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Does Using Instagram Hashtags Mean More Engagement?
What if we told you the more hashtags that you use on Instagram the less engagement you’ll receive. Wait, what!?
Patrick Whatman from Mention says he has proof. He’s not saying don’t use hashtags at all. Just be really selective when you do.
Here are 2 of his proposed reasons why the rate of engagement drops as the number of hashtags increase.
Spammy Hashtags
Remember your friend’s cool mom who let them do anything? Yeah, that’s not Instagram. Instagram bans and blurs content that they deem offensive or sensitive.
Did you know they also have a list of over 60,000 hashtags that have been permanently or temporarily banned? We’re talking tags like, #attractive #alone #adulting #asia. And that’s just a few from the A’s! Use one of those A words and you can just about forget showing up in your fam’s feed.
Famous people don’t need hashtags
Basically if you’re Beyonce you don’t need to use hashtags to get insta love. Check out the most popular IG post of all time bearing the Queen B’s baby bump with zip, zero tags.
Patrick admits the results are skewed because the most popular posts are popular not because they don’t have hashtags but because they are just straight up famous.
For us common folk this is not an option, so what can we do?
Takeaways:
- Use Better Hashtags – Users will follow niche hashtags they can relate to.
- Don’t use Banned Hashtags – Here’s the list.
- Change up your tags – Don’t just copy/paste the same list of hashtags into every post. Try using tags that actually relate to the photo you’re posting.
Obvious, but we gotta say it again: “it’s the content – not the hashtag – that really makes a difference.”
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Local SEO Ranking Factors That Will Put You On the Map
You’ve heard of local SEO, right? If you’ve got at least one physical location, local SEO is essential. But, we’re here to make the argument that local SEO is important for all businesses, not just for the brick-and-mortars.
Why? Well, local SEO’s best practices will boost any company’s SEO, regardless of how you market yourself. Every little bit helps, right?
So yes, this Read applies to all y’all reading this newsletter because it teaches you how to improve your local SEO.
Let’s get started.
- Create a page for every product and service that you offer. It’s no longer good enough to just have one page listing all of your services. If you do that, at least link to specific pages on each of those services. So if you’re an agency that offers content strategy, have a page titled “Content Strategy Agency.”
- Use local business structured data markups. This can get pretty technical. Local business structured data is an additional code that gives search engines more information to aid in understanding the page. Not sure if your website uses structured data? Check with this tool from Google.
- Use your name, address, and phone number as much as possible on your website. Put it all in the footer, for example.
- Use Moz Local to check the accuracy of your data in a bunch of directories. Check out Moz Local right here.
- Make reviews a priority. Reviews are suuuuuper important for all companies, especially when it comes to SEO. For local companies, there’s evidence that Google values reviews above backlinks.
- Links. But don’t forget about backlinks. They do still matter, and they’re pretty easy to get locally. For example, you could offer a discount on your services to certain organizations in your city. Those organizations will likely feature that discount on their website with a backlink to you. Hard to beat a good backlink.
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Be a Social Puggerfly
Why be a social butterfly when you can be a Puggerfly? Yep, you read that right. Puggerfly, an adorable pug with brightly colored wings.
The UK mobile brand, Three, is the culprit for this colorful and socially trending ad. To address data usage, the ad begins with the frightening thought of running out of data. And without data you’re just another Joe Schmo who has Snapchat. Then Puggerfly swoops in just as Three promises you can keep being your snap happy self without depleting your data.
Why it works:
1. The ad dives head first in what’s trending on social media. A.k.a. Snapchat graphics galore. Three went the extra mile by making Puggerfly an augmented reality pet on Snapchat. Talk about really developing a solid user experience strategy.
2. Language. Snapchat is a platform for younger generations. And that’s fine. Parents, though, pay the bills. What’s said throughout the ad is key. Running out of data equals an angry kid. Angry kid means that parents is about to have one serious issue.
But seriously, augmented reality or not, we want a Puggerfly.
Find the Date When Any Web Page Was Published
&as_qdr=y15
Nah, that’s not a typo. That’s the string that will allow you to figure out the date that any web page was published.
You know the problem, you read a great blog, but there’s no date on it. How the heck are you supposed to know if you’re getting recent or if it’s two years old (a lifetime in digital marketing)?
Luckily, with the help of Google, those 11 characters will unlock the date. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to google.com. Yes, you have to go to google.com for this. You can’t do it from a browser search.
- Copy/paste the URL of the web page into the search box. Hit enter.
- Go the browser bar and paste: &as_qdr=y15 to the very end of the Google search URL. Hit enter again.
- Boom. You just got a date…although maybe not the kind of date you’d hope for on a Friday…
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