How to find banned hashtags on Instagram? What’s the quickest way to remove them from your profile? Actually… You need one tool, a few seconds of your time and the job is done. 

In this article, I’ll explain why banned hashtags harm your Instagram growth, and how to use IQ Hashtags to never find yourself on Instagram’s blacklist because of them. Ready to fix your hashtags? Alright then, let’s dive in!

How to view banned hashtags on Instagram? Is there any free banned hashtags checker?

Yes! Today we’re going to discuss the tool with most up-to-date results – IQ Hashtags. Let’s look at how intuitive it is, and talk about the way it works. 

Our hashtags are now divided into two separate sections with Correct Hashtags, highlighted in green – they are obviously good to go and red Banned Hashtags – which are useless and won’t do any good to your post.

The cool thing is that after you review all of your hashtags, you don’t need to manually enter each of them in your new Instagram post, you can simply copy the entire set of Correct Hashtags and paste them in.

Let’s keep in mind that we can finally post to Instagram from the desktop, so you don’t even need to switch between devices. All can be done literally within a couple of clicks. 

How to find banned hashtags in your older posts?

Now, you have probably wondered how to find banned hashtags in the posts you’ve published in the past. Of course, you can do this manually and scan through every single post in your profile, then check each hashtag separately, but who’s got time for that? 

Thankfully, instead of this tiresome process you can quickly find and get rid of banned hashtags from your IQ Hashtags profile. 

To do that you need to go to Profile Analysis Tab and check your Hashtags information. 

This section presents the total number of your hashtags, the number of unique hashtags and the number of banned hashtags in your profile.

Click view to enter the screen with the list of banned hashtags. If you’re using the Free version of IQ Hashtags you can test this feature, track down  and remove one banned hashtag from your Instagram account. In this case we see a hashtag #boho, it doesn’t look harmful at all but it is banned on the platform, so you can see for yourself how easy it is to faHashtags categorize your content and help you get discovered on Instagram. That’s why you need to know that some of them don’t work, and can do the complete opposite – get your account flagged, disabled or in the best case scenario kill your reach and discoverability on the platform. Banned hashtags are recognised by Instagram as spam that violates Instagram’s community guidelines. When used in the post, they will prevent it from reaching the explore page, which means that it will not be shown to Instagram users who aren’t following you.

While some of them are obvious, because they promote inappropriate content with violence, abuse or nudity. There’s a long list that changes daily with banned hashtags that look completely innocent. And we talk about things like: #elevator #brain or #beautyblogger. 

Avoiding and getting rid of banned hashtags in your profile is the first step to clean up your account, avoid the dreaded „shadowban” and get on the right track with your hashtag strategy. 

You don’t need to scroll through every single one of your posts to find banned hashtags. All you need is the tool, and a few seconds to make your past and new content discoverable again.

How to check banned hashtags before posting?

We’re going to use the desktop version of the tool. You can of course use IQ Hashtags on your mobile device as well. I’ve decided to share a big screen with you guys, so everything looks a bit bigger and clearer.

First, I’d like to show you how you can review your hashtags before you add them to your new post, to make sure none of them is banned. 

You’ll need to use our Banned Hashtags checker available in IQ Hashtags free Plan, so you can start using it right away.

The process is super simple, you can enter your hashtags one by one, and separate them with spaces or commas, just like this, or simply copy and paste a collection of hashtags that you prepared earlier on. Hashtag collections feature is an absolute game changer in terms of categorising and saving your best performing hashtags (this feature is also available in IQ Hashtags Free Plan).

I’m going to go to Hashtag  Collections, copy a pre-saved set of hashtags to save even more time, and paste them into the Banned Hashtags checker. Make sure to tick the Real time check box for mll into this trap. Here’s the date and time when the post was published, and a media link or alternatively a comment link if the hashtag was placed in the comment section, that transfers you to the Instagram post, where you’ve used a banned hashtag. 

Let’s click on it, and find this little bugger. Ok, it is hiding right here – so of course to remove it, you’ll need to edit the post. Sadly you can’t edit a post from a desktop, tell us why Instagram. So you’ll need to use your phone to do it. Go to your post, click the 3 dot menu, go to edit and remove your banned hashtag.

And we’re done. 

You’ll need to go through all of the links to remove all the banned hashtags, and finally make your content and your profile discoverable again. 

Let me know in the comments what you think about the Banned Hashtags checker, or drop any of the questions you have about this feature or IQ Hashtags tool in general. If you haven’t registered yet, you can do it completely for FREE on IQ, and enjoy all the features available in the Free Plan – like banned hashtags checker, or hashtag collections.

Enjoy tidying up your Instagram profile and I’ll see you in the next one!

The post How to Easily Find Banned Hashtags on Instagram – Quick Fix To Avoid Shadowban appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Looking for a simple and straightforward process for choosing the right hashtags for your Instagram content strategy? Look no more – today I will tell you all about distinguishing between powerful hashtags and those which unfortunately are relatively powerless. What are niche, targeted hashtags, and what makes them different from the general ones? I will teach you their advantages, how to research and use them. 

Over the past few years, the Instagram landscape has evolved significantly. As a result, many tactics have changed – that’s why we all need to update our hashtag strategy.

You can no longer choose totally random hashtags, and hope that the Instagram search engine will rank your posts really high. It is now equally important to research the most relevant hashtags, and provide the most meaningful content, full of personality, and natural charm.

Instagram as a social media platform has become much smarter; algorithms have changed, and the competition is bigger than ever.

So how can you make a dent in the ‘Gram universe? How do you stand out from all these talented creators and all that crowd? More importantly, despite the quite big competition, how do you manage to attract new followers from your target audience and increase your reach?

The answer is… Niche, well-targeted hashtags. 

In this post, I’m going to discuss the basics of niche hashtags, their various benefits, and how you can find them. Ready? Let’s start from scratch.

There are two ways to pick your hashtags:

1. Choose some general hashtags that you think make sense, and hope for the best.
2. Use a research process to choose relevant hashtags (the ones your target audience is using and those with beneficial search volume).

In today’s guide, I’ll explain the process I use to choose the most effective hashtags. If you want to stand out, become discoverable, succeed, and survive in such a cut-throat competition, you definitely have to leverage your hashtag game.

Targeted hashtags have far less competition, and because of that they are easier to rank for. Most importantly, they’re really effective when it comes to attracting your ideal followers. You will just have to be a bit careful when doing your hashtag research!

But hey, never worry, tips I’m going to share with you below should help you with that.

Why Is It So Important To Choose the Most Relevant Hashtags?

Your Instagram profile probably already has lots of helpful posts, interesting captions, and eye-pleasing photos. But, you’re not getting the reach you deserve.

That’s where hashtags come in handy. As you already know, hashtags are words and phrases that describe your posts and provide more context to help other users find your content. So what’s the quick fix to get more views? Targeted hashtags, double yes. 

What Are Targeted Hashtags?

Simply put, niche, well-targeted hashtags are more targeted search phrases. They’re more specific and less common than overly popular hashtags. And, of course, they focus more on your niche.

If your profile is relatively new, and you don’t have millions of engaged followers by now, it can take months or even years of hard work and excellent content strategy to rank for overly popular, highly competitive hashtags like #fashion or #sport.

Trying to rank for the hashtag #fashion has a difficulty of 11/10. But if you pick a more targeted hashtag, like, for example, #fashionforkids, it’s instantly much easier to rank for.

A niche, targeted hashtag contains the general, a bit generic “head” hashtag inside, but it also includes a few extra words that make the final hashtag more targeted to a specific group of Instagram audience.

For example, #food is an EXTRA generic hashtag, right? It includes TOO MUCH CONTENT, and it may have a lot of searches all the time, but it isn’t targeted at all.

On the other hand, #foodforabs is a niche, well-targeted hashtag catering to a specific group of potential followers, i.e., users looking for recipes (or products) that will help them gain muscles. 

Targeting your audience using niche hashtags will position your posts much quicker than any general, popular hashtag. Even if the search volume of your niche hashtags isn’t big at all, it could still bring you many valuable views (and higher engagement). 

