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What’s the ideal number of hashtags for Instagram captions?

Author's avatar By Jessica Wade 07 Jun, 2017
Essential Essential topic

Chart of the Day: Using more than 10 hashtags per Instagram post could be damaging your visibility

Hashtags are one of the best ways to get your posts seen on Instagram. They can help pull your social media posts into topic-specific feeds, which can reach audiences beyond your current followers.

Many businesses will often resort to using too many hashtags on one post in the hope of it getting more visibility. A recent study suggested that it is far more effective to keep your hashtag count to less than 10 hashtags per post. If you where to use relevant hashtags and keep the count below 10, it is suggested you could reach up to 25,000 engagements per post.

Be careful if you use too many or the same hashtags in all your captions, you might be putting yourself at visibility risk or a shadow ban. This is when Instagram hides your posts from users who don’t follow you, which can effect audience growth and engagement.

Author's avatar

By Jessica Wade

I was previously the Social Media Executive for Smart Insights and managed all of Smart Insights social media channels and social strategy. I love all things social, most of the time you will find me endlessly scrolling through Instagram. You can follow me on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

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