An Instagram Bio is a short 150-character paragraph that allows you to briefly explain your profile. It is a concise yet powerful 150-character bio that you can optimize for maximum follower reach. An Instagram Bio is not just there to make your profile look good, but it also significantly affects the discoverability of your profile.
Why should you optimize your Instagram Bio?
Some of the key reasons why you should optimize your Instagram Bio are listed here:
- Make your account searchable
- Allow you to include keywords.
- Increase discoverability in Instagram account suggestions
- Bring a personality to your account
- Allow you to add links, tag other accounts
- Allow utilizing hashtags.
Specially for new Instagram accounts, writing a keyword-rich bio will give it a boost in followers without creating a single piece of content.
Steps to Optimize Your Instagram Bio for Maximum Followers
Optimizing your Instagram in a 7-step process, which starts by researching keywords, writing a short brief, finding the right hashtags, compressing all info to the 150-character limit, and finally adding links. We will go through all 7 steps of Instagram bio optimization further in this blog post
1. Researching Keywords
Instagram search feature doesn't work like Google Search, as it has some limitations. Unlike Google Search, Instagram strictly focuses on keywords; they can be present in your post description, Instagram bio, or within your hashtags. That's why it's necessary to research the right keywords for your account.
How to research keywords for an Instagram bio?
Using tools like Semrush, Ahrefs might be helpful, but it is recommended to use Instagram search itself for finding keywords. The reason is that most of your audience will search for your account or content on Instagram.
Repeat these steps to collect your Instagram keywords:
- Search root words related to your account (e.g., Hairstylist, technology).
- Note down the names and usernames of the top accounts that come up.
- Open some of the top contents and check their descriptions for keywords and hashtags
2. Finding Hashtags
Hashtags are a special kind of word used with '#' that lets Instagram categorize content. Just like in the post description, you can also include hashtags in your Instagram Bio to specify the type of content you create. Finding hashtags is easy but crucial for optimizing your Instagram bio for maximum followers.
Why are hashtags necessary for an Instagram Bio?
There are some important benefits of using Instagram hashtags in your bio :
- It specifies a niche for your content
- Make your profile appear under a certain hashtag filter
- A broader reach to the audience following those hashtags.
- Used to specify primary keywords for your account.
Steps to find the right hashtags?
Finding hashtags is similar to researching keywords that we have seen in the above section. Repeat the steps below to gather some important hashtags for your Instagram bio:
- Go to Instagram search and search for any hashtags ( e.g. #diytips #hairsalon )
- Check the hashtags that have several posts in the hundreds or thousands ( e.g, 10K posts, 100K posts )
- Avoid choosing hashtags with millions of posts or a very low number of posts.
- Keep a list of hashtags along with the approximate number of posts each has.
3. Drafting Bio Ideas
Once you have your keywords and hashtags ready, we should move towards drafting Bio Ideas. You can do so using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc. Also, if you are a good copywriter, you can personalize your bio yourself.
It is suggested to have at least 5 versions of Instagram Bio drafts, as we are going to test each one of them. You can write all 5 drafts together, or you can update the Bio at your own convenience by using the keyword and hashtags list you have created.
What should you include in your Instagram Bio?
Here's the list of key elements that you should always include in your Instagram Bio:
- Start your bio with primary keyword ( e.g., Hair Salon, Restaurant, Dancer, Muscian, Artist )
- Include other keywords in the bio
- After this, put a maximum of 5 hashtags only.
- You can add account tags using ( @ ) after hashtags.
- At last, the link you have added
What should you NOT include in your Bio?
It's important to avoid including the following, as we have a limited set of characters that we should not waste.
- Do not include jargon or phrases. It lowers the keyword richness.
- Avoid using offensive or sexual terms in your bio.
- Avoid using numbers, special characters like _,*$, as no one types them while searching
- Do not include irrelevant keywords other than your niche
- Avoid using non-relatable hashtags
4. Keyword Positioning
Keywords are all that matter when it comes to writing an optimized Instagram bio. More than that, it's important to decide the position of your keywords in your bio.
Start your Instagram bio with your primary keyword and keep it in order in which they are being searched. For example, if you are providing tech updates in your account, then Tech Updates should be the first word of your Instagram Bio.
If it is acceptable, you can also put the primary keyword in your Instagram profile name. That's very impactful for search optimization.
Why is Keyword positioning Important?
Here are some key benefits of keyword positioning:
- Top position in Instagram search due to exact phrase match.
- More keywords at the start of the bio promote search appearance.
- The order of Keywords supports phrase matching
5. Adding Links to your Bio
After you are done with the Bio description, you have an option to add links to your Instagram profile. There are two types of links that you can add to your profile.
- A Hyperlink, which is an external link to any other website outside Instagram
- An internal link, also called tagging, allows you to tag other Instagram accounts in your profile.
Instagram recently added an option to add multiple links to any profile, which gives you additional benefits to link all other social media accounts to your Instagram profile. If you want to learn how to do it, check the Instagram help support page here.
Instagram blocks spammy links, shortens links from some websites, or any link that leads to suspicious content. If you add such links to your Instagram Profile, your profile is less likely to appear in search and may be blocked by Instagram.
Why are links important?
6. Testing Bio Versions
Once everything is set up, you just need to test different versions of the optimized Instagram bio to check if it's ranking or not. It's recommended that you try one version of your Instagram Bio for at least a week to get enough data to analyze.
During this period of 1 week, if you don't see any change in your follower counts or profile visits, then you can try other versions that you have already drafted.
Benefits of trying different versions of Instagram Bio
There are certain benefits of trying multiple versions of the Instagram Bio:
- Let you analyze what's working, what doesn't
- Good way to do A/B testing for your Bio.
- Once you find the best version, you will always be at the top of the search results
- The followers count will not affect your ranking in search results
7. Future Steps
Once you are at the top of the search results, you can keep the Instagram Bio as it is for a few months. But as more new accounts are created in your niche, competition will increase. In that case, you have to do the research again and optimize your Instagram bio for future trends.
Wrap Up
Instagram Bio is more than just telling about yourself. In this blog post, we have seen the technical aspect of Instagram Bio and how to optimize it for follower growth and search appearance.
If you have read through the entire blog, you have already understood the benefits of optimizing the Instagram bio. In case you have any doubts or if you think I missed something, feel free to write it down in the comments.