Wondering how to use hashtags on Instagram?
Trying to make sense of conflicting information?
Here’s the rundown on
- Using more hashtags
- Using better hashtags
- And exactly how to post those hashtags
for Instagram success!
No time to read now? Download the guide to read later!
• • • CLICK for your FREE Instagram Hashtag Guide! • • •
Use More Hashtags on Instagram
Perhaps you know that you can use up to 30 hashtags on an Instagram post. But, many marketers say that looks spammy. Use 5 or 6.
Others say using 11 gets you the best engagement.
Well, no. The study they’re referring to found that posts with 11 or more hashtags get the best engagement.
I’m a fan of using all 30 hashtags. Do people find it spammy? My engagement rates say otherwise.
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Let’s break down this study:
- 0 Hashtags – 18% interaction per 1k followers
- 1 Hashtag – 29% interaction per 1k followers
- 2 Hashtags – 41% interaction per 1k followers
- 3 Hashtags – 39% interaction per 1k followers
- 4 Hashtags – 31% interaction per 1k followers
- 5 Hashtags – 43% interaction per 1k followers
- 6 Hashtags – 33% interaction per 1k followers
- 7 Hashtags – 30% interaction per 1k followers
- 8 Hashtags – 39.5% interaction per 1k followers
- 9 Hashtags – 49.5% interaction per 1k followers
- 10 Hashtags – 22% interaction per 1k followers
- 11 Hashtags – 79.5% interaction per 1k followers
Using 11 or more hashtags means 442% more engagement that using none, and about double engagement over using 1 – 10. So yes, use at least 11, and more if you want to grow your account.
You can hide your hashtags, so they can’t look spammy! Make them invisible by preceding them with five dashes or periods, each one on a line by itself. NO space after the period or it won’t work. If you post this in your first comment, IGers will just see […] after your name in the photo stream.
(Tested 2/1/2017 – it still works. The hashtags are only invisible in the photo stream! If someone clicks to read comments, they will see the hashtags).
Create your hashtag text file as I show below, in your phone’s Notes app, because there’s no return key when posting a comment in Instagram.
NOTE: If you’re having problems with this trick, it’s almost always because you have a space at the end of your line. It’s a bizarre and annoying quirk, but Instagram will take out the return if there’s a space at the end of the preceding line.
ALSO NOTE, you can’t add working hashtags by commenting on any other account than the one you’re signed into. IGers may comment with hashtags, but the original IGer’s post won’t appear in that hashtag feed.
Use Better Hashtags on Instagram
Use more hashtags that are relevant to your niche. Using specific and relevant hashtags helps you connect with people who are looking for exactly what you’re posting. You can find relevant tags by searching your keywords in Instagram, or using a site like Hashtagify.me.
Watch what others in your niche are using. See what your peers and influencers are posting on their photos. Check out the related tags Instagram suggests when you tap a tag that’s relevant to your content. Try them if they seem useful!
Be sure your hashtags are active. Check the hashtag feed to see that the tags you’re using are currently being used by others. Hint: If you scroll down 20 rows and are still finding content posted in the last few seconds, that tag is too active!
• • • CLICK for your FREE Instagram Hashtag Guide! • • •
Stop using the most popular hashtags like pretty, beautiful, love and similar ones. Your post will be buried in that feed within milliseconds. In researching this, I also discovered a lot of posts in those tags that I don’t even want to be seen with (some I even felt obligated to report).
Okay, sprinkle in a few popular hashtags when relevant to your post. Not necessarily the ones with 100M’s of posts, but one or two over 1M might give you some quick likes. Note: Your content really needs to be awesome to stand out in a lighting-fast moving tag feed!
Create a custom tag for your brand or campaign. Check that these tags aren’t already being used, particularly in a way you wouldn’t approve of! Prompt fans and followers to use your tag, and you’ll soon learn just who your superfans are. Support, encourage, and regram them!
Post Instagram Hashtags Immediately
Once upon a time, using hashtags was easy. You posted a bunch with your photo. Later, you came back, deleted those tags, and added a bunch more.
Magically, your post was bumped to the top of those hashtag feeds, regardless of how long it had been since the original post. Your engagement spiked once again.
But Instagram changed all that for us in March 2015.
