Transcripts
1. 1 Intro: Instagram is no longer
just a social media app. It's also a search engine. In this class, you learn how to make your content
more discoverable. So more and more
people are able to find your reals and profile. We'll cover Instagram SEO
basics, keywords, captions, hashtags and
discoverability, shadowban, profile optimization, and common mistakes
that hurt reach. Understanding SEO can
help you reach more non-followers and
improve your profiles and posts reach over time. So if you're ready to
improve your Instagram reach the smart way,
let's get started.
2. How Instagram Actually Search Works: How Instagram search works. Creating good content is
only half the battle. And we've talked about
that half part of the battle in one of
our previous courses. People also need to be
able to find your content, and that's where
Instagram SEO comes in. People are now searching for all type of content on
Instagram, for example, tutorials, recipes, photography
tips, photo editing tips, video editing tips, and
plenty of other content, which means Instagram
wants to show its users the most
relevant content possible. And that's where SEO comes in. For example, if you
go on Instagram right now and search for anything, search for content
within your niche. For example, let's
pick photography. If you just go to Instagram and search for photography tips, you will find posts
that are from 2023, 2024 even before 2023 as well, it's all SEO because Instagram thinks that
post is still relevant, it's still showing up higher
than everything else. So ultimately, with good SEO, you're going to
improve the reach of your post over years. Now let's discuss what
Instagram is actively looking at when it's deciding who
to show your post to. Instagram uses several signals to understand your content. Now, some of those signals are
the keywords that you have used in caption text on
the screen, hashtags, your username,
your profile name, your bio audience engagement, the niche and the category of audience that is interacting
with your content. This helps Instagram decide who should this
content be shown to? For example, the clearer
your content category is, the easier it is
for Instagram to recommend your content
to the right audience.
3. Instagram SEO Fundamentals: Instagram SEO basics, Let's
simplify Instagram SEO. SEO means search
engine optimization. Basically, helping
Instagram understand what your content is about. A lot of creators still
rely on hashtags, but in today's time with the
way algorithm is set up now, keywords are much
more important. Here are some tips that will
help you get better with Instagram SEO and have your
posts reach more people. Use clear keywords
in the caption. Instead of writing vague
captions like new post, Happy Monday or
something like that, write what the post
is exactly about. For example, you wrote a post or you created a real
about making pasta. So in the caption, right, here's how I make pasta
or something similar that people may search for or how to make pasta or
something like that. So the posts get categorized properly and are
shown to the right people. Instagram prioritizes
words that are written at the beginning of the caption rather than in the
middle or at the end. So begin with the keywords that are the most relevant
to your post. Say keywords in reals. Instagram can understand
spoken words in reals now. So if your real is
about say photography, say the word photography
in the real, and Instagram will pick up on it and show the real
to the right audience. Add keywords on screen. Text on your real matters too. In the last video I mentioned, you should always add text to your Instagram
reels because a lot of people watch their reels on mute without any
type of an audio. So text will help them understand and consume
the real properly. Instagram is constantly looking at what text is
present in the real. So if you're making videos
on, let's say, photography, say the word photography
as one of the text, and the video will be
shown to that audience. Optimize your bio. Your bio should answer three
questions what you do, who your content helps, why someone should follow you. Avoid a confusing bio, and I will also
share some examples on the screen as we go along. Use CHA GPTs help to
write Instagram bio. Make sure your bio is
short and to the point. Include keywords in your
username and name field. The examples will be all
over your screen now. It will help search visibility, especially for creator
and business accounts. Use your keywords naturally. No one likes keyword stuffing. In Google SEO, you are always taught to not do any kind
of keyword stuffing. The same thing applies
on Instagram SU. Your caption should
sound like a human. You can't do keyword
stuffing and expect good results because whoever
does keyword stuffing, their post will get
buried completely.
4. Instagram Growth Techniques to Avoid: Instagram growth
techniques to avoid. A lot of creators try
to grow their accounts quickly overnight through
buying followers, doing follow follow, or any kind of spam activity like going
on a liking spree every hour. And while these tactics may
give temporary results, in the long run, your account is going to suffer
the consequences. Instagram's algorithm
is much smarter now. They use AI based algorithm now, which can easily detect any
kind of a bot activity, fake followers follow and follow any kind of
spammy activity. And when that happens, when Instagram finds
out that you're using spam boots or any kind of a fake activity
on your account, your reach can
drop dramatically. Sometimes your content may stop appearing on hashtag pages, Explore page, and even
the recommended pages. This is what people
call shadowban. Please note, not every bad performing post
means your shadowban. Sometimes a real or post
may just underperform, and it's absolutely okay. It happens to the best of us. But if you constantly notice lower reach than before
across multiple post, it may be worth looking
into your account activity. The safest long term
strategy is simple. Stay away from bots, stay away from buying followers, grow your account as
organically as possible.
5. Banned Hashtags Explained: Banded hashtags explained. A band hashtag is a hashtag. Instagram has restricted or blogged because it has
been associated with spam, inappropriate content,
or harmful activity. And here's the important part. Not all band hashtags
are obvious. Some hashtags may look
completely normal, but Instagram bans
them internally, and the list keeps changing. When Instagram notices constant
misuse of a hashtag to promote spam adult content
or bolating guidelines, Instagram may reduce the reach for post data using
that hashtag. In some cases,
Instagram may reduce your overall accounts
reach if you are found using
that band hashtag. This is one of the
many reasons that creators are now not
focusing too much on hashtags and rather
trying to grow and build proper
real engagement, and using SEO tactics so their posts are discoverable
for a longer period of time. Hashtags now only help with the categorization
of your content. For example, if you're
creating photography content, so just use the
hashtag photography or find a niche hashtag
for photography. The problem with
hashtag is if you use the wrong one or a
band one unknowingly, it will hurt the post
more rather than help. My point is, before using
any unfamiliar hashtag, just search it on
Instagram once. And don't use the one that
has any kind of a warnings. And honestly, you don't really
need hashtags to grow now. Instagram is very smart now. The algorithm is completely
made hashtags redundant. You don't need dozens of
hashtags to grow now. Just add two to three
hashtags to your caption, and Instagram will use Dad
to categorize your post.
6. Recovering from Shadowban: Recovering from a shadowban. If you have figured out
that your account is shadowban for any of the
previous mentioned problems, here's what to do to fix it. Stop your spam
behavior immediately. If you're someone who goes
on a liking spree every day or a huge follow
and follow streak, or if you have
signed up in one of those applications or something
suspicious like that, log out immediately and stop the suspicious
activity immediately. Remove suspicious hashtags. If you have over 100, 200 posts, then this advice may not be helpful to you
because it's not practical. But if you only have
ten to 20 posts, go through them and remove any suspicious hashtags
that you may have used. Avoid automation tools. With automation tool,
the problem is not every automation tool is authorized by
Instagram themselves. Use only reputed ones like later and not any random ones
out there in the market. Take a short Instagram break. This is the tip that is going
to help most people with shadowban and how long
should the break be? I personally suggest
eight to ten days. You can still use Instagram. Mind you, just don't post
anything and don't go on any liking spree or any follow and follow
or anything like that. Just use Instagram
like a normal person.
7. Outro: These tips will not improve your visibility overnight
but over a period of time. Just focus on creating valuable content
using clear keywords, improving retention, and
understanding your audience. Keep testing
different strategies, keep learning from
your analytics, and keep creating content. Thanks for taking this class, and I hope to see
you in the next one.
Shubham Jain, Everything about Etsy & Social Media
