Hashtags: the 3 mistakes that are hurting you on Instagram

Hashtags: the 3 mistakes that are hurting you on Instagram

Relying on popularity, limiting yourself to 5 or placing them in comments: 3 preconceived notions about hashtags that slow down your visibility. At OVB, we untangle the real from the fake to help you get your Instagram account off the ground.

What hashtags should you use on Instagram? How many to put in your posts? Place them in captions or in comments? So many questions you probably ask yourself to optimize your results on the network.

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Today, we're going to look at what are the 3 big mistakes content creators make when it comes to # on the platform. 

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Preconceived ideas that slow down the powerful leverage effect that the famous keywords represent. Of course, we will give you all the best practices to adopt to develop your account and increase your number of followers.

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Mistake #1: Relying on high-density hashtags

For many users, positioning themselves on high-density #s (over 500,000 publications) is the Holy Grail. Nothing could be more logical. Being posted under one of these magic words boosts visibility and generates a lot of likes, comments and subscriptions.

But no: the competition is far too strong. In practice, you have almost no chance to appear in the results . But don't be fooled. This is absolutely not a growth limit for your Instagram account.

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In reality, you don't need to be visible to the masses. What you need is to be seen by the right people: 

• those who are sensitive to your posts and who are in line with your values, 
• those who consume and interact with your content over time,
• those who buy your offers.

To reach your target audience, the best strategy is to focus your search on hashtags that have between 20-100k posts. 

Betting on more specific keywords greatly expands your chances of ranking and standing out. You build an active community and increase your engagement rate: the winning combo to boost your Instagram account.

Still, select a few relevant trending hashtags if your post lends itself to them and also include 2 or 3 niche keywords in your list. Mixing expressions of different densities is a proven practice that is frequently used by network experts.

For the distribution, here is where you stand:
# - of 20 k : 10 % of your list
# 20 to 100 k : 70 % of your list
#+ of 100 k : 20 % of your list

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Not to be taken as a strict rule, this is a guideline to help you develop your hashtag strategy on Instagram. 

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Mistake #2: limiting the number of hashtags in your posts to 5 

3, 8, 15 ? There are conflicting opinions on how many hashtags to put in Instagram posts. Some will tell you that you should put 30 (the maximum) per post. Others rely on a communication from the @creators account to say that the right number is between 3 and 5. 

So why such a divergence? 

Simply because there is no magic bullet to apply. To adopt best practices, you need to understand how the platform works and what's behind the numbers. The focus of the algorithm comes back to interactions. Once you have this information in mind, everything becomes clearer. 

• Putting 30 #'s if only 15 of them really correspond to your post is useless. If half of them don't create any engagement, they'll hurt the prominence of your content. 

• On the contrary, inserting only 2 or 3 #'s on your publications means putting unnecessary barriers in your way and underutilizing the potential of the platform's tools.

As a proof, Later recently published its statistics, based on more than 18 000 posts. Against all expectations, the best results still come from posts that include between 20 and 30 hashtags. It seems that referencing on a large number of keywords remains the best strategy, provided that you choose them well! 

Each relevant # is a gateway to new followers. So before thinking about quantity, make quality your compass. 

To find out the optimal number of #'s to include in YOUR posts, the best solution is to test, test and test again. Vary their number regularly and then analyze the ones that worked best according to the type of post.

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Mistake #3: putting hashtags in comments 

A common practice you've probably noticed on Instagram is to place #s in comments. Many instagramers have adopted this habit to make their posts easier to read. 

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A good idea on the face of it, so why is it a mistake? 

In a statement dated August 2021, the platform informs its users: hashtags in comments are not indexed in the search engine. This causes a huge loss of visibility and largely blocks the potential impact of your publication.

The proper method is to include your #s in the caption of the post.

And so that they don't interfere with the reading, you can apply a simple but very effective trick: insert line breaks after your text. The hashtags will be automatically hidden, while remaining active and available in"...more".

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Conclusion

To maximize your results on Instagram with hashtags:

• Select low density keywords (less than 100,000 publications) as a priority,
• test different list lengths depending on your content,
• always place them in the legend.

The most important thing is to focus on the relevance in the choice of your key phrases. Hashtags should be relevant to your account, your content and your target .

It's an essential condition to fulfill in order to generate engagement and reach your growth objectives. Because, much more than your #s: it's the interaction that comes first on the network and will guarantee the success of your Instagram account.