Now, no matter when you add a hashtag to your photo or video, it will appear in that hashtag feed with other photos and videos posted at its original posting time.
Or as Instagram says:
Keep in mind that if you add a hashtag to a photo after it was posted, the photo will still appear on the hashtag page according to the time it was originally posted, not the time the hashtag was added.
This, plus the burgeoning Instagram userbase, means we need be smarter about how we use hashtags on Instagram going forward.
Here’s how to beat the need for speed:
If you insist on using uber-popular hashtags, you MUST post them in your post caption. If you wait even a second to post them in a comment, they’re pretty much worthless, as your post will be buried in that hashtag feed the instant you add it.
If you post hashtags in several comments, post the more popular ones first. Post hashtag comments in the order of how fast the hashtag feeds move!
Niche hashtags CAN still be added at a later date! DON’T bother adding hashtags where the original date of your post would have it buried deeply in the feed – BUT there are some cool super-niche hashtags that have only several hundred to a few thousand posts in them. Many of these even have avid fans!
For easiest hashtagging, keep groups of 30 hashtags in your phone’s Notes app. Create and save a set of 30 tags for each type of post you make (or less than 30 if you insist 😉 ).
Copy your hashtag group before you make your IG post! Then you have them ready on your clipboard to add in a comment immediately. No fumbling, no wasting valuable seconds. Or, set up a text shortcut!
• • • CLICK for your FREE Instagram Hashtag Guide! • • •
The Bottom Line: Do This!
Use 11 to 30 hashtags to grow your account.
Hide your hashtags in a comment with . and return, 5 times.
Use more hashtags relevant to your niche.
- What are your keywords?
- What are peers/competitors/influencers using?
- What does Instagram suggest as related?
Use only a few popular hashtags.
- Only use tags relevant to your content.
- Post in the description – don’t wait for the comment.
- Your content must rock to stand out in popular tag feeds.
Choose hashtags that are actively used (but not too active!).
Create a custom tag for your brand or campaign.
- Be sure to check first to see if it’s already being used.
- Promote your tag’s use by followers.
- Engage / shout out your fans who use it!
Keep hashtag groups in your phone’s Notes app.
- One group for each type of content you post.
- Copy them to your clipboard before you post content.
- Follow up immediately with hashtags in a comment.
Bonus tip: Your hashtags will magically work much better if you’re posting awesome visuals! People are scanning those hashtag feeds, and you need to stand out.
• • • CLICK for your FREE Instagram Hashtag Guide! • • •
If this post has helped you learn how to use hashtags on Instagram, please share!
Thanks for this post. I’m trying to clarify – you recommend putting the hashtags in the comments (with 5 periods above them) and not the post itself?
I do. Keeps it cleaner.
Hey Louise! Your article is awesome! I agree with you on this “Use more hashtags that are relevant to your niche. ” With great content specific for a brand and relevant hashtags will enable a business to take advantage of the traffic and improve client engagement.
Hey Louise, great article and thank you. Now if I add 30 hashtags and then post, then erase and add 30 different hashtags. I’m I still active in the first set of 30 tags?
I believe if you still see your post in a hashtag you deleted then you’re probably seeing a cached version. Only someone who’s seen it before would see the cache.
Adding hashtags to older posts is kinda pointless though, unless they’re so niched that you’ll still be near the top of the feed.
Hey there!
Great article thank you for sharing! I have realized if you delete the hashtag post in the commentsan repost exactly the same you have immediately some likes even though the date of the original post is taken into account! How is that possible?
Possibly just by adding a comment looks like new engagement on the post.
Comments are still displayed in full when viewing from the desktop browser. this trick does work when using a mobile browser (IOS, Android). Anyways thanks for the article. your writings are amazing.
I’ve found that none of the hashtags I’ve added to my posts have worked – the post does not show in the hashtag page. This is the case for every hashtag on every post I’ve made since I started the insta feed five days ago. Do you know why this might be? Mine’s a business feed and I need to grow it but I’m struggling to without working hashtags. Any advice would be welcome! Thanks.
Read the middle section of this post about shadowban.
Or it could be that you’ve included a banned hashtag. Then none will work.
Also, IG has affirmed that not every post is shown in hashtag feeds. There could be an algorithm for this and your account may be too new.
