A Information to Instagram search engine optimization with Discovering Curiosity
Instagram SEO is important for businesses and brand owners who are thinking of getting more eyes and engagement on their Instagram posts. How can you optimize the search for the posts you have created?
Initially, searches were limited to hashtags or user accounts. A later function of Instagram is to search for interest, not just hashtags or user accounts. Here is the announcement from Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, with a snapshot of how you can use this feature.
The ability to search for interest expands your options as an Instagram consumer and allows you to explore topics of interest without the limitations of certain hashtags. As with Google, users can search for topics or interests.
How can you create content on Instagram that is optimized for users looking for interest?
Use Instagram's Search for Interest
To start looking for something on Instagram, users limited themselves to looking for hashtags or account names. When you type something in the search bar, you'll see a drop-down menu of options for hashtags that accounts have used in their posts or in account names themselves.
This is relatively limiting. Imagine looking for inspiration for a project, vacation photo ideas, architecture, or any number of other ideas. You might want to see people use a product, incorporate a new trend, or wear a certain type of outfit. You might only find these things if you knew the hashtag that all consumers are using.
Here's the problem: what about the posts they forgot to use the hashtag on? Or what if you don't know about a particular hashtag and miss a lot of posts?
Searching for interest broadens your search horizon by allowing you to search essentially the entire content of an Instagram post.
If you now enter a topic of interest, you will receive a larger selection of contributions.
Plus, Instagram shows you other related topics and lets you keep clicking, scrolling, and exploring more.
Instagram SEO benefits for businesses
This is great news for your business as you use Instagram to promote your brand. Here are just a few reasons why you should be excited about this feature:
- A wider and larger audience will be able to find your content simply by searching.
- You can find potential customers who are actively looking for what you are promoting faster.
- You don't have to feel constrained by finding or copying the right hashtags every time what your competition is doing to help you be more creative and branded in your content.
- You can do competitive research more efficiently, learn more about what others in your field are doing on Instagram, and stand out from others.
- You can build a community with those around you by finding and connecting with other brands and audiences who share your passions and views.
How To Use Finding Interest On Instagram
Using the feature itself is a fairly straightforward process. In short, start looking. However, let's see how you can get the most out of this feature as both a user and a marketer.
User interaction
First, find the magnifying glass icon on your desktop interface or in your mobile app. Enter your subject here. Let's see how it works.
Now the fun begins. You can click around to find more ideas.
You can click on more ideas and dive into the rabbit hole where Instagram and Instagram content creators hope you stay for a while.
How Marketers Can Use Finding Interest
With that in mind, let's talk about how you can use this feature for your own marketing needs. Your goals on Instagram likely include the following:
- Acquire new customers through photos and copies.
- Encourage potential customers to follow your content.
- Educate and inspire
- Drive them to your website or store so they can become customers
- Keep customers engaged so they can refer or return.
Instagram SEO helps with all of these things because people who are already looking for what you are creating and selling will make it easier to find you. But how do you make the most of it? The point is to make sure that you are writing keywords and key phrases that your customers are looking for.
Now it's not just about making sure you've included all the possible hashtags they're looking for or clicking on, but also about content in your post that includes those keywords.
Here are some examples from our searches above. You'll notice in the copy the natural usage of the key phrases we were looking for.
Why should you care about Instagram SEO?
Now that we've talked about this feature that is exploding the possibilities of Instagram SEO, let's dive into why Instagram SEO is so important in the first place.
What is Instagram SEO?
It's about Instagram search engine optimization. This little magnifying glass highlights the powerful search engine that actually allows users to search for specific posts they are looking for. This search engine uses data and algorithms to display users' posts that they are likely to be interested in.
Optimization is the driver of your search success. By optimizing your Instagram posts, you want to make sure that you have included the words, phrases, hashtags, etc. that go into this algorithm and display your content to interested searchers.
It's about doing everything possible to get to the top of these searches and be seen by a maximum number of people.
Why is Instagram SEO important?
Why should you even care about Instagram SEO? It's really about tweaking everything you do. While you are putting the time and effort into creating your Instagram posts, you want to make sure that you are getting the best engagement and ROI for each one.
