The Importance of URL Structure For SEO (And How To Use It)

What if someone from Google called you today and told you that your website would benefit from an SEO friendly URL structure? I’m sure that would get your attention.

Of course, you don’t need one more SEO problem to worry about. Particularly when your website has hundreds of URLs.

Here’s Google’s word on the importance of URLs for search engines (yes, they’re not just addresses to web destinations, they ‘tell’ search engines a lot more).

So, how important is the URL structure for SEO?

Like any other ranking factor, the URL structure will not change your SEO results on its own.

That said, it has its place in your holistic SEO strategy. If you give URL structure its due importance, your website will do better than equally good competitors who are still too lazy to work on URL structure.

This article will unpack everything you need to know about how to optimize your website’s URL structure so that you send the right signals to Google.

URL structure and user experience

A well thought out and optimized URL offers a better search experience to the end-user and empowers search engine bots to understand the ‘relevance’ and ‘context’ of the webpage.

Here’s an example of a URL that tells you (and the search engine) what you may expect on the webpage. Also note the close match between the title of the page and URL.

Such semantically accurate URLs enhance user experience, as they either inform, or re-enforce a promise related to the ‘experience’ that awaits the reader when they click on the page link.

Note: Increasingly, Google is replacing URLs in search results with breadcrumb displays. This indicates how the search engine believes that the ‘URL area’ is a contributor to the web user’s search experience.

This also gives a bird’s eye view of the navigation structure of the website to the user.

The net result – superlative user experience, and that’s what Google wants you to help with.

Keyword optimization for URLs

A no-brainer, you’d think. Go ahead, do some Google searches, and see how messy URLs can appear, with seemingly no relation to their content!

Don’t make that mistake.

Matt Cutts has remarked on the relevance of keywords in a URL, and how it helps Google’s search algorithm relate the information to the title.

URL length

Here’s an example URL structure.

The right question, then, should be – how long should the “page” part of the URL be?

Let’s answer it in 3 ways.

#1. The Google answer

4-5 words long. Or, if your keyword is 3 words long, then keep the URL page length also at 3 words (because it will be an exact match).

Again, here is Matt Cutts’ advice on the subject.

#2. The Quicksprout study

And it seems all the ‘good guys’ are following this, as proven by Quicksprout research.

The observation is that top rankers average between 35 and 40 characters for their URLs.

That doesn’t mean that longer URLs are a bad thing. It’s just that the algorithm is going to ignore most of the trailing words, and if your keywords are planted in the latter half, the bot may ignore that. And this can’t be good for your SEO.

#3. The Backlinko study

In research conducted to understand ranking factors, Backlinko found a clear correlation between short URLs and high ranks.

Word separators for a URL

Hyphens? Underscores? Spaces? Any other character? Does it matter?

Yes, it matters. And thankfully, there’s no guesswork here, as Google itself recommends that you use hyphens to separate words.

And it’s easy to understand why. Spaces waste useful characters, and underscores aren’t as intuitive as a hyphen. Eventually, it boils down to what makes the most universal sense, and Google thinks it’s hyphens. So, you should too.

Dates in a URL

Don’t include them.

Why? You ask?

Well, there are two reasons.

• When you add a date, let’s say, 18/9/2019 in the URL, that’s 9 characters used up (almost 25% of the total if we go by the ideal character count of 35 to 40 characters). Why waste an opportunity to tell the reader and the search engines what the page is about, wasting it on numbers?
• Updating the web page won’t create the same impression anymore. Content updates are a key SEO strategy, particularly when you have some superstar pages ranking high already.

Imagine, now, the impression a web searcher will get if the URL reads something like ‘https://ift.tt/2QUOlom; while you’ve actually updated it with the trends for 2019 and 2020!

The website’s navigation structure

The navigation structure of the website is closely tied to the URL structure. And I also mentioned how Google is replacing URLs with breadcrumbs.

Let’s take this example.

Consider how the URL helps Google showcase the breadcrumbs ‘Blog’ and ‘Social Media’ alongside the page title.

For a web user interested in social media marketing in general, this tells him/her that this blog has a lot more content related to ‘social media’ and not only about ‘growth marketing via giveaways’.

While it’s difficult to quantify, this has a positive influence on organic traffic. And it’s all tied to the core principle of ‘making search highly relevant and contextual’.

