Want to become successful as an online marketer and planning to use the popularity of Instagram to boost your site? Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular social networking platforms these days. However, optimizing Instagram account is not something very simple as the platform does not allow Google to index the pictures posted on this platform. Therefore, even if the search results show your account, it will seldom display the images uploaded in it. Yet, that does not mean, you can never get your Instagram account optimized. It is a bit tricky but you can get the account as well as the pictures in it indexed by following some simple tips mentioned below:

Ensure that your profile is set for the public – As Instagram accounts are mostly used for sharing personal pictures with friends and acquaintances, users generally avoid them making public. However, if you want to get the account optimized, you need to make it public by default. This will allow everybody to access your profile and the content in it. Setting your Instagram profile to the public is not something very difficult, as you can do it by following some simple rules mentioned below:

First, enter the Setting tab and then click on the Account Privacy. Here you will find the option of Private Account. Just make sure to set it off so that every user can enter your profile without getting you added into their friend list.

Use social profile schema for your Instagram account – To mark your social media profiles, you can certainly use social profile schema or the schema.org markup for your account. Your social media account will show up once your brand gets Knowledge Graph card. When using schema, you should ask your developer to check the documentation of your page with Google and ensure proper implementation of your social profile with accurately structured data in your Instagram account.

Get the primary keywords in the Instagram name – As it has already been stated that Instagram does not allow Google to index the pages. Therefore, to get your site optimized, it will be using the most important keyword for your page added to the Instagram name. Instagram does not have any separate provision for adding keyword and so you need to frame your name accordingly. For instance, if you want to promote your cosmetics goods sites, you just need to use a name like Stephanie’s Cosmetics, instead of just writing Stephanie. To update your name in your Instagram account, open the “Edit Profile” option and “Name” in the name section.

Add keyword enriched specific bio

As you are trying to get your Instagram account optimized for promoting your business, it is quite obvious that you will have to work a bit harder when making your profile. Unlike any ordinary profile bio, your bio should be enriched with a right keyword so that Google can get it optimized at ease. Yet, you should remember that Instagram has a character limit for writing a bio and whatever you write, it should be within 150 characters, just like the dynamic limit of Google for meta description. However, unlike Google, Instagram allows users to stuff keywords in their bio as well as in the posts. Yet, you need to use the hashtag and ensure that the keywords are appropriate for your content.

When writing the bio of your Instagram page, you should note that it works as the HTML of your page and is accessible by search engine crawlers. That means, it is the only text on the page and is extremely crucial for optimization of the account. For an effective combination of keywords, you can use TagBlender and Google Keyword Planner tools. Though using keywords are important, there should be clear text too. Also, your bio should have clarity of content and easily understandable by the readers. Last but not the list, the website section on your profile should include the brand URL that you want to promote. Even though it is a no follow link, it can add a reference to your page and you can, in turn, get more organic search.

Use image caption as a title tag – Image captions on Instagram accounts are often used as meta descriptions. However, if you want better optimization of your page, you need to ensure that the captions are used as title tags and make an appeal to the users to check for it further. When writing the captions, make sure to use crisp words so that it does not turn messy. Also, ensure to keep the most important factors on the beginning of the caption followed by the lesser important ones, as there is no restriction on the word usage for the title tag. Use keywords as and when needed for ease of indexing.

Provide direct linking to the Instagram posts – This is one of the most important steps to be considered when you are planning to get your Instagram account optimized for Google. As the web app of Instagram is buried deep in JavaScript, the links that your individual posts offer from the profile does not get considered as real links for Google. This is the only reason for which the posts in the Instagram accounts do not get indexed. Therefore, to promote your Instagram profile, you need to get them linked from some other channels and promote the posts from that account. Copying the link is simple and can be done by clicking the ellipses located in the right corner at the bottom of the post. Once you copy the link, you can post it to as many accounts as you want and get it better optimized. When posting the links on different pages, make sure it has relevance to the content of your Instagram account.

Conclusion

To conclude, it will be right to state that Instagram is not at all an SEO friendly social media platform. Yet, it can be used as one by following the above-mentioned tips in an intelligent manner. However, you should never spam the account with excess keywords, else it may get rejected by search engines.