Key takeaway? Stop trying to rank for too competitive hashtags, start competing for easier to rank, niche, well-targeted hashtags instead.

The Benefits of Using Niche, Targeted Hashtags

Let me tell you: actually, there are plenty of benefits of using smaller, well-targeted hashtags. Here are two of the main advantages: 

• Less popular, medium, niche hashtags have less competition

Therefore, such hashtags are significantly easier to be ranked for – you already know that.

You may be a bit sad about the lower search volume. But hey, it’s almost impossible to rank for a super popular hashtag now, with your (current) account’s size.

On the other hand it is far easier and more possible to rank higher for more niche hashtags. And despite this lower search volume, you can still get a lot of organic reach, and precious engagement from new potential followers, once you acquire a top position for that hashtag.

There is a ton of competition and content overload for common, popular hashtags since they are just broader. At times, a massively popular hashtag can have billions of results.

But for a medium, niche, well-targeted hashtag that is more focused, there may be thousands of results. For instance, the hashtag #pizza generates 60,9 million search results (=60,9 million different posts!), whereas #italianpizza generates only 473k search results. And #canadianpizza generates only 8,1k search results.

Lower search results mean far less competition, making it easier for your posts to rank—a win-win.

• Furthermore, unlike overly popular, generic hashtags, niche, well-targeted hashtags attracts your target audience – not just the random people.

They just target the audience much better.

By choosing niche hashtags, instead of generic ones, you are more likely to attract people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say and offer.

For instance, if someone is looking for #pizza, it indicates that the searcher isn’t looking for anything in particular – most probably just pretty foodporn to become extremely hungry. But, on the other hand, when someone is specifically searching for #canadianpizza it may mean that this person is looking for a place to eat, not only look at! Which means this content can attract an actual CLIENT, not only some random, meaningless views. 

This is one of the most crucial reasons why niche, well-targeted hashtags are so beneficial. If you want to target specific users, it should come much easier.

How To Find the Right Niche Hashtags

Now that you know why niche, well-targeted hashtags matter, how can you start using them in your Instagram strategy? Let’s go – I’ll share my top tips, to find hashtags that will give you the results you’re looking for.

Do Hashtag Research

Hashtag research can help you discover new hashtags you haven’t ever considered. It can also help discover hashtag variations trending in your niche right now. It’s always smart to develop your new hashtags through good research. That way, you can find phrases your target followers are actually searching for.

The simplest way to start generating some niche hashtags ideas is to use the hashtag research tool – you can conduct intuitive research with the help of IQ Hashtags’ Search Hashtags Feature.

Choose Hashtags With The Optimal Search Volume

As I mentioned earlier, niche hashtags have a lesser search volume, but this shouldn’t stop you from choosing those hashtags.

Quite the opposite.

Don’t be tempted to choose overly general, too popular hashtags with thousands and thousands of new posts being added to it every minute.

This is one of the most common mistakes aspiring creators and business owners make when they are looking for new Instagram hashtags.

How to browse hashtags’ search volume?

You can do it manually, right in the Instagram search bar, or you can use a special tool to make your life easier. Although there are many tools, IQ Hashtags is (in my opinion) still the best option you’ve got. Give it a try. How? Log in to IQ Hashtags, choose the “Search hashtags” tab, input your primary hashtag, and click the “search” button. In my example, I have used “marketing” as the main hashtag. 

With this “Search hashtags” tab, you will discover a whole lot of different hashtag ideas with their search volume. 

As you can notice right here, the search volume of each of the hashtags is relatively lower. But since they are niche, well-targeted and narrowed, they will be much easier to be ranked for.

Targeted Hashtags – Best Practices

Is it worth it to use some irrelevant hashtags when you know they’re gonna to give you extra likes? No. Don’t mislead people.

Whatever you do, don’t use any hashtag that isn’t a good fit for your content, even if you think they will be easy to rank for, and bring you some extra likes or comments. For instance, don’t use the hashtag #seomarketing when posting a selfie without any marketing-related caption. 

Using irrelevant hashtags to “trick people into believing your content is something it’s not” is against Instagram’s spam policy and could result in your post being reported as SPAM. 

Bottom line: Keep your hashtags relevant.

How to make your potential followers stay? Create engaging content

Finding good, well-targeted hashtags is only half the battle. 

Creating engaging content – well, this is undoubtedly the most challenging part. Mediocre content doesn’t work anymore. Those days of Instagram are long gone. Instagram’s algorithms have evolved into providing its users a high-quality experience.

You need fantastic content. 

Out of 8 different Instagram marketing challenges, content creation is the biggest of them all for so many aspiring creators. So how do you create the right content with niche hashtags to boost its visibility?

The idea is to create inspiring, genuine, in-depth posts that really answer the questions of your target audience. If it is attractive for your followers, Instagram will take extra care of its high search position.

Keep in mind your target audience’s needs: what do your followers and potential followers want from you? How to understand the Instagram User’s Intent?

After making a list of niche hashtags to use, review them again.

Consider why people search for those hashtags.

As I have mentioned earlier, Instagram has evolved significantly over the past few years. While search queries are still dependent on hashtags, “user intent” is a relatively new thing that constantly redefines how Instagram works.

Once you understand the user intent of your Instagram target audience, you can then use the niche hashtags that satisfy their need. 

How to tell which hashtags are working? 

Monitor hashtag performance.

Once you find new sets of niche hashtags, it’s always a smart idea to analyze their performance. Hashtag monitoring is an activity that tracks the position of your posts based on particular hashtags. This process enables you to analyze relevant metrics and data – to find out which hashtags are currently the most effective for your target audience. From my perspective – using a professional tool, like my fav IQ Hashtags can help you gain a better understanding of how to tailor your hashtag strategy and promote your content more effectively:

Now that you have new knowledge, and you’ll soon find new niche hashtags, ready to attack, you can check out some of the other guides from our Instagram Hashtag Knowledge Base that will help maximize your marketing efforts. See you there!

The post General Hashtags vs. Niche, Well-targeted Hashtags – Which Ones Should You Choose To Attract New Followers? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

You’ve just done your hashtag research and created many gorgeous sets of promising hashtags, all well-tailored and matching your niche. Ta-dah!

You’re ready to start using them to attract new followers and potential customers to your business. You have a bunch of bulletproof choices, and you’re going to use this power, along with your awesome content.

First of all – a smart move, good for you! With its engaged audience (at the moment, more than one billion monthly active users – according to official data, and Statista platform), a wide range of different user personas, and features like Reels, Instagram Stories, and Lives, you have so many opportunities to attract and interact with your ideal audience.

But, wait, wait.  Hold up.

Questions may start crowding in with the Instagram landscape wide open right before you. As a result, new doubts may start creeping in. 

When should you use these hashtags? How often? Even better question – you see many Instagram creators posting the same set of hashtags multiple times, sometimes dozens of times – how often should you change your hashtags? And how many hashtags should you use per post?

This is the evergreen question. The thing is, the honest answer probably isn’t what you want to hear:

It depends. However:

If you’re a newbie and have a small account, the key is to make your profile as discoverable as it can be. And hashtags are here to help, so don’t underestimate their power. Every hashtag = your chance to attract a totally new group of people. Kick off with as many relatable hashtags as you can – sure, quality over quantity, but if you can find 30 well-tailored hashtags, then use them! 

But that’s just the short answer, to put it in a nutshell. 

Let’s dive deeper into all the hows and whys so you can get the most out of the hashtags’ power. Let’s go!

How Many Hashtags Should I Use? What is the Right Number of #Hashtags For my Posts?

There is the golden rule: keep ’em, and use them – as many as you can (as long as they’re accurate and well-researched), and people will find you and stick with you.

Each Instagram hashtag works as a keyword that you can use to help the ‘Gram identify your content and make it much easier for users to know what your post is about. Side benefit? Hashtags can be valuable tools in establishing the topic and relevance of your regular posts or Reels! That’s why you need to select your hashtags wisely to correctly classify your posts so that they will be found by the right audience – your target followers. 

