To use 30 hashtags every time you post or rather keep the minimalist approach? Instagram creators are pretty divided over the answer to that question! Some of them swear by using the maximum number – 30 hashtags in your posts, while others say that between 3 and 10 is more than enough. So, where lies the truth?
Let’s find out how many hashtags on Instagram is the right number for you. How many should you choose? How many hashtags is one too many? If you Google those questions, you will find so many different answers – it can lead to feeling seriously overwhelmed.
To begin with: there’s a lot to unpack there. Have you ever read blog posts or watched Youtube tutorials by marketing gurus who just made up some theories on their own and claimed they’re entirely accurate? However, they couldn’t give you any actual evidence? Unfortunately, these self-appointed marketing specialists are pretty common, and they spread many growth-stopping myths we really need to discuss – and debunk.
In today’s post, you’ll learn:
- why listening to self-proclaimed marketing experts most often isn’t a good thing
- should you use more or fewer hashtags to gain higher reach and increase post-performance?
- how using the maximum number of hashtags can work wonders for your account
- how the number of hashtags influences the Instagram performance
- whether your posts have a spammy look when you use too many hashtags
Let’s go back to the marketing-experts topic for a minute. There are two kinds of marketing specialists: the ones spreading unsubstantiated theories and the ones that always try to get to the bottom of the case – they don’t share anything that’s not confirmed and not based on profound research. Who’d you rather trust – the ones following every move of the Instagram team, analyzing their official statements and shared data, or the ones who make up controversial information out of nowhere? Hopefully, not the latter!
Instagram allows you to place a maximum of 30 hashtags on each post. You can also position them in a comment section (more on this in the upcoming article)!
The big question on this topic is this: What is the outcome if you use all the 30 hashtags? Or maybe it is better to stay minimalist? Even though Instagram hashtags have been around on Instagram for a long time now, many of you don’t take full advantage of them – so it’s high time to change that!
As you probably already know: hashtags are the primary marketing tool to achieving a high organic reach on Instagram. With the well-tailored ones, you can attract new followers who will be genuinely into your content. Instagram has gone through many changes (and so has its algorithm) since 2011, but this one thing has always remained the same: yes, you’ve probably guessed! That’s the importance of hashtags. But how many hashtags do you REALLY need to use on Instagram to make your content searchable?
Research shows that posts with at least one hashtag get on average 12.6% more engagement than posts without hashtags.
That’s what ONE SINGLE hashtag can do. So imagine the results 30 of them can bring!
Is the maximum number of hashtags unnecessary? Maybe it’s enough to use 20?
Your stats will tell you otherwise.
For every hashtag you choose to use, your post will show up in the Recent Posts explore feed of each one of them. What is more, you have the chance of reaching the Top Posts explore feed for each hashtag if the Instagram algorithm notices your post is performing well and users appreciate your content.
Long story short, using fewer than 30 hashtags significantly limits your chances of reaching the explore section and Top Posts for 30 different hashtag feeds. You want to give yourself as many chances as possible for higher exposure, right? That’s why you should definitely go for 30 hashtags every time you post – so you don’t miss awaiting opportunities you may not even be aware of.
We know, we know. Now the question is: how do you find 30 hashtags matching your niche and leading to the best results? You can conduct research on your own but let’s make your life easier and outsource it in a way – use online tools that will give you plenty of hashtag inspirations and will arm you with professional research.
The one we recommend is IQ Hashtags – it’s the one that has never disappointed our expectations, even though they’re set really high. You can also check which of your posts have the highest engagement and which hashtags you used on those posts.
It will give you hashtag suggestions based on the topics of your interests, your niche, and other provided data. It will also show you the hashtags you should stop using (because they’re on the blacklist as they’re temporarily or permanently banned), ones that are working well for you, and suggest new hashtags in your niche to try.
SMART MOVE: One of the best ways to save time and energy and stay organized with your hashtags is by using the IG Hashtags “Hashtag Collection” feature.
Tempting benefits? You don’t have to reinvent the whole hashtag research every time you prepare a new post. You can collect and save as many lists of hashtags relevant to your topics as you want. Then, when you create a new post, you can open your repertory and choose appropriate hashtags without having to conduct time-consuming research over and over again.
PS: If it sounds interesting, learn more about this feature in this video (and thank us later):
Let’s wrap it all up
Finally, there’s a lot of controversies out there when it comes to deciding how many hashtags on Instagram is the right number. Many creators see for themselves that the more hashtags you use, the better off you’ll be, while others still believe that it’s best to keep things minimalist.
We hope we were able to convince you (trust us: we’re in the industry for a really long time!) that 30 hashtags give you the highest chances of being seen by your dream audience. Hashtags help you get exposure and reach new people from your target audience – the more hashtags you use, the bigger chances for people interested in your niche to see your posts. You don’t want to miss it and neglect benefiting from it.
TIP TO REMEMBER: Before you post your content, make sure that the 30 hashtags you’ve chosen fit the size of your account and relate to your niche (picking random ones isn’t even an option). You ALWAYS need to use the ones that are relevant to your account, niche, and audience, as well as the right size – avoid the most popular ones because they’re too competitive.
There you have it! If you want to keep reading up on practical Instagram marketing tips, stay with us: new posts with proven solutions and industry secret sauce are coming each week. If you’re taking your social media growth seriously, you don’t want to miss them!
