Instagram Hashtags: How to Find and Use the Best Hashtags

There is no doubt in the social media business that hashtags are one of the most effective strategies for increasing visibility and interaction on platforms such as Instagram. By doing so, you will expose your post to additional network conversations and broaden its reach beyond your following. Researchers discovered that posts with at least one hashtag got more engagement than those without. In a study done, it was revealed that Instagram posts that include 11+ hashtags have the highest interactions, with a 79.5% increase for accounts with less than 1,000 followers

However, more than having many hashtags is needed; quality is also vital. Using niche and specific hashtags related to your content is advantageous since they attract a more targeted audience.

In this article, we’ll look at why Instagram hashtags are essential, as well as some practical usage suggestions to help you get the most out of them to increase your online visibility.

What are Instagram Hashtags?

Hashtags on instagram including phrases, terms, or figures followed by the hashtag symbol (#) are known as Instagram hashtags. By using this symbol, you may more easily find your Instagram material on the app by categorizing it. They function in a couple of key ways:

• Discovery: Hashtags categorize your posts, making them discoverable by users searching for that specific term. When someone clicks on a hashtag, they’ll see a feed of all public posts that include that hashtag. This is a powerful tool to expand your reach beyond your existing followers.
• Algorithm: Instagram’s algorithm considers the hashtags you use to understand the content of your post. This helps them recommend your post to users who have shown interest in similar content through their engagement with hashtags.

Why are Hashtag Important?

Adding hashtags to the post on Instagram is essential if you want to increase their visibility. You may make your material more visible to people who aren’t following you by using relevant hashtags. Additionally, hashtags can promote the growth of groups and connection with those who share your interests.

How to Use Hashtags on Instagram?

Here’s how to effectively use hashtags on Instagram:

Finding the Right Hashtags:

• Research: Explore relevant hashtags related to your post’s content. Look at similar posts and see which hashtags they use.
• Tools: Utilize free online tools like Later or Hashtagify.me to discover popular and relevant hashtags.
• Search Suggestions: Instagram itself offers suggestions as you type hashtags in your caption.

Strategic Use:

• Mix it Up: Combine popular hashtags (with a wider reach) and niche hashtags (more targeted audience) for a balanced approach.
• Relevance is Key: Don’t chase trendy hashtags that don’t connect to your content. Focus on accuracy and targeting the right audience.
• Quantity Matters: Instagram allows 30 hashtags per post, but using 3-5 highly relevant ones is generally more impactful.

Placement:

• Caption or Comments: Hashtags can be included directly in your caption or within a comment on your post.
• Comments Preferred: While both work, placing them in a separate comment keeps your caption clean and visually appealing.

Additional Tips:

• Branded Hashtags: Create a unique hashtag specific to your brand or campaign to encourage user-generated content and build a community.
• Monitor Performance: Track the reach and engagement on posts with different hashtags to see what works best for your audience.
• Avoid Banned Hashtags: Research and steer clear of any banned hashtags that might limit your post’s visibility.

Benefits of Hashtags on Instagram

The most crucial aspect of any Instagram marketing plan should be hashtags. It offer many benefits and applications as well.  We’ll discuss the top five advantages that hashtags can offer:

1. Promotes exposure and learning

The greater visibility and discovery that hashtags provide is the main justification for their use. Clicking on a hashtag brings up a collection of the majority of recent and well-liked photos that use it.

Hashtags are an excellent approach for people who are interested in a particular topic to locate additional sites to follow because they allow you to browse all the relevant posts from there. This means that by using meaningful and acceptable hashtags, those who are looking for your brand will be able to find your postings.

2. Promotes audience participation

Hashtags become an extra way for interaction when they are branded and promoted. Tagged feed posts are kept for the duration of the story, and tagged story posts are kept for the duration of the search results. Consider Instagram hashtags as just one more tool for connecting with and interacting with your clientele.

3. Evaluation of competitors

Hashtags can help you analyze social networking site’s. It’s likely that your hashtags and those of your rivals will overlap, particularly if you’re utilizing both local and industry hashtags. You may examine the share of voice, emotion, and engagement of those postings with a social media competitor evaluation.

