How to Use Hashtags on Instagram

Instagram is a social media platform, where you can share photo, and videos via post and stories.

Instagram doesn’t allows us to download private Instagram videos and stories. You only share post on Instagram using hashtags.

If you rank in the top section for one or even multiple hashtags, this will give you more reach, more likes, and even more followers!

What’s going on, guys?

I will tell you exactly how you can do that, how you can get more reach on Instagram through hashtags, and how to use them correctly.

So how do hashtags work?

Well, to answer that, you have to look at a hashtag page on Instagram. What you will see there is, first, the top section. You can find all the top content that is ranking in there with that specific hashtag included.

The second thing that you can see in the recent section. And in there, you will find all the recently posted content with that specific hashtag included. And whenever you include hashtags with your posting, your content will automatically rank in the recent section because it’s been posted recently.

Goal

Your goal should always be to rank in the top section because on there, and it will stay there for quite some time and gather some reach, gather more eyeballs coming to your profile, and therefore gain your new followers. In the recent section, however, your content will go down the line rather quickly because there’s just so much new content being posted every second, minute, hour, and every single day.

Hashtag strategy

And the way you do this is by having a good hashtag strategy. And that strategy starts with first the right hashtags. And those are matching and relevant ones.

So let’s say, for example, you’re posting about fitness, then you should never use hashtags like.

#love or #instagood

Those are super popular hashtags that are not really relevant and matching your content. So Instagram is smart enough, or better said, the algorithm is smart enough to detect what your content is about. They have the technology to scan through it to understand what the subject is.

And so when you’re using such hashtags, Instagram will notice that they’re not relevant and matching your content. And so why would your content be ranking for them.

But not only this, but they’re also so popular that your content will go down the line even quicker in the recent section. So the result will be no more reach, no more likes, and no more followers. So what you should do instead is use hashtags like.

#fitness, #fitnesspage, #fitnessmotivation  

Something like that which matches your content is matching and relevant because that already ups your chances of ranking in the top section.

But not only this, even if you pinpoint it down to one specific subject, there will still be dozens and dozens of different hashtags to choose from. And so, my personal recommendation right here would be to focus specifically on the hashtags in the range between 100,000 postings and 1 million postings.

So what that means is when you go to Instagram and search for, let’s say, ‘fitness,’ you will see a certain amount of postings already being made with the hashtag fitness being included. And what you should do is you should focus on hashtags that are not too big but also not too small.

So don’t choose hashtags that have less than 100,000 postings within them but also no hashtags that have over 1 million postings because it’s going to be too hard to rank your content for those big ones but too easy to rank your content for the small ones. So it will not bring you a lot of exposure. And so if you do your research.

The next big question right here is ‘How many hashtags should you end up using?’ And the answer to that is as many as possible.

So Instagram allows you to use up to 30 different hashtags.   Over 30, they won’t work. So 30 is the limit, but Instagram will actually tell that directly when you’re posting. So what you should do is you should max out those 30 hashtags.

So if you can’t come up with 30 different hashtags that are super relevant and matching your content, use them. But on the other side if you’re not able to do that and then get up to 30 hashtags by filling them up with those popular ones like

#love,

for example, then it’s better to post with less than 30 hashtags instead of filling them up.

Hashtag sets / groups

The next thing that is important regarding your hashtag strategy is you should never use hashtag sets or hashtag groups.

Let’s say, for example, and you’ve done your research, you’ve come up with different hashtags that are matching and relevant that you want to continue to use in the future.

Now what many people will do is tag them up, save them in their notes app, and then copy and paste them wherever they’re posting in the future.

However, the problem with that strategy is that Instagram will detect that and declare it as spammy behavior because now you’re, whenever you’re posting, you’re posting the same hashtags in the same order over and over, and this is considered spammy behavior by the algorithm.

And so this will then not get you more reach, not get you more engagement, and not get you more followers, but it will remove you from the top section, it will remove you from getting those results and that exposure, so you will definitely want to stay away from it to stay safe.

What you should do instead is whenever you post new content to Instagram, rotate your hashtags.  

So it’s fine enough to use the same hashtags over and over because they’re matching. They’re actually relevant; however, you should not always use the same ones and, even worse, in the same order.

Where do you put your hashtags?

Now that we know all of that, the next important question to answer right here is ‘Where you want to put your hashtags?’

My answer right here is that you should definitely put them in the caption for multiple reasons. So first, it saves up time. If you post your content, then go to the comments, then paste in your hashtags and post them. This will take a little time.  

So in the recent section for those hashtags, your content will already go down the line a little, even if it only takes a few seconds. It will also probably make sure that your content is safe because that brings us back to the hashtag sets, the hashtag groups. Instagram is fairly picky for spammy behavior on the platform because Instagram had a lot of trouble in recent years with spam.

And so they’re very picky about that, and they will remove everything they see that might be spam. And to close the circle right here and come back to our question whenever you post your hashtags into your comments, maybe you’re at constant risk of being banned because Instagram could detect that as spammy behavior.

They could, it doesn’t have to be, but they could because it reserves the comment section for comments, and we design the caption to have your hashtags in there.

So maybe any day, Instagram goes against those people that put their hashtags in the comments section because they want to get rid of spam.