What started as a fun photo- and video-sharing platform has quickly become an essential item in many marketers’ and business owners’ toolboxes. Instagram is currently a leading social media app that dominates the digital space alongside TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

With nearly 1 billion global users, it’s easy to see how Instagram helps businesses:

• Target, engage, and grow their audience
• Establish authority in their industry
• Maintain their online presence
• Network with professionals in their niche
• Promote their products, services, and special offers

Sounds like a marketer’s dream, right? Well, not quite. Instagram is one of the few social media apps that restrict the use of clickable URLs in posts and content. In fact, it allows users to add only a single link in their Insta account bios.

So, how are all of those famous brands, entrepreneurs, and influencers driving traffic to their websites, boosting sales, and increasing conversions from Instagram? Keep reading to learn how to boost your Insta profile linking strategy.

Only one URL shows up on your Instagram account’s homepage, and it has to serve as the only entry to your website, e-commerce store, or blog.

That’s why you have to make it count. Many URLs look like alphabet soup, reminiscent of spam that isn’t aesthetically attractive. Fortunately, you can shorten your URL and make it memorable through a variety of third-party tools.

While you can’t share the link itself in your posts, most Instagrammers use the popular hashtag #LinkInBio to encourage their followers to take a look. If you do this consistently, it’s bound to drive more traffic to your website.

Leverage a Multiple-Link Landing Page

Having a single URL is restrictive and seems like a wasted opportunity to promote your latest product, deal, or service. Unless you manually change your bio link regularly, you can never share any other essential landing pages.

Well, that’s how it used to be, anyway. Nowadays, you can create a landing page that has links to relevant blog content, catalogs, and promotions thanks to a tool available from several sources.  

For instance, the one from Sked Social allows you to add buttons to popular website destinations and tailor the aesthetics to align with your brand, and it even comes with a gallery feature.

Harness the Power of Insta Stories

Instagram Stories are a series of short video clips or pictures that last 24 hours before disappearing. They’re an excellent platform for promoting popular products, announcing campaigns, or counting down to a launch. Not only do they contain a sense of urgency, but they also allow you to track the number of views.

Only registered business accounts with at least 10,000 followers and verified profiles can embed a link directly to their Insta Stories. Many of us don’t meet these requirements, but you can still include a link with the Call to Action (CTA) button. A viewer needs to swipe up to access it, so always encourage your followers to do this by:

• Pointing to the link with eye-catching stickers
• Emphasizing the URL with striking fonts and highlights
• Pre-empting the promotion with an announcement story

You can also type out your URL as text on your story, but it won’t be clickable. Make sure it’s short and memorable, so interested followers can enter the address directly into their browsers.

Instagram TV (IGTV) occupies its own space on the social media platform. It allows users to post one-hour vlogs and videos and is an excellent way to convert followers into site visitors because, unlike Insta Stories, anyone can add a clickable link.

The only catch is that the link is displayed in the description. Viewers can click on it by tapping on the title of your IGTV video. Here’s a simple proven strategy to encourage website traffic:

1. In your Insta Story, add a link to your IGTV content and remind followers to swipe up.
2. Include a URL to your website in your IGTV video.

Do this, and followers will have a direct route from your Insta Stories to your IGTV and, finally, to your website.

Conclusion

Instagram may be restrictive when it comes to links. However, with the right approach, you can use URLs to increase website traffic, conversions, and ultimately, sales. Incorporate these tips into your linking strategy and use your Instagram profile to its fullest extent.

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