On Instagram, users’ profiles are always set to public by default. Thus, anyone who accesses the account can see the entire content. These and other options can be customized in the privacy settings. Even though many entrepreneurs and private users set their profiles to private and make their content accessible only to followers, this tactic is not beneficial to search engines and should be refrained from. The only advantage would be a decrease in so-called bot followers.

Even though this measure is obvious and logical for many, many still do not adhere to it. The personal user name should necessarily contain the most important keyword or at least a unique one. It is important not to overdo it and to limit yourself to one keyword and make sure that the username still looks aesthetic and not artificial. The name can be customized with a few clicks in the bio under “Edit profile”.

The bio on Instagram is the first thing users see and can most easily be compared to a business card. The length of the bio is limited to a maximum of 150 characters and should contain the most important information and characteristics of the company. The decisive factor here is the use of the appropriate keywords. Since the bio is presented in HTML format and indexed by search engines, the importance of this SEO optimization should not be underestimated. Here it is worth highlighting the most important key points and refraining from excessive use of hashtags and links so as not to overwhelm visitors.

Google & Co. automatically use the captions of Instagram images and videos as meta descriptions. These are also displayed in exactly the same way. Therefore, it is especially important to be targeted and create meaningful captions. Here, the most important keywords and information should be placed at the beginning and the hashtags rather at the end.

Instagram itself is not necessarily SEO-friendly and behaves differently from traditional SEO activities. There are not many measures to optimize your Instagram profile. The steps mentioned above form a good basis for achieving a higher reach and ranking with search engines.

eBakery, as a long-standing expert in eCommerce, SEA and SEO, knows how to do successful marketing on Instagram and supports you from account setup to targeted optimization of your channel for the desired target audience and analysis of your marketing strategy.