← Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
Instagram SEO Secrets | 10X Your Followers in 30 Days - 841
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In today’s episode, Brock Johnson reveals Instagram SEO secrets that can help you 10X your followers in just 30 days. He’ll dive into Instagram search optimization and explore how SEO strategies can significantly boost your profile's...
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If you want to grow on Instagram, maximizing SEO is more important now than ever before. As of the day that this podcast is releasing, July 10, 2025, Instagram is essentially making the entire platform searchable. This means that your posts, your captions, your reels, and pretty soon your entire profile are going to be able to show up in search results on Google and other top search engines. This is awesome news for two reasons. Number one, more than ever before, people are turning to social media like Instagram to search for things. Whether it's a local, small business, a shop, or a product that they're looking for, people are looking to Instagram and social media more generally for their results, rather than the typical search engines that we've been used to for the last 20 years. And even if that wasn't the case, the second reason that this is great news is that now our Instagram posts will show up under Google search results. This means potentially more views, more exposure, more followers, and more customers for from your business through Google because of what you're posting on Instagram. In today's episode, I'm gonna share with you the three key things that you need to know in order to maximize your reach and grow your following thanks to this new SEO change. And this is a change that is not unexpected. We saw this coming for the last five years here at Build you'd Tribe, we've been telling you to start improving your SEO skills on Instagram because hashtags are being phased out. It's crazy that to this day people will argue with me about topic. But according to Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram himself, in my interview with him, which was a former episode of this podcast, hashtags are not a reliable way to increase your reach. Hashtags were invented as a way to basically help the algorithm with SEO. Basically, hashtags were a way to say, hey, algorithm, this is a picture of New York pizza. But now the algorithm has become so advanced, and the machine learning and artificial intelligence and that runs the numerous Instagram algorithms is so intelligent. It can look at your photo or your reel, scan it, and figure out what it is or what it's about without you having to tell it. But it's still not perfect. It makes mistakes. For example, just last week I posted a carousel that was titled 37 Real Ideas for July. And then, yes, of course it had 37 real ideas on each of the subsequent slides. But on the first slide of that carousel, I was wearing a meme T shirt that said Rare Fish Investor.
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And so, because of That T shirt. The algorithm misdiagnosed what my post was about, and instead the algorithm now believes that that post is about rare fish investing strategies. So, number one, yes, the algorithm has absolutely improved. And because of that, number two, hashtags are no longer an essential tool for growth on Instagram. But the algorithm still needs help. It's not perfect. And so that's where SEO or search engine optimization comes into play. And that's what we're going to focus on for the remainder of today's episode. Making sure that your Instagram posts are optimized in order to show up at the top of search results is all about keywords. Keywords are simply the words and phrases that people would be typing into search engines in order to discover what it is they're looking for. Basically, they're words or short phrases that describe your post. For example, if I was to post a picture of this little yellow Converse toy shoe, I might say yellow Converse toy, yellow Converse shoe, mini yellow Converse. If I just did shoe as one of my keywords, I would then have to compete with every other post on Instagram that has talked about shoes or has used hashtag shoes or has just been a photo or a video of shoes. So basically, keywords are just terms and phrases that specifically describe your post or what it's about. But in order to show up at the top of search results and thus get more views and followers and potentially customers from Google and other search engines, here are the three key things that you need to do. Number one, you need to empathize with your target market. Now, one of the foundational principles to growing on Instagram that I've always taught is that you need to niche down. And part of niching down, as I define it and as I teach, is having a clear understanding of your target demographic. Basically, who do you want to follow your account? I believe that the more specific you get with your target audience, the faster you will grow and the more of a loyal, engaged superfan community you will build. Now, that doesn't mean that you need to exclude everyone else or turn everyone else away, but when you have super clear demographics, age groups, race, religion, marital status, education level, employment status, all of that stuff, the more you know about your target audience, the more you can create content that really resonates with them. For example, on Instagram, my target audience is over the age of 35. Do I have people under the age of 35 following me? Absolutely. But because my target demographic is small business owners who are over the age of 35, I. I'm not going to use Gen Z slang like Riz or Skibidi in any of my posts because it's either going to go over the heads of the people who follow me or the people who I want to follow me, or it's going to annoy them because those are the words that are overused by their children. People who live in different areas of the world