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Instagram is an undeniable marketing platform in 2020. As a matter of fact, Instagram has officially attracted more than a billion monthly active users - which means it is now more popular than social media giants like Twitter or LinkedIn.

Imagine that there is a lot of users sitting around waiting to see your content. So how can you attract all these users and create opportunities for them to interact with the brand?

The answer may surprise you - Instagram SEO.

Are you thinking: can I really employ the same SEO technology as the web pages used to optimize social media applications?

Fortunately, you can. The trick is not to plug Instagram into your existing SEO strategy, but to use the SEO you already know to drive the natural growth of your Instagram account. Think of Instagram as your own search engine. The platform has a built-in search function and can act as its own micro Google.

Here on this page, we will show you some of the best ways to optimize for Instagram search and why you should care about Instagram optimization in the first place. Let’s jump right in.

Why Should You Care About Instagram Optimization In the First Place?

But why optimize Instagram first? Why is Instagram so important that you should dedicate your time to getting found on the platform? Here are some statistics to answer your question:

• Instagram has about 1 billion active users. If you adopt the right Instagram SEO strategy, you may reach 1 billion users.

• Two-thirds of the total number of Instagram users are under the age of 34. As the purchasing power of this age group increases, this is crucial. Ypulse's analysis even found that the total purchasing power of millennials and Z generations is close to the $3 trillion marks.

• People spend about 53 minutes a day on Instagram. This takes up most of their day, which increases your chances of attracting platform prospects.

• 83% of people are using Instagram to discover new products or services. This means that your brand content on Instagram could effectively help you attract potential customers.

• According to Facebook IQ, after seeing a product or service on Instagram, 79% of people searched for more information, while 65% visited the brand's website or app. 46% even bought goods (online or offline), and 31% followed the brand's account.

Tips for Instagram SEO

Here are some of the best Instagram SEO ideas to improve your visibility and platform coverage:

• Optimize Profile

The Instagram search function is similar to Google, it will provide the most relevant profile according to your search term. According to Instagram, search results depend on several factors, including the accounts you follow and associate with.

In addition, the posts you like on Instagram have a significant impact on determining relevance. In addition, keywords also play a crucial role.

So it helps if you can use keywords to optimize your Instagram profile to appear in related searches. How to do this:

Name and Username - adding a primary keyword to the name and user name is a good way to increase the chance of showing up in related searches. For user names, this is not always possible, as you usually have to stick with the official brand name.

Profile – your profile is also a good place to add the keywords you want to rank. You can use this space to describe your business with relevant auxiliary keywords.

• Titles with Keyword-Optimized

On the Instagram browsing page, you can only search for content using topic hashtags and location tags. Moreover, Instagram also provides personalized content recommendations for each user according to their interests and interactions.

For example, if you regularly "like" food-related posts, the explore page might display content that matches the type of content you’ve shown interest in. This is where the titles of your posts come in.

The Instagram explore page algorithm uses an account embedding framework, which helps to identify accounts that are locally similar to each other. The framework learns the content represented by words based on context. In addition, it determines the correlation between certain accounts based on the BIOS, name, and user name, as well as the keywords used in the titles.

That's why using relevant keywords to write descriptive titles increases your chances of appearing on the relevant users' Browse pages. Instagram will use keywords in the title of your post to determine which topics of interest are consistent with your account.

• Optimize Your Photos

Instagram is a visual platform. So your SEO success will come from the type and quality of your photos. First, the content should be clearly distinguishable: is it a face, a book, or a landscape? Instagram uses a technology called ‘image recognition’ that classifies photos according to the content. This will help you grow your Instagram account by showing your photos to users who are already interested in similar content but haven’t seen your account yet.

Remember, keeping your photos clean doesn’t mean they can’t be interesting or stunning. In fact, using a professional photo-editing app will help you keep your photos clear and beautiful with tools like color correction, lighting adjustment, and cropping.

• Research Related & Quality Hashtags

Tags expose your Instagram account to the target audience. If your hashtags are relevant and qualitative, you are more likely to promote your brand to brands with common interests and goals.

As you brainstorm for the best topic tag, do research to see if you are currently using a topic tag. Is the content associated with the theme tag appropriate and do you want to be associated with your brand? Before you publish a label, try using a billboard to view the label.

• Treat Hashtags as Keywords

On Instagram, topic hashtags function like keywords in regular search engines - helping users find relevant content. When you search for a topic hashtag, it will show you all the posts marked with that topic hashtag. Similarly, marking your post with a specific hashtag means that the post will be displayed when someone searches for that specific hashtag.

Therefore, it is very important to hashtag the post with the topic related to the content, so as to attract the right audience. However, please don't use the pound hashtag in the title space, because it can be confusing. Although you are free to use up to 30 topic hashtags, make sure you find the right topic hashtag density for your post. You can run tests to find the number that best suits you.

But remember, Instagram takes other factors into account when ranking your posts in hashtag search results, such as engagement and account relevance. Therefore, the more participation you get, the more likely your post will appear in the relevant hashtag search.

Therefore, we must consider the release time, image quality, and so on, in order to better attract the audience and improve the content visibility. Of course, if you want to get the audience's attention, you should always post only the best quality content. You can also find the best time to launch Instagram on the brand and try to schedule your Instagram launch when your followers are most likely to be active and involved.