Dynamic URLs

The golden rule to follow is – nothing dynamic.

You have more to lose than gain. Here’s how;

• They make the URL longer than it should be. Consider something like:

https://ift.tt/2L2NQoB

• Google may falsely believe you’re copying the content, if different versions of the same URL get indexed.
• In general, dynamic URLs appear messy and fishy to a web user.

HTTPS

Now here’s a no-brainer. However, it’s so important I can’t resist underscoring it.

HTTPS.

That it’s a ranking signal, as confirmed by Google, should be reason enough for you to upgrade your website to HTTPS (which naturally reflects on the URLs too).

Parting thoughts

While revamping your website’s URL structure may not be a very stimulating proposition, the first step is to acknowledge that it’s important.

It’s going to be easier in the long run if you can, for all your new webpages, adopt these guidelines.

Also, plan out a timeline over which you will optimize the URL structure of your website, prioritizing pages that may be able to edge past competitors because of their better URL structure.

Guest author: Vishal Vivek is the co-founder and CEO of a well known SEO Company, Digital Marketing, Web Design and Social Media Marketing Company, SEO Corporation. From being an insomniac workaholic spending nights in the office to taking risky vacations in the Himalayas, Vishal has done it all and excelled at it. When he’s not reading corporate writing and organized crime novels, he’s usually found petting random stray animals.

The post The Importance of URL Structure For SEO (And How To Use It) appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/url-structure-for-seo/

The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing for Business

Instagram is the second most popular social media platform, with over one billion people using it every month. It was also the second most downloaded free app (just behind YouTube) in the Apple app store in 2018.

Small businesses, large businesses, social media managers, brands, individuals, influencers, and celebrities are successfully growing followings, building relationships, and making sales on Instagram.

This article provides an extensive breakdown of all there is to know about Instagram marketing for business.

BONUS: Want to automate the organic growth of your followers on Instagram? Check out Growth Service Kicksta.

Table of contents

What is Instagram

Instagram basics

Types of Instagram content

When to post on Instagram

Instagram marketing strategy

Instagram advertising

Instagram tools

Conclusion

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a visually-powered social network where users share images and videos, often creatively styled with filters, styles, and text-based content.

The image-based app launched in 2010, (almost a decade ago). It grew so quickly that Facebook noticed and determined that acquiring it would be a great opportunity, so they purchased Instagram in 2012.

Over the years it has evolved, adding features like direct messages, stories, IGTV and Instagram Live, among many others, as the app has grown exponentially in popularity.

Why is Instagram so popular?

Instagram is driven by images, and people respond more to photos than to long blocks of text, especially when quickly scrolling on a smartphone. Instagram has become a hub of information for people to search for restaurants, places to visit, and people to follow.  While constant updates can feel frustrating, by adding new features Instagram is keeping itself one of the hottest apps on the market.

Who uses Instagram?

Instagram appeals to a wide variety of people.

• Instagram sways slightly female – 52% of all users are women.
• 43% of women in America use the app, while only 31% of men in America do.
• It’s the most popular social network for teenagers – 72% of teens say they use the app.
• 67% of 18-29-year-olds are on the app.
• 47% of those aged 30-49 use Instagram.
• 23% of people aged 50-64 have accounts.
• Only 8% of people aged 65 or older are on Instagram.

Back to the table of contents.

Instagram basics

Setting up your Instagram account

Creating an account on Instagram is quite intuitive. You simply need to download the app and create an account with a username, email address, and password. The more complex part is crafting a compelling bio, choosing a profile picture, and beginning to post.

Personal vs. Business Accounts

Instagram accounts are automatically made as personal accounts, but it’s easy to switch to a business account under settings.

The perks of having an Instagram Business Account include:

• Instagram analytics
• Swipe-up feature (with 10,000 followers)
• Contact information in bio
• Running paid advertisements
• Creating “shoppable” posts

Instagram for business

Did you know that 200 million users visit at least one business profile every day?

If you’re not on the app, you’re missing out on the chance to reach thousands of potential customers. People are using Instagram to discover and research new products and recent features, like shoppable tags, allow users to make a purchase within the app.

Instagram also gives you the chance to connect with your audience, so you can provide them with customer support, create relationships with your customers, or receive feedback from them to improve your business. This will certainly help you build rapport and improve your customers’ feelings toward your brand. Beyond that, you can engage them in conversations and learn what they want. You can get ideas for new products and understand the language they use to talk about your product. By being where your audience is, you can improve your ability to connect with them.

