If you are a blogger with an Instagram account, you will be very aware of the frustrating limit they have placed on us by allowing only one live link in our profiles. Because of the lack of live links on Instagram, many people are concerned about the removal of their Linktree functionality this week and are looking for alternatives to Linktree. 

I love Instagram, it is probably my favourite social media platform, but I must admit that the one-link-only rule has been very frustrating over the years. In this post, though, I am going to show you how I have overcome this obstacle and gained more click-throughs to my blog without using another app.

What Is Linktree?

For those who are not familiar with it, Linktree is a website that offers Instagram users a way to add multiple links to their profile where they only have one active link. You still only have one profile link, but it will link to your Linktree page.

As you can see here, it creates a little page for you with buttons you can link up to any web page you want to link to. 

It looks pretty clean and simple, but there are only a couple of different colours you can choose for the background on the free version and not much else is customisable. 

You can also sign up to the paid version for $6/month which will have more options, but I really think the solution I explain below has many more benefits, especially for bloggers. 

A Stroke Of Genius

My little sister, who blogs over at Chronic Blogger, has basically put her life on hold to become my full time carer. She is an amazing human, very smart and selfless, so when I was unhappy with the one-link-only limit on Instagram and was considering using Linktree, she said something that blew my mind.

It wasn’t that it was an incredibly bizarre or difficult solution, but the simplicity of it that blew me away. Why has nobody else thought of this? Why is nobody else doing this? Needless to say, I cancelled my plans to use Linktree and implemented this method on all my Instagram profiles right away!

“Why don’t you create a landing page so all the traffic goes directly to your own site instead of Linktree?” – Chronic Blogger

Benefits Of A Linktree Alternative

Even if Linktree sorts out their issues with Instagram and the service continues, there are actually quite a few benefits to not using them and using your own landing page instead. Apart from simply getting more links on Instagram, you will also benefit from: 

• All traffic from your only live link on Instagram will go to YOUR website instead of Linktree.
• You get to choose the layout and format of the landing page, include images too!
• The landing page can be branded, creating a cohesive look and familiar feel.
• You can add sign up forms, polls or a call to action directly on the landing!
• Linking to a landing instead of your homepage means you can feature specific pages or posts and customise the page to suit your Instagram community.

I couldn’t believe I had not thought of this myself. I couldn’t believe that I had not seen this yet on any of the huge influencer profiles I follow either!

Why is nobody building their own beautifully branded landing pages for their Instagram profiles? Now that is bizarre!

Ideas For An Instagram Landing Page

• Your Website Logo: branding is familiar, looks professional, promotes brand awareness.
• Text or button links, like Linktree has: This way your visitors don’t need to scroll much as you can fit many links in a small space that looks good on mobile devices. It’s compact, but maybe less eye-catching than our second option.
• Graphic links, like you would use on your homepage: use your post header images to draw attention to your links. 
• Call To Action: you can include a contact form, sign up form for your newsletters or courses, giveaways, polls, all sorts of things! It’s one less step for your visitors if the actions are directly on the landing page.

My Custom Instagram Landing Page

I have chosen not to link to my homepage, because I often feature older posts on my Instagram profile, posts that are no longer on my front page and will be hard to find without a direct link. I also sometimes want to link to advocacy tools or petitions that our community might be interested in and without a personalised landing page, it would be harder for my readers to find these links.

Click here to visit my Instagram profile and check out my current landing page live or click the images below to zoom in and see what my custom landing page recently looked like:

Logo & Latest

Call to action

Featured posts

Button links

Social media links

The key features I have included on my landing pages are:

1. My blog’s logo: this helps with branding and familiarity and links directly to my homepage.
2. My latest post or Featured petition: regardless of what I’m featuring in my Instagram feed, my regular visitors can find a link to my latest post or any time sensitive petitions up top.
3. A call to action: I chose to feature my newsletter sign up form here so that people can follow my blog and latest updates via email if they want to.
4. My Featured posts: this is where people can find eye-catching links directly to any post or webpage I mention in my Instagram posts. This only includes links to the last 5 links mentioned on my Instagram feed. It features the header image of each post, similar to the image that appears in my Instagram feed, so that it is easy to recognise.
5. A few button links to my latest posts: quick access to my last few blog posts. Features only the post title in text form. This takes up less space than graphics, but it less eye-catching.
6. My social media links: this is to help visitors find me on other platforms they might be using. I use just plain text links all in a row, so they take up little space.

Now I’ve added a bit of everything on my landing page, you don’t have to do it this way. You could use a simple layout that matches your blog, include your logo, and just create text links one below the other, like Linktree does, so that there is less scrolling involved for your visitors. The possibilities are endless and there is no need for the extra monthly expense.

How To Create A Landing Page On WordPress

I use WordPress, so this advice is only relevant to WP blogs. For Blogger or other platforms, you will have to play around in your theme settings to see if you can create a blank page as described below.

First, you can create a New Page using the Dashboard menu on the left and then in the Page Attributes settings on the right of the page editor, you can choose the Template.

Most pages will use Default Theme Templates, but you could find an option to use a Blank Page or Landing Page template. This should remove most of the menus, widgets and other items you usually have on your blog, which take up loads of space, and give you a blank canvas to work on.

This method should keep your Logo up top and your website footer at the bottom – all you will need to add are text or image links to the pages you want to feature.

Widgets can be helpful, but on a mobile landing, they can take up space and are unnecessary. 

If you only have the Default Template available, that’s fine too, your sidebar will just load up under the links you post on your landing page.

There are a few other settings you might want to tweak to make this page more streamline, but depending on the Theme you have installed on your blog, these settings might be in different places or not available at all. You will have to browse through your Dashboard menus and Theme Options to find them, start by scrolling down on the page editor and see if they are further down on the page:

• Remove the Like button
• Remove the Share buttons
• Remove the Page Title
• Remove Comments

The only reason we remove all these things is they are unnecessary so cause clutter and large headings take up much screen space which could be put to better use.

On my theme, these options are all available on my page editor window, by scrolling down to below the text box I can find my Yoast SEO settings for the page I’m creating and then below that my Theme Options where these settings can be adjusted for the page I’m currently editing.

The Benefits Of Custom Links On Instagram

As you can see, creating your own landing page for your Instagram means that you can personalise what your visitors see and offer them direct links to the content that interests them regardless of what appears on your blog’s homepage.

You can add your actions and forms directly to the landing page to streamline your Instagram readers’ visit – a more user-friendly experience for them means they’re more likely to interact.

The page can be designed to match your branding or it can be changed for different seasons and events. All at no extra cost to you! It’s easy to manage and you don’t risk losing the functionality if the third party web service suddenly goes out of business as we have seen a few do recently (Board Booster and Stumble Upon for example).

Don’t you think this cheaper and less risky alternative to Linktree is a much better way to create more direct links to your website or online store?

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