Understanding Keywords + Hashtags on Instagram in 2025
As entrepreneurs and/or online business owners, you might have heard that there have been a lot of changes around the conversations of hashtags and keywords on social media.
Meta platforms are putting more of a focus on keywords, so it's important to remain adaptable and focus on implementing both keywords and hashtags into your strategy. We are still seeing results on hashtags on our content and client content, and keywords, too.
In this blog, we are here to answer your questions and actually discuss how you should be using hashtags and keywords in your business!
Table of Contents:
What is a Hashtag?
Common Misconceptions About Hashtags
How Do Hashtags Increase Engagement?
Different Types of Hashtags
How many hashtags can you use in a post? Where do you put them?
How Do I Find the Right Hashtags?
The Perfect Hashtag Formula
How To Build a Hashtag Bank
What is a keyword?
What's keyword stuffing and why should we avoid it?
How to Effectively use keywords
What Is a Hashtag?
A hashtag is a searchable tag that you can use on your Instagram posts.
Hashtags help your posts get seen by more users than just your followers. This is perfect if you are just starting out on Instagram, aren’t growing, or maybe you just aren’t reaching your target audience (we’ll chat more on this later!)
If you aren’t putting hashtags on your posts, then it is like you are having a yard sale without any signs or advertisements. Yes, when someone drives by your house, they will see that you are having a yard sale and will drop by and shop. You aren’t going to make as many sales as you would without putting out signs!
If you don’t use hashtags on your posts, how are you going to let other people know you’re even there?
Common Misconceptions About Hashtags
“I don’t need hashtags on my posts. Won’t I seem desperate?” I hear all of the time that people don’t want to put hashtags on their posts because they feel that they will look like they are desperate or trying too hard.
Don’t think this at all! How do you expect to grow? Hashtags are small keywords or key phrases that are searched for on the Instagram app. When used correctly, they will grow your following and increase your engagement.
How Do Hashtags Increase Engagement?
One major concern for every Instagram user (especially businesses!) is how to increase engagement on the platform. A main way to increase engagement is to engage with other accounts on the platform: your followers, posts in your news feed, and by exploring posts through hashtags.
Engagement is measured through likes, comments, follows, and DMs. Hashtags can increase the engagement on your posts because they get your content seen by more people! More eyes on your content = more chances for users to like and comment on your posts.If you are using hashtags that are the best for your content (we will discuss this very soon!), then your content will be seen by the right members of your social community.
These are people in your target audience who are your competitors, but let’s call them friends. Face it, you need to build relationships with your community! Especially if you have a small niche of a customers that you serve, hashtags that are smaller in usage can target those people better than huge, popular hashtags. As mentioned before, hashtags are searchable.
They are the best way to search for people and accounts that you want to follow and engage with. That being said, people are going to be searching and engaging with your content!
When you create your hashtag library filled with the best hashtags for your posts, you want to search through those hashtags and engage with the posts. This is how you grow your social media tribe!
For example, for one of my clients, I was doing an engagement hour for them and liked a local coffee shop's post via a local community hashtag. A potential client reached out to them and inquired about hiring them for their services! Guess where she found them?
Through that local coffee shop’s (that she loved!) Instagram post. All I did was like the post. Like the post. Never underestimate the power of social media, which entails making real connections on the platform, liking, commenting on posts, and engaging! And NEVER underestimate the power of hashtags.
Different Types of Hashtags:
What are Niche Hashtags?
The best hashtags for your posts are niche hashtags. Niche hashtags are classified as hashtags with 100k posts or fewer. The smaller the tag, the more tight-knit community.
In other words, smaller hashtags will have a set number of users who are constantly using them on their posts and interacting through them. This is a great way to build your online community and make genuine relationships on Instagram.
Popular hashtags are not good for your account because they are used too frequently.
Your posts will very easily get lost in all of the other posts using these hashtags, and you will get no impressions, no engagement, and no results from them!
The best way to grow on Instagram, and in business, is by building relationships.
When you use hashtags that are smaller, you will connect with a more targeted audience.
When you engage with accounts on these hashtags, then you are able to build friendships and trust that will lead to sales. No,w you are probably thinking that hashtags are great since they can lead to sales.
What Are Branded Hashtags?
Branded hashtags are hashtags that you can use on all of your original business content.
You can make the hashtag be your name, your brand name, or your business’ tag line if it is small.