Back to the table of contents.

Types of Instagram content

Instagram Feed

The first type of content to understand is the feed content. These are the typical photos and videos you see when you open the app and start scrolling. Feed posts are the most traditional type of post on Instagram, and they’re the posts most affected by the algorithm.

Most users will add hashtags to feed posts in order to reach more people with their content. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, but the most important thing is that they’re relevant to your post.

If you have a photo of a dog and you use #waterslide, Instagram knows those aren’t related, and they can actually penalize your account. You also don’t want to just copy and paste the same block of hashtags on every post. By taking the time to make your hashtags hyper-relevant to each post, you will reach new people easily and organically.

Rapid-fire hashtag tips:

• Use all 30 hashtags because you’re creating 30 different ways someone can find you.
• Think about your audience when thinking of hashtags. Are they actually going to type this in to try to find content?
• Try not to use hashtags with over 500,000 posts – your post can easily get lost.
• If you have a niche business, try to use specific, small hashtags (with maybe 1,000 posts) that might not be popular, but would be highly relevant for the people using them.

Finding niche hashtags that people are actually using can be tricky and complicated. If you’re feeling like this, consider using a hashtag generator to find the perfect tags for your niche such as Hashtagsforlikes. Hashtagsforlikes detects the most trending hashtags based on a search of your choice and instantly provides analytics, data, and hashtag recommendations that you can use to increase your exposure.

Types of Feed Posts

Even if you’re watching what a competitor is posting, your audience might respond differently. You’ll want to do some experimenting to see what posts resonate best with your audience, but here are some of our suggestions for posts that capture people’s attention.

1. Stunning Photos

Whether you want to post a beautiful flat-lay or a gorgeous landscape scene, well-composed photos can go over well. The subject of your photo will vary by industry, but it’s always a good idea to have some stunning shots saved in case you need to make a quick post.

2. Interesting or Amusing Videos

People love to watch videos. Whether you’re teaching them a quick tip or sharing a funny story, videos go over well in the feed. Video, in general, is a great way to connect with your audience. Whether you’re on camera, sharing your latest news, or if you have a montage of people using your products, videos help businesses come alive.

3. Testimonials

Instagram is a great place to sneak in some testimonials. You can make a graphic with the testimonial written on it or you could get a video testimonial. Showing the person giving the testimonial can give it more credibility for some of your followers. Testimonials showcase your capabilities without sounding like you’re bragging.

4. Quote Cards

Depending on your industry, quote posts can go over really well. They’re easily shareable, so your audience might help you reach new followers. Quote cards are often simple graphics with a meaningful or motivational quote, either from you or someone else. These graphics are an easy way to insert your branding into your feed by using brand colors, fonts or designs.

5. User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is just like it sounds – content that your customers, clients, and users create for you. Some studies have shown that people trust UGC more than brand-created content because they believe other users more strongly than brands themselves. Some UGC is made naturally, especially if you have raving fans who are excited to share your product or service with their following. If you don’t have that, don’t worry. You can still include UGC in your content plan. The easiest way is to create a contest and ask your followers to post about your product to be entered to win a prize.

Instagram Stories

As we mentioned earlier, feed posts aren’t the only type of content on Instagram. Stories are another way to reach your audience, and some people believe they’re actually the best way. Stories appear at the top of the app, and they disappear after 24 hours. This creates a feeling of urgency for many users, so they want to check them out before they’re gone.

Stories are generally meant to give a behind-the-scenes look into your business, whether that’s day-to-day activities, or bringing your audience along during an event. Stories can also be a useful promotional tool.

• You can promote a new challenge.
• Show your book tour behind-the-scenes (and encourage people to attend later stops).
• Link to your newest podcast episode and tag the guest you interviewed.

You can plan stories in advance if you’re looking to get a particular message across. If you know you want to promote your new product on Black Friday, for example, you can create story slides in advance so they’re well-branded, and so you know all of your information is included. Then, you can either post them live or find a content scheduling tool that allows you to schedule your stories.

Take @stacytuschl for example. She used stories to promote her upcoming five-day challenge. She asked questions of her audience to see if they were the right fit, then told them about the challenge. Just two stories later, she posted about her daughter and how they’re watching Survivor together.

