Transcription
This is Isabelle. She's a content creator who built her brand from scratch. She spent over 30 hours planning, filming, and editing this reel, picked the right sound, nailed the lighting, even adjusted her post time based on when her audience is most active, and then she wrote, "It's finally here."
And that's where it all went wrong. Not because the video was bad, but because the caption made it invisible to people and to Google. But today, I'll show you how to fix that and how Metricle can help you get your post seen without any extra work. Let's get to it. Let me show you what to do.
First things first, write captions for strangers, not followers. Think about how someone lands on your post through Google. They didn't scroll your feed. They don't follow you. They just searched for something like brunch in Lisbon or vitamin C for dark spots and Google showed them your post. But that only happens if your caption actually tells Google what your post is about. So if you write launch day or she's here on your post, yes, that might be cute, but that will be completely invisible to search engines.
So instead, let's make it real. your post from your trip to Lisbon. Let's say that you put weekend vibes. Yes, it looks aesthetic when you read it, but to Google that means nothing. But if your real happens to be about brunch spots in Lisbon, you can try things like three brunch spots in Lisbon you can miss if you love coffee and cute vibes, for example, because that caption is descriptive, relevant, and searchable. And the same thing goes for products. Instead of here's our new drop, try launching or vitamin C serum designed to reduce dark spots and redness in 2 weeks. Because the thing here is that you're not overexlaining, but you're making your post super discoverable.
And yes, this actually works. If you search on Google how to use retinol, for example, or retinol skincare tips, you'll find Instagram reels from real creators sharing advices or routines on this specific subject. Or if you even try moving to, let's say, I don't know, Orlando, Florida, you can see that real estate agents and locals are sharing this type of content on Instagram. So, Google will automatically show it to you because they have used those as a specific keywords that you're looking for. And just as I told you, this isn't hypothetical. This is happening. But the real question here is, are your captions actually helping you to show up on platforms like Google?
Which brings me to tip number two. Use keywords your audience actually types into Google. Because yes, I know that you're thinking, "Okay, I need to write captions clearly, but how do I do it?" That's where keywords come in. A keyword isn't a trick. It's just the exact phrase someone might search when they're looking for what you posted about. So, instead of calling it a skin care glow drop, because that means nothing, honestly, use a phrase like hydrating serum for dry skin. Because if you think about it, that's what someone might Google. And now, if your caption says it clearly, your post has a shot at showing up. Same with lifestyle and aesthetic content. Nowadays, a caption that says Sunday thoughts means nothing and does nothing to your Instagram. If you have this type of content, you can even try things like freelance tips for setting boundaries with clients.
And if you're not sure what your audience actually searches, you can try these three things that have helped us a lot. Start typing into Google and start looking at the autocomplete phrases um and things that Google shows up in the search bar. Use Google Trends and you can even ask chat GPT. You can say to it, act like an SEO expert. I'm creating a post about this topic for this audience and what are those 20 keywords that those people actually search for? Because writing searchable captions isn't about stuffing in keywords. It's about matching how people think when they search.
Okay, now that I've explained this tip and now that you know how to find the right keywords, what do you actually do with them? Well, on tip number three, I have to use those keywords naturally in all the right places. So, where do you actually put these keywords? Well, Instagram and Google don't just look at your caption. They also pick up on what you say in the voice over, the text you show on screen. if it's a video, your all text, and even comments under your post. That means you don't need to stack 10 search items under your caption or your comment box because that might look spammy and it won't actually help. Instead, I would recommend to pick one to three keywords and use them naturally where you see they fit. So that means you can put them in your caption, you can put them in your voice over, you can put them in the alt text and even on screen text. And here you have to think that you're not trying to game the system. You're helping it understand what your post is about.
And as I comment before, but you probably don't know what it is. There's also one more place that Google looks out and a lot of people don't actually know about it or don't pay attention to it. And that is the alt text. Which brings me to tip number four, which is to add it. at the alt text. Alt text was originally created to help blind users understand images online, but somewhere along the way, we started using it for algorithm instead. Things like a picture of our product launch for engagement purposes or smiling person, keywords, smiling, success, marketing, and happy. Do you see how those words are not helpful and very generic if you put them into an image?
So, you might be wondering what actually works for your alt text. I would say that if you write a clear and honest description of what's in the image, you've nailed it. For example, flatlay of a vitamin C serum with oranges and lemons. That is very descriptive to the image that we're using and that is helpful not only to your audience, but to Google as well. And let me tell you that if you skip all text, Instagram might generate it automatically for you. And this sucks because they generate things like image may contain one person standing. And yes, this is fine for basic accessibility, but not for creating context into an image or for creating visibility. And if you're using metrical, you don't have to leave the all text blank or even write it from scratch. Metrical's AI suggests a clear and humanstyle description right inside the post creator and you can tweak it as you want or leave it as is. But the good thing here is that it's faster than if you do it manually and way better than getting something vague like it may contain a person standing.
I would say that you can try it on your next post because it honestly takes seconds and it makes your content easier to find and more accessible. So, now that you're doing all of these, what format gets you the best shot if you do all of this? Well, reals are your number one discovery tool for Google and for Instagram because if your goal is to reach more people, reals give you the best shot at it. According to Metricle's Instagram study, reals get more than 11,000 average impressions. And that is far ahead of carousel images and even stories. And here's the bonus. Reals are also the only Instagram format that consistently shows up in Google's short video results alongside Tik Toks and YouTube shorts. But does that mean that you have to stop using carousels? Nope, not at all. They're still great for engagement inside the app.
So, as you see, reals give you the reach, but to actually earn the click, your content has to visually stand out. Which brings me to my last tip, that is you have to design your content to stand out. Yes, on socials, but also on Google. Because think about it, when your post shows up on Google, the first and only thing that people see is a mini picture of your real or your post. In this case, an image. And this is next to blog posts, product pages, and even long- form YouTube videos. And there's no audio, there's no motion, there's just pretty much a static thumbnail, your handle, and a few lines of text. So, you got to get that shot and you have to create content that visually stands out. I would say that for reals, you can add short text overlays to add a little bit more of context there. And this can apply to static posts as well. So if your image is clear, compelling, and your caption is on point, it has a big big and real shot at getting discovered. And if you want to design content that actually grabs the attention of your audience and of Google, we've made a full video right here and that I will leave in the description that shows you how to create this type of content step by step. Even if you're not a designer, go watch it and let's take your strategy even a step further. See you in the next one.