Adding 20-30 hashtags does not guarantee a viral post. It's very common for creators to stuff the post's description with numerous hashtags and blame the Instagram algorithm for not making their post go viral. The reason behind your failure can be these 5 biggest hashtag mistakes that are slowing down your growth.
Before moving on to the hashtag mistakes, let's quickly understand the purpose of hashtags on Instagram and why your hashtags are not working.
Why do we need Hashtags?
It's a myth that your post will go viral by adding any trending hashtags. Instagram introduced hashtags for the purpose of post categorization and to understand the interests of users. It's like a glossary of words in which each one is linked to all the posts in which the hashtag is mentioned.
Hashtags help Instagram understand the interests of the user. If a user is interacting with a certain hashtag, Instagram will show more posts linked to that hashtag. Here are some other reasons why we need the right set of hashtags
Relevancy
Instagram hashtags provide relevancy to your target audience. If you are posting a food recipe, using relevant hashtags will tell Instagram, this post is for food lovers.
Recognition
Using the same or similar set of Hashtags consistently describes your profile information to Instagram. It explains your profile's overall niche, making it easier for the audience to follow your content.
Reach
It's obvious, Instagram hashtags make your post discoverable to a larger audience. It boosts your reach even if you don't have any followers on your profile.
Why are your hashtags not working?
For sure, you have been using a lot of hashtags in your posts to make them viral, but why aren't they working? There could be any of the following reasons:
- It could be that your Hashtags are not keywords
- Maybe you are using too broad words as hashtags
- Maybe you are going for narrow hashtags
- Your post is facing a lot of competition due to certain hashtags
- Adding too many or too less hashtags
- Using the same set of hashtags for a long time
We will uncover each reason in detail here in this post, under the 5 biggest hashtag mistakes slowing your growth
Mistake 1: Using custom non-keyword hashtags
Instagram is not a search engine, but still, out of 500+ million daily active users, about 36% users use Instagram as a search and discovery tool. These numbers show that using keywords in your hashtags is extremely important to make it quickly searchable.
Often, we try to include hashtags that sound cool but don't have any keyword potential for e.g., #newking, #sporty, #wcloveyou, #excited234, #home53. These hashtags might be important for you, but they mean nothing for Instagram. It's better to replace them with high search volume keywords.
Custom keywords can be useful when you already have a lot of followers on your Instagram profile. But if you are just kicking into Instagram, you must use keyword hashtags to boost your reach.
Keywords like #photooftheday #newyork #adulthood #motivation #lifehacks have high search volume that increases the chance of your post being visible in the search feed.
How to find keyword hashtags?
Do not go for hashtags that have Millions of posts, as those are highly competitive and occupied by big Instagram accounts only. Stay in the middle for enough reach and less competition.
Mistake 2: Using Trending Non-relevant Hashtags
You heard that #JustinebiberConcert2026 is trending, and you started putting it in all your posts, even though your niche is Skincare Tips. Stop using irrelevant hashtags just because they're trending; it will damage your credibility by showing your posts to irrelevant people.
Sticking to niche-related hashtags is highly beneficial as Instagram knows who your audience is, what they like. But, if you still want to use a Hashtag that is trending and not relevant to your niche, then there is a workaround.
Let's take the same example as above. Suppose you have a skin care tips niche and you wanted to use #JustineBiberConcert2026 then it's better to twist your content, for e.g., you can create a reel on "Best skin care products that JustineBiber uses" or "Justine Biber's daily skin care routine".
Twisting your topic with the trends allows you to give you a cross-niche reach, which will introduce your content to people who like Justin Bieber, as well as skincare.
Mistake 3: Stuffing Hashtags in Your Posts
Just as Google penalizes blogs for keyword stuffing, Instagram has a similar mechanism. If you add more than 30 hashtags, they will be removed from your post description. It's better to limit them to 20 hashtags. Also, it's necessary to add only relevant hashtags. If you don't have a lot of hashtags, then 5 to 10 hashtags are also fine in one post.
Instead of stuffing hashtags, a good solution is to include all keywords in your post description. This way, you can make your post searchable and also keep your account safe from getting banned due to keyword stuffing.
Read our blog, The Art of the Caption: Writing Instagram Posts That Get You Followers. It covers the step-by-step instructions on how to write viral captions.
Mistake 4: Copying Others' Hashtags
There's a difference between getting inspired and being a copycat. If you are copying meaningless, irrelevant captions from other people's posts, it may not work for you. Your hashtags should be something related to your content. You can refer to the steps mentioned above to find relevant and highly searchable hashtags for your content before copying others.
If you still want to copy others' captions, confirm that they have a similar niche to yours and filter all unnecessary hashtags from their caption.
Some people have a habit of putting celebrities' names and big account usernames as hashtags that might give you a boost in reach, but your audience will not interact with your post, as it's completely irrelevant to them
Mistake 5: Combining Hashtags with Poor Content Quality
Even the best singer in the world can't earn money if they sing on the street. It's the same when your hashtags are strong, but your content is weak. Even if you add 30 hashtags and highly searchable keywords, nothing is going to work if the content is not good.
It's better to focus on quality content and then trust in hashtags because hashtags might make your content appear in front of people, but they can push people to interact with your content. Some creators don't even use hashtags, but their content goes viral because it adds value to the user.
Wrapping it Up
In this blog post, we have seen the five biggest hashtag mistakes that are stopping you from growing on Instagram. Most of the creators make the same mistake over the period of time, and they either give up or won't earn anything from it. Hope you will get a better performance on your post by avoiding these mistakes.
If you have any suggestions or anything that I missed, you can comment your suggestions below.