Instagram Hashtag Planning
Layering broad, specific and community tags for feed posts and Reels.
5 min read
Three layers, deliberately mixed
Broad tags describe the subject, specific tags describe this post's angle, and community tags reach a defined group. A set with only broad tags competes with everything; a set with only niche tags reaches almost nobody new.
Caption or first comment
Both placements are widely used and both work. Choose based on how you want the caption to read — a long tag block above the fold makes captions harder to read on mobile.
Casing and accessibility
Multi-word tags in PascalCase are noticeably easier for screen readers to announce correctly, and easier for everyone else to parse at a glance. This is one of the few tagging decisions with a clear, non-speculative benefit.
Check tags before adopting them
Search each tag in the app. Look at whether the top posts resemble yours. Tags drift: a tag that fit your niche a year ago may now be dominated by something unrelated.