Instagram Limits Hashtags to 5 Per Post

In December, Instagram officially announced that they would be limiting hashtags to only 5 per post. This is for all posts - Reels, photos, and carousels.

This has a big impact on all brands as you’ll have to adapt your hashtag strategy - which is STILL important - to ensure your posts are optimized for search and long term reach.

What You Need to Know

Instagram always allowed us to use 30 hashtags on our posts. In the past, before we had keyword search, these hashtags were critical to being found on IG. But, over, the last 5 years, we’ve seen keyword search expand and it has replaced the “old” way of searching via hashtags.

But, hashtags were (and are) still a key component of how IG ranked content for keyword search results so they still matter. The problem was how people used the hashtags - they kept acting like it was 2015 and using #Love or #Friends #Business and those are just to broad and don’t help with strategy.

When used strategically, hashtags should augment your content to BETTER define to the AI in the background what your post is really about. Posting a photo of you at the beach on a work day doesn’t tell IG is about “work from anywhere” or “entrepreneur life”. Your caption takes the photo or Reel that much further in describing the content’s purpose and where it should rank. But the hashtags go that next step to hone in on the target audience, niche down into key aspects of your brand or solutions. And all of these work together to get your posts into LONG term search results - not an immediate boost in performance when you post on IG.

The right hashtag strategy can get your posts showing up in targeted searches months and even YEARS after you posted it, helping you reach ideal audiences when they’re ready and looking for what you have.

But, since most people and brands didn’t use hashtags this way, and they were looking for immediate boosts in performance, Instagram said, we’re evolving and cutting down hashtag limits.

Why This Matters: The Strategic Shift

You’re still going to use hashtags.
 
They. Still. Matter.

Period.

For now.

This will likely evolve in the future again…

But for now, you’re still going to use them. And here’s how:

You have 5 hashtags per post. Use them all.

One of them should always be your brand name or tagline that you’re known for online. For example, I will continue to use Jenn’s Trends as my primary hashtag because people are either looking for my name (Jenn Herman) or my brand (Jenn’s Trends) and I want to show up in those searches. They aren’t looking for “The IG Power Boost” or “Learn From Jenn” so I won’t use those.

The other four hashtags should augment your post with keywords that are NOT already in your post caption. We want to make sure that we’re hitting the keywords (and search terms) that your audience is using so your posts show up in the best places. And, we want these to be long tail keywords - more description is better!

How Different Industries Should Adapt

Let’s look at a few industry examples to flesh this out.

If you work in real estate, your post might be about a home listing. You’ve probably already got things like “open house” and “floor plan” and “3 bedrooms” and the neighborhood listed in the post caption. So we do NOT want to repeat these. Your hashtags would then be your brand (brokerage, tagline, name, etc.) and four related to the listing and location. If your post mentioned a local neighborhood (like Del Mar), you could use #SanDiegoRealEstate to go broader with the search queries. Also, you probably didn’t use the words “real estate” in your post caption as that’s not a normal conversation phrase for a listing so you’ve added that here for added ranking and reach.

If you work in tourism, you might have a post talking about a vacation destination and you’re probably talking about the hotel, restaurants, and activities to do. All good! So, in your hashtags, you’ll use your brand recognition again, and then maybe use hashtags like #AmericanTravelersAbroad that helps categorize your content for US users who are looking to travel overseas rather than something in your post caption that says “Planning a trip to England…”

The key here is to find the keywords and search parameters that help your content get in front of the RIGHT people when they are looking. Without having to put awkward phrases in your post caption to hit the keywords you want.

How This Applies to Your Organization

You’re going to want to review and revamp your hashtag strategy.