the Instagram Algorithm | 10 Ways to Boost Your Visibility
Posting on social media can feel overwhelming + often like shouting to the same two people every day (hi mom + dad). If you find yourself wondering what the point is or why you bother posting at all, you’re not alone. We’ve felt like that too. Here are a few things that we’ve found help increase visibility – for now, because Meta loves to change things up all the time.
Favor carousels + reels over single images
Love it or hate it, Instagram’s algorithms prefer carousels + reels to single images. Since they added the ability to add more than one picture, starting with 10 + now sitting at 20 per post, Instagram has pushed carousel posts to more users than single images. The same goes for reels.
If you’re tired of finding multiple pictures for a single post or filming and editing clips for reels, yeah, you guessed it. Join the club. Maybe if enough of us start rebelling, Meta will bring back single image posts so we can go back to posting just one picture like the old days.
Add music to any/all posts you can
Instagram has a whole tab just for reels, separate from the explore page. However, if you add music to your image or carousel posts, they become eligible to appear in the reels tab. This feature gets a lot of traffic, especially since it was added as a way to keep up with TikTok, the leading short-form video content platform. Many users spend hours a day just scrolling through reels. If your content doesn’t fit the format, it won’t be shown in the most heavily-used sections of the platform.
If you go to Instagram right now, you’ll see that even on your explore page – not the reels tab – you’ll be hard-pressed to find any single image or carousel posts that don’t have music attached. The algorithm isn’t the only one who likes the musical accompaniment. Users tend to find posts with music more engaging as well, meaning they’re likely to perform better even amongst your existing followers.
Use insights to find the best days/times for your followers
If you feel like you’re doing everything right, following all the advice to post consistently + engage with other accounts, but still not seeing any results, consider looking at how when you post impacts performance. You can post all the right content at exactly the right frequency + still struggle to be seen.
When a post does well in the few minutes after you hit post, Instagram takes this as a good sign + pushes it to more people on the platform. Inversely, if no one engages with your post for the first 30 minutes it’s up, it’s likely to get buried, never to be seen.
A post’s performance isn’t strictly content-based. Often, the time you post it plays a big part in its success. Check your insights (built in to Instagram for public accounts) to see the best days + times of day to post based on when your followers engage with your content. Don’t keep posting first thing in the morning if your followers aren’t normally on Instagram until after lunchtime.
Make sure you’re using hashtags correctly
We’ve evolved past the era of just putting any old hashtag on our posts. Gone are the days when hashtags were a novelty + there would be 20+ at the bottom of every post, only some of which are related to the post. No, no. Now, we use hashtags sparingly (5 or less per post) + put some thought into them.
Instagram posts can now rank directly in Google search results, so your hashtags should be relevant to your content + audience, and include keywords you want to rank for.
It might seem counterintuitive but you actually *don’t* want to use the hashtags with the highest number of posts. Those are likely flooded with content, pushing your post down the list before anyone has a chance to see it. Instead, you want to aim for the middle of the pack or even lower posts depending on your audience to give yourself a better chance at getting your content seen. For example, we don’t put #photographer on our posts, we opt for something more specific like #mainebusinessphotographer or something similar. With a more specific, targeted, less overwhelmed tag, you’re competing against hundreds or thousands of other posts instead of millions.
Make sure your bio is up to date and has keywords in it
Just like with posts, people can find your account through keywords in your bio when they look things up in search engines. Plus, when someone lands on your profile, it’s important that your bio clearly states who you are + what you do so they immediately know what you’re all about. Don’t make them sift through information or wonder about who you are. Make it easy for them.
Add alt text to your images
Again this is a keyword thing. Adding alt text to your images makes your content accessible + more searchable. Add descriptions of your images to posts, describing the image using keywords + other relevant information.
Use instagrams link service to add links from your website or other social accounts
You don’t need to pay for a Linktree anymore; Instagram has its own multi-link service built right in. This will help you decipher where your traffic is actually coming from + send the audience you build on Instagram straight to your website, product, or service.
Collaborate with other accounts
Now when you tag other accounts in a post, you can invite them to be a collaborator as well. This makes it so that the post shows up on their grid + to their audience too – not just in the tagged posts section of their profile, on their main grid. If you’re collaborating with another company or you’ve done work for/with them + are making a post showing it off or advertising the collab, make sure to tag the other business(es) + invite them to be a collaborator on the post to maximize visibility.
Engage with your audience
Who would have thought that it helps to be social on social media? It can be difficult to remember nowadays that Instagram started as a way to keep up with + share pictures with friends. It’s a platform built on engagement, so if you want people to engage with your content, make sure you’re engaging with them too.
Want to talk more about strategy for your social media or learn about how having an external party (aka us) manage your social media for you? Get in touch to schedule a time to chat.
