Instagram Seo & Keywords | What Is It And Why Is It Important?

what is instagram seo why does using keywords on instagram even matter if you're trying to grow or increase your brand awareness on instagram then this video is for you what's up everyone it's millie welcome back to my channel where i post videos every wednesday teaching you the latest strategies and trends on social media to help you grow your brand so give a little love tap on that subscribe button to stay up to date on all the latest tips and tricks i have for you first i want to give a huge thank you to this video shout out i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all of you so if you want a shout out in one of my future videos be sure to screenshot yourself watching this and tagging me over on instagram stories or leave a comment below and subscribe to my channel as always comments how i say it as always timestamps will be in the comments down below because i value your time and you already know why you're here so let's get into it let's get the scary word out of the way shall we seo if you're someone like me anytime somebody would say seo my brain would freak out close off and immediately get confused all they had to say was seo stands for search engine optimization and i'm done say less please say less so i'm going to explain it the way i wish somebody explained it to me when i first started to learn about seo basically seo is a type of strategy that you could use to get in front of more people's eyeballs that's all it is it's just a strategy it's less scary when you think of it like that right so how do you appear in front of more people's eyes by trying to appear in search results for example if somebody is typing how to grow on instagram over here on youtube i'd want to pop up on that search because i teach instagram so what i can do is make a video titled how to grow on instagram in 2022 with the hopes that that video will show up in the search results i'm using my knowledge of what i want to be known for and predicting what i think my audience is already looking up and then i'm creating content around those topics that's why it's called search engine optimization you're using search engines to your advantage to hopefully rank higher in search results in this video we are focusing on instagram seo and how you could utilize instagram search algorithm to get more traffic to your instagram page the first step to making sure your seo strategy works is knowing what your niche's keywords are to explain what keywords are i like to use the definition from moz.com keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about in terms of seo there are words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines also known as search queries but we'll ignore that because that's another scary sounding phrase so basically keywords are words or phrases that searchers or your ideal audience is typing into other search engines like google youtube pinterest all the things let's continue to use me as an example i know my target audience pretty well when i think about them going to youtube pinterest or google or instagram they're probably typing in words like instagram tips instagram reels influencer tips reels tips make money online that's probably what they're typing into the search bar so then i make content around those things so that in the future when they search those keywords or those key phrases hopefully my results are my videos my blog posts my instagram posts will appear in the top results if you're like well how do i know what my niche keywords are how do i figure out what keywords i should focus on or key phrases i should focus on i use real search engines to help me and to guide me with what i should be focusing on figuring out these keywords doesn't have to be hard literally go to pinterest or youtube or google right now and type your niche into the search bar all of those recommended results down below are top searches top keywords those are all the top recommendations of like hey people are looking up these things maybe you should create content about these things remember you know now for reals i want you to take a moment to do this type in your niche or one of your content pillars into a search engine see what results pop up and write down some that you resonate with if you're like okay i'm gonna look up i'm a dating coach so i'm gonna look up dating see what pops up see what's recommended under that if it says dating tips okay write down dating tips if it recommends dating apps write down dating apps you have two prompts ready to go to start creating content around comment below some of the keywords that you plan to focus on from this exercise now that you know what keywords to focus on you're going to start to integrate them onto your instagram page there are six places you can utilize the power of keywords and seo to your advantage your username nameplate bio hashtags captions and alt text let's talk about your username first one of the first things you do before growing on instagram is picking a username that preferably matches your niche or brand for example a lot of fashion influencers use at styled by blank or a lot of travel accounts use at travel with blank right that's one way that you can adapt some keywords within your username it's important to make sure that the username you pick is available on other social media platforms so that as you grow you can diversify your platforms and maintain brand consistency the free website i recommend is called brand snag which is also the sponsor of today's video i like to check to see if other people are using those names online to check your username availability you're going to type brand snag name check into the google search bar and notice they're ranking on the home page that's what is it seo you're going to select this option here type your username idea and the results will show you which social media platforms that username is available on and which social media platforms that username is not available on my go to checks i usually check to see if that username is available on instagram youtube ticktalk and twitter those are really my four main priorities when checking username availability you can use brandsnag for free at brandsnag.com or through the link in the description box below now of course having keywords in your username will help you pop up for search results but so will having these words in your nameplate and your bio the bold part of your bio is what i like to call your name plate some people call it your tagline or what have you but i say nameplate and that's the bold section putting keywords here actually helps people find you a lot easier for example if i want to find a tattoo artist in my area and i type in tattoo artist on the instagram search anybody who has those words tattoo artist in the nameplate of their profile will appear in my search results so you want to ask yourself how do i want people to find me in my nameplate i have influencer coach because if anybody looks up influ