With over a billion users on Instagram, many of whom are Generation Z or Millennials, it's a very popular spot for marketers. You want to stand out from the competition and see your content.
Instagram SEO vs. Search engine SEO
When you think of SEO, the first thing that comes to mind is probably website SEO and optimizing that area for search engines like Google or Bing. This is the most common usage when we use the word SEO.
However, if you think about it, SEO can mean any kind of search engine optimization, whether it's a juggernaut like Google or Instagram or some other smaller, if no less significant, platform.
However, here is something to remember. Search engines like Google crawl all websites including social media platforms. That means that when Google searches for things you post about, it may also crawl your social media pages and get results from there.
If you're creating content to be optimized for Instagram's search capabilities, you may also want to think about how Google analyzes that content to get better traffic, regardless of whether customers are using internal search on Instagram or Google.
Best Practices for Improving Your Instagram SEO
Let's talk a little bit about how you can improve your Instagram SEO, especially with regards to this search for interest feature. It really depends on what you post, what you write in your post, and how you use Instagram as a business.
Be consistent
As mentioned above, Google crawls Instagram and other social media websites just like any other website. This particularly applies to profiles or user names. When people search for your brand on Google, your social media pages are likely to come up. So make sure that your username accurately reflects your brand name.
Here is an example of using Google to find fig leaves on Instagram. Of course, to get Instagram in the top results we had to use the word "Instagram" in searches, but it shows you the importance of having your top keyword in your username and bio.
Be on the brand
Remember what your ideal customers are looking for. Make sure to include these top keywords in your bio and description, as well as your captions. You can of course use them in your sentences, but make sure the most important ones are at the top of your subtitles.
Don't neglect hashtags either. Yes, this feature opens up the world of Instagram to more keyword usage, but hashtags still play a huge role in Instagram SEO. Use relevant keywords that your customer base will interact with and use them frequently.
Be thorough in your captions
According to an article by Later that referenced data directly from Facebook and Instagram, the company uses similar keywords and key phrases to identify which accounts are related. This is important for Instagram's Explore feature, which is used to pull up new posts and accounts that may be of interest to you based on posts and accounts you have interacted with in the past.
When looking at this as a marketer, you want to make sure that your captions, as well as your username and bio, include the keywords and phrases that would associate your account with similar ones as your competition. That way, your Instagram users will also show up in their Explore boxes when they interact with their content.
Of course, you need to be thorough and relevant in your captions. If you are selling fig leaf figs as mentioned above, you need to make sure that there are violin leaf figs in all of your posts, even if the photo is something that is only related to fiddle leaf figs or your brand.
For example, if you are posting a sales announcement or holiday greeting, make sure you still get the keyword there. Make sure your photos are always on the mark too. In the end, it should all be about fig leaf figs.
Be a real person
All the tips and tricks aside, search engines are constantly working to become more human. And the more human you can be, the better. Some of the best tips for social media SEO are to be authentic, natural and just show up a lot. Keep the "social" on social media and be friendly. The quickest way to hide or push the algorithm down is to just have bad etiquette on these types of platforms.
Tools to improve your Instagram SEO
To really improve your Instagram SEO game, it is worth investigating the number of Instagram analytics tools and other programs that can help you learn how your Instagram strategy works. Here are just a few examples to get you started.
- Iconosquare: A powerful planning tool that offers real-time analytics for advertising your content, as well as data from competitors and industries, so you can post well.
- Hashtags for Likes: A tool for researching and uncovering the best hashtags for your content.
- Plann: This tool, which integrates design tools like Canva, allows you to create, publish and monitor everything in one place so you can keep track of how your Instagram strategy is working.
Conclusion
It's true: SEO is an important part of your overall content strategy. You're interconnected and critical in our ever-expanding digital world, and that doesn't stop with your website and blog. Instagram SEO and any other social media platform that you use consistently should also be part of that equation.
This "Find Interest" feature certainly makes it easier and opens up a world of possibilities as users can now find your content by all of your caption, not just your hashtags, but now you need to make sure that you are taking full advantage of all of this Captions.
How do you plan to create subtitles that are more searchable for your customer base?