Keywords marketing is such a big thing now – it’s time to discuss it in detail!
Keywords are the heart of SEO. It might surprise you: Instagram SEO as well.
Today, we have to take the next step of creating your keyword strategy: keyword research. You need to decide which keywords are worth it to include in your Instagram captions, and in your display name!
Determining which keywords to use in content requires keyword research. It’s an essential step in Instagram SEO optimization. But it’s definitely not as scary as it may sound. First, I will show you how to find good keywords for your content, and then we’ll discuss where exactly you can include them to boost your visibility.
Keywords Marketing – First Step:
Keyword research should always start with your own understanding of what your Instagram account is about. So, the beginning is understanding the types of content you create and the words you and other people would use to describe your content.
Write down the primary topics you associate with your Instagram profile.
Start by thinking broadly, perhaps of the 2 to 6 interests or needs your content brings to mind.
Protip: at this point, you can also gain inspiration by looking at competitors’ profiles and talking to your potential followers, you know, people who are potentially in your target audience.
I know examples really help, so here’s one. If you run a profile that motivates people to broaden their comfort zones and start side hustle to help them live their dream life for instance, then your topics could be something like:
- Motivation
- Impostor-syndrome
- freedom
These might not be your keywords, but you can use these relevant topics to come up with a 2-word phrase for each one that represents your keywords. In this case, that could be:
- Maintaining motivation
- How to overcome impostor-syndrome
- Financial freedom
It’s always smart to check what content can be found under these keywords. That way you can make sure that the posts you share match the keyword. My tip? Type in these phrases into Instagram search and analyze if the content you see is similar to what you want to post.
For example, the phrase “financial freedom” leads to results about saving, investing, and pyramid schemes rather than learning new skills and building smart side hustles, and this can be an indication that you should shift your keywords and change it a bit. For example a keyword “easy side hustles” may fit more closely with the actual content you post.
Finding Your Leading Keywords – Takeaways
Here are the key steps you need to take:
- Write down the primary topics you associate with your Instagram profile.
- You can also gain inspiration by looking at competitor’s profiles and talking to your potential followers, people who are potentially in your target audience and analyze what keywords they use or would use to describe content similar to yours
- It’s really smart to check what content appears in the search under the keywords you want to use on your profile or in your content
But what if you have only a very broad idea of what you want to focus on in your content, but you have no idea what your target audience is looking for and what keywords may be associated with your niche?
Smart Ways to Find Best Keywords Quicker
There is a smart way to find new keywords you may want to include in your content.
Research shows that people on Instagram also use keywords similar to those on Google when looking for new content with the search bar. So it’s a smart idea to analyze keywords connected to your niche, associated with your topics for Google – to find out what problems people interested in your niche face, and what topics interest them the most.
We can use free or paid tools to uncover these keywords.
1 method: enter your topic into the Google and find out what suggestions Google gives you – these are the topics or questions people often type into the search bar
For example, if I type in the keyword “easy sides hustles” Google gives me these suggestions:
- easy side hustles from home, side hustles with no experience, unique side hustles
And questions like:
- How can I make an extra $2000 a month?
- What are easy side hustles to earn extra income?
This means these topics and these questions gain a lot of attention. It’s smart idea to include them in your posts, and maybe even in your display name and other searchable parts of your Instagram, but we’ll discuss these strategic spots in a minute.
2 Method: Look for Keyword Suggestions on Tiktok
You may be surprised but this method really works for Instagram as well. These platforms are a bit similar, and Instagram is working really hard to copy some of Tiktok’s mechanisms, because research shows that Tiktok has a really good SEO.
As I’ve already told you, more and more people prefer to use Tiktok or Instagram to find answers to their questions instead of google, and that’s why analyzing the topics and keywords that are popular on Tiktok is a wise way to make your content helpful for people interested in your niche.
Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan, who runs Google’s Knowledge & Information says that “Something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search, they go to TikTok” and it’s really similar for other practical purposes, so Tiktok can became your gold mine of inspiration for topics and keyword that are appealing to people.
For example when I type in the keyword “easy side hustles” into the Tiktok’s search bar, I get a lot of new suggestions.
3 Method: Analyze Keywords with Advanced Keyword Search Tools
As you already know, many keywords popular on Google are also a smart choice for Instagram. The third way to find these keywords is to do keyword research with advanced SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Mango Tools or Ubersuggest by Neil Patel.
These tools are paid, but some of them, for example Mango Tools and Uber Suggest offer a free trial, so you can sign up for your free trial and conduct keyword research that way, and then decide if you really need a paid version, or you can also quit your free trial and then come back to the search after a while, because the first research will be really enough for some time.
To give you an insight, here’s how the keyword research looks inside Ubersuggest because that’s the tool I currently use for that purpose.
There are also tools with new features designed for Instagram keyword research, one of which is IQ Hashtags. The process is really simple, as all you have to do is type in your topic, and the tool will give you suggestions and ready keywords which you can include in your content right away.
Just like that:
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