This is the beauty of stories. You can promote and build real connections on the same platform. Stories also provide a great way to generate engagement. The stickers, polls, question boxes, quizzes, etc. give your followers an easy way to engage with you.

Pro tip: Respond to users’ engagement with a direct message to start building relationships with them!

Charity donations

Did you know you can now collect donations for nonprofits directly in your Instagram stories? There’s a relatively new sticker available with the engagement buttons that allows you to select a nonprofit. Then, users can make a donation without having to leave Instagram. This can be a great way to include a call-to-action while increasing awareness about a cause that is important to your brand.

While these charity donations are great for raising money for nonprofits, they’re also creating a new means of exposure. Celebrities, influencers and even smaller brands or individuals are sharing links to donate to these nonprofits. This is a new way of promoting their cause and messaging to reach new audiences.

Back to the table of contents.

When to post on Instagram

Deciding when to post your content on Instagram seems to be the age-old question so you can take advantage of the algorithm. Think about when your audience is likely going to be on the app. People who work 9-5 jobs are probably more likely to be on in the mornings, evenings, and during lunchtime. Parents of young children probably won’t be scrolling in the early evening while they’re trying to get the kids to bed. Really the best time to post differs for every industry, so use your analytics to determine the demographics of your followers and when the best time to post is.

Don’t forget though, that Instagram is a social platform. Above all else, you want to post when you’ll have time to engage with your followers who comment on your posts. A good rule of thumb is to be engaging for about 15 minutes before your post, and continue engaging for 30 minutes after. This shows the algorithm that you’re a real person who’s ready to engage and build relationships.

Instagram marketing strategy

Instagram is a great tool for marketers and businesses, but it typically requires strategy, unlike personal accounts. So even if you’ve had an Instagram account for years and you’ve got thousands of followers, you might not be entirely sure of how to use it to grow your business as efficiently as possible. That’s where having an Instagram marketing strategy comes into the game.

Setting goals

The first thing you want to think about is what your goal is on Instagram. If you’re looking to increase brand awareness, you’ll have a very different strategy than someone looking to convert followers to customers within the app. Think about goals like:

• More engagement on your posts
• More traffic to your website
• More revenue
• More podcast downloads

Defining a target audience

Once you know your goal, you want to determine your target audience. See which accounts your ideal audience is following. Understand what posts are resonating with them. If their profiles are public, see what they’re sharing. The more you can understand about how they’re using Instagram, the better you can create a strategy to reach them.

• Research your competitors and see who their followers are.
• Know your audience demographics and find accounts that appeal to them.
• Search for hashtags they’re following and what they’re using.

Creating a unique value proposition

Next, craft your unique value proposition. We’re not necessarily talking about your company’s or your product’s value proposition, although that is important. We’re talking about the value prop of your Instagram account. What are you going to do to make someone in your target audience want to follow you? Chances are they don’t just want to see pictures of your products everywhere. How are you going to portray your brand on Instagram? If you’re feeling stumped, start with these questions:

• What does your business, product, or service offer?
• What makes your account different from others?
• Why is your offering valuable to your followers and customers?
• What are your buyers’ pain points? How can you use those to appeal to them?

Once you’ve answered these questions you’ll understand who you’re targeting, why you’re using the app, and how you’re going to position yourself.

Getting real Instagram followers

Getting more real, organic followers is always a key part of your Instagram strategy. By increasing your followers you can reach more people that are interested in you, your business, products, etc. The more people you reach, the more you can potentially convert into customers.

But getting more followers can be difficult…

There are plenty of bad ways to get more Instagram followers, and these are the spammy tactics and risky companies you should avoid:

• Playing a follow/unfollow game can make Instagram suspicious.
• Trying to purchase a guaranteed number of followers is also a bad idea because you’ll likely end up with plenty of bots that won’t engage.
• Using follow-for-follow accounts will likely get you bots, too.

There are still plenty of ways to get real followers. One of the most effective ways is known as engagement marketing.

Engagement marketing involves engaging with potential followers to create relationships, in the hopes that you’ll catch their attention and they’ll decide they want to follow you. The only problem is that engaging like this can take a lot of time, and it’s easy to get distracted. If you like the idea of engagement marketing, but don’t have the time to devote to it, there are high-quality Instagram growth services that can automate the engagement process for you and have proven to help grow thousands of businesses and brands on Instagram.

