Transcription
I've seen so many Instagram creators stuck at 500 to maybe a thousand views per reel. They post consistently, but nothing seems to break them out of that dead zone. Then they make this one small change and suddenly they're hitting 20,000, 50,000 views. And it's not just views, actually. Those views are actually views that turn into sales, signups, and whatever goal they have with their content.
Now, this whole thing is not because they got lucky and it's not because the algorithm suddenly started to like them. It's because of Instagram SEO, but not the kind of most creators talk about. Here's the thing. Most creators think Instagram SEO means spamming hashtags or shoving keywords into captions. That's not SEO. That's actually spam. And eventually the algorithm will punish you for this.
Real SEO, on the other hand, is a hidden system basically built into Instagram that tells you exactly what content to make. And if you use it the right way, the algorithm doesn't just push your account inside of Instagram. It even helps you show up outside. Like for example, Google search.
Now, with that being said, I still don't think of SEO as just as a growth hack. For me and my clients, it's basically market research first. SEO shows you the exact problems your audience is already typing into search, which means it's basically handling you the scripts that will get views from people that eventually want to buy, for example, whatever you have. Not just random reads you get by using trending audio.
By the way, if you want to see exactly how optimized your profile is for SEO right now, I put together a simple notion checkboard, which is basically the exact steps my clients use when they go from being stuck at 500 views to starting to hit 20,000 views, or even basically filling up their programs and selling out some stuff. I'll link it down below. You can literally go through this whole thing after watching this video. I wanted to say while, but nah, after. Watch this first.
So here's how I want you to think about SEO. There's really only two parts. Part one is the research. That is basically finding the exact words and problems your audience is already typing into search. Every one of those words is basically a problem statement and your video becomes the solution. That's how you stop guessing hooks, basically, and start scripting with intent.
Part two is optimization. That's where you set up your profile and content so the algorithm knows who to push you to. And here's the thing, even if you don't rank number one for a keyword straight away or never, the right optimization means your reels still get shown in the cluster of content of your ideal viewer and buyer, because that's how the algorithm works.
So let's break down the optimization side first, because if you skip this, all the research in the world that we're going to talk about later, it's not going to help you. The very first step is making sure Instagram even allows your content to appear outside the app. So the first thing you want to do is go into your settings, privacy, and then turn on the allow public photos and videos to appear in search engines. If this is off, your reels will never show up on Google.
And you might think this is just a small thing, but it's actually not, because one of my clients didn't even know this setting existed when he came to work with us. We basically forced him to flip it on, obviously, and things literally changed within a few days. His reels started to show for searches like home workout for beginners in Google, right? And the traffic that came through Google basically gave the Instagram algorithm enough data to start pushing it internally too. So, you know, don't only collect the small things. Actually, it's not even a small thing. What am I even talking about?
Now, the second thing are captions. This is where most people either get lazy or fall into this whole spam trap, right? The goal here isn't please don't shove hashtags everywhere or keywords everywhere. It's actually to write captions in the language your audience are already searching for. Let me explain. A quick way to do this is, for example, heading over to answerthepublic.com or even TikTok search. Type in your topic, whatever you have, go as broad as possible. So for example, meal prep, and you're going to see dozens of real phrases people type in like meal prep, lunch ideas, or meal prep breakfast.
Now here's the important part. Use this keyword as part of your, first of all, first line of your caption. Make sure to add some explanation with your own words and style, using these keywords and phrases naturally throughout your whole caption, right? And don't just put in 20 keywords and phrases at the end. That's absolutely, don't do this. Lots of people do this. Might work maybe every once in a while, but again, they're going to punish you for it. It's, I don't like it.
Now here's the icing basically on the cake that makes this whole thing so powerful. I don't think anybody's ever talked about this before. Use this exact search phrase that you figured out to be this one and combine it into a hashtag. For example, in our meal prep example, meal prep, two words, combine it together, hashtag meal prep.
Okay. Let me show you an actual real world example of a reel with 37 million views that ranks at the meal prep search. So first of all, the caption itself doesn't feel spammy at all, right? If you take a look at it, it looks like a story. It basically is a story, but if you pay attention, the keyword meal prep or some variation of it shows up over and over again, right? Meal prep, serious, scale up your meal prep recipes, meal prepping machine, seriously underrated tool for meal prepping. You're not just meal prepping for the week, meal prep recipes, right? And if you take a look, if you count this whole thing, the term appears seven times naturally throughout the caption woven into real sentences, right? Not keyword stuffing at the bottom. I just hate this. If you haven't noticed that already, but just a narrative basically written in the same language people are already searching for, but also in your own language, because that's a whole nother way of making your personality shine through the whole caption side of things. As you can see, it's not about volume of keywords or hashtags. It's about natural repetition inside, basically a story, if you will, your audience kind of connects with.
