Yet again Instagram has changed its algorithm at the beginning of this year and staying on top of the loop is harder than ever.
It becomes continually more difficult for content creators that their followers actually see their posts. Right now it can happen that only 10% of your followers actually see your posts. Myself and a lot of my blogger friends have seen a huge decrease in likes over the past weeks.
However, with this blogpost I wanted to summarize some important changes for you so your photos wont get buried and unseen. You can increase your exposure by using these useful insights. I have done a lot of research on this in the past weeks and I hope this will be helpful for you. 🙂
Hashtags
So this is how hashtags generally work: The more likes you have on your pictures, the bigger hashtags you will be ranked in.
- Hashtag Size: Before you were allowed to use up to 30 hashtags per post. Pull away from using the maximum number of hashtags. Now it is recommended to only use 5 hashtags, because otherwise Instagram will see you as a spammer if you max the hashtags all the time. Other people say it is still okay to use between 25-27 hashtags, but I would not recommend that. Less hashtags will be getting more engagement. So, use hashtags that are specific for your niche and have less than 1 million posts within their own hashtag!
- Hashtag Use: Also, don’t use the same hashtags over and over for each post. Instagram will notice that as well. So, it is important to find new unique hashtags each time.
- Hashtag Location: Another important thing: Don’t put the hashtags in the comments. From now on Instagram won’t show hashtags in the comments in the search results. Therefore, the hashtags go into the caption.
Caption
This brings me to my next point which is your Instagram photo caption.
Here we have an update as well.
- Changes to the caption: Prepare your caption really well because once you have posted it no changes should be made. Don’t repost or change anything once you post. The more you try to tweak your caption once it is uploaded it, the more your visibility will drop. So, post your photo with your description and your five hashtags and then just leave it.
To summarize this review your caption well before you post and don’t change anything within the first 24 hours.
Comments
There have also been updates on how Instagram notices comment interaction.
- Timeline: When you post a photo you will need to respond to the comments within 60 minutes or your posts visibility will gradually decrease. So, you have to be actively engaged as a real person. The more comments you will get in a short amount of time will make Instagram think that your post is worth sharing to all of your audience.
These are the most important changes I wanted to share with you. If you want access to all algorithm changes and learn how to new update affects your stories, comment groups, follow strategies, comment lengths and story hashtags you can check out my new online course here.
Disclaimer: The information provided here has been gathered through miscellaneous sources and my own experiences on the platform. Some information may differ slightly. I cannot guarantee the validity to this information, but did my best to cross check my sources thoroughly.