BONUS: Want to automate your engagement on Instagram? Check out Growth Service Kicksta.

Instagram Contests

Brands run contests on Instagram primarily to increase their engagement or their followers. You can also choose to partner with another brand or an influencer or run a contest on your own. Some contests can also be great for creating user-generated content.

If your engagement has seemed low recently, run a contest that encourages your followers to engage with a particular post (or set of posts). By doing so not only will you make sure they see your most recent content, but by liking your posts they’ll be telling the algorithm that they want to see more of your content.

Contests can also be a great way to get more Instagram followers. Here are some of the best types of contests to help you get engagement or more followers:

• Encourage your followers to tag their friends, who then need to follow you for a chance to win.
• Ask your followers to post about you on their page and tag you or use a specific hashtag.
• Choose to partner with another account and stipulate that users must be following both accounts in order to be entered to win. This can be a great way to reach a new audience when partnering with a brand that is similar to yours.
• With any contest, consider offering an “extra entry” for people who share your giveaway to their stories.
  

Providing coupons and discounts

Instagram is also a great place to encourage people to buy your products or invest in your services by offering a good deal. You could do this in stories, either with the swipe up feature if you have 10,000 followers, or by offering a discount code only available to people who watch your story.

You could also offer individual discounts to people who reach out to you via direct message. This will take more work, but it can also make a big impact on the people who receive it. Within your feed, you could announce flash sales, or provide coupons if you’re having a bigger promotion.

Instagram influencers

Working with Instagram influencers can be a great way to reach a new audience. Typically influencers have built up a strong level of trust with their followers. When they promote your brand or product, their followers are ready to learn more about you or even purchase your product.

There are many different types of influencers, from celebrities (think: Kim Kardashian) to macro-influencers (someone with 50K-300K followers) to micro-influencers (2K-50K followers). Celebrities are obviously the most well-known, although they can be difficult for smaller brands and businesses to get in contact with to form a partnership.

Macro influencers are slightly smaller, while still having very, very large followings. You’re more likely to be able to get in contact with them, but they might be out of your budget.

Micro-influencers are the easiest to get in contact with, but they sometimes protect their audiences even more. They’ve probably worked very hard to build this following and know they trust the influencer’s words – and recommendations.

Before you reach out to an influencer, build a relationship with them. Engage with their posts, send them casual messages, and see if you can serve them in any way. Then approach them with a partnership proposal that benefits both of you.

Once you come to an agreement and after they’ve created whatever posts you need, it’s time to measure the ROI of your influencer campaign. You should have already created a campaign goal to know what you’re measuring and how you’ll measure it, whether that’s purchases from a particular link or follower increases. If you’d like, you can invest in a management platform that will measure a variety of KPIs. Otherwise, you can measure the clicks from an influencer’s unique URL, their custom discount code, or the number of followers you get during a three-day contest window.

Back to the table of contents.

Instagram advertising

Much like parent company Facebook, Instagram is beginning to offer more and more opportunities for brands to purchase advertising to reach new users, or to re-target their existing followers with a particular message. Instagram ads vary in cost, and it all depends on who you’re targeting and how specific that audience is.

Ad cost can range from 20 cents to $2 per click in a cost-per-click (CPC) campaign, or around $5 per 1,000 impressions in a cost-per-impressions (CPM) campaign. The exact cost is based on the demographics of your target audience (male/female, location, age), whether you’re using an automatic or manual campaign, and which type of ad you’re using.

Start with an objective

As with most other types of advertising, you’ll begin creating Instagram ads by choosing a campaign objective. Whether you want to increase brand awareness, optimize for conversions, or increase engagement on a particular post. The campaign objective you choose will also impact the cost of your Instagram ads. Other campaign objectives include video views, app installs, event responses, and store traffic.

Types of ads

You can create ads to appear in the feed or in stories. Let’s look at all the different types.

Story ads

These are becoming increasingly more popular in part because users are spending more time watching stories. These ads are 15 seconds long and you can have three in a row, meaning you have 45 seconds to get your messages across. Use videos, static images, or a combination to capture your viewers’ attention and stop them from clicking through.

Single image feed ads

These ads are typically on the more expensive end. They look just like a typical feed post, but they include the word “Sponsored” and might have a banner where viewers can click to learn more.

