If you don’t use Linktree at your company there is a good chance that you’ve used it as a consumer when browsing Instagram or spotted it in your influencer friend’s IG bio. As you may know, Instagram doesn’t allow you to add clickable links to posts, rather only a clickable link in your profile. For those that want to form a connection between a specific post’s audience and a page on their website, this poses a problem. Essentially, Instagram has left a gaping hole in the user’s journey as well as the publisher’s accessibility to capture their audience directly from a post.
ENTER Linktree (and a few alternatives) to solve this frustrating problem. When you create a profile with Linktree you’re given a personalized link which then becomes that one link that you can include in your social media profile that houses all the content you're driving followers to. Essentially, this makes Linktree the middle man between Instagram and your own website and similar pages. Brilliant, right?! We’ll let’s think through this a bit…
Is Linktree a positive or negative solution?
It really depends on your objectives. Linktree saw a need in the market and provided a solution - I respect this, however; there are pros and cons to Linktree and it’s alternatives that business owners and brands should be aware of.
The biggest PRO is that Linktree can bridge that gap between your Instagram profile and your business’s key websites and pages, which lets face it, is the #1 objective for ecommerce. The cons however; outnumber that one big pro. And those cons are: (1) You have to send users to a third party site and hope they’ll end up at your own website. This creates an additional step to getting users to your website. And WHO wants additional steps? It’s very similar to how you have to create the easiest barrier of entry between you and working out. If the gym is too inconvenient to get to, you’re not going to go… often enough. Am I right?
Adding a step to your customer’s journey significantly reduces the chance of them making their way to your website which then reduces the numbers of email captures, leads, and conversions on your website.
The second largest “con” is that your SEO will take a hit since visitors are guided directly to Linktree versus your own website. We all do intensive work to increase our search rankings so Linktree negatively impacting SEO rankings is a very important piece of the equation that all brands and business owners need to consider. I know many that treat their SEO ranking similar to their credit score (they are on it and PROUD!!), so the negative impact to SEO alone will drive many to find an alternative solution to Linktree.
Additionally, Linktree gives limited branding potential with minimal opportunity for customization and the analytics are somewhat basic.
Is there an alternative?
Thanks for asking! Yes, there are alternatives and the best alternative (and/or the alternative that I recommend) is to create your own landing page that mimics Linktree. Having your own landing page means that you’re able to take full control of the tracking and analytics, branding, and create your own call-to-actions to achieve your business or specific campaign objectives.
You can also place your Facebook pixel on this landing page, which allows for retargeting via Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns. For this alternative, I would suggest looking at options like Unbounce, Instapage, Clickfunnels and Leadpages which all offer simple-to-create landing pages that can be added as a subdomain of your own website e.g. “instagram.yourwebsite.com.”
So let’s sum this up here…
What I am NOT saying is that Linktree is “bad” or that it should “NOT be used.” What I am saying is that with all things in life, we need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the product or solution and weigh those against our specific needs and objectives. I hope this blog has helped you do that effectively.
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Your Social Media Wingwoman,
Sara
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