Instagram is home to billions and billions of different posts and Reels, with that number growing exponentially on a daily basis! Needless to say, to make sure your ideal followers actually see what you’re posting, you need to use hashtags, and if you can find 30 good ones every time you post – excellent! More is more, at least when it comes to well-targeted hashtags. 

How Many Hashtags Is Enough?

Is there any magic formula, a well-kept secret about the most optimal ratio, or some other insider secret-sauce knowledge you can employ to help your profile grow and get seen by the people you try to attract? Can you Harry Potter the heck out of Instagram?

I WISH! If only!

Instead, look carefully at the hashtags you choose. As I said before – every single hashtag is a new chance to attract people from your target audience. That’s why I would recommend using 30 hashtags every time you can. It doesn’t necessarily have to be 30 – this rule is not that strict, don’t you worry. If you can find 25-28 good ones, that’s totally okay. You don’t have to use 30 hashtags just for the sake of using 30. 

Every business and every profile is different, with different marketing goals, target audiences, means, and approaches. What works for other creators may not suit you and who you want to attract, but hashtags are a universal helper; they’re a tool for every profile and business. 

How Often Should You Change and Update Your Hashtags, and Come Up With New Hashtag Sets? 

Some trending hashtags become outdated pretty quickly, that’s why it’s such a good practice to do hashtag research at least once a month. 

“Why SO OFTEN?” you may want to ask.

Well, that’s what brings the best results for my clients and for me, so I always recommend updating your hashtags every 4-5 weeks – because it WORKS, and it’s always the most crucial reason for me. Don’t forget you can also outsource your hashtag research a bit – for example, you do it with the IQ Hashtags Search Hashtag feature – that’s the most optimal choice. That way, it will take you up to 5-10 minutes, and you’ll gain this clarity and confidence that your new hashtags are the ones you truly need. 

Instagram wants freshly baked, early morning apple pies, tasty as hell, and still hot from the heat. Likewise, they want your content to be valuable, up-to-date, and trending. They do not want your day-old, stale apple pies – that’s why you need trending hashtags, to keep delivering the best content and make sure your target audience sees it when it’s still hot! 

Naturally, to make your fresh content seen, you must choose the best trending hashtags for your niche in the first place.

My personal research showed me that when you update your hashtags once a month and add some fresh trending ones every time you do so, your posts perform better than posts without trending hashtags (yes, that’s the critical takeaway).

How Many Hashtags Are Too Many on Instagram?

On the ‘Gram there isn’t such a thing as overtagging (overhashtagging to be exact, right). So you can use 30 hashtags every time you post – and there’s no need to worry, that it will be TOO MUCH. No way! Hashtags are yours to use, and the platform allows you to use up to 30 – so why would you give up on this chance? 

The only thing you need to keep in mind is to make sure that your hashtags don’t mislead Instagram users: having random and inaccurate hashtags can increase your bounce rate, and users can report your content as SPAM (and we don’t want that, so good hashtag research is really worth it).

Will Using Hashtags in Instagram Video Posts Increase the Number of Views?

Essentially, hashtags on the ‘Gram are carefully chosen tags and keywords, telling the algorithm and platform users what your content is about. You can assign hashtags to each post as you post them on the platform. Then, as people use hashtags to search out different posts and Reels as well, the Instagram algorithm will scan hashtags to help determine what results to show off!

So, yeah, we need hashtags to categorize and organize content, draw attention to it, promote, and connect with the target audience. Using Instagram hashtags gives your posts a significant boostand organic promotion, right off the bat! That’s truly powerful.

Instead of only showing your posts to your current followers, you’re opening up the floodgates to all the potential followers who are already looking for what you’re sharing. For example, if you use the hashtag #carrotcaketutorial, your post will join the other posts under that same hashtag. The idea is that if someone is looking to learn how to bake a delicious carrot cake with a simple recipe when they search “#carrotcaketutorial”, your post will populate under that hashtag.

Side benefit: if you’re using trending hashtags, your Reels (and regular posts as well) can also be pulled into relevant Discovery pages for millions of users to discover.

How Many Hashtags? 3 Common Questions, Answered 

Still have some lingering burning questions over how many hashtags should you use? Here we go! I’ve gathered answers to common ones on the most optimal number of hashtags, hashtag research, and hashtag collection updates frequency.

To grow faster on Instagram, should I post as often as I could, maybe even twice a day? And should I use 30 hashtags every time I post?

Don’t start hair-pulling. Not yet. Repeat right after me: quality over quantity.

These days, Instagram prioritizes trending, high-quality posts with mega-relevance to the ‘Gram users. That means it’s far better to post 3-4 times a week, more awesome content versus 2 times a day but mediocre posts, just for the sake of posting.

Coming up with new posts ideas isn’t as straightforward as it seems. You have to research best practices for pleasing your target audience and the Instagram algorithm while balancing your own creativity and content strategy in the mix. Create user-friendly posts. Keep on providing value, and you’re already way ahead – you don’t have to post two times a day.

And when it comes to 30 hashtags – if you’re able to find 30 GOOD, RELEVANT ONES – that’s gorgeous. But remember that research is the key. 

How do I use hashtags on Instagram to get more followers?

There are no universal, “one fit all” best hashtags to use on the ‘Gram. Instead, I would focus on choosing hashtags that match the topic of your posts, so your target audience can find you. This way, users that are looking for content around that topic will be able to discover your profile which leads to a more targeted and engaged community. 

I’ve read so many posts and articles about the most right number of hashtags you should use to reach more people, and I was surprised to read on the official Instagram blog that 4-5 hashtags can be enough! Do you think there are cases in which using fewer hashtags can actually help instead?

As I said before – every hashtag gives you a totally new opportunity to reach a different group of people. I believe that what @creators truly meant in their article is that the quantity of hashtags doesn’t matter as much as the relevancy to the content.

Generally, most posts should have 25-30 hashtags, but it’s better to use fewer, than to use 30 random ones!

Be sure to include the hashtags that are the best descriptors to make it easy for your target audience to find your posts and for the Instagram algorithm to understand its contents. Continue to monitor how successful your hashtag sets are performing and adjust them as you learn more about what gives the best results.

And let’s end today’s article with these wise words:

Remember: Growth looks different for everyone. 

So does Instagram hashtag research.

I hope that you got some value from this! Please like or share this Instagram lesson, especially if you know somebody who should read it. I share a lot of this information for free because I rely on word of mouth to reach people!

If you’ve got any questions or doubts, let me know down below. I’m here to help.

PS. Some time ago someone from our community asked me about the Instagram photo editing process, and presets I personally recommend – and SPOILER ALERT – I will spill the tea, and reveal all the parts of the process I use in the upcoming post. For now: I’m testing new Lightroom Instagram presets – have you heard about them? I find them pretty cool – hopefully we will analyze them in our next post!

The post The Optimal Number of Hashtags – How Many Hashtags Should You Use in 2023? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Hey pals! Christmas and New Year’s Eve are coming. Or should we write #newyearseve? 

It’s time to start prepping our Instagram content for this holiday season and all those white days filled with winter wonderland landscapes (if you’re lucky, of course – if not, don’t worry, half of our team probably won’t see snow either). But before we do, and before you start the traditional seasonal hashtags hunt, we have one critical tip. Be careful with #gloves, #ice, and #skateboarding – these hashtags are banned! Using them in one of your posts can result in your account getting the infamous “shadowban” symptoms. So all kidding aside, because we don’t want that, right?! 

Every year around the second half of December, Instagram feeds start filling up with #winterwonderland and #christmasiscoming posts and videos. You’re probably witnessing that right now! Do you want to join with your festive reels and creative winter holidays posts? That’s a perfect idea. Let’s go!

Decide how you want to address this winter season in your Instagram strategy and pick the best festive and winter-related hashtags to boost the reach of your content. Not sure where to start? Good. We mean… We’ve prepared EVERYTHING you should know! Better yet! We have created a free Instagram handbook with a HUGE bundle of festive and Christmas season-related hashtags to help all of you: influencers, creators, business owners, and solopreneurs get the most out of your upcoming posts by using the most effective hashtags there are for this time of the year. Our Instagram hashtags directory features over 400 of the best festive and winter-related Instagram hashtags for you to use for maximum reach and highest exposure.

