How To Do Instagram Hashtag Research [2022]

Despite some changes to the Instagram algorithm over the years, hashtags remain one of the best ways to reach a wider audience. Getting your hashtags right can help elevate your post, and make sure it gets the viewership that it deserves.

But, getting hashtags right takes some work. There’s quite a bit of strategy that goes into picking out hashtags and testing which ones work best. Today, we’re going to break down all the steps that go into picking out the perfect hashtags, and show you exactly how you can do the same for your business.

If you want the condensed version scroll to the bottom of this article for our action plan that you can get started with right away.

What Are Instagram Hashtags?

At their core, instagrams are a way to categorize and search through content on Instagram. Users use hashtags to find relevant content, and Instagram uses hashtags to help it categorize the content you post.

Basically, hashtags are a good way to show everyone what the content is posting is about. That’s a key idea right there, hashtags should be related to the post at hand and help people interested in finding it do so.

I like to think of hashtags as sort of like keywords for Instagram. They’re used to help search through content, and good keywords help people find what they’re looking for. That’s exactly what Instagram wants too. The easier it is for people to find content they enjoy the more likely they are to return to the app and keep using it.

What Types Of Hashtags Are There?

Generally speaking, there are 6 types of hashtags you might encounter.

Location: Related to a physical location, oftentimes where a picture was taken. #grantpark #nyc

Branded: Directly related to the brand posting the content. #ejs #entrepreneursjumpstart

Community: Tags tied to a community or group of people that share a common interest. #fitnessfamily #bikelovers

Industry: Tags that describe a specific industry. #softwaredevelopers #socialmediamanagers

Content: These tags directly describe the content you’re posting. #organicseeds #customwoodworking

Event Based: These ones are related to a specific event or point in time. They may or not be relevant long term. #2022olympics #biggameday

There’s no hard fast rule on which types of these you should use. Try to use a mix and track which ones seem to perform well.

I also like to think about how competitive a hashtag is. If you search a hashtag it will show you how many related posts come up. I generally sort these into 3 broad categories.

Under 10k: These are low traffic hashtags that don’t have a ton of people posting content related to it.

10k-100k: These are moderate traffic that have a decent amount of related content.

100k+: These have a lot of posts being made related to them and are high competition.

In general, it’s best to target the medium traffic as they are often easy enough to break into the top posts while still having enough people interested in them. That’s not to say ignore the others though, a good mix is best.

How Many Hashtags Should I Use?

There’s a lot of conflicting information out there. Instagram has said 3-5, while Later (a social media marketing platform), has shown that routinely using 20+, or even hitting the max of 30, is best.

In general, you should use as many hashtags as make sense for your post. The rule of thumb here is quality over quantity. If you have 30 related hashtags that’s great, use them all. If you only have 10 then don’t fill the remaining spots with garbage.

Use relevant, targeted hashtags and you’ll be seeing results. Worry less about the specific number you’re using and more about how relevant they are to your post.

How Do I Find Good Hashtags?

The best way I’ve found is simply to look at my competitors and see what types of hashtags they’re using. I look through their posts, and note down any hashtags that fit with the content I routinely post. I keep track of all these hashtags in a spreadsheet where I note down how much competition they have. That way, I can choose a nice mix when planning my content. I don’t care too much if some don’t apply to all my content, I want to vary them per post anyways so it’s okay if I only use a hashtag a couple of times or infrequently.

Having a master list of good hashtags is super helpful as it allows me to quickly pull a bunch when I make my posts. There’s no more sitting there trying to come up with ideas because I have them all in front of me already.

I do this every couple of weeks just to make sure that I’m keeping my list fresh and relevant. You never know when you’ll discover a good hashtag.

There are also a number of hashtag discovery tools out there of varying levels of quality. The aforementioned Later has one built in that I quite like. It is however part of their paid plan so does require a bit of an investment.

Action Plan

If you’re looking to create a hashtag strategy here’s an action plan that you can follow starting today:

1. Create a master list of 30-50 hashtags broadly related to your content. It’s okay if they’re not all applicable to all of your content, you’ll want to vary them a bit per post anyways.

2. Take note of how much competition each hashtag is by seeing how many related posts there are on Instagram

3. When posting, use this list to help you add hashtags. It’s less important to hit a specific number of hashtags as long as each one is relevant and makes sense for the post it’s added to.

4. Frequently update your hashtag list with new ideas, especially if the content you post changes or evolves. You want your list to keep up with it.

5. Keep track of which posts do well and take note of the hashtags that are on it. Take note of top performing hashtags so that you can reuse them effectively.