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Instagram SEO: From Strategy To Action In 10 Minutes

August 17, 2021

Instagram SEO?

Are you wondering about how to do it and how to come up higher in Instagram search results? 

Of course, SEO for Instagram is a complicated topic, however, from the point of view of the SEO expert, it works just like any other search engine platform.

Thus, mastering Instagram SEO is just a matter of knowledge and practice. 

In this post, we will give you the knowledge, and the practice you will have to acquire yourself. 

Before you move ahead get ready this is going to be an eye-opening piece of work without any bullshit and cliches of today’s internet world. 

Instagram SEO #1: Identify Niche

The first in our list is a bit counterintuitive to what we have just declared this piece to be; no bullshit and free of cliches. 

However, this aspect is important if you understand the core idea behind it. Before we explain what that core idea is, let us just reveal what actually we are talking about. 

It is to find your niche

However, instead of thinking about what niche you are in, shift your thinking a bit deeper into the side of the viewer. The viewer of your posts.

 Who do you think will gain the most from your posts?

In other words, who are you providing the most value in each of your posts?  This is the key to Instagram SEO

That person or group of people should be your target. Or, the category of their business should be your niche. It is as simple as that.

Understanding it this way, helps you create better posts and provide more value to the people who are already looking for them. 

  How do you find or know what people are looking for the most?

This is the part where the finding niche cliche comes a bit in handy.

  1. List a few categories you are interested in, or good at. 
  2. Then, do research to find  which is the least competitive
  3. Do more research to find out which group or niche has higher volume
  4. Choose the one that has the highest volume of traffic but is less competitive than other topics of your interest. 

Again simple as that! Instagram SEO cracked! 

Choose that niche, and start producing massive content, but we will talk about content and other aspects a bit later. 

For now, let us discuss one more aspect of SEO for Instagram and how it is equally if not more important than finding your niche. 

Instagram SEO #2: Research Keywords

Once you found your niche, as they say on the net. It is time for the most important task of all Instagram SEO tips. 

This is not a secret yet, not enough people talk about it. Perhaps, not a lot of people even know it. Either way, what I am about to tell you will truly change the way your Instagram optimization will work.

It is to do your keyword research. Yes, this simple task is powerful. 

What does it actually mean for someone not aware of Instagram SEO at all? It means to search for words that others are also looking for. 

How to know what words other people are looking for? This is why doing research is necessary. 

If it was another platform, this would have been much easier. Because of the existence of many tools to assist you with it.

There is no such tool on Instagram, but we have the human intelligence to help us with it. 

Well, in fact, there are a bunch of tools that help your hashtags be sort of keywords.

One such tool we offer for totally free is called the Instagram hashtag generator, make sure to use it as much as possible and benefit from using them. 

How to do keyword research on Instagram 

This is in a nutshell finding the most searched words on Instagram and utilizing them in an advantageous way. To search Instagram, these are the following you need to do.

  1. You need to type a word or selected term in the Instagram search bar
  2. Then wait for the auto-suggested hashtags. 
  3. Copy the first three for Instagram SEO 
  4. You can also modify your search a little bit and put a hashtag in the beginning of the search term to access only the hashtag related search results. 
  5. You need to choose the one which has the least number of followers

Why, you wonder?

Because the more followers the more content is available on that topic.  

It is not always the case, and you can investigate the hashtag and see if this holds true but we will discuss this later or some other time. 

That is why it is always better to stick to just the hashtags that you think you have the chance of showing up high. 

The ones you have higher chances of, especially if you are a beginner, are those with the least number of followers

Now that we know about doing keyword research for your posts.  

What else do you think should have the keywords?

The answer is basically anything and everything, but let us discuss those in more detail in the upcoming chapter.

Quick Tip 💡: If these instructions sound like a lot, let yourself be lazy and get the tools to do the job for you. Check out our Instagram Hashtag Generator to get the top 30 popular keywords relevant to your niche and profile. You could get keywords without a second thought.

Keywords in Instagram bio

Keywords we have discovered are an important topic for Instagram SEO. They are also important to drive the right traffic to your profile. 

Simply by including keywords on your bio and writing your username appropriately on a certain keyword, you could easily be discovered when someone looks for that word.

