Is it time to use a link in bio tool?
Have you had enough of swapping your Instagram bio link out all the time? Instagram is pretty strict when it comes to limiting its users with just one link.
However, there’s a lot more that you can do with this feature than you may realize.
In this article, we go over a bunch of handy tools that can help you get a lot more out of your Instagram bio link.
Before we dive in, let’s talk about why this is something that you should implement into your Instagram engagement routine in the first place.
Why Optimize Your Instagram Bio Link?
If you’ve been on Instagram for a while now, you’ll know how frustrating it is only to get one link in your bio.
This is why you’ll see a lot of content out there that says ‘link in bio’ in the caption. As you’ve probably already experienced, this is very limiting in terms of being a brand and marketing it to more potential customers.
With Facebook, you can launch as many ad campaigns as you want, and with Twitter, you can post as many links in tweets as you want. However, with Instagram, you are very limited.
Either you need to shorten your marketing campaign in general, or you need to continually be swapping it out for a new one so that your followers can keep up with what’s happening with your brand.
Obviously, you need a better alternative to help improve your Instagram marketing game.
How To Add Multiple Links in Your Instagram Bio
Luckily, there are now quite a few tools out there that enable you to put multiple links in your bio and that can help you optimize that link in original and unique ways.
Here, we are going to show you how you can create a customized link in bio with a number of different tools out there.
- Create your landing page
- Customize your landing page
- Add a social profile or embed a video in your landing page. You can also include more links that your audience can click on.
- Copy the link to your landing page and paste it in your bio. Now when people click on the link, they will have multiple sources and links that they can click on to see more on your brand.
Best Instagram Bio Link Tools
Shorby
You can think of Shorby as being three tools blended into one helpful app. While each tool is mostly made for Instagram, it can be used on other social media platforms, too.
The main Instagram bio link tool, which is called Smartpages, helps you get more out of your Instagram bio link by making a custom page with all of the links that you wish you could use.
On this page, you can add things like content blocks, social media links, your brand name and logo, and links to messenger services.
You can also customize your page’s theme, and once you’ve finished creating your page, you will get a link to it that you can put in your Instagram bio. You’ll also get up-to-date analytics so that you can see which links get the most clicks.
Shorby can also help you shorten any URLs that you want to include in your Instagram bio, too. They have a free trial and cost from just $9 a month.
Linktree
Linktree is pretty similar to Shorby, which means that this is Shorby’s direct competitor. However, something that it has that’s different is that you can try it for free, indefinitely.
This gives you an unlimited number of links, and you can even choose from a small number of themes, too. The catch? You have to include Linktree’s logo unless you want to pay for an upgrade.
Two features that you won’t find with this tool are social media and contact buttons. However, you will be able to use features like this if you upgrade to their paid version.
As you can imagine, their premium version also lets you customize your page a lot more, and you can even schedule links so that they won’t appear on the landing page until you want them to.
Linktree starts from just $6 a month, but as we mentioned, there is a free version that comes with its limitations.
Lnk.Bio
This is a much simpler Instagram bio link company, and they even have an elegantly styled theme that is going to blend in with Instagram’s smoothly. The only downside to this, of course, is that you can’t customize it to suit your preferences.
Lnk.Bio offers unlimited links, the ability to cross-link to other social media profiles, link tracking, and the ability to customize your URLs. While it may be on the simpler side, it’s effective. You can create your page, and put as many links as you like on it. You can also track the links, so you know which ones are the most popular.
The result is a simple yet elegant link page that comes with your profile picture as well. Their free plan is obviously limiting, but it will do the job for a while. Their next plan up costs $1 a month, or their lifetime membership is $9.99.
Whatever way you choose to go, we think that this is potentially one of the most affordable options out there.
Linkin.bio by Later
Later’s version of a Link in Bio tool is a bit more advanced than some of the other ones that we’ve covered so far. This is because it lets you create your Instagram account on your landing page, meaning that you can add as many links as you like to your actual profile.
You can get up to five links per post, and you can add up to two Instagram accounts to their dashboard. What’s interesting, though, is that you can only add one link to your Instagram accounts – all other links must be included in your posts.
The idea, of course, is to be able to share your links in your captions, instead of your bio. This does mean that you can avoid having to swap the link in your bio out all the time. Also, when someone clicks on the link in your bio, they will see a version of your Instagram feed.
The biggest advantage of this Link in Bio tool is that you can set up your brand’s shop right in your feed. Your followers can shop your products through your feed, rather than having to be directed to your website through the link in your bio. While they don’t offer customization, we do think that their theme fits in with Instagram pretty well.
Their prices start from just $19 a month, or $192 a year.
ShortStack
While ShortStack isn’t strictly a Link in Bio tool, it is a marketing tool that can be used for this, which is why we’ve decided to include it on this list still. They are a landing page developer that specializes in helping people with their marketing campaigns.
They have 10 different marketing campaign options that come with more than 60 templates. They offer unlimited emails that can be optimized for contests, and their drag and drop editor makes it easy to create anything you want.
If you use a landing page from ShortStack for your Instagram bio link, you can come up with many different original and unique marketing campaigns that are going to help get the attention of new followers.