4. Content analysis

Hashtags can assist you in giving idea generation research for content, much like they would for SEO keyword research. Let’s say you would like to contribute more to the #NaturalSkincare hashtag. Given that the hashtag is used in over 9.8 million posts, that is quite difficult.

Yet you can view the top postings by using the Top option on the search results page. Take inspiration from this location.

5. Connects Real and online advertising

These days, if you shop in any kind of physical shop, you most likely will run into a marketing effort that uses a hashtag. Using hashtags is a simple way to connect your online and offline marketing activities, whether you want to utilize a hashtag specific to a promotion or just your brand.

Best Five Instagram Hashtag Generators You Can Use

Discovering the right hashtags can significantly enhance the visibility and engagement of your Instagram posts. Fortunately, numerous Instagram hashtag generators are available to streamline this process and help you identify the most relevant and effective tags for your content. Five notable Instagram hashtag generators include Hashtagify, All Hashtag, Display Purposes, Seekmetrics, and Ingramer.

1. Toolzu

Inflact and Toolzu are similar in how you may start a hashtag query. To begin, enter your information (a word, URL, or photo) and then click Generate Hashtags. This tool will determine the number of posts that use the hashtag and the possible difficulties in convincing visitors to use it. 

Toolzu also provides apps for iOS and Android cell phones, making searching for hashtags effortlessly while using a mobile device.

Features:

• This is an extensive database of more than 12 million hashtags.
• It uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to suggest personalised hashtags.
• A user-friendly interface with multiple hashtag generation methods.

Pros:

• Assists in boosting visibility and increasing engagement on social media platforms.
• Gives trending hashtags so that users can take advantage of present issues.
• The platform provides free trials without requesting credit card information from its users.

Cons:

• There are examples when it may not offer suitable hashtags related to niche issues.
• Hashtags for optimal outcomes, however, require manual selection by the users
• How the AI algorithm makes hashtag selection has limited details.

Pricing: Free

2. Buffer

The Explore page on Instagram is a space where popular and trending content is showcased, including posts with different hashtags. Users can establish multiple categories and discover hashtags through the Explore page.

Features:

• Every hashtag generator is unique and includes, but is not limited to, mobile apps, AI-supported tips, and the capability to sort by popularity.
• These tools are aimed at helping social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, among others.
• These hashtags will help users save time and enhance post-performance.

Pros:

• This streamlines the process of choosing hashtags for posts, saving time and energy.
• It also helps increase the post’s visibility and engagement with the audience by offering appropriate trending hashtags. 
• It gives insights into hashtag frequency and competition level, which helps optimise content strategy.

Cons:

• Some generators may have limitations or lack some features in their free versions
• Users might face restrictions in customisation or advanced functionality
• The effectiveness of suggested hashtags could be influenced by niche specificity or the target market.

Pricing:

• Essentials: $6 monthly for one channel
• Team: 12 dollars per month for one channel
• Agency: 120 dollars per month for one channel

3. Keyhole

Keyhole allows marketers to find keywords on various websites, including Instagram hashtags. You can also use geolocation with this option to ensure you’re seeing the most popular hashtags in a specific location. This is advantageous for local brick-and-mortar businesses that exclusively service a particular region. You may also pick which language hashtags display in.

Features:

• Comprehensive tracking of hashtags across multiple social media platforms.
• Machine-learning predictions feature for forecasting campaign performance.
• Access to historical data ensures no posts are missed in reports.

Pros:

• Effortless reporting with visually attractive data presentations.
• Profound insights are derived from social data without advanced analytics knowledge.
• Real-time performance metrics provide actionable insights to optimise social media strategies.

Cons:

• Limited customisation options and advanced features are available in certain areas.
• There is a potential learning curve for users new to social media analytics tools.
• The availability of premium support may vary based on subscription plans.

Pricing:

• Individual: $89/month
• Team: $189/month
• Pro: 259$/month

4. Inflact

Inflact, an AI-powered hashtag generator, allows you to develop hashtag concepts based on a phrase, image, or previously published Instagram post. This might be useful if you need help figuring out where to start with a keyword search or want to check the suggestions the tool produces for your image. 

Following your query, the tool will display hashtags from three categories: rare (easy to rank), average (mid possibility of ranking), and frequent (challenging to rank in top posts).