Hi Louise. I’m Jonah from Hashtagify.me. I’ve just read your article and want to thank you very much for introducing our tool to your readers 🙂
Cool! Nice to meet you, Jonah.
Hi Louise,
great article, but I’m getting confused, for the lady couple of month we were told that the hashtags now have to go into the caption and that they won’t work in comments. Is this no longer true?
I don’t know what lady you refer to, but this hasn’t been true in the years I’ve been on Instagram.
Hi, so you can’t put hashtags on an account you aren’t signed into? is that correct? how long do the hashtags last. Its seems you an take them down 2 weeks later and do a whole lot of new ones and it goes back to the top?
“you can’t put hashtags on an account you aren’t signed into” Correct.
“It seems you can take them down 2 weeks later and do a whole lot of new ones and it goes back to the top” If that works for you, great. IG says they’ll appear in the hashtag feed with other content posted at the same time (NOT the time that the tags were added).
Hello Louise,
Thanks for the valuable informaion, and i think these post is going to help me very much. Even still I don’t know how many hashtag can be used in instagram. But after reading your post I have come to know how many I can use and even how to use also. And I even want to know one thing, is this works where I can promote my brand and can you tell me how much time it’s take to get popoluar ?
“how much time does it take to get popular”
This will totally vary depending on your niche, content, and how much time you spend on your account.
Hi Louise, I’ve been told lately that the way hashtags are used is changing and that we should not use more Than 5 to 8 hashtags vs. 20 before as Instagram is penalizing accounts using too many – any feedback on this?
I would love to hear if you experience more engagement using less hashtags. I personally haven’t found this to be true.
Thank you very informative. Learned quite a bit – so much info out there and yes conflicted and conflicting.
Glad it helped, Evie!
Thank you, Louise. I’ve been looking for this kind of well investigted article for like hours. Just wanted to say Thank You!
Great to hear it 🙂
Hello Louise Myers
first of all thank you for this post its very useful to me but i have a Questions for hashtags
1) if i add tags in my insta photo comment its work or not ? it can be show on hashtags page right?
2) how many time i can add 30 tags sets in photo comments ?
1), yes and yes.
2), one time.
Wow. Thank you for the simple no fuss article!! Quick Question:
If I delete my hashtags out of the comments a week after the post, will people stop seeing the post. I noticed all the big insta accounts I follow (20k + followers) don’t ever seem to have any hashtags on their posts.
Thanks a bunch
If you delete the hashtags, your post won’t be in the hashtag feeds. But after a week, it would likely be pushed very far down anyway.
Most big brands use only a few hashtags. But they have other ways of growing their accounts.
Hi Louise! your article is amazing! just one question that got me confused.
At one point you wrote to put hashtags only in post caption but after that you wrote to put hashtags in a comment. So I hope you clarify that!
The reference to putting hashtags in the caption was ONLY referring to super popular tags. Don’t wait to put them in a comment. Of course, I don’t think you should use them at all, but my advice was to those who insist on it.
Hello
For a while, my hashtags will not be displayed to me and my friends
What is the reason for this problem
Is it hid by Instagram?
Previously, 100 hashtags were displayed with my photo. But now on the hashtags page, the hashtag will not be displayed with my photo
You can’t use 100 hashtags. Plus Instagram has confirmed that not all hashtagged posts will appear in the feeds. They may even be penalizing you for breaking the rules.
thank u very very
Awesome article, thanks for the tips. I Have one question. Can i post 30 hashtags in the Post and 30 in the comments?
Thanks
Fresh
You would have to add them to the caption after the comment, and I can’t guarantee this is effective. Instagram knows this is a hack but hasn’t stopped it yet.
Thx for the helpful info Louise!
I am a super fan of someone and want to help their IG. Does it help them when I use hashtags in my comments on their videos and photos? Thx
Nope, you can’t add hashtags to someone else’s post. Commenting helps though!
I’m just dipping my toes in the Insta-pool for my voiceover work. Having noticed the hashtags in comments thing, I started to wonder.
So glad I came across your post.
And I like your patience in dealing with people’s queries/ comments.
I’ll be back!
Thanks Dani, and best of luck!
Great tip and I’ve seen it done, but it won’t work for me. I use the preview app first, with their comments below the caption. I try to add my own hashtags in the comments, but all I get is an error message.