This tool is primarily optimized to run contests, and you can even get started with it for free. If you want to pay for their premium plan, this is going to cost $29 a month.
Thrive Architect
This WordPress page builder plugin helps you to build completed landing pages, with a choice of more than 200 templates. They are similar to ShortStack, and offer an easy drag and drop feature, as well as pre-built styles and several content blocks.
With Thrive Architect, you can create your own pages and host them from your WordPress website.
You can also buy bonus features if you want to give your marketing campaign the best chance. Their subscription is going to cost $228 a year, but if you’re going just to license one site, it’s going to cost you $67.
Leadpages
This dedicated landing tool helps you host and create landing pages through their platform. It’s a great option to help with your Instagram if you don’t have a website you can link your followers to. They have very similar features to ShortStack, and they also offer pre-designed templates that you can work with if you don’t want to design your own.
Their split testing tool can help you optimize your landing page and campaign, and you can get current analytics and stats to make sure that it’s working for you. Their plans start from just $37 a month, or $300 a year.
They also have a free trial for 14 days, so potential customers can try it out before they commit to anything.
What is an Instagram Bio Link?
An Instagram bio link is the link that you get to include in your bio, and the thing about Instagram is that right now, it only lets you include a single URL link in the bio section of your account.
Why is it so important? Well, if you have a small account, then the link in your bio is the only way that you are able to promote your brand outside of Instagram.
This is because Instagram posts in your feed don’t have the option to add a clickable link unlike other social media networks out there, including Twitter. When you include a link in your caption, people who see it need to copy and paste the URL into their browser.
This is why you need to be strategic about how you use your link in bio.
It’s definitely one of the most underrated features on Instagram and the fact that Instagram hasn’t updated it to include multiple links is baffling, but there are ways to get around this.
Benefits of Using an Instagram Bio Link Tool
If you are new to the concept of an Instagram link in bio, and you’re not sure how it can help you, let’s talk about some of the advantages of using an Instagram link in bio.
The first is more conversions as a result of your link, and the second is increased calls-to-action.
Another aspect of making the most of your Instagram link in bio is that it can save you time, instead of having to create a website around your brand.
It’s also really easy to update the individual links for your Instagram bio and it means that you don’t need to necessarily learn how to code.
With your Instagram link in bio, you are able to access statistics and analytics that Instagram is going to show you about which pages have a higher clickthrough rate and offering them something to do beyond looking through your feed means that you can have a bigger impact on people who are visiting your Instagram profile.
Cons of Using an Instagram Link Bio Link Tool
Of course, just like anything else in any kind of industry, there are disadvantages to using an Instagram link in bio as well.
The first disadvantage is that you can’t use a custom domain name, which means that you might want to shorten the length of it so that it looks a bit tidier. Another disadvantage is that you only have access to analytics on a paid plan, and you can’t customize the look of your page.
If there are too many links, then this can confuse your audience, and put them off clicking through, and a lot of linking services out there expect you to pay more for additional features, including analytics.
How to Make The Best Use of Your Instagram Bio Link
Naturally, we have established that your link in bio is a pretty important part of your Instagram page, and if you use it the right way, it can help you expand your engagement, and increase loyalty amongst the people that follow you.
There are many different ways that you can make the most of having a link in bio.
- Promote something
- Offer your audience a discount code
- Share an affiliate link with them
- Encourage people to visit your website
- Link them to an ‘about me’ page
- Share your pricing
- Link to your social networks outside of Instagram
- Invite people to be part of your email list
- Share a well-known blog post
- Direct people to a podcast or YouTube video
- Link to your e-course
Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Link in Bio
As we have mentioned already, it pays to be strategic when it comes to your link in bio.
Having more than one link in your Instagram bio can result in better conversions and engagement, but this isn’t always necessarily the case.
Sometimes, people can get overwhelmed, and as a result, they can make mistakes that are going to prevent them from being able to really take advantage of a feature like this. Let’s take a look at some of the things that you need to avoid when creating a link in bio.
- Adding too many links: This can ultimately confuse your audience because they aren’t going to know which one they should click on first. It is also going to be more difficult for them to locate the link that they actually searching for.
- Making it about you: Just remember that people don’t really actually care to read about your life unless you are an influencer, or you are a celebrity.
- Writing too much: If you have a big headline, or a block of text, people aren’t going to be interested.
- Not including a call-to-action related to your link in bio: If you want people to click on your link, then you need to encourage them to do so.
- Not giving people a little bit of an insight into what they’re going to find when they click on your link
- Not marketing your link in bio on your feed posts, and then your Instagram stories
- Not customizing your landing page so that it matches your branding fonts and colors
Final Thoughts
Remember, the more you make your marketing campaign through the link in your bio that relates directly to your niche and industry, the better you will do with creating a loyal, enthusiastic following.
The link in bio tools in this article have been designed with the creator in mind – they not only want to help you grow your Instagram successfully, but they also want to make sure that you’re getting as much out of having one link in your bio as you can.
There’s no need to deal with just one link anymore – you can add multiple links with Instagram bio link tools like this, that can connect your community to all of your relevant pages.