We’ve done in-depth hashtag research, so you don’t have to! Come and get it (as Selena Gomez sings in one of her old songs *don’t judge us, it’s our guilty pleasure SOMETIMES*)

If you’re an Instagram enthusiast, aspiring influencer, or ambitious business owner looking to up your hashtag game, click here to skip straight to our list of over 400 festive and winter-related hashtags for your posts. Simply download it, keep it on your phone for reference, and paste your desired hashtags whenever you need them!

Curious about what’s included in our festive hashtags handbook? Let’s take a look!

CATEGORIES INCLUDED IN OUR FESTIVE AND WINTER-RELATED HASHTAGS INSTAGRAM HANDBOOK:

• Winter holiday season
• Christmas
• New Years

Safe Christmas season, New Year’s Eve, and winter time-related hashtags – yass, most effective hashtags for #christmasperiod and #newyearseve to grow YOUR Instagram

At the time our wintertime hashtags handbook was created, every hashtag we have included was 101% SAFE. Meaning, none of the hashtags we picked are currently banned on Instagram. And if you’re extra careful, you can always double-check, just to verify if nothing has changed (sometimes banned hashtags change in a blink of an eye) and head over to IQ Hashtags Banned Hashtags checker (that’s always a good idea). 

To wrap-up!

There you have it – the most effective hashtags you can use to amp up your festive and wintertime Instagram posts. Track your stats to make sure you reach the target audience you’re going after, and – that’s for extra points – don’t forget to measure your hashtag performance (you can use IQ Hashtags to do it). Good luck!

[download_after_email id=”1308″]

The post The most effective festive hashtags – our FREE festive hashtags handbook appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

We know, we know – it may sound like a massive clickbait, but believe us, that wasn’t on purpose! Lately, we’ve been talking with you a lot – and those conversations turned out to be the best inspiration for our next Instagram lessons. Creators’ and brand owners’ lives are the best inspiration because there are problems to solve, and we’re challenge-addicted people (espresso-powered, yup).

The problem we’re going to discuss today sounds severe, and indeed it is: why can’t you just slap a few hashtags (compiled from your friend’s profile and the profile of someone from a totally different niche) to your content as a random afterthought? Do you really need to research new hashtags, compile the most strategic ones, and then test them?

The first answer will be a bit mysterious, but at the same time, it can hit hard: if you’re not noticing a whole lotta difference in your posts with 30 hashtags and your posts without any hashtag at all, then something is off, and your hashtag strategy is flawed. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today: 

Hashtag strategy is essential. Period. There’s definitely no argument there! But what else do you need to know about it to make your profile grow? What may you not be aware of? What myths are stopping your stellar growth?

Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags… Why do marketing gurus go nuts for them? 

As you probably already know, hashtags are meant to attract an audience who’s looking for content specific to what you’re posting. But let’s play truth or dare for a sec. Or maybe it’s going to be more like “truth or absolute truth,” to be honest. 

Are you spending too much time on Instagram, and you’re not seeing any return of energy and time investment, you aren’t growing, and you feel like constantly beating the mean algorithm? Let’s be honest—there are certain struggles that come with becoming a content creator (even if you’re doing it for your business!), especially Instagram content creator, that we wish all of you could officially avoid. Creating purposeful content, creative concept brainstorms, and of course, posting what you’ve prepared can be one of the giant steps you take on your journey of online growth. But it’s not the only step. You REALLY need hashtags to get discovered and attract the right people.

Without a community, any Instagram profile, even the most polished one, looks like a ghost-town: it can be visually pleasing, but there’s no sign of a joyful life there.

That’s right, you may think, but the main trouble is, there are SO many tips & tricks and different approaches out there, and it can be overwhelming sometimes to figure out which ones you REALLY need and which ones are especially effective, right? Which ones are up-to-date, and you can trust them?

No stress, and no worries.

Only black coffee, and this article, for now.

Today we’re breaking down all the things you should know, listing out all the insights you might not be aware of, and which ones we think are best for different stages of your profile’s growth! Take the crucial step toward a more effective, efficient, and finally – profitable! – profile by focusing on one element of Instagram strategy. HASHTAGS.

Let’s take a look…In today’s article, we’ll discuss in detail:

• Do hashtags still work the way they used to?
• Are they necessary?
• What is the primary purpose of hashtag strategy, and do you really need one?
• What hashtag myths are hindering your growth?
• What hashtag rumors are actually true?

Today, we’re getting hyper tactical. Read on and find out – let’s go! Our point is, if you’re an Instagram creator out there trying to make your content seen, understanding hashtags may just be the ticket to make it big. How big, we can’t prefigure now because it depends on a bunch of practical factors. And today, we’ll talk about some of those factors! Critical ones. 

1. Hashtags are still working. Period. 

There are SO MANY conflicting insights out there.

So let’s make it clear! We’ve been working in this marketing field for ages, so we’re keeping up with all the trends, information, and disinformation: hashtags are not dead. If you feel like they aren’t working in your favor, there’s a risk you simply aren’t using them correctly.

They’re still a BIG DEAL. You just need to make sure that you’re using them consciously and strategically. Why? People might be looking for you for content like yours, but you won’t be discovered unless you show up to the hashtag party!

They really should carry a significant weight of your Instagram strategy! Especially when it comes to making sure people from your target audience can easily discover all the posts you work so hard to prepare.

We don’t know about you, but we’re genuinely passionate about the content we share, and we have people in mind as we’re preparing it! Just kidding – we know for 101% it’s the same story with you. This means our mission is to make sure those people, those people who need our content, who need those insights have a REAL chance to see it! That’s why we know it, for sure, hashtags should be a part of everyone’s strategy if they’re preparing valuable content that needs to be seen.

Numbers speak for themselves as well:

(yes, results like this are still possible, so there’s a huge motivation!)

2. A strategy is a must – more than ever

Yes, double yes, this is closely related to what we’ve discussed in the previous section.

When you think of hashtags, you think of keywords that are making your content discoverable. And the first thing we want to say right to ya is this: hashtag strategy doesn’t have to suck and take you LONG HOURS. It doesn’t, it really doesn’t, 

And establishing and implementing it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun choosing new sets of hashtags, or you can’t use your competitors’ ones to test them out. Testing is essential, by the way.

You need a hashtag strategy to understand what you’re trying to achieve. To use hashtags more consciously and plan what exactly you’re trying to do. Who’s your target audience?

What’s your niche?

Those questions are the key – using a lot of generic, extremely random hashtags won’t be of any help to your profile. That’s why you absolutely need… 

3. Hashtag research. It can be your secret weapon.

Pro tip #1: Research hashtags that are specific to your niche. 

Pro tip #2: Look at what hashtags successful creators in your niche are choosing, and then – smart idea alert – compile a list of hashtags that you can use as well.

But hey, don’t copy exactly the same hashtags for every single publication: rotate them, and mix them with hashtags from your organic research. 

We know you don’t want to spend 45 minutes on hashtag research every time you want to post something. You want to be ready for that post that lies ahead without thinking about the ‘I need to analyze hashtags for half a day’ part too much. So hashtag research tools are basically a godsend. You can save up to a few hours every time you use them (does IQ Hashtags Tool ring a bell? that’s our fav one so far).

Takeaway: Use hashtag research tool, and observe, observe, observe what others are doing. Life will get easier. 

4 . You need to make sure your content is engaging. Stop sleeping on your graphic design skills. And the storytelling is crucial too! 

We’re not going to start with recommending using Canva. BUT actually, maybe we are. 

That’s the most intuitive tool out there, and easy peasy, you’ll find out that you can do more than you think. Set yourself an evening aside and create some awesome posts. Your audience will appreciate it!

Takeaway: Work smarter, not harder, and focus on preparing aesthetically pleasing, engaging posts – many times, it’s better to prepare 3 good ones, than 20 completely boring ones, just for the sake of saying, “I’ve prepared 20 posts”!

