The Ultimate Guide to Hashtags

Maybe you’ve optimized your Instagram bio with keywords and you’re using a scheduler tool to plan your posts in advance. But you haven’t quite mastered the art of using hashtags to maximize your posts’ visibility. 

Hashtags can be such a powerful Instagram tool if used correctly, so today we’re walking you through hashtag best practices so that you can start getting more likes, followers, and engagement on Instagram! 

Here’s a perfect example of how hashtags got one of our Instagram posts WAYY more visibility, profile visits, website clicks, and followers. 

 

We got 1,922 views on this post from hashtags alone. And since 89% of the likes weren’t following us, that’s a huge ratio of likes from new accounts. We also got 2 follows, 3 website clicks, and 67 profile visits. That means our post was engaging enough for these new users to then go and investigate what SeedX is all about. But 

First off, let’s cover Hashtag DON’TS

-Spam other peoples’ accounts with #followforfollow 

-Use overly populated hashtags like #tbt #bikinibody #pornfood

-Use irrelevant hashtags that don’t relate to your post’s content in an effort to just get more engagement 

-Put all your hashtags in your caption…this can get clunky and trust us, there is a prettier way to do it! (We’ll show you in just a bit). 

Now, let’s cover Hashtag DO’S

-Use all 30 hashtags: they’re there for a reason! If you want to maximize your the amount of people that could potentially see your post, use opportunities, which means using all hashtags. Imagine if you put in only 16 hashtags, but the 17th was actually the hashtags that could have gotten you the most visibility. You would be missing visibility then! 

-Pick a set of “core” hashtags that you use in every post: these should be related to your industry/ niche and be broad enough to apply to most of your posts, but specific enough to your niche that you’ll get some visibility on people’s news feeds through them. 

-Add another set of customized hashtags that are relevant/ pertain to each post. For example, if you’re a party planner and you usually use a bunch of hashtags about parties, but one day you post a picture of a cute dog at a party, you’d definitely want to include some dog-specific hashtags. 

 

You can keep this little hashtag guide handy to remember these tips: 

How Do You Know Which  Hashtags To Use?

There are no magical set of hashtags that will make you Instagram famous overnight. Like all aspects of your Instagram, in order for hashtags to help grow your account, it takes time and strategy. Not only should your hashtags be relevant to your niche and the content of your posts, but, and THIS PART IS KEY, they should allow for visibility depending on your following range:

-If you have under 10k followers, we recommend using hashtags that have between 200-400k posts listed underneath them. 

-If you have over 10k followers and less than 50k, you can start trying to gain exposure from hashtags that have a slightly higher amount of posts listed underneath them (think 500k-700k). But the 200k-400k range is always a safe bet too. 

-If you have over 100k followers, you can definitely try throwing in hashtags that have a lot more posts listed underneath them because chances are your content’s quality is good enough to start ranking towards the top of the posts. 

What Hashtags Should You NOT Use?

While there are no set of hashtags that you should use, there definitely are some hashtags that have reportedly been shadow banned by Instagram, which you shouldn’t use. Shadowbanned means there is too much content that is being tagged under these hashtags, so you’ll want to avoid using them as 1) your posts likely won’t show up on people’s feeds since the hashtags are shadow-banned and 2) Because these hashtags already have such a high volume of posts listed underneath them, the chances that your content is deemed better than the millions of already existing content is not very likely. 

We’re not going to list out all the hashtags here that have reportedly been shadow-banned, but if you do a quick search on Google you can find a bunch very easily. 

How To Put Hashtags In The First Comment 

You might have seen well-known influencers or big brand accounts that always place their hashtags in the first comment of their posts rather than in the captions. 

Well, there’s a way you can too!

We highly recommend using a scheduling platform called Tailwind, which lets you schedule posts in advance and even recommends the best times to post so that you’ll get the most amount of likes. (pst: you can get a free month to try with our referral link here)

Tailwind gives you the option to automatically post the hashtags in the first comment of your posts. 

 

So now you’ve got hashtags covered, but maybe you need some help with other aspects of your Instagram. Check out our social media marketing page for more info!