or who have different levels of education or have different relationship statuses or different employment statuses or different political affiliations, they're going to search for things differently. The specific words and phrases that they are going to use when looking things up online are going to vary. And when you have a crystal clear picture in your mind of who you are trying to attract to your page, you're able to use the words that they are using. And that will make sure that when they use those terms in Google or Yahoo or Bing or whatever search engine they're using, your posts are actually showing up. Now, even the most empathetic person on the planet might still struggle to figure out what are they actually searching for? Like what terms and phrases are they actually using? Because sure, you could do market research and you can poll people on the streets of New York City, or you can, you know, run online forums and test group people. But the much easier way to figure out what your target demographic is actually searching for online is step number two for dominating Instagram with SEO. And it's to use online tools that have the answers for you. Here are my top four favorite tools to use in keyword research. Basically, when I'm coming up with a post, when I have an idea for a script or a topic that I want to cover, I will oftentimes go to one of these four tools first and then figure out what specific words or phrases I need to include in that post in order for myself to show up at the top of search engine Results. Tool number one is good old ChatGPT. ChatGPT4.o can search the Internet. So it's not just giving you results from a few years ago, it's giving you up to date results. Here is a prompt that I love to use for ChatGPT. Feel free to use this for yourself. Act like an SEO expert my target audience is and then tell ChatGPT who your target audience is and I'm creating a post about. And then give it the specific topic that you want to create a post about. For example, maybe your target audience is new moms in their 30s looking to lose weight naturally. And maybe the specific topic is healthy snack ideas to Boost energy. And then the rest of the prompt is what are the most searched keywords and phrases that relate to this topic and are used by this audience. List the top 20 keywords or search terms that they might be typing into Google or Instagram. Of course, then when you use that prompt, ChatGPT will give you 20 keywords or phrases that you can organically work into your posts. Which, by the way, towards the end of this episode, I'm going to share with you the different areas of your post that it's important to consider, including SEO, to make sure that you show up at the top of search results. Tool number two is one that I've been using and recommending for years, and it's Answer the public dot com. It's a really useful tool where you can enter in one to two keywords that relate to the post that you plan on making. And Answer the Public will give you a plethora of data. So much information, and all of this information comes from what people are searching for the most. It will give you the most popular search terms. With each letter of the Alphabet, it will give you the most popular searched comparisons. So if you did like healthy snacks, maybe it would be healthy snacks versus unhealthy snacks or healthy snacks versus organic snacks, I don't know. But when you use Answer the Public, you can see the real data of what people are searching for the most. And it's super helpful. Another really helpful tool that is similar to Answer the public is KeywordTool IE. KeywordTool IO allows you to get a little bit more specific with what you're searching. So you can not just type in the keyword that you're looking for. You can also filter it by certain geographic regions and certain languages. So again, if you want to get a little bit more specific or targeted with who you're trying to reach on Instagram can be a great tool to check out. And then my fourth tool that I often use for keyword research is just Google Trends. If you go to Google and you type in Google Trends, you can go to Google Trends and Google Trends will allow you to basically compare the popularity of different search terms. So I remember one time I was working with someone who did balloon art, like they did those balloon archways that you see at weddings or at like corporate events. And so in their bio on Instagram, they said that they were a balloonist. And I didn't think that that was a very popular term. I'm not an expert in that industry. I'm not an expert in the events, space industry, or in the balloon art industry. But I guessed my assumption was that balloonist wasn't the most popular term. So I went to Google Trends and I compared the terms balloon artist and balloonist and balloon artist had significantly higher search volume. And so this led me to advise her to remove balloonist from her Instagram bio and replace it with balloon artist in order to show up in more search results. Step number three for maximizing your return on investment on Instagram by showing up in the most possible search results is to check. And of course you could go to Google and search for terms that are relating to your Instagram and see if you're coming up as one of the top search results. You could do that, but there's a much easier way that I'm a big fan of and it's a new Instagram feature that not many people are talking this Instagram feature is called Recommended Search. And yes, it's yet another Instagram feature that was stolen from TikTok. Basically, the recommended Search is a prompt that Instagram provides for your viewers that they think they might be interested in searching for based off of your post. Remember earlier when I gave you that example of the post that I made that the Instagram algorithm thought was about rare fish investing financials? Well, I knew that that's what the algorithm thought my post was about because that was the