YES, you heard it. A fully blown search engine! Seeya later to the pretty pictures. Instagram isn’t just a visual app anymore and in this knowledge building episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, I’ll walk you through how to optimise your Instagram presence so your content gets seen, saved, and searched in 2025 and beyond. This is a fun one and one I have not done in a while.

I want you to learn:

•        The algorithm changes that are transforming the way we use Instagram

•        How to write keyword-rich captions that boost visibility

•        What to do with your bio, alt text, and pinned posts to stand out

•        The difference between hashtags and keywords (and which matters more now)

•        Smart content strategies to increase your chances of being discovered

•        Why this matters especially if you’re building a health brand

If you’re a personal brand, coach, or service-based health business, this episode will help you get ahead of the curve and become impossible to miss.

SUMMARY

0:00 – Introduction
2:00 – Why Instagram’s Shift Matters
3:30 – Instagram as a Search-First Platform
5:00 – Key SEO Changes on Instagram
7:30 – Writing Captions and Using AI
9:00 – Instagram Meets Google, Pinterest, and TikTok
11:00 – Optimizing Your Instagram for Search
13:00 – Alt Text and Evergreen Content
14:30 – Pinned Posts and Profile Strategy
16:00 – Thinking Like Your Customer
17:30 – Regular Updates and SEO Maintenance
18:30 – Conclusion and Call to Action

Hayley Osborne  

Welcome back to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I am so glad you’re here with me in your ears wherever you are today listening to this. This is episode 169 and today I wanted to talk to you about the search era of Instagram. So I wanted to teach you a little bit about some insider strategies to put your brand on the map that you may or may not have already done or are doing on your Instagram, because, let’s be honest, like it is a big player or should be a big player in your marketing strategy. And so I think when, previously you know when, when Instagram started.

So let’s, let’s take it back a few pegs. Instagram started in 2009 and that wasn’t actually that long ago, but it feels like it’s been around forever. And it was actually originally built for photographers, so photographers would take photos and just upload their pretty pictures to Instagram, no caption, maybe just like a random hashtag, and that’s what it was.

And then what happened was the evolution of where we are now, you know, businesses jumped on board that the rise of influences sort of happened, and now we are where we are. So Instagram is always obviously looking for ways to be smarter. And so I wanted to bring you this scoop. This is something I taught inside of the superhero marketing club my membership, and I wanted to deliver an iteration of that on the podcast for you, because we all play on Instagram, and I think it’s important to stay up to date with the latest and greatest of updates and algorithm changes and search changes. And this is a super big one.

So this was a request from one of my members, because it’s changing, and we need to know what to do, how to stay up to date. Because the thing is, if you don’t lean in to how these things are changing, so for example, Instagram, then it will get to a point where you will feel like you’re left behind because you haven’t been keeping yourself up to date with all of the updates, the changes, and how it’s morphing and moving into what it is now.

And so we are heading into a search era of Instagram, right? And it’s great, because those businesses that are more strategic on how they show up in this space will be the ones that move forward. Those that stay the same and do what they’ve always done will say, will move behind, and you will start to see a shift. Because I think Instagram wants you to be strategic. They want you to have thought in and around what you do and how you show up. And I think this is just their way, but also, like, we search for a lot on Instagram.

So you know, don’t be fooled, that if someone needs what it is that you have to offer, they are searching for you and Instagram and now meeting people where they are. So search means having keywords. So when we start to think about SEO and Instagram, we are starting to think about how we position our websites, how we position all of our keywords? So now Instagram is coming up in search results because they want the SEO to be great so people can find what they’re looking for, far easier than putting a hashtag.

Okay, so the first couple of things I want to say, I do have some slides on this, which I’m loving, is, you know, let’s adapt quickly, okay, and use now SEO tactics to be able to grow our reach. Okay, more important than ever. I think that hashtags still play a part. I think that you know, you cannot not have a great hook. So whether it be and that’s all in the creative Okay, so that’s in your cover picture, that’s in your opening sentence, like the hook has to still be there.

The images and videos still have to be great, okay, but what you put in and around that and how you position yourself is what’s going to be able to give you the edge. Okay, so let’s start with you know, why does this Instagram shift even matter for you? So it is no longer just a visual platform, and it hasn’t been for a while. It’s now more of a search first platform. Okay, so you know, your dream clients, and I said this before, are searching for answers.