My branded hashtag is #socialsavvyhq, because it is my Instagram handle and other social media profile's username. When searching through that hashtag, you will see all of the content that I share.
Branded hashtags are great for sharing posts about your business. You should encourage your customers or clients to use these when they are talking or sharing about your business.
Another example of using branded hashtags is if you are a web designer (from our lovely example!) then you can create a hashtag with your brand name + the word portfolio. Now, you can use this for sharing your portfolio and past client work.
How many hashtags can you use in a post? Where do you put them?
3-5 is a great number!
Hashtags can go either in your caption or in the first comment of the post. Either is fine, and either works. However, if you are putting them in the first comment of the post, I recommend that you do it right away. You don’t want to post your image to Instagram, and then, five or ten minutes later add in hashtags.
If you use a scheduling software to organize and plan your Instagram posts, and they have an auto-publish to Instagram feature, I recommend putting them in the caption! You can push them down lower in the caption with spaces or periods so they aren’t overcrowding your caption. Caption or first comment: you can decide where you put them. It is purely aesthetic anda matter of personal preference!
You can use hashtags in your Stories as well! Use one industry-related hashtag in your Instagram Stories to increase your reach. You can hide them in the background, make them small so they aren't as noticeable, or hide them behind photos or gif, and they will still work!
How Do I Find the Right Hashtags?
Finding hashtags is very easy to do in the Instagram app. Think about what keywords your audience is using to search or what hashtags they would click on that would be of interest to them!
Hashtags should not be used as describing words for your content. For example, say you are a web designer who shares a photo of you drinking coffee and working in a local coffee shop. You do not want to hashtag your post as #coffee, #coffeeshop, #working... You get the point!
You want to use hashtags that are in your industry and where your audience will be. I get a lot of people asking me, “How do I find hashtags that my customers will be using?” I will also include the answer to, “I keep getting web designers interacting with my posts, should I even use these industry hashtags if they attract my competition?” Yes! You want to use industry-related hashtags.
The Perfect Hashtag Formula
1 Branded hashtag + 1 industry/profession hashtags + 1 target customer hashtags + 2 community hashtags.
How Do You Develop a Hashtag Bank?
You want to create a hashtag library of 45-60 niche hashtags that you are going to use on your posts.
You can store these in the notes app on your phone so that when you are posting them, you can easily pick out the hashtags (or copy and paste) them into your post! Why is it important to have a bank? You want to switch up your hashtags on every post to make sure you aren’t using the same ones. This also allow you to test which are performing and which aren't. Some hashtags just might not be good for your content — maybe they aren’t where your community or social media community is hanging out on Instagram! Switching up your hashtags allows for you to test out new hashtags, and allows for you to track which ones work the best for your content and niche.
Always check the insights of every post to see if you are getting a substantial amount of impressions. You can check the insight labeled “From Hashtags” on your posts to find out how many accounts found your posts through your hashtags.
What's a Keyword?
A keyword is a word or phrase that people use when they’re looking for something. Think of it as the bridge between what someone is searching for and the content you’re creating.
For example, if someone types “easy pasta recipes” into Google, that’s a keyword. If you have a blog post titled “10 Easy Pasta Recipes for Busy Weeknights,” you’re more likely to show up in their search results if you’ve optimized your content with that keyword in mind! When most people think of keywords, they think of search engines like Google, Bing, etc., but social media is also a search engine. Think of all the ways people are using social media to find inspiration, answers, and more, and how you can implement this into your content strategy is important.
What Is Keyword Stuffing (And Why You Should Avoid It)?
Keyword stuffing is when you overload a post with the same word or phrase over and over again in an attempt to rank higher on search, or even place a keyword into a post without context. This can
Why it’s a problem:
It makes your content sound awkward or robotic.
Platforms can actually penalize you for doing it.
It creates a bad experience for readers, who wants to read a post with 10 of the same word or phrase?
How to Effectively Use Keywords:
Instead, use keywords naturally in your text, don't force it! Use it throughout your caption or in the alt text. These should be sprinkled throughout your captions in an intentional way so it's searchable, but also doesn't feel like we are being sold to!
In conclusion, hashtags are lessening their impact, however, they can still produce results! Implement both hashtags and keywords into your marketing strategy to find your target audience and start building the community you've always dream of on Instagram.