5. 30 is still your luckiest of numbers 

When we talk about hashtags, what we’re really talking about is getting discovered by people who’re searching for content similar to what you’re creating. Hashtags are your best chance of getting found!

Anyway, there’s a lot of discourse going on now about whether it’s worth using 30 hashtags anymore. Maybe it’s better to choose only 5? Or 3? It’s actually a topic that comes up so often, that’s the most cyclical Instagram discussion out there. 

You need to remember one thing: each hashtag gives you a new opportunity to reach a totally different group of people. Why would you give up on it?! Maximize your potential reach.

Let this be your sign. We use 30 hashtags every time we post.

Now, it’s your turn!

6. Where you put your hashtags MATTERS

“It doesn’t really matter if you’re posting your hashtags in the caption or in the comments section – as long as you’re using targeted ones, you’re good”.

That’s what you could hear some time ago, but the wind of changes came here. Adam Mosseri has officially claimed that we should avoid putting hashtags in the first comment, as when they’re placed in the caption, they’re doing much better. It’s a matter of algorithm optimization – so let’s remember about that from now on!

That’s all for today! We truly hope this is a time-saver for you. Or maybe you’ve got to know something you didn’t think you were looking for?! 

PS: Isn’t everything better with friends? Forward this article to your Instagram bestie that could also benefit from our insights!

The post The #1 element you need to win on Instagram – 6 facts about hashtags you may not be aware of yet appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Hey, hey you. Yes, you!

Are you wondering why your followers don’t interact with your educational carousels? Why do they completely ignore all the effort you put into preparing a list of your insights? Why don’t they share them with the world? Yes? Then lucky you, you’re in the right place.

Okay, okay. We know. We’ll stop with the ancient times sales pitch. All kidding aside. We just thought that maybe it was amusing. 

But seriously.

Having a low organic reach and almost no engagement when you’re putting all your heart into educational content creation can really make you feel low, and trust us, you’re not alone, and we’ve been there too. But we’re coming with good news (old times sales pitch again?): Instagram is all about good strategy, and having low engagement just means you haven’t implemented the right strategy yet. 

When it comes to educational content, there are so many strategies and Instagram golden tips out there that figuring out your own strategy can be frustrating, time-consuming, leading to growing confusion over lack of comments and shares and less confidence in your decision to start creating anything in the first place. Yup. We know it. 

Good news once again: let’s talk about some practical ways that you can speed up your engagement-renewal process and save your precious time. 

Let’s go! Today we’ll discuss in detail:

• Is educational content a good way to go?
• How to gain more shares?
• How to position yourself as an expert in your niche?
• What to do when your audience doesn’t like your educational content?
• Can you neglect hashtag research and still grow?

In today’s article, we’re going to walk you through the things that are holding you back from creating a thriving Instagram profile with valuable educational content. And we’ll discuss how you can fix your process so that you can attract high-quality followers from your target audience (the ones that love carousels and all the educational insights you post)!

Why your educational content may not be getting high engagement? Let’s find out!

1. You haven’t positioned yourself as an expert, and your followers can see it

Trust is the number one factor you need. First, you need to build it between you and your followers. Most people want to know more about the creators behind the educational carousels and posts with tips & tricks, so show up, don’t be afraid to share behind the scenes of preparing your posts, your daily life, daily problems you solve. Share your reality – especially if it has something to do with the things you’re teaching in your posts! 

You’re you. What you have to say is always going to be unique and one of a kind, as long as it comes from your own unique perspective and experience. Your own storytelling. Your mission is to make people see that you’re an expert worth trusting, and you can share a lot of intriguing insights with them.

What to do if you struggle with impostor syndrome and you feel like you lack something? 

Reading leads to ideas. Read more – that’s our favourite trick! Every article, every blog post, every book makes you more self-confident, and full of exciting stories and pieces of advice to share!

You may be in the gaining trust phase – share the things you read, the podcasts you listen to, quotes you love. What for? That’s the easiest way to show off that you really like what you do, and you don’t pretend to be somebody you’re not. Authenticity is a good way.

2. Your audience doesn’t consist of your target followers

Follow for follow and other quick and easy random-followers attracting methods may seem tempting, but believe us: it’s not worth it at all. If you’ve been doing 4f4 in the past, and now you’re paying the price, you may know what we’re talking about. The number on your follower count is high, but the engagement isn’t. It can lead to serious frustration: why nobody from your audience cares about your posts?

The reason can be extremely simple: they aren’t your target followers. No one topic or niche is better than another – there are just different people, and some are interested in this, some are interested in that. 

Now comes the juicy part that everyone waits to hear about: when you don’t want to pay for past sins, how do you reach the right target audience?

You keep on creating content that will attract them, along with the right hashtags, to make it more discoverable. We’ll elaborate on that in a sec! 

3. You neglect hashtag research 

“Oh, the elusive hashtag research. This is probably going to be the most challenging thing to get used to when preparing better performing educational content”. 

Are those your thoughts? Good news: that’s far from the truth! Let’s go back to the basics. 

Rule number one: you need to use relevant hashtags that match your content. 

Just like on Google, Instagram uses keywords (hashtags) to help sort content and distribute posts when users are looking for something. Unless you’re a celebrity or a Hollywood actress, and you go viral off the bat, hashtags are most often your greatest chance of getting your content seen by new eyes. 

Particularly if you don’t have a large follower base, you can create the most educational, polished, and prettiest content in the world, but nobody from your target audience will discover it if you don’t post hashtags.

You’ll be surprised by how many people still use them to seek out new posts and new accounts to follow – the discovery process is still alive!

4. Your audience isn’t used to seeing educational content created by you

Content pivoting isn’t the easiest thing to do. You may have multiple strings to your bow, and once you decide to modify your leading niche, your followers may get surprised or even a bit angry. You may lose some of them. The thing is: don’t worry too much, you’ll attract new ones from your new target audience!

That’s the first big lesson: you need to understand who you should actually write for. And then focus on attracting those people with the right hashtags and maybe even cross-collaborations with other creators from your new niche.

Educational content creators should stick together!

That’s it for today! Trust the process. We know you’re not afraid of rolling up your sleeves and putting in some great work to get good at Instagram educational content strategy.

Are there any burning questions about Instagram hashtags or engagement you would like us to answer? Let us know, we’re gathering topics for upcoming Instagram lessons!

The post 4 reasons why your educational content may not be getting high engagement appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Move over Ethereum, engaging content is the new currency. All day we’re consuming new posts and reels like hectolitres of coffee on your best friend’s birthday morning (or the morning after). People are literally glued to their screens all day long.

So, it should be easy to catch their attention, right? Nothing more deceptive – it’s harder than ever because they’re getting more and more selective. Did you notice your latest content gets a much lower reach than it used to? You blame hashtags. We know it. They don’t work as they used to. Instagram needs to fix the algorithm; hashtags need fixing as well. Sounds a bit like your thoughts?  One of the things I’ve wanted to do in 2021 for my Instagram profile is to grow my follower base and attract my target audience, but hashtags aren’t by my side, so there’s no practical way to do that. Familiar as well? 

We’re discussing with many creators every week, EVERY DAY, and believe us: these words are surprisingly common. Been hearing this a lot lately! So, the first question that pops up in our head sounds: can it be true? Should we blame hashtags, or are they innocent, and something else is off? Is there anything wrong with the way hashtags are working atm?

People around us get SO CONFUSED with Instagram and hashtags. And we guess it’s also because there are so many conflicting insights out there. So we need to stop it. We need to make it much more straightforward. 

We’ve done our due research and have come up with some pretty fantastic facts and debunked myths. Today’s blog post is all about our insights, followed up with ways to implement the tips we’ve prepared for you. What’s more, most of what we’re about to show you, you can accomplish with just one tool — IQ Hashtags (if we had a dollar for every time we mention this tool here, we’d be richer than Kardashians. But we’ve noticed that IQ Hashtags created an affiliate program, so maybe it’s a bright idea to join). 

