[FAQ]

Hi,
I run an online shop selling vintage clothing, and I’m trying to improve my organic discovery on Instagram. I feel like I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle with the platform’s search function.

I’ve heard that it’s not just about hashtags anymore and that Instagram can now “read” your captions, bio, and even your alt text. How true is this? I want to make sure my profile and posts appear when people are searching for terms like “vintage fashion UK” or “80s style dresses”.

What are all the different places I need to put keywords to give myself the best chance of ranking? It’s frustrating to create good content if potential customers can’t even find it through search.

[Jeff Bullas]

Thinking about Instagram Search in terms of SEO is exactly the right approach.

Short Answer: To rank higher, you must treat your account like a webpage and place your most important keywords in four key places: your searchable Name field, your bio, your post captions, and your image alt text.

The algorithm now reads all of these text-based inputs to understand the context of your visual image and video content, so you need to be strategic with every word you write.

You are correct, it’s about much more than just hashtags now. The single most impactful change you can make is to edit your ‘Name’ field in your bio. This field is highly searchable, so instead of just your shop name, it should be ‘Your Shop Name | UK Vintage Fashion’. This immediately tells the algorithm what you are.

Next, you need to write your bio and your individual post captions for both humans and the search engine. Naturally weave in keywords and phrases that your ideal customer would be searching for. The algorithm reads this text to determine the relevance of your content. For every photo you post, you must also write a descriptive alt text, as this is a direct, behind-the-scenes signal to the algorithm about what is in the image.

Finally, remember that engagement is also a ranking factor. A post that is well-optimised with keywords and also has high engagement signals like saves and shares will always rank higher than one with keywords alone.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Author]

Posts