Instagram receives 2.9 Billion visits per month, with 81 percent of those users visiting the site to search for services and products. Instagram is a great platform for business owners to reach the right audience, and increase sales.
Instagram is not the only place where there are many aspiring businesses competing for customers. Everybody is competing to grab customers’ attention and make the most profit.
You must learn two things if you want your business’s survival and growth among 1 billion users: timely posting and Instagram search engine optimization (SEO).
Only a handful of people will see your posts if your profile isn’t optimized for SEO. You can also post at the wrong time and your followers won’t see them.
The bottom line: That sweet spot is what you must search for.
This blog will discuss how to optimize SEO for your Instagram account to grow.
How Often Should I Post On Instagram?
Your audience will soon forget that you exist if you don’t update Instagram enough. Your brand will disappear into the shadows of their minds before you know it.
You can also appear spammy if you post too often and cause your audience to dread your posts.
How Can You Find A Balance?
Before we answer this question, here are some things you need to know:
It is crucial to ensure that your content is meaningful and relevant. Why?
It is important to make sure you are only posting relevant content. Your followers will eagerly await your posts, no matter how often you post.
Adam Mosseri from Instagram stated that you should only post one per day or 2-to 3 times per week. research shows that the majority of businesses post 1.56 times per day.
This is a good rule to follow, but it may not be the best for you. Your user engagement will drop if you post more than once per day, and then gradually decrease to a few posts per month.
It is important to post regularly, but it is not essential to do so. You don’t have to post as many posts every day if you don’t feel you can.
Do you have to post every other week? This is possible, but it’s not recommended. Your followers will eventually grow to not notice your content. You will be outnumbered by others who are more active, which is why the competition is real.
There are three main benefits to posting frequently. It:
- Helps you get more engagements
- This increases your chances of gaining new followers
- Reminds followers you are there and keeps you in their thoughts
It is important to choose quality over quantity. It is always better to upload less often but with better photos than to upload lower-quality images frequently.
When Is The Best time to post on Instagram?
Optimizing your posting times is key to increasing engagement. This means that you should post when your audience is online and active.
Tracking your audience is a great way to determine the best time to post for your business account. You can get insight into your followers’ preferences by looking at their interactions with your content in the past.
Let’s take a look at three of the best ways to monitor your audience’s activities via the ‘Gram.
- Manual tracking
- Instagram insight tool
- Tracking tools for third-party parties
#1. Manually Track Your Instagram’s Active Engagement Time
This is the most common way that business owners use to track their engagement on Instagram. This allows you to manually enter and record the number of comments and likes your posts receive. This can be done using Microsoft Office tools such as Excel and Spreadsheet.
These statistics can be used to adjust the timing of your next posting. Your audience will be more active if you receive more engagements. It is important to stick with it.
If they are having difficulty attracting organic engagement, some business owners look to other methods of acquiring friends.
#2. Use The Instagram Insight Tool
The insight tool is one of the most useful features of Instagram. This tool allows you to track your engagement automatically. This tool allows you to track where your followers are located and provide you with an analysis of how they react to your posts.
To access the insights feature, you will need to change your Instagram account from a personal one to a business account.
#3. Use A Third-party Instagram Analytics Tool
Do you want to elevate your Instagram game? Third-party analytics tools are an option. These tools allow you to learn more about your audience by showing you how many followers, likes, and profile views you have.
These tools will also help you create better content that attracts new customers and increases your followers. Examples include:
- Later
- Hootsuite
- Iconosquare
- Keyhole
Top Instagram SEO Techniques For Businesses
Instagram SEO refers to optimizing your Instagram content so that it can be easily found in search results. When someone searches for a keyword in Instagram’s search box, you want your account and content to be near the top of the list.
How can you make it happen?
#1.Use Primary Keywords In Your Username
When creating your Instagram username, make sure you know your primary keyword. Instagram’s algorithm shows profiles that include the primary keyword associated with an industry first.
For example, take a clothing shop. You’ll likely type “clothing” into the search bar when you shop for clothes.
You’ll see that the first brands to appear in the search results have this keyword as their username.
#2. Insert Hashtags Strategically
Hashtags are just as important as primary keywords. Although hiding hashtags within comments was a long-standing insider tactic that has been used to manipulate search results, Instagram now confirms that hashtags and keywords should be included directly in the caption.
Using hashtags in your captions is not a good idea. These rules should be applied to hashtags:
- Use only relevant hashtags
- Limit your use of hashtags to three to five per post
- Mix and match well-known, special, and specific hashtags (think brand-related or campaign-related).
- Use hashtags such as #explorepage only if they are relevant or too generic.
#3. Add Alt Text To Images
Alt text functions the same way on Instagram as it does on the internet. It is a description of a picture or video that allows people with visual impairments access to the material.
Alt text can help you communicate your message even if the photo doesn’t load. Alt-text is helpful for website SEO and blog posts. It also helps with Instagram.
Instagram alt text helps the platform to better understand your content and determine if it is relevant for a particular search.
#4. Include Keywords in Your Bio Description
Your bio on Instagram is a short description of your business in 150 words. Your bio is the next thing that your audience will see after your username.
If your primary keyword is “clothes,” your secondary keywords could be “women’s clothing”, “baby clothes,” or “dresses,” depending on the clothing line. This can be incorporated into your bio in a subtle way.
Posts To Your Instagram Business
There are many content types that you can use to increase the SEO of your Instagram account.
#1. Testimonials
If you have already begun working with clients or sold your products, ask for testimonials and share them on Instagram. This will boost your credibility and encourage others to ask about your services.
#2. Fun Facts
You can share fun facts about your company and yourself. This will help you to strengthen your relationship with your followers. This will also allow them to learn more about your company.
#3. Giveaways
Who doesn’t love freebies? Giveaways and discounts are a great way to increase your followers. It’s also a great way for your audience to know that you care. Giveaways don’t have to cost too much if you plan well.
#4 Brand Stories
There are many phases to your brand. Even though your business is still in its initial stages, people are interested to see how it grows.
Talk about what attracted you to the business, the obstacles you faced, the wins you achieved, and your ultimate goal. You might be an inspiration for others. You’ll also be promoting your company simultaneously.
Conclusion
One of the best places online to communicate with customers is Instagram. It is crucial to use Instagram SEO to improve your brand’s visibility on the platform, and to raise awareness in a specific demographic.
To increase your reach on Instagram, don’t forget all of our tips about when and how frequently to post to your business account.
This post was written by Kristian D’An. Kristian is the owner and SEO Specialist at Lux Digital Marketing, a search engine optimization company. Kristian has been optimizing websites successfully for over 7 years. He has helped his clients achieve the #1 position on Google in several different industries. For more information, click here.
