One of the most frustrating things about Instagram is that it doesn’t allow for clickable links in post descriptions. Links are treated as pure text, meaning that they appear as links, but nothing will happen when a viewer selects it.
Instagrammers get around this hurdle by utilizing the one place that they can include a clickable link: the bio on their profile page.
Instead of just linking to their main website, many Instagrammers will promote something like a blog post in their Instagram post and say to click the link in their profile for the full story.
Here’s an example of what this typically looks like from Catalinbread, a guitar pedal brand:
After this was posted, Catalinbread then changed their bio link to point to the content mentioned in their most recent post for visitors to click on.
Whenever their next post that mentions clicking the link in their bio is published, they will then change the link again.
What’s wrong with this method?
Nothing, really. This practice is widely utilized and does the job well.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun with it, though.
Using a domain name forward, you can keep the same link in your Instagram profile and then change where that link points to through your domain provider.
So, instead of using links like bit.ly/4j2sw8, you can keep a more branded URL like brand.com/instagram, instagram.brand.com or brand.link that points to whatever you’ve referenced in your most recent post.
Here’s how it all works, and how to set it up for your Instagram account.
How to set up domain name forwarding for Instagram profile links
1. (Optional) Register a new domain name
If you’d like to keep your brand name and use a unique top-level domain like .link or .click, then you can register a new domain name. For example, if your regular website is brand.com, you could register brand.link.
2. Forward your domain
Log in to your domain management account and go to the Forwards section. From here, select whether the forward is for a domain (brand.com), subdomain (subdomain.brand.com), or subfolder (brand.com/subfolder).
If using a subdomain or subfolder, you can now specify what you want these to be. For example, click.brand.com or brand.com/instagram. It’s up to you how creative you’d like to get with this naming.
Finally, place the link to the blog post, video or whatever else you’d like to forward this domain to. This last step is what you’ll need to repeat every time you want to point to something new on Instagram.
3. Change your Instagram bio link
Now, replace your Instagram profile link with the new domain you’ve just set up.
And that’s it!
Now you’ll have a unique branded URL in your Instagram profile that you won’t have to change with each new Instagram post.
While you’re on Instagram, be sure to connect with us to see what creative projects our customers are using their domain names for: @hover_domains
