Adding hsashtags to your posts is an easy way to increase your organic reach on Instagram and to target your ideal audience for free, so if you’re not already using them now is the time to start. ⁣

If you are already using them, when was the last time you checked how they are performing?⁣ You need to check for banned hashtags and how popular the hashtags you’ve select have become.

The key to finding the right hashtags for your Instagram account is to work out what your ideal audience will be searching for. Where are they located? What problem of theirs can you solve? Search for hashtags in those areas and look at the top posts for the hashtags. Find an account with a similar following to yours and compare which tags they are using.

Avoid the really big hashtags (upwards of 1 million uses) and aim for a selection of small (under 10k uses) and medium (10k-500k uses) hashtags to give yourself the best chance of being seen – and of falling into the top posts for each tag.⁣

You can use as many as 30 tags per post, but should you? Yes. That is, if you can find 30 relevant tags for your post. If that’s a tall order, start with fewer and gradually add a new tag per post. Create your own, branded tag and try adding location hashtags.⁣

You can add hashtags to your original caption or you can pop them in the comments immediately after posting – just make sure you do so immediately after posting.⁣

Please note that only the hashtags you leave will work on your own posts. If you add one to a comment on someone else, their post won’t appear in the search for that hashtag.⁣

⁣Als, if using your hashtags in your captopn be sure to start each hashtag with a capital letter to make it easier for screen readers used by the visually impaired to read the hashtags properly. 

Have you found hashtag success? Let me know in the comments below.