The Great Instagram SEO Hack!

Every Visual content creator hates that Instagram only gives one place to place a link.

But, what if Google had forced an option for you to get SEO value for your website FROM your Instagram posts?

Well, the good news is they did…Sort of.

In order to be more accessible to the sight-impaired, Instagram had to allow for “ALT Text” which is a description of the photo for Google’s SEO robots to crawl and read back for the sight-impaired, then they index it.

This means that your Instagram image can now give you a Backlink to boost your own page’s SEO!

Below are Screenshots of how to do this on one of my new business accounts.

Step one go to your Profile (jump to step two if writing a new post)

Step two, open your post.

Hit the 3 dots in the top right to open the edit menu…

Tap on the Edit Alt Text link.

Enter the Keywords you want to be found for in the “Alt Text” field.

Now the really tricky bit… Writing, or more precisely what to write!

The Devil is in the details as they say, so here are the details.

1. Think about what to type like a Tweet, the First 125 characters are all that Google crawls.
2. Use generic searchable terms first, then add brand-specific keywords. I.E. Lake, Purple, Flower, Alaskan photographer… ETC.
3. You can use your website URL I.E. northernvistasphotography.com, but if it is a monster to type like mine it’ll use up your 125 characters fast.
4. Don’t keyword stuff, the algorithm is smarter than that.

BTW. ALT Text works on all of your own website images. In fact, all of the images in this blog have SEO optimized Alt Text!

Leave me a note if you see results from this trick and I’ll keep looking for more information to share!

Best regards,

Robin Baranov