Carousel ads

Carousel ads include up to 10 photos in the feed. This could show off a new collection, multiple testimonials, or various product offerings in a slideshow format.

Video ads

Videos tend to perform very well on social media, and Instagram is no exception. Video ads can be a great option to capture people’s attention.

Collection ads

Collection ads are a good choice if you’re looking to showcase a product collection. Users can click “Learn More” to access a shoppable collection page within the app.

Explore ads

These will appear in the Explore page of Instagram. Once a user selects a post on the page and begins to scroll through the feed, these ads will begin to appear, just as they would in their home feed.

By creating ads that resonate with your ideal audience, you can stop their scroll and encourage them to take action. The best type of ad to use will depend on your audience, but overall you can’t go wrong with video. Sponsored videos get three times the engagement of sponsored photos.

Instagram certainly isn’t the only social media platform offering advertising. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn and even TikTok all have unique advertising options. Users are inundated with ads every single day, so they’re either used to them or they’ve learned to tune them out. By spending time creating a strong ad strategy, you can stand out on Instagram and capture your audience’s attention.

Instagram does have a variety of ad type options, which makes it unique. You can choose specifically how you show up in your audience’s apps. Advertising on Instagram works – about 75% of all users will interact with an ad at some point, and 30% of Instagram users have purchased a product they found on the app.

Back to the table of contents.

Instagram tools

As you’ve probably realized, Instagram can be a lot of work. There’s no need to get overwhelmed though because there are plenty of Instagram tools out there that can make the process easier.

Whether you are looking for a platform to help you schedule your posts, grow your Instagram followers and engagement organically, edit your photos to give a cohesive look, or capture deeper analytics so you can learn more about your audience, these tools can help improve your Instagram marketing.

Let’s look at some of the best tools that can make your life easier on Instagram.

1. Kicksta

Getting more followers on Instagram can be really tricky, and increasing your organic followers can be even harder. There are so many apps and tactics for growing your following that are frowned upon by Instagram that the idea of outsourcing your growth can feel overwhelming. That’s where a reputable Instagram growth service like Kicksta comes into play. Kicksta uses engagement marketing to like posts from your ideal followers on your behalf.

You’ll provide Kicksta with a list of profiles whose followers you’d want to follow you. These can be competitors or they can be profiles or companies that are similar to yours. They could even be influencers in your niche. The more examples you can provide, the better.

Then they’ll start liking the photos of the followers of the target accounts that you provide. Those users will likely be curious about who you are and they’ll come to visit your feed. Your content will take over from there, inspiring them to hit “follow.”

Kicksta has helped over 10,000 brands and influencers grow their followings with real, engaged people who want to see their content and turn into paying customers.

2. Agorapulse

Agorapulse helps you automatically schedule and publish posts (including video) directly to Instagram. You can also reply to comments and get stats on your activity. One other thing this tool has is a cool hashtag search feature, which allows you to quickly add high-performing hashtags to your Instagram posts.

It will save you hours every week!

3. VSCO

Editing your images to create an overall cohesive look is an important part of branding. You want your posts to be recognized as yours, and VSCO helps you do just that. Whether you’re using presets, or browsing the inspiration gallery, there’s no shortage of editing options within VSCO. Creating an aesthetically pleasing feed is a great way to show your followers (or potential followers) that you’re worth their time.

4. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a great tool that offers detailed Instagram analytics. Analytics are critical to making sure your content is resonating with your audience and that you’re on the right track. With Iconosquare you’re able to see your engagement rate, follower information and industry benchmarks so you can see how you’re doing compared to others in your industry. They’ll even show you data on your promoted posts or Instagram ads if you choose to go that route.

5. Unfold

Hopefully, you’re ready to be active on Instagram stories. As we said earlier, stories are a great way to give your followers a behind-the-scenes look into your business and daily life. But maybe you want to use your stories more strategically. Unfold lets you plan your stories in advance. This app lets you upload your photos or videos and make simple edits to create beautiful, compelling story slides. Let your branding and the feeling of your feed carry over into your stories by adding a little design and editing.

Back to the table of contents.

Conclusion

Engaging with users is the best way to increase your followers, but it doesn’t stop there. Once you have followers, don’t stop engaging. Spend time commenting, liking posts, and sending direct messages to build relationships. Instagram is a great tool for helping your followers go from knowing who you are to liking your brand and then trusting you enough to become a customer.