suggested search on my post. Now, not everyone has this feature just yet, so definitely keep updating your app and keep checking to see if you have this feature. But once you do, all you have to do is go to your comments section on any post that you have recently made and look for the hyperlinked blue text up at the top. And that is the Recommended search. And again, the Recommended Search is a super helpful way to figure out what Instagram thinks your post is about. If that Recommended search isn't related to your post like mine wasn't in the July Real Ideas Slash Fish Investing Strategies post, well then you know that the next time you make that post, you're going to have to change some things up. Or if you're going to recreate that post, there's some things you're going to have to do differently to make sure that whatever keywords you want to be standing out are actually standing out. And not just Rare Fish Investing strategies. One of the really big questions that it's important that we talk about is what does the algorithm look at and what does it not look at? Because for quite a while a lot of people were saying the algorithm only looks at your caption. It doesn't look at what's in your post. It doesn't look at anything else. All that it looks at is your caption. And I think it's pretty clear that that's not the case. At least not anymore. Because if the algorithm thinks my post is about rare fish investment strategies because that was just written on my T shirt, then it's clear that the algorithm is looking at my post. So rather than telling you what I think the case is, I'll tell you exactly what the head of Instagram, Adam Mozeri, said in my interview with him. He said that the algorithm looks at the following four things in this order. Number one is yes, the caption. That's the easiest thing for the algorithm to look at because it doesn't have to do very much work. It's already written text. It's very easy for the algorithm to analyze the text that's in your caption. So make sure that you are including these SEO keywords, terms and phrases organically in your caption. We're going to come back to that word organically in just a little bit. The second thing that the Instagram algorithm looks at, the second most important area to include SEO keywords and phrases is in your spoken audio. Now I know that not every reel that you're creating includes spoken audio, but if you are doing a direct to camera, talking head style reel or even a voiceover reel, make sure that your spoken audio includes words or phrases that relate to the post and that describe what the post is about. The third most important area to include these keywords is in the visuals. So maybe not in the actual words or even closed captions on your video, but what the video actually is. And this is where things like text on the screen or visuals really matter. Basically, if you're to post a reel on Instagram, the algorithm doesn't watch the entire reel. It instead takes little screenshots. Basically, it pulls out keyframes, frames or pauses in your video and then it analyzes each of those freeze frames. And so if your video is cluttered, if there's a lot of visually distracting things, if you're wearing a T shirt that says Rare Fish Investor, or you're using props that somehow don't relate to your video, this can detract from your search engine optimization or if nothing else, makes it harder for the algorithm to determine what your post is about. So just be mindful of what's on the screen, be mindful of the visuals, be mindful of what the text on your Shirt says, says. And then the fourth most important metric that the algorithm looks at to determine what your post is about is actually the comments. And this is an area that Instagram actually wants to put more weight into. They want to prioritize the algorithm, scanning your comments section, because basically their hunch is that if a lot of people are commenting about one subject, that's going to be a much better indicator of what people are interested in or what the recommended search should be than what you said in the post. And this is something that TikTok has truly mastered. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a TikTok video and there was a word or a person mentioned in the video, and I'm like, what does that word mean? Or what is that story? Who is that person? And then when I go to the comments section, the recommended search is that person's name, not the person who created the video, but the person who was mentioned in the video, who maybe not everyone knows, myself included. And so Instagram is continuing to beef up how much the algorithm looks at the comment section. And so one pro tip that you can use to really take advantage of this knowledge is to start commenting on your own posts. Now, you don't need to comment 15 times, you don't need to comment 5 times, but just simply one comment on your own post can be an effective way to nudge the algorithm in the right direction. Something that I often do when I'm scheduling posts on metricool is I will schedule the first comment automatically. Or if I've manually posted a reel or a carousel myself, I'll just hop right into the comment section and I'll leave a comment. Maybe I'm asking a question, getting the conversation going. Maybe I'm adding like a little inside joke or side comment that somehow relates to the video. But all of this helps the algorithm figure out what my post is about and not get confused. Now, like I said in the first sentence of this episode, July 10, 2025 is the date that our posts become searchable. Our profiles have already been somewhat searchable for years, and in the near future, they are going to be totally searchable as well. Currently, as it stands, there are two areas of your Instagram profile that are directly searchable, meaning that if you put any word or phrase on one of these two lines and then someone searches for that word or phrase on Google, your Instagram will show up. The