How to use hashtags on Instagram today: a guide for local business
Hashtags are no longer a growth hack, but a few relevant ones still help. How to choose them, how many to use and what to avoid.
A few years ago, owners pasted thirty hashtags under every post and hoped for the best. Today that approach mostly makes posts look like spam, and many owners have swung the other way and stopped using hashtags at all. The truth is in the middle.
Hashtags are now a labelling tool, not a growth hack. Used well, they help Instagram and people understand what your post is about and where you are. Here is how to use them sensibly for a local business.
What hashtags actually do now
Instagram looks at many signals to decide who sees a post: the image, the caption text, the location, how people react. Hashtags are one of those signals. They help categorise your content and make it discoverable when someone searches or taps a tag.
What they no longer do is magically push a weak post to thousands of people. A great photo with a clear caption and two good hashtags will usually beat an average photo with thirty tags. Think of hashtags as the label on a jar, not the contents.
How many to use
Instagram's own guidance and limits on hashtags have changed over time, so do not chase a magic number. A practical rule for small businesses: use a small handful of highly relevant tags, usually somewhere between three and five. That is enough to describe the post without looking desperate.
If you find yourself adding tags just to fill space, stop. Every tag should pass a simple test: would someone looking for exactly this tag be happy to find my post?
The three types worth using
1. Location tags
For a local business, these are the most valuable. People search for places near them, and tourists search the city they are visiting. Examples: #tbilisi, #batumi, #kutaisi, or a district such as #vake or #oldtbilisi. Combine the city with your category for more precise tags, for example #tbilisicoffee or #batumirestaurant, but only if people actually use them.
2. Category tags
Describe what is in the post: #croissant, #nailart, #ceramics, #khachapuri. Choose the specific word over the generic one. #food is so broad that your post disappears instantly; #adjarulikhachapuri describes something real.
3. Your own branded tag
A short tag with your business name, for example #ninobakery, helps you collect posts by customers who tag it. It will not bring new followers by itself, but it is useful for finding and resharing customer content.
How to find good hashtags
- Type a keyword into Instagram search and look at the tags that appear. Open a few and see whether the posts there are similar to yours.
- Check what local competitors and neighbouring businesses use, then pick the tags that genuinely fit you.
- Look at posts your ideal customers make: tourists in Tbilisi, parents in Batumi, students in Kutaisi. Which tags do they use?
- Think about the languages of your audience. A tag in Georgian or Russian may reach a different group of people than the English one.
Keep a short list of your best tags in a note on your phone, grouped by topic, so you do not have to think about it every time.
Mistakes that hurt more than help
- Huge generic tags like #love or #instagood. They attract no real customers.
- Irrelevant trending tags added to get attention. Viewers see through it, and it can make your account look spammy.
- The same long block on every post. Adjust tags to what is actually in the post.
- Tags instead of a caption. The caption text matters too. Instagram reads it, and so do people.
- Tags in the bio as decoration. They distract from the message.
Do not forget the other labels
Hashtags work best together with the other ways to tell Instagram where and what you are. Add a location to posts and stories; it is one of the simplest ways to appear for people nearby. Write captions with natural keywords, such as fresh pastries in Vake, because search increasingly looks at the words people actually write. For more on this, read our guide to getting local followers in your city.
Start this week
- Make a list of 10 to 15 tags: city and district, your category, your branded tag.
- For each new post, choose three to five that really describe it.
- Always add a location to posts and stories.
- Remove irrelevant and giant generic tags from your template.
- After a month, check insights and see which posts were found by non-followers.
Hashtags are a small task, but small tasks add up when you post several times a week. SocialAI writes captions with relevant local hashtags automatically, and you can edit them before anything goes live. You can see the plans here.