They’re not searching just for aesthetics. So it’s up to you to meet them exactly where they are. And you know, Instagram now I. It knows that you need to be searchable to be found. Okay, so do you have all of the keywords and alt tags and everything set up, which I’m going to go into a little bit more as we go into this episode, ready to be found by your ideal client? Okay, so what’s changed? So now in Instagram that more than before, we’re seeing keywords in captions.

Okay, this is what you need to start considering putting keywords into your captions, and if you’re not big on writing captions, so longer form content. Now’s your time to get better at it, and I do want you to lean into AI and use that as a research tool, but don’t use it as your brain. Okay? So it’ll save you hours and hours of time in research, but it is not your thought leadership. So don’t be confused, because you will sound like everyone else if this is all you are using.

Okay, one of the things that makes me so different is my ability to be able to write easily and write how I think. Because I’ve had lots of people say to me, you know, I looked at your website, Hayley, and then I caught up with you on a free discovery call. So I have those, they’re free, they’re 30 minutes just to see like, where you are at in your business, and if I can help you to get where you want to be, and when we when we meet you in person, whatever that looks like, you sound the same as what you do in your podcast. You sound the same as the words on your website.

You sound the same. That is not by accident. That is by purpose, because, and on purpose because that’s me, and that’s how I want to show up. And so write how you write, but then make sure you’ve got all of the keywords in your captions. And if you’re thinking, how do I find those? They’ll come up organically anyway, because that’s what you do. And you just need to get more strategic on how you find them. And I do teach that inside of the superhero marketing club, how to find the keywords. And I also teach that as a module inside the magnetic marketing formula, which I will be launching very soon. And I’m so excited about that.

The next thing on what’s changed, so there’s four things’ keywords in captions, is the first one alt text, okay, so that means that if you have a look on your when you post Instagram, the alt text appears as a before you press Publish. It’s a field that you need to fill out. And now what alt text is it needs to be a description of what the photo is. So it is an alternate text to image. So if the photo is this, the photo is of Hayley Osborne sitting on a chair looking at her computer.

And you can get even more clever with that. This photo is of Hayley Osborne, marketing coach, consultant for health brands, sitting on a chair looking at her computer like so you can start to get clever about describing what the image is using keywords as well. So that’s the alt text. Okay. So the third thing I want to talk about with the changes is username and Name field. Okay, so if your username and the name field are not strategic enough to be found using keywords. If there’s something silly, then that needs to be updated and be more strategic.

And I go through this in more detail in the club and in the magnetic marketing formula. And then the fourth one is searchable content formats, okay, so what that means is carousels and guides, okay, they are searchable content formats. Okay. So next is, I think you need to think about these changes as Google meets Pinterest meets tick tock. Okay for Instagram, so they are moving fast with the way the rest of the world is moving when it comes to digital marketing.

So think Google website meets Pinterest meets tick tock. And I will just say, if you don’t have a Pinterest strategy, I think that you are batshit crazy because Pinterest, unlike the other social media, we digress here right now with what I’m saying, and I teach two modules on Pinterest, because it is so important. Google and Pinterest are search engines. They will help drive traffic to your website, to your courses, to your products, whatever it is, they are not social media. It is not a social media platform. It is not tick tock. It is not Instagram, it is not Facebook, it is not Twitter, it is not LinkedIn. Pinterest sits aside from that. It is a search engine. So if you do not have your Pinterest strategy down pat, I suggest that you all.

Organize that. If you don’t know how to make Pinterest work for you, come and chat with me, because that is something that I’m laser focused on. I probably do about 10 posts to Pinterest a week, and I don’t really talk about that anywhere except for Pinterest, and it is a driver to my website. So if you want to know how to strategically, start to map that into your strategy, into your content. I am your girl. I have been doing this for over a year now, and it works. It is not just one way to grow your business, and I’m really proud of that.

Okay, so what do you need to do? You need to for Instagram. We had a little segue. Now I’m reining it back in. You need to optimize your Instagram bio for search, okay, username, name, field, bio, whatever that looks like for you to do your keyword research. If you don’t know how to do that, I suggest you jump in the next enrollment of magnetic marketing formula, because I will go through this in absolute detail. The next thing you need to do is use keywords in your captions. So I have a few clever tricks up my sleeve on how to find keywords and what people are searching for, for you to be able to meet them where they’re at, and there’s a few programs that I use that are really, really awesome in helping you do that.