So, without unnecessary ado, allow us to share with you everything you’ll need to know about Instagram hashtags and the way they work in 2022. In today’s Instagram lesson, we’ll be covering the following topics:

• Are hashtags still working on Instagram the way they used to?
• Why don’t you see any results from your hashtag strategy?
• Is hashtag strategy overrated, and do you really need it?
• Should you use 30 hashtags every time you post?
• How to use the power of hashtags for stellar growth?
• Should you listen to those skeptical YouTubers who claim that hashtags are already passee?
• What should you do when you can’t figure out why your hashtags aren’t working anymore?
• Are hashtags a good way to get trending on the Instagram explore page?
• What should you do when hashtags are acting weird for you?
• Is it true that you don’t need hashtags, you only need to pump out valuable posts?

First things first. Let’s answer the most burning question, and let us tell you… 

Hashtags are alive. They’re definitely not dead!

Hey, we don’t have anything better to categorize our content, and we won’t anytime soon!

Hashtags are also the most basic way to connect with new potential followers. You know – Instagram is ever-evolving, the algorithm changes, Adam Mosseri’s statement may surprise you at times, but the basics of the platform definitely won’t change, and the basics of content-discovery and content-categorizing are still the same: hashtags.

If they’re alive, why don’t they guarantee high reach every time you post something new?

Well, sometimes hashtags perform really well, your post reach + engagement skyrocket, and you can’t be happier, and sometimes you can’t get sadder because all you get after you post is radio silence. Actually, there are many factors which determine that – not only hashtags (and we’re discussing them in many of our Instagram lessons, for example here: Why aren’t you getting likes and views through hashtags on Instagram anymore? 5 mistakes you may be guilty of making without even knowing ) 

Why do so many creators claim that hashtags aren’t working anymore? Well, sometimes hashtags don’t work because other people are simply not interested in what they’re posting – and hashtags shouldn’t be blamed for it. That’s the harsh truth nobody really likes, but there’s already too much average content out there – take your time and create valuable, authentic posts. Generic content isn’t enough anymore. No matter how great of a hashtag you find, you won’t get many views and high engagement if you don’t have appealing content. Period. So prepare the best content that you can create. 

Hashtags are still your most effective way to get discovered.

Are you a celebrity?

A Hollywood actress?

Ryan Gosling’s wife?

If none of the above, you certainly need hashtags

Why? You can create the most creative or entertaining to tears content, but how can your people find it if you don’t add hashtags? Even good luck needs some help! No matter what pessimistic marketing gurus are telling you, people use hashtags to hunt for new content and new accounts to follow. Do you want them to find you? 

If you’re sick of hearing “hashtag strategy, you need a good hashtag strategy” all the time, listen – it isn’t as problematic as some Instagram gurus make out

Instagram hashtags are an incredible way to reach new audiences. You already know that. They can lead relevant people right to your fantastic content. Win-win. 

But, how do you choose those right Instagram hashtags? That may sound like a challenge, right? But to be totally honest, it doesn’t have to be complicated. AT ALL. 

Focus on your ideal follower intent. In everything we create and post on Instagram, we should always be focused on fulfilling the potential follower’s wants, needs, and desires. Someone from your target audience. 

Just focus on choosing hashtags that match your target audience.

Pro-tip #2: Look at each hashtag’s search volume. Search volume gives you a clear idea about how many users are searching for that given hashtag! Sure, it should be beneficial to choose hashtags that many people are looking for, but – cliche quote alert! – remember that quantity doesn’t always equal quality. Many, many times, it’s much better to opt for medium and lower-volume hashtags because chances are, they will be much more relevant to your target audience, so your content gets easier to be found. 

Where can you find the best ones for your niche?

We know what you’d like to say! Hashtag research takes up way too much time. Finding the targeted hashtags with the right volume in your niche can be stressful. Want an easier way to find great hashtags that real people from your target audience are looking for? Let the hashtag research tool do this work for you. It’s your turn to be a bit lazy. Pardon our French – SMART, NOT LAZY!

A hashtag research tool like IQ Hashtags (that’s the one we’re using as well) will do the trick! This magical tool allows you to find new hashtag ideas in two main ways. Our fav is typing in a hashtag and getting back related ones.

Alright, that’s all for now! Targeted hashtags can open doors for opportunities that you can’t even imagine yet. When we started, we thought we’d only attract people from a small part of the world. Instead, we ended up writing and creating content for Instagram users from literally all around the globe! We can’t possibly predict what good hashtags could do for you, but we’re excited to find out! Let us know in the comments, and, if you need some extra help (regarding your profile, attracting your target audience, or some other Instagram-related advice) – we love reading your questions, and then we answer them in our Instagram lessons, so don’t you ever hesitate to ask

The post Do Hashtags Still Work on Instagram in 2023? Are They Really Dead? Do They Still Matter? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

You see the danger with sudden reach drops is, you don’t always see it coming. It can creep up on you like an unexpected zombie in one of those haunted house experiences, and before you know it, you’re terrified of checking your stats, analyzing all the last month’s insights, or even creating new content. To be honest, we don’t think enough people talk about this, and fair enough, no one wants to admit they’re having a hard time with Instagram, and they’re truly worried about the numbers behind their profile. The reality is that it happens to the best creators as well – sometimes your hashtag strategy fails or simply needs some updates, and well-thought improvements. 

In many of our sincere conversations with you, we hear that you often get a creative Instagram rut, and you have no clue how to get out of it because you keep on trying, you spend long hours polishing your content, and no matter what, your reach remains low – absolutely no matter how inspirational and educational your posts are. 

We know it: it’s a wild journey of self-doubting, constant fear of not being good or inspiring enough for a content creator. That’s where the imposter syndrome craps in. 

The good news is that most probably, it’s not you!

It’s your hashtag strategy that needs some extra work, and you need to stop it from standing in your way. What you focus on indeed expands – so we need to focus on making sure that your hashtag strategy is working FOR YOU, not against you, okay?

But how? Because when you’re there, and your reach is constantly dropping down, it feels impossible, right? Yup, we know those feelings, and you’re not alone. But what’s cliche, but accurate as well: nothing changes if nothing changes.

Some hashtag strategy changes may be highly needed. Let’s check it! 

Today we’ll discuss in detail:

• Why your hashtag strategy doesn’t work, and how to fix it?
• Why do you feel like the hashtags you’re using are dead?
• Why don’t your hashtags bring any new engagement?
• Are you following the most crucial hashtags do’s and don’ts?
• How to effectively attract new followers?
• Is it still possible to grow a big tribe with relevant hashtags?
• Are relevant hashtags as important as social media gurus are telling you?
• What hashtag strategy mistakes may be ruining your growth?
• How to avoid reach drops?
• What are the critical hashtag strategy rules you should never forget about?
• Where should you place your hashtags? In the caption or in the comments area?
• Can you repeat the same set of hashtags and still see good results?

Are you ready to dive in deeper? Let’s go! If you’d like to tap into the consciously developed hashtag strategy’s potential to reach a bigger audience, you’re on the right track. Upping your hashtag game is the ultimate way to go. It’s essential to be more strategic, creative, and intentional about your hashtag research and strategy implementation.

How? Let’s begin with discussing the most common hashtag strategy that may seriously damage your efforts and hinder your growth. Learning from the mistakes of other content creators is a path with so many advantages. So, what are the most frequently repeated mistakes that you need to avoid?

1. You don’t care about hashtags relevancy

That’s actually a really common mistake!

Your hashtags should primarily be the phrases that describe the content you post or the audiences you want to reach. A relevant hashtag is closely tied to your niche! It can’t be too generic, like #pretty, #today – these hashtags won’t attract the people you care about, the ones with high potential to become engaged members of your community.

Relevant hashtags are so beneficial because they make your posts discoverable – and people can easily find content related to a particular topic they’re interested in, and you can quickly gain new followers from your target audience. It’s like a win-win: they find what they’re looking for, and you’re attracting potential high-quality followers.