Not sure what you mean by preview app, or exactly your process. But if you have 30 hashtags in the caption, you can’t go back and add more in a comment.
Thank you so much for the article .
I use 30 hashtags on every post , i try my best to keep them as close to the content as possible.
Can i get blocked for using too many hashtags??
30 is the allowed amount.
Hi Louise,
If you post a photo but your account is on private, should I go public after I post? Before?
I want to get the most engagement but im not sure if that works on private, or how long i should leave my profile on public before going back to private.
Help!
Why would you switch back and forth? I think you need to decide if you want strangers to see your posts (public account) or not (private).
hello
can I create a personal hashtag for my self or instagram account
Yes! Just start tagging your posts with it, and it will create is own hashtag feed.
Hi, Louise. Thank you so much for your amazing tips!
But I have a question…
If I change hash tags in my original posting, which hash tags are released to the public?
Original? or After edit?
Hashtags are released when you post them (unless your account is private). Removing a tag will remove you from the tag feed. Adding new tags to old content that hadn’t been popular will probably not get you much if any engagement tho. Unless they’re super niche tags with few posts in the feed, your content will be buried bc the feeds are chronological (unless you can snag a Top Post).
Hi Louise, lots of great tips, all based on experience, thanks!!
About hashtag popularity, I have a question. My account has around 4K followers and I get around 400 likes average, few
reaches 700, some stays around 300. For a travel shot, which hashtags should I target more, hashtags like #travelmore -> 75M , #travellingtheworld ->2M or #besttravelshots -> 400K ?
You could split test, but in general I recommend not using tags over 1M.
Thanks for your kind reply! That was great advice and worked very well! I did a lot of googling lately and you are definitely the best source on Instagram hashtags, thanks:)))
You’re welcome! I love to get nice comments like this – so thank you too!
I am still confused about why the popular hashtags should be added in the caption rather in the comment. How does the hashtag feed work?
The popular hashtag feeds move so fast that one second is too long to wait to add one to your post.
Hi , I have a question regarding the info that it is not allowed to use same hashtags in every post? Is it true? And if so, is it also not ok to use own hashtag in every post either?
Thank you for your answer.
The issue is using ALL the same hashtags in every post. There shouldn’t be a problem as long as you’re changing up some of them. But, Instagram is very fickle so I can’t guarantee anything 🙂
I am facing problem posting 60 hashtags (first 30 in the comment and additional 30 in edited caption) since yesterday. Does anyone face the same problem?
yes, IG finally figured out how to disable this
Wow such a great article, I’ve finally found one that explains it all so well! Thank you for this. I’m a photographer working mostly in Boudoir/portrait. I have been having a very tough time gaining exposure though I do get messages from fellow photographers and models complimenting my work. It just needs to be seen!!!! I’m sitting at 280 ish followers and have over the last month made a personal effort to grow my account. I’m hoping with my new found understanding of hashtags I can gain some traction. Thank you!
Bonus tip, if you’re getting attention from fellow photographers and models, you may need to look into the hashtags your AUDIENCE would be looking for. Not what your competitors are looking for.
Very interesting point, Hmmm. Is there an easier way to discover that information? or just guess? Maybe take cues from other photographers use of hashtags?
Options:
Copy photographers using hashtags that are getting them clients
Lots of trial and error
Buy the course Hashtag Hero
disclosure: I may get a referral fee if you purchase the course… but I’m betting it would save you tons of time.
I have yet to be successful with hiding my hashtags! Can you confirm that it still works? I’ve tried Evernote assuming it was my note app not working properly. I copy and past the hashtags I want to use then add my 5 (.) and returns. I make sure there is no space after the hashtags by hitting delete and confirming cursor location. I’ve tried two different times with same result.
Yes it works. The space problem I mentioned is after the . and before the return.
Hey. My name is Nicin. I really liked the article … but there are a few questions, I hope you can help me. As I understand it: better than 10 good hashtags than 10 good and 10 not so good? Bad hashtags can mess up a photo search … right? Or is it better to add all 30 … and then change? I am new to this issue. Now I want to study this issue. You need to know and understand what is happening with the account. There are new subscribers 20 per night (I’m a beginner) … I can not understand that hashtags have affected so … can this be?
Sure, if you’re using banned hashtags they could hurt you.