Kseniya I. Content Marketing Expert

How to Choose The Right Hashtags

Any effective Instagram strategy includes using hashtags extensively. Did you know that a single post can contain up to 30 hashtags? Increasing your Instagram reach and interaction can be a successful marketing tactic. It's crucial to connect with your target audience, and hashtags can help you achieve that!

Choose Relevant Hashtags

Choosing relevant hashtags is more important than ever with Instagram users having the ability to “follow” hashtags in addition to “following” other Instagram users. Want to reach more of your target audience and set yourself apart from the widely used and popular hashtags? There are a couple of things to keep in mind when choosing the best hashtags for your business.

Niche out. Let's take the example of you becoming a food blogger. There are millions of posts using the hashtag "foodie." It is unlikely that you will appear on the hashtag's explore page. Now imagine you're a food blogger who focuses on gluten-free cooking. Compared to foodie, GlutenFreeFoodie faces far less competition. You not only stand a better chance of being seen, but you also narrow your target audience and attract those who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Searching for a hashtag that you believe would be a good fit for you is another hashtag method you may try. Let's continue with the example of the flood blogger for now: You can see the top posts and most recent entries that contain the hashtag "gluten free foodie" by typing it into the search field.

See the other posts that are utilizing that hashtag by clicking on the most popular ones. Get motivated by the strategies other profiles are doing to rank in the Top portion of the search results.

Keep It Fresh

Don't repeat yourself. The use of outdated hashtags will give your account a spammy appearance and may cause Instagram to flag your account. Additionally, you should be careful not to use the same hashtag twice in a single post.

It can be challenging to come up with fresh, pertinent hashtags for new postings, but by being deliberate, you can more precisely reach your target audience. By utilizing famous hashtags sparingly and including more "niched" hashtags, you can further reduce the impression that your post is spam and increase engagement even when there is less traffic.

The bottom line is that by researching pertinent hashtags that others in your business are using and focusing in, you'll have the best chance of connecting with your desired target audience.

How Many Hashtags Is Too Many?

When using Instagram, a lot of people wonder, "How many hashtags should I use?" You are only allowed to use 30 hashtags in a single post.

You don't have to worry about reaching 30 every time, though. Avoid making it more challenging than it needs to be. It's preferable to use 20 hashtags that are pertinent to your audience than to use 30 for the sake of having 30.

Refocus on how the hashtags will relate to your audience rather than how many you should utilize. Apply the best hashtags that are relevant to the content in your Instagram caption and photographs and think like your target audience to get the greatest hashtag results.