Now you know all there is to know about Instagram marketing. Instagram is incredibly popular and won’t be slowing down anytime soon. If your business isn’t already on Instagram, or if your strategy needs a bit of a refresh, now is the time to make it happen.

Guest author: Rafaella Aguiar is the Marketing Manager at Kicksta.  She specializes in content and social media marketing. You can find more daily marketing tips from her at @kicksta.co. 

The post The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing for Business appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

source https://www.jeffbullas.com/instagram-marketing/

How to Power Up Your Instagram Marketing With Content Scheduling

Instagram is now a proper eCommerce platform with 25 million brand accounts and 80% of users following them. And against all ambitious goals to make leads, conversions and boost sales, content seems like something very casual.

Each day, everyone hears about the importance of content, but not many marketers and entrepreneurs take the relevance of its planning seriously. No matter what your goal is, Instagram content scheduling is a big deal.

How do I benefit from Instagram content scheduling?

You save time

Let’s start with the most obvious one. Digital agencies and other businesses that consider Instagram as a critical eCommerce space always have lots of content. And you know how challenging this is to publish content in bulk from a smartphone manually.

But when you schedule a handful of posts, it saves you a plethora of time. You don’t have to find hours to schedule a bunch of posts each day. You only need to spend your time planning the content; then forget about it and do something more meaningful.

You don’t have to be available when your audience is online

This is relevant when you and the lion’s share of your audience are in different timezones. With content scheduling, you plan posts that will show up when your followers are more likely to be online even if you have no access to Instagram.

For that, of course, you need to know when your followers are ready to see your content. You can easily find these insights in the Instagram analytics.

You can publish from a desktop

Naturally, you can schedule the posts with drafts within the native Instagram app, but that’s not very convenient. Most solutions for Instagram content scheduling are available for desktop.

Those who love writing long captions will also appreciate this opportunity. It’s rather challenging to create captions without formatting features on Instagram so that the text does not slide into a long unreadable story.

Besides, most brands, influencers, businesses, photographers, or designers have lots of content on their computers or in storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, and others. So publishing from a desktop is a solution, since there’s no necessity to transfer the content between the phone and a PC – you keep everything in one place.

You develop consistency

When you’re planning out content, you see how your whole grid looks. Instagram is a visual social network, so the aesthetic concept is vital. If your content is beautiful, people will love to see this in their feed.

Content planning aids you to control the visual perception of your page by seeing a preview before you post.

But consistency isn’t about the visual look only. Content scheduling helps your captions sound consistent, as well. This streamlines the building of your unique brand voice.

When you plan a bunch of posts, you can make sure you don’t write similar captions or post identical photos in a row.

You boost the engagement rate

Content scheduling allows you to post more often. Imagine what happens when you post frequently and pick the right time for your audience?

More people will see your posts, and if this content is of high quality, there’s a large possibility they will interact with this – like, comment, and share.

Then the power of Instagram’s smart algorithm joins the game. The more of your followers that engage with your post, the more other followers will see your content. If those new people find your content interesting, you could be discovered by other users and even get on the Explore Page.

This leads to new followers, new taps on the link in your bio, and if they like what you offer, new traffic, conversions, and customers.

And remember, you can plan not only posts but Stories in bulk, as well. If you’ve chosen the right time for them to appear, it will surely elevate your accounts engagement.

You create better captions

This is a common struggle – Creating a caption on the fly once you’ve picked a nice image or a video.

Content scheduling allows you to think through each caption in advance and come up with ideas for upcoming posts.

When you see your campaign entirely, you don’t have to create captions from scratch every time.

You can analyze your whole Instagram content strategy

While planning, you have a proper perception of your campaign. This lets you analyze and improve things in advance, not hours or minutes before actual publication.

For instance, if you’re not quite happy with the images or captions you planned to publish for a week ahead. You can take your time to improve them.

You can manage multiple accounts

Having multiple Instagram accounts can be hard to manage. Whether you’re a business owner with various pages for each of your projects or a social media manager working with several businesses, content scheduling solutions allow you to keep each of your accounts in one place.

This streamlines the content publishing process and prevents you from forgetting about any of the accounts to post regularly and consistently.

When should I post on Instagram?

Obviously, there’s no universal answer to this question. The right time of when your audience is online depends on the type of your audience.

