How Hashtags REALLY Work Now (tested it out)

You might be in for a surprise, because I found something recently regarding Instagram hashtags that I totally didn't expect. Well, not totally totally, but almost. Now, if you watch my channel here for a while, what am I doing with my hands?

You're probably aware that I always say, hashtags are just not as important as they used to be. The head of Instagram has been saying that since 2022 or something like that, when he essentially said, well, hashtags, they don't help you directly get more reach. And in some of my older videos, I've actually uncovered some of these intricacies on how to make hashtags still work, because there is still a place for them, and they can help you get some reach in some cases.

In others though, and that is the crazy thing, they can totally keep your reach down and using them might actually be the reason why you can't get more views or why you're stuck at a ceiling or something like that. So strap yourself in my friends, I'll show you my latest findings, some of which actually even surprised me. And that is not easy.

The first thing actually being hashtags versus search, right? Zuri, the head of Instagram just sort of announced that hashtags and search will be combined somehow because they're connected. They actually already are combined in the search page.

You can't search for a hashtag anymore. It'll always show the for you sort of search page. And if you remember, by the way, that was exactly what I talked about in my last video about hashtags way before anybody's ever announced that or talked about that, you know, just putting that out there.

Now let's address the most common question that I get. And I see around the internet all the time, how many hashtags should I use? Cause if you remember a few weeks ago, I did a full data recap data.

Cause if you remember a few weeks ago, I did a full data recap for my viral hooks database, as well as my clients and turns out, well, data doesn't lie, right? Most top performing and outlier reels actually have zero hashtags in them, not one actually zero. And this will be important for in a bit.

Remember that now at the same time, whenever I scroll through my Instagram feed, I see these gurus saying, well, 20 plus hashtags is the new norm. I actually ask some of them to show me their data and tell me why they, how they come to that, because I just love to know. I just love to connect with you guys, but none of them actually replied quite the opposite.

I got some spicy, spicy mails and DMS from one or two. Again, let me just show you the latest thing about hashtags. I found out some of my clients actually get a restriction on Instagram.

If they use more than five hashtags, some get the same pop-up. If they use more than 10 hashtags, just to let you know, they're actively testing, restricting hashtags to maximum of five or 10, just putting it out. There are people who say 20 is the gold standard.

Now here's where it gets interesting because the whole thing about putting zero hashtags in your post based on my data got me digging a little deeper. And I found something utterly bizarre, right? You get it.

Because if we take a look at what Instagram always says, which is basically, well, hashtags are essentially dangerous because they can be abused by spammers and so forth. And by the way, if you notice you get targeted by these spam bots and fake followers, as soon as you post, you probably have seen it, you know, in your comments, for example, these bots actually monitor the hashtags that you use, and then they use them to spam you, right? Which can be bad for you.

Just another reason why hashtags are really not important. Now me having even way more insights and data about the spam algorithm, right? I've done lots of testing.

Probably that's the first thing I've ever uncovered back in 2017 or something was that Instagram gives out what I call flags based on certain criteria. So for example, you log in with the browser, you know, not the app and with a VPN from a device that you've never used before, just doing that will raise a lot of flags, a lot of potential spam flags. And there's hundreds of different things you can do to actually get a flag.

Well, I've talked about it extensively in my course, the IG Blackfriar, for example. But yeah, a lot of different things you could do wrong. And then, you know, just knowing that I remembered from way back, if you use the same set of hashtags all over again, basically copy and paste style, you also get these flags, at least back in the days, it used to raise suspicions.

Now, because whenever Muziri, the head of Instagram talks about hashtags, almost always he kind of says, well, but spammers, they they're prone to abuse and stuff like this. And this got me actually thinking, probably the spam scores and flags and hashtags are closely related. Needs to be.

And this is where I sort of went through a rabbit hole and I found something that might be very beneficial for you. Now, throughout the years of being an Instagram creator, doesn't matter if you've been a creator for a long time or not, but throughout those years, you might've accumulated some minor flags here and there, right? Nothing too bad if you do, everybody does at some point, right?

You, you comment too much, you like too much, you get action blocks, stuff like this. It's not, not an issue per se, but it got me thinking, what if your continuous use of hashtags all the time sort of makes these flags not go away because you always give them another new flags. If you use similar hashtags or just hashtags extensively, lots of hashtags, for example, and you know what that usually means.

The more of these little flags, the more careful Instagram is with distribution, right? Some people say some say you get your reach capped. This can't happen by the way, if there's nothing wrong inside your account status.

Now, then I thought, okay, I'm working with a lot of creators right now in my creative mentorship, for example, let's just take a look at their data, right? Because we always take a look at their data. And it seems like not using hashtags either at all, or just a lot less sort of reset something with their organic reach, right?

Their reach goes slightly up, sometimes even a lot more. Now I have to say it doesn't happen with everybody. And I'll get to that in a second before you come screaming in the comments.

But then I thought to myself, well, I'll just send an email out to my insider club newsletter, right? That's what I did the other day. By the way, you know, every week I share insights like these strategy breakdowns, other stuff in there totally for free.

Some people actually wrote me the other day because they thought they'd gotten into some of my paid programs by mistake. No, no, it's actually, that's actually it. It is free.

And I aim to give you way more than others do with their paid products in there. And I actually got some really interesting replies from people. It seems like this whole thing works on a broader scale.

Just literally an hour ago, I got another email from a fellow dominator, Suhal, and she basically said she tried it out and she also saw a noticeable bump. So what does this whole thing mean though? Should you stop using hashtags completely?

Well, the answer is no, but maybe yes. Great answer, but let me explain. The maybe yes comes from because using the right hashtags can still give a lot of context and information to the algorithm, right?

I would recommend if you do though, staying below five hashtags, to be honest, and don't use the same ones over and over again. But especially if you want to rank and search the strategy that I uncovered in one of my recent videos still holds true. With that being said though, for example, one of my creator mentorship students started from scratch with zero followers just a few months back, didn't really use hashtags apart from sometimes one hashtag, even though I think it has anything to do with it, and she goes viral quite a bit without ever having used any of these hashtags, no hashtag strategy.

For example, this week she had a reel with 8. 6 million views, zero hashtags, right? Another one, 11.

9 million views. So if I were you, first of all, try cutting out hashtags completely for a while, right? Four, five, six posts, just see what happens, right?

Maybe you'll reset this whole spam thing after a while. Or if you're really, really smart, think of the target audience for your reel. So for example, if it's meant for a more casual sort of audience who scrolls through the reel feed, you know, and who wants to be mainly entertained or something like that, obviously, or probably you don't need hashtags because, you know, it's a whole different thing.

If it's more value-based, right, with an audience who has a search intent, right, they go to the phone and search for something, whatever it is, use this strategy that I explained in this video right here. Like I said, mine is the pinching, right? Forget about that.