How to identify the most relevant hashtags? You can do it manually by researching your competitors’ picks and observing tendencies, or you can use both free and paid tools to find relevant hashtags and explore the best fits. The latter is a huge timesaver and can save you from many troubles as well – so we wouldn’t hesitate and trust one of the most extended hashtag research tools. Can we recommend anything trustworthy? We use IQ Hashtags – in our opinion, it’s the most intuitive and comprehensive one out there. Its Hashtag Search feature gives you the best options, driving actual results, as it provides an extensive list of hashtags that relate to a primary keyword (it can be your niche or one of the key areas of your profile). 

2. You overuse popular or… too specific hashtags

Hashtags with low search volume are often too specific and won’t bring you any satisfying results, as almost no one is looking for these hashtags. The ugly truth: content associated with these types of hashtags are unlikely to be seen simply because there are too few people interested in it!

At the other end of the spectrum, we have many overly popular hashtags. Will they become a better choice? Not at all! They have nothing to do with boosting your reach and attracting new followers from your target audience as well.

Another word of caution: high competition hashtags mean there are too many other content creators competing for ranking high for those hashtags. They’re just too competitive, and your posts will disappear in a blink of an eye at the speed of light, as plenty of new posts described with those hashtags are being uploaded every second of the day.

There’s also a high risk that they won’t attract anyone from your target audience, as they’re just too generic and overloaded with spammy content.

Stick to medium-size, niched, and targeted hashtags – they’re the most strategic choices!

3. You don’t have time for in-depth research

We’ve already talked about hashtags relevancy and how to find the best fits, but hashtag research is so crucial, it deserves another point! Far too many content creators shoot themselves in the foot by neglecting to choose and use hashtags strategically.

Hashtag research is worth EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Don’t be in such a hurry, you don’t have time for researching the most beneficial choices and analyzing the performance of your current hashtags.

Analyze, analyze, analyze and draw conclusions—test different hashtag sets. Save many collections of the most relevant hashtags. Observe your competitors. Good research can tell you vital information. Actually, research should be one of the very first steps in the hashtag strategy developing process, so getting it wrong or neglecting it and not doing it at all sets you up for a massive disappointment, and we don’t want it, right?

4. You repeat the same set of hashtags all over again

While you may think repeating the same hashtags all over again will drive more targeted followers to your profile, it could actually do the opposite.

Why? You’re reaching the same group of people, over and over again! Every new hashtag gives you a unique chance to attract a totally new audience – so don’t you waste it! While it might be tempting to repeat this one golden set, avoid using it too often. Instead, mix old hashtags with some new ones, research trending ones, and save at least 4-10 different sets of hashtags for different types of posts.

5. You put your hashtags in the comments

In the past months, Instagram has become much better at letting people in on how the algorithms and Instagram search engine work, and Adam Mosseri promises he won’t slow down. Most recently, he has ended the as old as the hills debate about “where should the hashtags go?” – announcing that putting hashtags in the caption gives you extra opportunities for ranking in Instagram search engine results and is much better for the platform’s content optimization.

“For a post to be found in Search, your keywords and hashtags should be in the caption, NOT the comments” – that’s what he said.

We know what you may want to say: ugh, Instagram and this whole hashtag strategy thing is giving me a headache! We know, we know, analyzing your hashtag strategy and sticking to the updates rules can be overwhelming at first. But if you’ve identified your main mistakes, have a polished strategy in place, and take courageous action, you’ll be rewarded with an engagement boost and new targeted followers!

Nothing magical comes easy. It’s hard work polishing your Instagram strategy and keeping up with the news – but you’re capable of staying on track regardless! 

The post Why aren’t you getting likes and views through hashtags on Instagram anymore? 5 mistakes you may be guilty of making without even knowing appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Calling all Instagram creators! Hashtags still own the title of the secret sauce of Instagram content marketing, as they give you the most effective way of reaching new potential followers. “I don’t want random followers, I want the ones from my target audience!” – you may want to shout. That’s ABSOLUTELY right, and that’s our mantra as well. Actually, that’s another reason why hashtags are one of your top tools – they help you attract these ideal followers with huge potential to become your loyal fans, members of your tribe, part of your engaged community, or even future clients. 

Hashtags work by organizing and categorizing content.

That’s their first job, you already know it. But the truth is, nowadays, they not only categorize all the posts and make them discoverable, but they are also an extremely beneficial tool to gain more followers, boost engagement rate, and expand your organic reach. Every post accompanied by a set of relevant hashtags (up to 30) completely changes the process of content discovery, for better, of course. As you start using hashtags more and more consciously, you soon realize there’s so much to learn about it… The strategies, the changes in the algorithm, insights from Adam Mosseri, the research process, keeping up with the trending ones, and the fierce competition. A bit overwhelming, right?

But have no fear and no worries.

We’ll turn it into a quick learning process where strategy and practice are the keys to getting the satisfying results you dream about. In order to start seeing more significant results from your hashtags, you need to be strategic about them. And that’s what we’re going to focus on today!

Yup. Today, we’ll analyze evidence as to how and why certain hashtag strategies work, weaving in mindset hacks and giving you easy examples to support this hashtag lesson. There is something very challenging about making your hashtag strategy more conscious; we know it! Like any Instagram marketing tactic, there are many do’s and don’ts of using hashtags that can make or break your results. Today, we’ll focus on the do’s and positive tactics – to discuss how to use hashtags for maximum impact strategically! 

Let’s dive deeper! Today we’ll discuss in detail: 

• Instagram hashtags best practices you need to implement to get your profile seen
• How to increase your chances of reaching as many new eyeballs as possible?
• Why are hashtags so crucial and help you get noticed?
• How should you use them for much better results?
• How to get your content in front of new targeted followers?
• How to use hashtags more smartly?

Relevancy is A MUST

Rule number one: the hashtags you decide to use should be specific to the content you’re sharing with the world and related to general topics associated with your niche and profile. If you’re a freelance graphic designer posting about graphic design principles, consider using the hashtags “#graphicdesigntips” as well as “#graphicdesignerlife” and “graphicdesignflow.” These hashtags cover the specific topic you’re writing about, as well as broader topics related to your niche and your content area.

Narrow down to hashtags your ideal followers would use to find you. To give you a clear example: we offer tips to grow Instagram, so we use #engagementtips, #instagramgrowthtips, #Instagramstrategy, #growoninstagram. We know that people looking for answers to their Instagram strategy-related questions are browsing content described with these hashtags, so it’s a win-win.  

Another pro tip: Given that your ideal client is local, let’s say: they’re located in Toronto, choose hashtags based on your location, for example #Canadianentrepreneurs, #Canadiangraphicdesigners, #Canadiansolopreneurs. 

Keep your hashtag choices short, sweet, and always to the point. Most of the time (with some exceptions) they shouldn’t consist of more than three to four words! The more intuitive, the better! In the Instagram world, the shorter and more specific your hashtags are, the bigger the chances for attracting new followers. Just be sure they’re something your potential followers (and users from your target audience) will understand the meaning of. Don’t make them too complicated and complex. 

Where to put your hashtags? Not in the comments anymore

For those of you who may have missed @creators’ news, a quick update – for years, even the most trustworthy sources claimed there was no FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCE between putting hashtags in captions and comments. No difference when it comes to their effectiveness. At all.

And recently, Adam Mosseri has made things clear and made us aware of the update. Here’s the official guidance from him: “for a post to be found in Search, put hashtags in the caption, not the comments.” That sounds really convincing, right? This insight can also be found on the official Instagram blog, where they elaborate on how Search results are ranked.

That said, if you want your posts to pop up in your dream followers’ search queries, then you need to put your hashtags in THE CAPTION. 

Avoid overly popular ones – they’re gonna give you a headache… Nothing else

When it comes to hashtags, bigger is definitely not better. Our research shows that the bigger hashtags you include in a post, the less engagement it receives. On the contrary, targeted, more niched-down hashtags can give you high-quality exposure and can lead to a more effective follower base buildup. Popular hashtags = spam followers, most likely with no quality potential members of your engaged tribe. Why? They have an enormously high amount of traffic, making your posts disappear almost instantly at the speed of light. Avoid them at all costs. #today #beautiful, #pretty, #happy #instagood #throwback #tip #good #yes – they’re so generic, that believe us: this way, you simply can’t attract your ideal followers. There’s no way.

