The big mistake you didn’t know you’re making on Instagram

I follow Instagram and what’s happening on the platform really closely. 

Why? Because my team manages social media for clients on the platform and we want them to succeed. But also, because that’s where so much marketing is happening these days.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I was checking out someone’s profile, and clicked on the link in their bio. It went to a Linktree. I thought about it, and looked at a few other accounts - and to my chagrin, I saw that many, many accounts are still using link in bio tools. 

Are you familiar with Linktr.ee? Lnk.bio? Linkin.bio?

They are platforms that allow users to easily link to products or specific webpages via their Instagram links. These all popped up a few years ago as a solution to a very real problem: That Instagram only allows users to include one link in their bio. For companies that sell multiple products, or who refer to different webpages day to day, this offers a solution so they don’t have to change the link in their bio on the daily. 

So why do I have a problem with link in bio tools?

Because of SEO.

When you use a Link in Bio tool, you’re sending your hard-earned website traffic through someone else’s site. Yes, if they click on a link, it will go to your site, but you lose that first click from Instagram. That first click goes to the link in bio tool’s website, not to your website. 

You’re losing some serious SEO juice when you use link in bio tools. 

So, what’s the solution?

How do you make your Instagram bio links easily accessible without using a link in bio tool?

Create a page on your website to house all of your links. 

Make a “button” for each of your top destinations.

For example, if you’re selling products, you could create a button for each category of products you sell. If you’re having a sale, create a sale button. 

Here’s an image of our company’s links page. As you can see, we’ve created buttons for our most popular destinations - our blog, our packages, our consulting services, etc. We keep this page updated and can move buttons around or add them easily.

Hot tip: don’t make your links page visible from the navigation of your website. This page’s only purpose is to enable accessibility from Instagram, so there’s no need to include a link to it in your website’s top nav or footer nav. 

Enjoy the new SEO juice

Making this change should only take a couple of hours to complete. When you do it, you’ll see a difference in your traffic. And, you’ll be able to better measure what your followers are liking (and what they’re not).