10 Reasons Why LinkTree is killing your SEO

Everyone has an Instagram account these days. If you operate a business of any type, your social media platforms are essential for connecting with both potential and present customers. Social media is a powerful tool if it is leveraged right. Each platform has tools that are designed to help you leverage its power to reach and connect with your audience.

That’s what LinkTree is to Instagram. With the help of LinkTree you are able to connect your audience to other accounts; to a landing page, to an article, to a shop or a signup page or your other social accounts.

However, it is not in your best interest to use LinkTree when it comes to your site.

Do not enter and wrong way traffic signs

What is LinkTree?

LinkTree is a tool inside Instagram. Since Instagram only allows a single link in your bio area, LinkTree offers you a way to store all your links in one place. Then you put the link to your list of links in LinkTree in your bio. From this one link, you are supposed to be able to grow your followers and increase traffic to multiple links. LinkTree provides room for several links based on the package you purchase. You can include your Amazon affiliate link, your website, and your Facebook pages too. All your links housed in one link sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? There’s just one problem.

LinkTree is not good for your website SEO!

10 Reasons You Do NOT Want to Use LinkTree on Instagram

If you don’t have a website, you are fine using LinkTree, because there is no better alternative. It will work for your purposes, help grow followers, and send them to your other social sites, etc. But if you have a website and you’ve filled it with great content and useful information, you do not want to use LinkTree.

Here are 10 reasons why:

  1. Your social link send traffic to LinkTree website and not to your own domain. When a user clicks on your social link, the first thing they’ll see is LinkTree’s site, not yours. Their site offers users their first impression of you and your brand outside of Instagram. And lets face it, it is not much customization that you can do. 😞
  2. The user will have to click at least two times to even get to your real website.
  3. Users are less likely to click beyond the LinkTree page.
  4. Some users may click on a different link or button once they land on the LinkTree page. That means your site gets zero clicks. You miss out on traffic that could have benefited your SEO.
  5. The LinkTree website isn’t customized to your brand – it’s great for theirs though!
  6. LinkTree’s free plan doesn’t even allow you to customize your landing page on their site to your brand. You miss out on some important branding opportunities! This can lead to users feeling disconnected from your brand on Instagram and it may prevent them from pursuing clicking any further.
  7. Users may not ever see your website URL. That means they won’t be able to return to your site later.
  8. Studies indicate that 98% of the visitors to a website do not engage in a transaction on their first visit to the site. That means that a user’s first visit to your site is not likely to result in a booking, consultation, or appointment with you.
  9. To ensure that potential clients have a cohesive experience with you, your brand, and your practice you need YOUR URL in your bio.
  10. When you have the URL to your website in your Instagram bio, it allows potential clients to build familiarity with your brand. They will be more likely to read your blog, learn more about you, and pursue more information about you and your services.

If You Do Not Use LinkTree, What Should You Use?

Use your own website and create your own version of LinkTree inside of your website.
You get the benefit of sending traffic to your site instead of letting LinkTree get the traffic you have created. Traffic to your site is great for its SEO. Why is that important? Ultimately, organic traffic generation increases your conversions and sales. You can use Google Analytics to find out exactly how many visitors you are getting from Instagram.

That just makes sense, right?

You spent your effort, time, and money on creating your brand. When you set up your Instagram landing page, you kept all that consistent, right? You’re creating an image. You probably used your logo to build brand recognition and used professional images to tell your story. It took a lot of work to create a consistent story and connect your products and services to users. It wouldn’t make sense to give that all away. Leverage your IG account for YOUR benefit.

Final Thoughts

LinkTree is fine if you are just starting out and you need a place to put your links. However, if you are serious about leveraging social media and using it to create brand recognition, increase your followers, and make more sales, you will benefit more from using the link to your website in your IG bio.  If you want to, you can create a landing page that houses all your links. It would serve you as well as LinkTree, but provide you with a lot more!