The One Link in an Instagram Bio

One link for the whole account

Instagram gives a business one clickable link, in the bio at the top of its profile. Links typed into captions cannot be tapped, and neither can links in comments.

So every post that makes someone want to act depends on that one link: the haircut they want, the product they like, the event they would go to.

On many business accounts it points at the home page. On some it is empty, or still leads to a page taken down last year.

It is the only route from the account to the website, and it deserves more thought than it usually gets.

Why the home page is the wrong default

A follower who taps the link has just seen something specific, and wants to book it, buy it or find out more.

The home page was written for someone who knows nothing about the business. It opens by explaining what the business does and where, which the follower already knows.

Then it leaves them to hunt through a menu for the thing they came for, on a phone, a few taps deep. Many give up partway.

Where it could go

• The booking page, for a business that runs on appointments.
• New arrivals, for a shop whose posts show products.
• A current offer, while it runs and not a day after.
• An event page in the weeks before the date.
• A page made for Instagram visitors, showing what recent posts featured.
• The contact page, when enquiries are the whole point.

The fifth is the most flexible. Its address stays fixed while its contents change, so the bio can be left alone and old posts still lead somewhere sensible.

Choosing the destination

Point the link at the action most of your posts lead to. For a salon or a barber, that is booking. For a shop, the products in recent posts. For a venue, the next event.

Picture a follower who loves today's post and work out what they would do next. The link should go straight there, with no menu in between.

If the answer changes every week, that is the case for a dedicated page rather than a link you keep editing.

Changing it for a promotion

Swapping the link for a promotion works, as long as it is treated as temporary and given an end date.

Change it the morning the promotion starts, and put a reminder in the calendar to change it back the day it ends. A link left on an expired offer sends every new visitor to a dead end.

Older posts keep being seen, too. A spring post saying the sale is in the bio will send someone in August to whatever the link shows by then.

Saying so in the caption

People rarely look at the bio unless a post tells them to. Mention the link near the start of the caption, because Instagram folds long captions after the first couple of lines.

Be specific. Book a chair through the link in our bio tells the reader what will happen when they tap; link in bio does not.

Where a promotion ends, put the date in the caption. The old post stays honest after the link has moved on.

A link people can read

Instagram shows the link as text under the bio, so its wording is on display. A long address full of tracking codes looks untidy and gets cut short on a small screen.

A short web address of your own, such as your domain followed by /book, reads cleanly and can redirect to the full page behind it. Whoever runs the site can set one up in minutes.

The redirect is also where tracking belongs. Visits from the Instagram app often reach analytics with no clear source, so tagging the destination is the reliable way to count them.

A worked example

A two-chair barbershop in a suburban strip mall posts a photograph of a finished cut most days. Its followers include plenty of regulars and plenty of people who have never been in.

The bio link went to the home page. It opened on a photograph of the shop and its hours, and booking sat behind the menu, two taps further on.

The barbers kept getting direct messages asking how to book, often late at night. They answered the next morning, by which time some of the people asking had moved on.

Early last year the link was changed to go straight to the booking page, through the shop's domain followed by /book. Captions on cut photographs now end with book a chair through the link in our bio.

For two weeks before school started last September, the link pointed at a page about kids' back-to-school cuts, with a reminder set to switch it back. Those captions gave the end date.

What the buttons are for

A business profile on Instagram adds buttons to call, email or get directions. They serve people who simply want to get in touch.

That frees the link for what the buttons cannot do: booking, buying, or reading about an offer.

The bio text around it should name the trade and the town in plain words, and say what the link leads to.

Checking it works

Tap your own bio link from the app, on a phone, once a week. Pages move, offers end and redirects break, and nobody else will tell you.

Each month, look in analytics at how many visits the tagged link brought and what those visitors did next. If they arrive and leave, the page is not what the posts promised.

The counter-case

Some accounts gain little from all this. A business that uses Instagram to keep in touch with regulars, who already know how to reach it, can point the link at booking or contact and leave it.

And no link rescues an account that rarely posts, since the link only gets tapped when the posts give people a reason.

For most businesses, though, the one link is the only route from a post to a sale or a booking. Send it where the follower wants to go next.

Before the next post

1. Tap your own bio link on a phone.
2. Decide what action your posts lead to.
3. Point the link straight at that page.
4. Use a short address on your own domain.
5. Tag the destination so analytics counts the visits.
6. Say where the link goes in each caption.
7. Set a reminder to undo promotional links.

Step seven is the one most often forgotten. A link left on an offer that ended in May turns every new follower's first tap into a dead end.

Making each post strong enough to earn that tap is covered in Instagram posts with several photos.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.