Now, the other thing, again, look at this, look at the hashtags, hashtag meal prep, hashtag meal prep recipes, hashtag slow cooker meal prep. I hope you notice the pattern right here. Not 30 random hashtags. It's condensed, targeted, and mirrors the exact search phrases directly. What is the price? 37 million views, a million likes. That is the real power of SEO right here. And this is why this example didn't just go viral once when it was posted. Almost a year ago, it continues to rack up views, continues to rank right up there because it's attached to a search intent that just never dies in this case, right? People will always look for ways to meal prep. Just like they'll always search for how to lose belly fat or morning routines, or how to get more clients, for example. Point being, these things are evergreen entry points for your content.
So the next step I want you to think about is finding these evergreen entry points for your specific content, right? Because ideally people come into your ecosystem through SEO optimized content, evergreen optimized content, and then they stay for your other content naturally, because it's hopefully good, right? So the question becomes, how do you actually find these evergreen entry points for your niche?
Now, here's the truth about this, and it's gotten a little worse recently, but Instagram doesn't really hand you a list of search phrases, right? Or similar search phrases. On TikTok, it seems like they patched out a lot of the people also search for sections. Some creators have it, most don't have it anymore, which means you can't just rely on the platform to spoon feed you ideas like we just said. But you still have basically three reliable ways to find what people are searching for to build your evergreen sort of search intent content.
First, take a look at your own analytics. Inside the Instagram Insights, check which reels brought you the most non-follower reach, right? Look at the first three seconds of these and the captions that you used and the topics, obviously. This is Instagram basically telling you which topics and keywords worked, and then go from there.
Secondly, use external tools. For example, like we said, answerthepublic.com or even Google autocomplete still show you the most common search phrases around a topic. So for example, type in meal prep and you're going to see phrases like meal prep, breakfast ideas, meal prep for weight loss. Those are your direct entry points into this whole thing.
And then number three, reverse engineer basically ranked content. Search your topic on Instagram, again, for example, this here, meal prep, and look at the top ranked reels. And then you're just going to want to pay attention to the keywords that show up in their captions and hashtags, basically just like we broke it down earlier and just go from there.
Now here's the bigger perspective about this whole thing. Every single keyword you find is more than just a search phrase. It's basically a problem statement. How to lose belly fat, for example, is really just somebody saying, well, I'm struggling with how to lose weight. How to save money fast, it basically says that somebody needs financial help right now. Or how to get coaching clients means that they're stuck in their business somewhere, right? And this is why I say SEO is just more than optimization. It literally gives you endless script ideas and your job as a creator or business is basically simple. Position your video as a solution to that exact problem.
And suddenly you're not just guessing what to say anymore and coming up with content ideas. You're actually aligning your script to what people are already looking for, which is by the way, exactly what I help my clients do inside my mentorship. We use our own custom AI, for example, the script architect, which is basically built to optimize your scripts in three ways. First of all, by hacking retention. So people actually watch through, right? So micro hooks and stuff like this. Secondly, by giving you multiple hook angles that you can test quickly to kind of scale faster with things like trial reels, for example. And third, like this here, making sure your script is aligned with some SEO keywords, problem statements, your audience is actually searching for. That's actually the missing link. I believe most creators actually overlook. SEO can get you discovered, but if your script doesn't keep people watching and doesn't convert those people over, none of these views actually matter.
So if you actually want me personally to help you apply this to your own niche, the link is down below, apply and I'll see you soon.
Now, by the way, captions and hashtags are only part of the SEO puzzle. Instagram also indexes your profile bio, your highlights, and even the words in your script transcript that you say, which means every line you write, every word you say, everything you have on your screen is basically SEO juice. Most creators actually ignore that completely. So if you want to make sure that extra reach that you're getting from SEO, it doesn't go to waste. The next step is actually fixing your profile. So in this video right here, I'll break down exactly how to optimize your bio and highlights so that every new visitor actually converts into a follower or even a buyer. And if you watch this whole thing, you also get my free profile optimization AI that walks you through this on your profile.