Most brands are still treating hashtags the way they did five years ago. Same 20 tags, copied and pasted to every post. It feels efficient, but it’s actually working against you.
The role of hashtags has changed significantly. They are no longer the reach multiplier they once were. Here is what they actually do now, and how to use them effectively.
01
Instagram now has a hard limit of five hashtags. Use them well.
In December 2025, Instagram introduced a platform-enforced cap of five hashtags per post and Reel. This is not a recommendation. If you try to publish more, Instagram will either block the post or remove the excess tags automatically.
This is actually a useful forcing function. It ends the era of hashtag stuffing and makes every slot count. The question is no longer how many hashtags to use, but which five are worth using.
Hashtags now function primarily as classification signals. They help Instagram’s algorithm understand what your content is about and recommend it to users who already engage with similar topics. Think of them as metadata, not megaphones. Accuracy matters more than volume, and relevance to your actual content matters more than search popularity.
For health and wellness brands, this means choosing hashtags that are genuinely specific to the post. Your audience is searching with intent. They are looking for #magnesium or #coldtherapy or #adaptogenicherbs, not broad lifestyle tags that every brand in every category uses.
02
Hashtags are now part of your SEO strategy, not separate from it
Instagram has shifted from hashtag-based discovery to keyword-based search. The platform reads captions, alt text, and even spoken audio in videos to understand and rank content. Hashtags are one signal among several, not the main event.
In July 2025, Instagram also made public posts eligible to appear in Google Search results. That means your content is no longer limited to people already on the platform. Hashtags, captions, and alt text all contribute to how discoverable your posts are, both inside Instagram and on the wider web.
Write your caption for a person first, and for search second. Use the words your audience actually types into a search bar. A caption that says “cold water therapy for recovery after strength training” will work harder for you than one that relies on hashtags alone to communicate the topic.
On LinkedIn, one or two relevant hashtags help categorise your content for the algorithm. More than that tends to look like overcrowding.
On TikTok, hashtags still carry more discovery weight than on Instagram and function closely to search keywords. If your wellness audience is there, treat your TikTok hashtags as search terms first.
03
Rotate your hashtags and make at least one of them yours
Using the same hashtag set on every post is flagged as spam behaviour. Instagram’s algorithm deprioritises accounts that do it, which means your posts reach fewer people over time.
Build two or three different hashtag sets and rotate them. Each should combine a broad tag, a few niche-specific ones that match the individual post, and at least one branded hashtag.
That branded hashtag is more valuable than most brands realise. It builds a searchable archive of your content over time. Anyone who finds one post and taps the tag finds everything else you have published under it. For health and wellness brands with a consistent content strategy, this compounds meaningfully over six to twelve months. It also makes user-generated content far easier to track if your audience starts using it.
Want help with this?
If you want a social media partner who understands the health and wellness category and manages this kind of detail daily, we should talk.
Original post: 2020
All too often we see brands and companies packing their captions full of hashtags – regardless of the platform, and with little consideration for what is actually considered the optimum hashtag activity.
Well, spoiler alert, hashtag stuffing can actually be bad for the visibility and success of your posts.
There is in fact a correct way to use hashtags on social media, and it all starts with the platform you are using.
The Discover tool on Instagram is super useful for getting your content in the discovery feed of those who regularly search for content around your industry or area – and this is determined using the hashtags you share. Here are our top tips to using #Hashtags effectively on Instagram…
1. We have already encouraged you to sign up for a business profile if you are a company or brand operating on Instagram. And now it’s time to use those analytics and insights that having a business profile give you access to. Select one of your posts, go to Insights, and see how many impressions you got from each hashtag to rate its success.
2. Look at what your competitors are using for their hashtags. (Then make yours more targeted, as branded as possible, and better!)
3. Don’t post the same hashtags on every post. It can be super appealing to just copy and paste, but remember that if you stuff every post with the same content, Instagram’s algorithm will penalise you for spam content and your posts won’t show up in as many discovery feeds.
