortihm and more people, which will, in turn, grow your following on instagram.