first one is the obvious one. It's the one that you can already think of. It's the username. If My username is Brock11Johnson, which it is, and you should follow me, by the way. I'm also on a million followers and that'd be really awesome if you help me get to a million followers. But Brock11Johnson is my username. And so if you look up Brock11Johnson on Google, you will find my Instagram. You might find some of my other socials and other stuff as well, but you will find my Instagram. That's pretty self explanatory. But the second area of your Instagram profile that is currently 100% searchable that most people overlook, and this is a super common mistake, is the Instagram name. The Instagram name is that bold text that's right below your username. And for those of us who have a personal brand or even just a personal account on Instagram, what do we put on that line? We just put our name. For those of us who have a business brand or who have a shop and we sell things for our business on Instagram, what do we normally put on that line? The name of our business. But here's the problem with that. Most people don't know our name or our business's name. And so instead we need to put keywords, titles or SEO friendly terms and topics on that Instagram name line. For example, when you look at my Instagram bio, my username is Brock11Johnson. So that if someone searches Brock Johnson or they search Brock 11 Johnson, hi, I'll show up. But on my Instagram name line it says Instagram Growth Coach. That way if someone is looking up that term, they will find me. Instagram allows us to have up to 56 characters on that Instagram name line. And so it's okay if you want to have your first name or maybe even your first and last, but it's most important that you have some SEO friendly keywords and phrases on that line so that you show up in popular search engine results. Unfortunately, as it currently stands, our Instagram bio is not searchable. Whether you're searching on Instagram or off of Instagram, the words you put in your bio are not likely to influence what results you show up, as they might slightly impact the algorithm's understanding of your account and what you're about, but they're not directly searchable. With that being said, Instagram does have plans in the next few months to continue to improve the SEO capabilities of both Instagram and of course, other search engines searching for things on Instagram. So it's very likely that if not by the end of 2025, that at some point in 2026, your entire Instagram bio will be searchable. So make sure to use some of those tools earlier and empathize with your target market to figure out what words and phrases they're using, and then put those words and phrases in your bio. If you can do even half of what I have outlined in today's episode, you will put yourself ahead of most other brands and business owners on Instagram. I want to encourage you not to stress out over this topic, not to freak out over SEO. Basically, use the words that people in your audience would already be using and you should be good to go. And I do want to say, I told you we would come back to this idea of organic use. When SEO first started to rise in popularity on Instagram just a few years ago, there was a hack that someone came up with. I don't know who came up with it. Even if I did, I wouldn't name them because I don't want to shame them. But there was a hack where people would do one of two things. They would either type out a list of keywords and then put it at the bottom of their caption, kind of the way some people used to do it with their hashtags. But instead of saying hashtag New York pizza, hashtag rarefish investor, they would just write New York pizza, comma, rare fish investor, comma Orange county mom. That is called keyword stuffing. Instagram has explicitly said that if you do this, if you participate in this practice, the algorithm can recognize that it deems it as spammy behavior, and it will downrank your content because of it. So do not write a long list of keywords at the bottom of your caption. The second hack, which is even crazier that some people came up with this, was that you should take those keywords, the ones that you were going to put at the bottom of your caption, and instead put them on your reel, but then color match them to the background. I would like write a list of keywords, and then I would make it a dark green so that it blended in with my background. And then I'd pinch the text super small and I'd put it up in a corner so that the human eye couldn't. The thought from these gurus was that the algorithm could see it, and then it would really boost the algorithm in doing its job and figuring out what your post is about. No, stop doing that. That is also considered keyword stuffing, and that will also negatively impact your post's performance. So what should you do instead? Organically use the words. Put the words into sentences. Use the words that your post is about. Be descriptive in your actual content, in the words you're saying, the text on the screen, the caption. Organically use the words. Don't put a long list of keywords. Organically mix the keywords into your content. This is something that will take a little bit of practice, and it will take a little bit of refining to organically include words that you might not have organically said otherwise. But over time this will become easier. And of course, you could use AI to help you with your script writing or with your caption writing so you can more organically kind of massage those keywords into the way you speak or the way you write without having to stress out over it. With all of this being said, I have created a free guide to SEO keywords and hashtags on Instagram. If you want to check that out. I'll link that up down in the show notes below. But if nothing else, I hope you subscribe. I hope you learned something today. And as always, happy Networking.
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