The next thing is, hashtags. They’re not dead, but they’re not the only tools. So you know, focus on keywords and clear language in your captions and keywords that match how people talk, not just trendy hashtags. Okay? The next thing is, yes, I think alt text is definitely your secret SEO juice. And then I want you to start focusing on evergreen content. Okay, so content that really stands the test of time. So, you know, educational carousels, listing tips and tricks in your niche, how to post like these things are evergreen and they will last the test of time.

I’ve got more ideas and examples, but they’re not for this podcast. I want to just keep moving through. Make sure you’ve got pinned posts as and they should be your most searchable and best performing posts. So they may not necessarily be a post on five ways to work with me. Okay, you might have like, the best performing video that has ever been delivered pinned to the top of your Instagram. Okay, you might want to know about me, because people want to know who this person is.

As soon as they’re attracted to what it is that you’ve posted that day, they’re going to go and stalk you. And so they want to know more about you. They don’t want to have to because I know, when I am on Instagram looking through things, I’m like, well, where’s this person from? And not that that even matters. But I get super curious and nosy too. I’m human, and so I’ll click and I can’t see where they’re from.

Nothing in their bio tells me where they’re from, which is cool. And then I’m like, okay, I’m gonna look at one of their videos to see what their accent is. Fine. And so a lot of the time, these all have music over them, so that doesn’t even tell you. So I think if you can have an about me at the top of your Instagram that just gives people what they want straight away. Okay, you could post a big media feature now, I was featured on Channel Seven, and I had that definitely at the top of my Instagram for a long time, or something.

That is helpful, but pin it right so people can see how awesome you are. That’s the name of the game. Think of Instagram now like a searcher, okay, as a business owner, what? What would you be searching for as a customer of yours, to be able to find the product that you sell or the service that you provide, it’s about being strategic and smart and meeting them where they’re at. So start putting yourself in your client’s shoes.

Okay, what would they type into the Instagram search as if it was Google? Okay? Because that’s where this is going. And make a list of, you know, 10 questions or phrases or whatever, and start creating content for your Instagram that answers those questions that’s really important. And to make it easy for you, just look at the, you know, if you’ve got FAQs on your website, look at that and start to frame it around that. Okay, so creating keyword banks, running a list of keyword and search phrases, you might think, oh, my God, how do I do this? That’s where I come in to help you to be able to do that.

You know, use your bio, use the alt text, use carousel headings, all to help you to create a more SEO integrated account, okay, and update them regularly based on what your audience is asking. So you know if, for example. For example, let’s think of it like Google. If your website sits dormant. And I mean, like, if you never update it, the likelihood of you appearing on page two or three is low, not even page one. Forget it, okay. You’ll be back, back, back. Okay, because Google reads words and it likes it when you update your website.

So, you know, I update my website a couple of times a week, and it also gets updated every 30 minutes with the integration that I’ve got with Instagram there. And so my website is always, always top of mind and always going to be fresh because of those things. And so think about your Instagram in the same way. Okay? So I think if you know, ask, ask me questions, come along over to my Instagram and send me a direct message if you have any questions about any of the things that I’ve spoken about today.

This is something that these things like this are what I teach inside of the superhero marketing club, okay? Because I think that knowledge is one of my highest values and learning, and that’s one of the things that reasons that I started this in the first place, is to be able to take business owners on the journey of constantly learning and upskilling, so that your knowledge gap of the way digital marketing is moving and how fast it’s growing is short, okay, because you always are making these small changes, getting on board learning, upskilling, and always evolving into where things are going. If you don’t do that, you will get left behind.

And so a fast track to learn all of these things, very fast, is through my magnetic marketing formula, which doors will be opening in about four to five weeks. So stay tuned for that, but I think its important knowledge is power, okay, and never forget that. And with that, I’m gonna wrap this episode up. I hope that you’ve enjoyed listening and learning. This was one of those deep learning episodes, which I love. If you love this, feel free to share it with a friend. That’s how the podcast helps more people. That’s how the podcast gets more plays, and that helps me.

This takes a lot of time and energy to create, and so every little thing is awesome. Leave me a review on Apple iTunes that’s always lovely, and a written review and a five-star review, definitely, I know I’m not asking for too much. Have the best week, guys, and I will catch you next week for another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. See ya.