Instagram has become an incredibly powerful tool for marketers, to the extent that it is taking over as the primary channel instead of websites for several businesses. However, there is a problem of visibility outside the app- just like any other site, it is a must to get your brand’s Instagram profile indexed and ranking high on Google’s results page. Unfortunately, Instagram by itself does not play very well with search engines. This does not mean you cannot get indexed, but there are some extra hoops you must jump through to achieve this goal.
Experts at Search Engine Journal believe that you can be efficient at search marketing provided you have more knowledgeable people around you. They should be capable of challenging what you assume you already know.
Ensure Your Profile is Public
All Instagram profiles are public by default. This means anyone using the app can view the profile and all posts and stories you make. Alternatively, a private profile means no one will be able to search for your profile or see the content you post until you allow them. The first thing to do to ensure your profile is eligible for indexing is to keep it public.
Optimize for Instagram’s Own Search
To do well on other search platforms, you must first fare well on Instagram’s native search tool. Good, sane SEO practices are a must, as a profile name with the keyword you are targeting in it. You can edit your profile quite easily, and often adding a brand domain like “XYZ.skincare” can be a great way to show up in more Google searches. Remember, this is not a license for keyword stuffing. Be mindful of your SEO practices, since nefarious acts do not go unnoticed or unpunished by Google. You may buy 10 Instagram followers from a trustworthy digital marketing company to instantly boost your follower count.
Write a Solid Bio
Your bio is among the first things a visitor sees on your profile, and it is also vital for indexing and Google search crawlers. Not unlike meta-descriptions on websites, you have a character limit that you must optimize your content to be most effective within. Write a bio that is coherent and keyword-rich. You can also make full use of hashtags and landing page URLs to come up with the most effective combination. Don’t be afraid of trial and error, but give each iteration some time to pan out; eventually, you will land up with something that works.
Use Hashtags Strategically
A great trick for indexing your Instagram profile in Google Search is to consider using hashtags strategically. Instagram email scraper automatically extracts public email addresses from Instagram, helping you to expand your business leads. Suppose you are having multiple Instagram business profiles and you are looking for users to visit each one of them or at least, a few of them. How could you consider linking your multiple profiles together? The most effective way is to use hashtags. We realize that hashtags are clickable links and they can take visitors to some other accounts. You could consider using influencer accounts as tags for achieving a higher ranking and that should prove to be helpful in the overall indexing process.
Instagram influencers are phenomenally popular. If you include their name in your Instagram profile bio, you will get clickable links to their accounts. Even though it is a technical issue, it pays to remember that if the specific influencer’s profile on Instagram is visible or getting a ranking on Google Search, then your Instagram profile will automatically, get a ranking on Google.
Consider Using Instagram ALT Text Feature
Instagram had recently introduced a new feature called the ALT Text Feature for making Instagram posts easily visible to users with visual impairment. It helps your Instagram posts to reach and be visible to a much broader audience. It allows all your Instagram posts not only to be crawled but also indexed by Google and other search engines. ALT Text implies Alternative Text and it is known to replace your picture whenever the image cannot get loaded due to poor Internet connection.
ALT Text is not your Instagram caption. ALT Text is supposed to be a simple description of your photo and is crawled by Google for indexing your post in its search results. It is the main reason for incorporating ALT texts into your images. If you fail to add ALT texts, we understand that Instagram will be writing a basic one on your behalf using their cutting-edge image recognition technology. However, it is not effective for visually impaired users who will be deprived of enjoying your posts. This situation cannot be regarded as optimal or ideal. Even though Instagram’s Image Recognition technology is known for its accuracy, it is not effective enough at present to include people having visual impairments. This way, your business will be losing over 285 million visually impaired users worldwide.
Even though ALT text feature is very much new to Instagram, it is a tried and tested trick for generating web content. ALT text or description is an integral part of the valuable data set that can be optimized by you while generating a blog or uploading pictures. It becomes mandatory on your part to understand the importance of this brand new Instagram feature vis-à-vis Instagram algorithm and identify ways to utilize this tool for boosting your visibility even beyond the realm of Instagram.
The latest Instagram algorithm makes an effort to not only identify but also rank the content quality of all pictures for displaying it to all those users who have not yet interacted with your specific content. By adding your ALT Text Instagram feature, your pictures will be visible to users who seem to be following your kind of content.
Till now Instagram photos lacked keywords that could convey to search engines precisely what the picture is all about since they do not seem to crawl the captions of your pictures or posts. The best way to make your Instagram posts visible on Google is to use ALT text feature.
Conclusion
Instagram is not that SEO-friendly. You need to make some adjustments or additional modifications for ensuring that your Instagram posts and Instagram profile are present an indexed list of Google Search as compared to other competitive brands that may still be undetectable. It is a good idea to use the ALT text feature to ensure that your Instagram posts are visible to a much broader target audience.