For instance, your new post might get buried in #design, but you actually have a considerable chance of engaging nicely targeted audience with something more specific, like #graphicdesigntips.

Also, don’t clog up a bunch of unrelated hashtags hoping to get some random views. You might annoy and lose potential followers: people are really observant, you wouldn’t tell. 

Trust the research (and start using a hashtag research tool)

Seek, and you shall find!

An excellent place to start is by researching the hashtags your competitors use and observing the trending hashtags that are related to your niche. Also, consider making your creator’s life MUCH more manageable, and save your precious time by using one of the hashtag research tools. Actually, there are so many hashtag research tools available – we love IQ Hashtags, because it’s the most extended one out there, and it generates hashtag ideas with performance data. It’s definitely our go-to tool for good hashtag research, and it’s like a golden mine of all the information you need to grow quicker + it’s extraordinarily intuitive, which is really rare. All you need to do is enter one hashtag you’re using (or the most general keywords related to your niche). Yass, keywords that you’re currently using are a great place to kick off your hashtag research.

You can also set up different search criteria to niche down the results. The results of each search will reveal all the best hashtags that are closely related to the hashtag you’ve typed in, which will give you new choices. You can use them right away to reach and engage with your target audience.

You can also analyze the total number of posts using a particular hashtag and the number of recent interactions that they’re receiving on average. This can help you check the popularity and potential engagement rates that may be tied to your new choices and help you decide which are the best fits. Believe us when we say this can be a place to discover your gold hashtags. Check for yourself  

To wrap-up!

Sure, there is much more to learn about polishing your hashtag strategy, but let’s start by working on the tips mentioned above. When done well, Instagram hashtags will GENUINELY help you reach your dream followers, and that’s our goal, right? 

Let’s repeat the key takeaways once more! 

• Use hashtags relevant to your niche, and don’t risk your profile’s or your brand’s credibility with misleading ones just to get some random views: it’s not worth it.
• You’ll get found by your dream followers if you keep on choosing the most relevant hashtags. 
• How to find the best fits? Try using a hashtag research tool, and analyze the data it gives you. That’s actually a game-changer.
• Putting hashtags in a comment section rather than in a caption might be holding you back – don’t do that! Adam Mosseri gave us a clear insight that it’s remarkably beneficial to put hashtags in the caption and avoid putting them in the first comment, as it’s the best option for better search engine optimization.

It’s your turn to apply these tactics and observe the first results! 

If you want more savvy tips to polish your hashtag strategy and learn more about the most effective growth tactics, we suggest you to read:

• Should you really use only 3-5 hashtags? The ultimate analysis *in-depth research* and the TRUTH about the update
• Hashtags in the first comment aren’t working anymore? Where to post them?
• QUICK and EFFECTIVE: your best hashtag strategy in 2021

The post 4 Instagram hashtags BEST PRACTICES – implement them and grow much quicker appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Hashtags in the caption vs. hashtags as the first comment – the never-ending discussion, as old as the hills, right?! What about the rumors that the second method doesn’t work anymore? Have you heard those grapevines? And are they something more than just hearsays? Should you believe them?

We all research and use well-tailored hashtags in order to get our content discovered by the target audience and ideal followers – the ones who are going to be genuinely interested in what we have to show and say. There’s no mystery about that: hashtags are still the very first option to get higher organic reach and engagement on your posts. We can’t stress enough how important they are! But you undoubtedly already know that from our previous articles – we’re often focusing on the role of hashtags, and we’re sharing all the secret sauce tips. Today we need to elaborate on the latest statement of the head on Instagram. What do his words mean in practice? Has the “perfect place for hashtags” debate come to an end? 

Let’s get going! We’ll discuss:

• Where should you put your hashtags in 2021?
• Should they be in the caption or the comment section? Is there any difference to their functionality?
• What does the latest Adam Mosseri’s statement mean for your hashtag strategy?
• Will hashtags placed in the first comment still work? 

From our conversations and DM chats with you, we know that finding straightforward answers to those questions isn’t easy, as the unconfirmed, out of whole cloth rumors spread at the speed of light – fortunately, we’re here to help! Today’s article breaks down everything you need to know about the perfect place for your hashtags – and everything you need to know about the latest Instagram update. We’re here to put a full stop on the issue!

Hashtags in the first comment – favorite solution of aesthetes? 

First of all, let’s elaborate on the options we’ve had so far. Actually, there are three of them:

• putting hashtags in the caption (the traditional way)
• posting hashtags as the first comment
• hiding hashtags in the caption with the “dots method” – putting them after a series of periods or other symbols between the end of your caption’s text and your hashtag set so that they’re perfectly hidden beneath the “more” button

Many users prefer to hide hashtags, as they believe it would make posts look clutter-free, more aesthetically pleasing, minimalistic, and clean. Instagram’s team members themselves have confirmed that using 30 hashtags in your post is the most effective option – as it makes your content more discoverable. It boosts the chances of being found by more users from the target audience.

But 30 is a high number for many creators. Many admit that using all those hashtags makes them feel like they’re getting “the spammy look”. They complain that those 30 hashtags bring a chaotic first impression and make the captions challenging to read. That’s why hiding them seemed like an option – and we won’t deny, hiding them in a separate comment was really practical.

Has something changed? Yup. The latest update brings the news we all should consider.

So far, the official piece of advice was: regardless of whether you hide your hashtags in the first comment or put them in the caption, you’re still going to get the same results. So, it’s entirely up to you – you can decide which option is more comfortable and suits you better!

Now, the situation looks slightly different. All because of… 

The new update – confirmed by Adam Mosseri himself

Long story short: to avoid spammy-looking captions, many of us were posting 30 hashtags as the first comment (if not always, at least from time to time). Everything seemed great, and those hashtags were working really effectively. Until now. Until the official announcement.

This statement appeared on the official Instagram blog. And @creators’ Instagram profile as well. 

What exactly does it mean for your hashtag strategy? Until these statements were published, there was no evidence that one method was much more effective than the other. They were both working the same way.

Now they don’t. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has confirmed: “for a post to be found in search, put your keywords and hashtags in the CAPTIONS, not in the comments.” Caption wins – Adam said so! 

Will the hashtags put in the first comment completely stop working? No. The update will affect the visibility in the search bar and the way the search engine works. If you put hashtags in the first comment, your content will still be visible on each given hashtag’s page. It doesn’t necessarily impact the content performance – the main difference is that posts with hashtags added in the caption can be easily found when somebody searches new content manually in the search bar.

The screenshot of the insights from the official Instagram’s blog

You can still put hashtags in the comments if you really want, although we should be best friends with the search engine – when it’d prefer us to post hashtags in the caption, AND IT DOES now, what’s the most beneficial thing to do? Yup. Post hashtags in the caption, not as the first comment. Just to make the Instagram life easier (for you and for the search engine), so you don’t ever have to worry about the lower visibility of your posts.

Hashtags still work when put in the comment section, but if you care about excellent optimization – add them in the caption and stop putting them in the comments. 

That’s it! Take a moment to digest, and keep these words in mind next time you post – to make the search bar work in your favour. 

To wrap-up! Your content comes up in searches if the hashtags are IN THE CAPTION

The key takeaway is simple: we should stop putting our hashtags in the comment section and start placing them in the captions, as it’s the most optimal place for them, according to the official Instagram’s articles. If you care about your content being discoverable and want to boost your chances of being found by new followers through the search bar, here lies the answer.

It’s not that if you put hashtags in the comments section, you will get the lowest reach possible, and your content won’t rank on these hashtags. It will! But additional exposure is always welcome!

Plus, it keeps your comments section uncluttered.

Hashtags in the caption will boost the discoverability (searchability!) of your content. It’s a profitable method to show up in searches. 

PS: Let us know: where were you putting your hashtags? 

The post Hashtags in the first comment aren’t working anymore? Where to post them? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.