For instance, accounts with a large number of teenagers will have other activity hours than those accounts with people working full-time.

To learn the time when your audience is active, head over to Insights, Audience, and at the bottom of the page, you’ll see the tab Followers that contains information about the hours and days when your audience is active.

Knowing the time of your audience being online is vital, even though Instagram doesn’t rank publications chronologically. This influences the whole algorithm for showing your content to followers.

Why is the right timing significant?

If you know the time when your audience is active, you can assume when a similar target audience that doesn’t yet follow you is active as well. Then, if your followers engage with your post, it has all the chances to appear on the Explore Page and attract a new audience that will find your content interesting.

Another tip to get new genuine followers similar to yours is to add hashtags to a post. To do so, you need to know what hashtags your audience uses to search for content. After you research and use relevant hashtags, you’ll grow your following.

But avoid adding banned or hidden hashtags. Otherwise, you might get shadowbanned.

You could get on hashtag search top results if people interact with the post you’ve uploaded. Three factors seem to provide you with a top spot in the hashtag results – posting time, size and speed of engagement. The faster people respond to your content, the more chance it gets to appear in top hashtag search results.

This tip works well along with the properly chosen timing.

Speaking of the post frequency, it’s all up to you. Some businesses post up to three times a day but the following and engagement are low. Others publish three times a week and nail it with their content.

Quantity is secondary. What you need to focus on is the quality and diversity of the content.

Once you’ve set your content scheduling rhythm, try to maintain this. If you start posting lest often, your engagement rate is at risk of falling.

What if I have a diverse audience?

If you have a large following, and the audiences live in different timezones, you can try three approaches I suggest below.

Strategy 1. Post regularly at different hours. For instance, three times a day – in the morning, mid-day and evening in your timezone. These posts, obviously, will appear at different hours in the feeds of those followers living in different countries and continents.

This strategy will work if some of your followers live in the same timezone as you do. Utilizing this approach, make sure you pick the “active hours” of your timezone.

Strategy 2. Track the hours when the majority of your audience is active, and publish content at the time.

Strategy 3. Analyze what time is preferable for your most valuable audience. To discover this audience, you can use Google Analytics. Figure out who visits your website, buys your products/services more often, and where they are from. Then, based on these insights, publish posts closer to a timezone of your profitable area. This strategy is rather flexible and depends on your goals. For instance, if your most-active audience lives in the UK, and you want to attract customers from New Zealand, publish content in the NZ timezone.

To achieve better results, test all of these strategies and find out which one works best for you. While testing, pay attention to the engagement to impressions ratio.

How do I schedule my content properly?

Don’t schedule too far ahead

Remember this, you can’t plan all the content for your Instagram, so don’t. Find a comfortable window of time for planning and fill the gaps.

Besides, you need to remain flexible and keep an eye on what’s going on in the world. It may be awkward when you publish a funny post announcing your new product, but the whole world is busy discussing some global tragedy.

Don’t spam

Too frequent posting is spam from Instagram’s and your audience’s perspectives.

Interact with your audience

When you schedule your posts using a third-party tool, and they’re auto-published, you are good to go and do other tasks. Sure, you can forget about content planning for a while, but it doesn’t mean you can forget about your followers. What do you make content for, in the first place? People. Talk to these people when they respond to your content.

Use special scheduling tools

Auto-publishing and scheduling are effortless with tools like Combin Scheduler. This software allows you to plan posts and stories in bulk and auto-publishes them for you.

Within the app, you can easily edit your content, control the visual concept of your grid layout, and make sure your posts will attract your audience’s attention. Add a location, hashtags, and tag other users to stay on top of people’s feeds.

If you have more than one Instagram account, you can easily manage several of them.

Final word

Content scheduling is an essential step in the development of an Instagram marketing strategy. It saves you time, allows you to control the aesthetics of your profile, builds a loyal community around your business, and lets you maintain the quality over quantity principle.

Content scheduling isn’t rocket science, and with apps like Combin Scheduler, it is even more accessible.

Try Combin Scheduler for free to power up your Instagram content strategy.

Guest author: Klara Alexeeva is a content editor at Combin.com. She is keen on writing about social media marketing and is always up-to-date with the latest digital marketing trends.

The post How to Power Up Your Instagram Marketing With Content Scheduling appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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