Using the right Instagram hashtags can help extend your reach, attract followers, and increase your engagement.
Instagram posts with a hashtag have, on average, 12.6% more engagement than posts with no hashtags. We’ve listed 100+ of the most popular hashtags below. But in order to benefit from hashtags, you must first have a clear strategy in place. That’s why we’ve created a guide to outline how you should use Instagram hashtags!
Table of Contents
The purpose of hashtags
With Instagram users uploading an average of 95 million posts a day, it may be difficult for your content to be seen. Hashtags are a great way to categorize posts on Instagram so that they’re easily searchable. Users can choose to follow hashtags to see content that’s aligned with their interests. This means your content can appear in the feeds and stories of potential new followers, and if you impress them, they’ll likely give you a follow or like!
Instagram hashtags best practices
1. Research what other successful creators are doing
To inspire ideas, check out what hashtags other relevant creators or brands are using, especially those with a large following. The size of their profiles may indicate that they know what hashtags to use to get their content to the right people.
2. Use relevant hashtags
The hashtags you use should be relevant for the content you post. Rather than focusing on reaching as many people as possible, you should be working towards being seen by the right people. If someone follows a hashtag and sees an irrelevant post, they can choose the ‘Don’t Show for This Hashtag’ option and mark your content as uninteresting to them. If this occurs often, it can potentially affect your account negatively.
3. Select a few popular hashtags
You should incorporate a handful of relevant, popular hashtags in your posts and stories. They can help expand your reach. To help you find the right hashtags, we compiled a list of them below, based on our analysis of 150 million Instagram profiles.
Pro-tip: In the list of popular hashtags below, we removed hashtags such as #like4like and #followme, as they attract spammy users and generate fake engagement. At inzpire.me, we don’t recommend you use these types of hashtags, and your profile will be flagged if you do.
4. Use specific niche and medium sized hashtags
When you use specific niche and medium sized hashtags, you’ll be able to reach and connect with a highly relevant audience. This will help you improve the engagement of your posts. Plus, your content won’t be shown in an overcrowded space, so you’ll be competing with less people to reach viewers.
5. Measure your hashtag performance
You should keep track of what hashtags you use for your posts in a spreadsheet or document. You can note how often you use certain hashtags and which ones you’ve used for your most popular posts. This will help you determine which hashtags are giving you the best results.
Additionally, if you have a Business account, you can access insights, which provides information about how many impressions – the total number of times your post was seen – a post receives from hashtags. With these insights, you’ll be able to figure out whether you’ve chosen the right hashtags to use in your captions.
6. Use the right number of hashtags
Instagram allows you to use 30 hashtags for posts and 10 for stories. Posts with 9 hashtags generate the most engagement. But that doesn’t mean you should load your content with the maximum number of hashtags. The only way to know how many hashtags you should use is to test them on posts and track your results.
Most popular hashtags
We analyzed 150 million posts to find the most popular hashtags used by Instagram users. Below, we’ve listed the 50 most popular hashtags and sorted the hashtags we found based on category.
50 most popular hashtags
- #love
- #instagood
- #tbt
- #photography
- #photooftheday
- #fashion
- #happy
- #summer
- #art
- #beautiful
- #picoftheday
- #nature
- #travel
- #style
- #friends
- #smile
- #model
- #fitness
- #life
- #music
- #family
- #fun
- #beauty
- #beach
- #photo
- #sunset
- #cute
- #girl
- #me
- #sun
- #selfie
- #lifestyle
- #2019
- #instadaily
- #makeup
- #food
- #instalike
- #motivation
- #ootd
- #amazing
- #like
- #gym
- #blackandwhite
- #sky
- #party
- #black
- #portrait
- #christmas
- #hair
Top 10 Fashion hashtags
- #fashion
- #style
- #ootd
- #fashionblogger
- #outfit
- #fashioninsta
- #mensfashion
- #streetstyle
- #instafashion
- #outfitoftheday
Top 10 Photography hashtags
- #photography
- #photooftheday
- #picoftheday
- #photo
- #portrait
- #photographer
- #photoshoot
- #naturephotography
- #travelphotography
- #canon
Top 10 Travel hashtags
- #travel
- #holiday
- #vacation
- #trip
- #travelgram
- #wanderlust
- #instatravel
- #travelblogger
- #travelling
- #summervibes
Top 10 Fitness hashtags
- #fitness
- #gym
- #workout
- #fitnessmotivation
- #training
- #bodybuilding
- #sport
- #fitfam
- #yoga
- #gymlife
Top 10 Food & Beverage hashtags
- #food
- #foodporn
- #foodie
- #instafood
- #yummy
- #breakfast
- #vegan
- #healthyfood
- #fresh
- #delicious