Do you remember how we used the Instagram auto-suggest to get ideas for hashtags and keywords in our posts? 

Now, in the same way, other people might be looking for products and services. 

And the same way some profiles show up. When you were looking for those keywords, your profile could be the one showing up on that search. 

How do you do that?

Well, simple! You include keywords in your bio. You should also consider changing your username to a keyword. Instead of keeping your name.

Consider changing it to movie suggestions, or movie reviews if you are in the movie review niche. 

You should need to come up with the name by using some sort of keyword tool of your choice.

Keywords in caption/description 

Keywords are so important for Instagram SEO that you even need to include them in the captions of your posts. 

Description area is great for increasing discoverability, and engagement. Increasing engagement is also another topic for another time.

However, since we are talking about SEO for Instagram, reel SEO advanced Instagram search, discoverability is part of that topic. So we will discuss that now.

How and why will keywords help with discoverability in captions?

In the same way, it would help your profile show up on search queries. Keywords will help your posts show up on search queries if they fulfill that query's purpose. 

To fulfill the query's purpose, you need to know what the purpose is or what type of query you are fixing up your post for!

Keyword research or tools are there to help you achieve just that. Or, you can use the Instagram autosuggest as explained in the chapter above.

Regardless of how you find your keywords, you must include them in each post. If of course, you want to use Instagram SEO currently and increase your traffic.

Basically, wherever you can write something, use keywords, captions, descriptions, bios, whatever. This is the idea here. 

Instagram SEO #3: Alt Text on Instagram  

This is the part of Instagram SEO that is just so important that doing this right will take you to the search results of the platform. 

What does it mean and how do you add alt texts to your photos? 

Alt text means alternative text, that will be shown when your picture will not load, which is important for accessibility. Or from the SEO point of view, it is what you tell the Instagram search engine what your picture is about. 

It was not important years ago before they implemented having alt texts on pictures. However, it hasn’t been too long since this option came about and it is truly an important SEO tip for Instagram creators. 

Follow these steps to add alt text to your photos on Instagram: 

  1. Click on the plus icon, go to post.
  2. Choose a photo and hit next two times until you are just about to post. 
  3. Look at the very bottom to the advanced settings
  4. At the bottom of the menu, choose write alt text option.
  5. Then write the most logical explanation of the post. 

In case you forgot or want to change the alt text later on. 

  1. Look for the three dots, and choose edit.
  2. When you click on edit, on the right bottom side of the picture.
  3. You will see an option that says, Edit alt text.
  4. Click on that and change it to whatever you want.

Remember Instagram automatically assigns alt texts to every single pic uploaded to the platform. 

It is better you have some control over the matter, and use it to your advantage.

Instagram SEO #4: Post Differently

Use all the features Instagram presents to increase your chances of having better Instagram optimization. 

That means posting Stories, Reels, Boomerang and live videos, carousel posts, etc. Because not only will they help you with offering a variety of products to your audience which in and of itself is a good thing. 

But also help you increase engagement while improving your discoverability for different kinds of people/users.  For example, some people might watch Stories only, every day. 

If you have been posting Stories, then, you definitely have captured that audience as well. Perhaps, some people like the videos you make and want to watch those and follow you. 

In fact, even Instagram as a platform wants you to use the various options they provide. They want their audience to have a good time on the app. 

So, they care more about your followers than what you do, that is why helping the platform, you might end up helping yourself in the long run.

To Wrap Up 

Instagram SEO is actually a broad topic and can be talked about on and on. Especially with new features coming out every year or quicker. 

SEO for Instagram has become really important and being up to date with that as well. 

However, if you follow the tips and tricks in our post, you will see considerable success. 

Because doing the correct keyword research and including it everywhere, plus the alt texts will already make you go viral if you target the right audience.

That massive content, I told you we will talk about later, is also a part of your strategy (a bonus tip for you from InstaViral 😊). 

It simply means producing content on all fronts Instagram allows: Stories, Reels, video, and photo posts. 

Producing massive amounts of quality content will keep the followers coming back and checking with you to account for more. 

Start implementing these tips and get your Instagram SEO in order. 

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