Welcome to this lesson of our Instagram Academy. Today we are talking about links on Instagram and looking in detail at where they can go to actually work.
Links on Instagram are the source of plenty of questions and doubts, since there are places where links turn out not to be clickable and therefore useless. Are you “new” to this network and have decided that pointing people to your site for extra information could add value? Are you wondering how to add links to Instagram posts, stories or your bio? Have you seen that some users can do the famous Swipe Up and you can’t, and want to know more?
In this lesson we will look at every angle, starting with the different kinds of link you can add on Instagram and the different actions and features Instagram offers.
Ready? Let’s start.
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How to put a link on Instagram
Whatever you do, your Instagram profile is an extra touchpoint and a meeting place with your audience. This network, like any other social channel, should point more or less directly at your main digital communication tool: your website, your blog, your online store or whatever it may be.
The main way to connect Instagram to a website is through a link. Links are what get you to the final conversion, the metric usually watched when working on networks like Instagram.
So how do you put a link on Instagram? Let’s see where to add links on Instagram so they actually work.
Free image from Pixabay
Where can I put links on Instagram?
Links can go:
- In stories, through the Swipe Up feature
- In the profile’s bio
If instead you are looking for how to add links to Instagram posts, I am sorry to say you can put them in the body text but they will not be clickable, so they add nothing to your post.
Links on Instagram
How to add links to Instagram stories
Seen the feature called Swipe Up inside stories on plenty of Instagram profiles and want to know how to use it in your own content?
I have bad news. If you are new to Instagram and your follower count has not reached 10,000, you cannot use this feature yet. If your fanbase is already big enough, or if the profile you are running is a business profile, here is how it works.
Adding a link on Instagram is very simple and quick:
- open the app and go to the stories section;
- take a photo or record a short video;
- when you are ready to add a link, tap the chain-shaped icon and enter the link to the page you want to connect;
- check it with the “link preview” option and publish the story.
Simple and quick, isn’t it?
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The link in bio on Instagram
If you don’t have many followers, there is an alternative. This network offers another way to add links on Instagram: putting a link in your Instagram bio. We have always said how important the bio is for a profile and how badly underrated it still is.
The bio is where you put the information that shows whoever is looking for you that it really is you. You can add the link to a particular blog or site. That link is clickable and works. In your profile settings, under “edit profile”, there is a line for the website.
This is the most direct way to connect your site to your profile.
So what is the constraint with links in bio? The one drawback is that you can only have a single link.
There is a way around it, though — several tools, in fact, that let you put more than one link in your Instagram bio.
How? Let’s look at them.
Image from Instagram.com
Adding several links on Instagram
There is specific software on the web that lets you add more than one link on Instagram.
Among them:
- Linktree (official site) – a site that lets you put several links on one page. If you want to send your followers to different pages but know Instagram’s one-link limit, this tool is for you. The free version, whose only limit is that you cannot fully customise the interface, lets you build a landing page collecting different URLs. Once that page is built, a single link is generated — and that is the link to put in your bio. When someone on your bio taps it, they land on that tool’s page and find different links to choose from.
Image from Linktr.ee
- Tapbio (official site) – it works exactly like the previous tool. The interface is fully customisable, producing a page that is completely your own.
- VisitMyLink (official site) – the simplest tool around. No limit on the number of links you can add.
Free image from Pixabay
Conclusion
In this lesson of your favourite Instagram Academy we saw how to add links on Instagram, how to edit our bio and how, if needed, to send people to different pages. We learned that posts are not the place for links, since they would not be clickable and so would serve no purpose.
There are two places where links on Instagram do work: stories and the bio. Before deciding where to put your links, take a quick look at your profile to work out which route is open to you:
- are you running a business profile, or does your fanbase reach 10,000 followers? Then you can work out how to add links to Instagram stories through Swipe Up;
- if you are still starting out but have a link you want to share, go with a link in your Instagram bio.
This network makes more sense now, doesn’t it? How to put a link on Instagram will not be a problem any more.
We will see you in the next lessons, where we will go deeper into other Instagram subjects you are sure to find interesting. Stay tuned and keep following your favourite Instagram Academy.
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