Features:

• AI-powered hashtag generator for precise hashtag selection.
• Advanced analytics for optimising digital strategies.
• Cross-language hashtags search for global reach.

Pros:

• Free marketing tools, including the hashtag generator, for cost-effective growth.
• Real-time updates ensure access to fresh and trending Instagram hashtags.
• Multi-language support and advanced analytics enhance the user experience.

Cons:

• Limited customisation options compared to specialised marketing tools.
• Occasional inaccuracies in hashtag suggestions due to reliance on AI.
• Lack of some advanced features offered by more technical platforms.

Pricing:

• Basic: $54/month
• Advanced: $64/month
• Pro: $84/month

5. SISTRIX

Although simple, the Sistrix hashtag-generating tool allows limited usage with a free account. Before paying for a premium membership, you can receive 25 free daily queries. There are a lot of queries—25 in total—so you may be able to get by without upgrading. 

Features:

• Utilises a vast database of over 15 billion hashtag combinations.
• Offers suggestions based on more than 7.7 million different Instagram hashtags.
• Provides regular updates to ensure relevance and accuracy.

Pros:

• Enhances visibility and engagement on Instagram posts.
• Saves time by providing relevant Instagram hashtags quickly.
• Free to use with registration required only after exceeding daily query limits.

Cons:

• Limited to 25 queries per day before registration is needed.
• It may only sometimes suggest the most niche or specialised Instagram hashtags.
• Users must navigate away from the platform to register after reaching the daily query limit.

Pricing:

• Start: 99$/month
• Plus: 199$/month
• Professional: 349$/month
• Premium: 599$/month

Best Practices for Using Hashtags on Instagram

In order to guarantee effective hashtag optimization on Instagram, there are a few more things to consider:

1. Stay Away from Hashtag Spam

Hashtag spamming is a regular risk to your profile and interaction. Using too many, improper, or unnecessary hashtags is what it refers to.

You can prevent that by using the following advice:

• Repetitive hashtag usage might give your messages a boring, spammy appearance. 
• Make sure the hashtags are evenly distributed.
• Don’t use more than five to ten hashtags each post.
• Take regular measurements of your hashtag performance and remove those that are out of date.

2. Considering Instagram’s Policies

When it comes to checking content that violates the instagram requirements, Instagram’s algorithm is rather strict. Thus, consider them carefully before publishing content and implementing hashtags.

Testing and rearranging hashtags:

• Try different posts using various hashtag combinations to find what combinations perform best for you. 
• It also allows you to target various viewing groupings with each post and maintains your hashtag usage fluid.

3. Keeping Track of Popular Hashtags on Instagram

Pay attention to challenges that are trending and their hashtags. Check which ones fit in with the image of your brand. Find out what issues your target audience is discussing by using social listening tools. Take part in them as soon as possible, and to maximize the results, include the relevant hashtags.

Conclusion

Hashtags are an effective tool on Instagram for reaching your target audience, enhancing overview, and encouraging engagement. Brands can benefit a lot from using Instagram hashtags, including better competition analysis knowledge, stronger brand exposure, and higher engagement. 

You may distinguish your posts in the overloaded social media landscape by learning how to make use of hashtags wisely and putting your aims into practice. It’s advised to learn about the different kinds of hashtags as well as best practices to hold on to before using them. So feel free to try out various hashtags, keep an eye on how they work, and observe as your audience on Instagram expands.

FAQs – Instagram Hashtags: How to Find and Use the Best Hashtags

What is the appropriate number of hashtags I should use on Instagram?

The advice given is to mix them up with relevant tags, but Instagram allows for up to 30 per post.

Are there any tools that can assist me in finding the right hashtags?

Hashtag generators by Inflact and others are examples of such tools that analyse your content and develop the best tags.

Can I recycle a set of hashtags across all my posts?

Although Instagram hashtags can be repeated, changing them to involve different people and not look like spam is good.

How can I make my posts more visible through the use of hashtags?

Different hashtag combinations and the right timing when publishing posts and interacting with your followers can help you increase your content’s visibility on Instagram.

Why use a mixture of wide-reaching and focused group-specific hashtags?

Using general and specific-hashed keywords helps one cast a wider net while still targeting their ideal followers.