Favorite Hashtags for Dogs on Instagram to increase your engagement and organically grow your account

I think you will agree with me when I say ….

Trying to figure out the magical combination of hashtags to use is something like trying to find the needle in the haystack.

The problem is that most Instagrammers struggle with this and we are are looking that finding the secret will feel like this …

m a j e s t i c pic.twitter.com/Idxfmd94sJ

— Gifs (@giphz) February 13, 2018

I’ve been on Instagram for over three years.  My dog’s account @maggielovesorbit has grown to over 115,000 followers.  @barkcommunity is now over 70,000 followers.And I have over 20 other accounts I manage for clients.

I would like to claim that I have hashtag mastery but that would be misleading. You see things have changed on Instagram and Hashtags no longer carry the weight that they used to. Visual Artificial Intelligence has come and Instagram’s computer is actually able to read photos pixel by pixel so working on your ability to capture a photo that tells a visual story has at least 90% more weight that the hashtags you use.  And as Visual AI gets better … hashtags may not even be as relevant.

But we’re not 100% there yet and if hashtags can nudge your photo at least a little in the right direction then in this post I will share formula’s that I’ve used to grow my various Instagram accounts.

via GIPHY

If you’re not a beginner and want to go right to the system:

I have a newer article that goes right to the meat and potatoes of how I find hashtags:  Click on this link: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HASHTAGS

Having the right set of hashtag paired with magnetic amazing content has the chance to make your posts go viral as in the example below.

In Case You’re a Beginner and Need This Info.  Hashtags on Instagram are:

What are hashtags?

Hashtags categorize content.  When you click on a hashtag you’ll be able to see how many photos have been tagged with that hashtag.  Conversely, when you use it you will be discoverable by other Instagram users searching for that hashtag.

Why should you use hashtags?

The right combination of hashtags will expose your account to other Instagram users.

How many hashtags can you use?

You can use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram and we recommend you use at least 12, and up to 30 when possible.

How do you insert it into a post?

Everyone has their own style.  For me … I typically will use 3 to 7 hashtags in the original post.  And then I will add a comment with the remainder of the hashtags.  This is simply for aesthetics and a visual preference.  I like to keep my original caption as clean as possible.

Beginner strategy would look like this:

How do I decide on the right hashtags?

1. I looked at what my favorite friend’s accounts were using.

When I first started, I just simply copied what my favorite accounts were using.

2. I look at related hashtags.

Click on the magnifying glass icon and in the search field … enter in your desired hash tag.  When that comes up – take a look at the other “related hashtags” that Instagram suggests explore those photos if they are relevant.  For example if you put in #crazydogmom you’ll find other related hashtags.  Or right now I’m really into the #adventuredogs so I love looking at related photos of dogs that hike or dogs that camp etc.

3. Look to see how many people have used that hashtags.

For the most part I choose hashtags that have been used at least 5,000 times up to 300,000 times.  The exception is when I will just make up my own hashtags (for fun) to add to my content.

4. Mix up the type of hashtags.  

So I typically select hashtags on a general “dog” theme, or “silly dog” or “crazy dog mom” or “outdoor dog” theme.  It all depends on the post.  And then I make sure I have a few tags related to the breed of my dog.  And sometimes I will use a very general hashtag to express an emotion such as #aww or #loveher or #mmmhmm.  When it’s relevant I may use a location hashtag such as #sandiegodog or #visitSD

5. Mix up the sets you use.  

I don’t use the same set everyday.  I mix it up throughout the week and try to match the set when relevant, to the theme of that set.

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As I mentioned …. hashtags carry less weight in increasing your visibility so before I get into the hashtag strategy you might also want to book mark these articles.

Find us on Instagram for FREE tips on how to make your dog InstaFamous – we’ve grown Bark Community to over 70,000 readers.

If you want to learn more about Instagram visit our

Instagram page Bark Community where we provide free tips for dog influencers.

I also offer two guides: Increase engagement: and How to make my dog famous on Instagram

And some articles:

Why removing ghost followers might hurt your account

20 different ways to engage in Instagram without using Comment Pod

Why comment pods can be hurting you

Shadowban freakout

12 Famous Celebrities and their Instagram Dogs and Cats

9 Instagram Dogs with over 1 million followers

6 Instagram Dogs with followers over 500,000 and under 1 million followers

My secret tool to increase engagement on Instagram

How to add Multiple Links to my Instagram Bio

2018 Hashtag Strategy:  Look for hashtags that have low density in use but high levels of engagement

LOOK FOR HASHTAGS THAT HAVE LOW DENSITY USE + HIGH ENGAGEMENT.

In regarding to finding out which hashtags to use, there’s a technique I use in my guide in finding the hashtags that get the lowest # of posts uploaded per hour but the highest number of engagement.  You can roughly figure this out by looking at a particular hashtag to see how many posts are uploaded per hour.  I also use a services from smaudience.com.

LOOK FOR HASHTAGS THAT SMALLER THAN YOUR AVERAGE LIKES:

Another way to select your hashtags is look at the top 9 and see what the highest # of engagement is for that hashtag.  If you’re averaging higher in average posts, and that hashtag has low density (as in posts uploaded per hour) then it’s a good one to add to your list. So let’s say you look at the top 9 and the highest # of likes in that hashtag is 400 but your average # of likes is 700 … then this is a hashtag you might want to utilize.

USE DISPLAY PURPOSES:

I use the website Display Purposes but there’s a small trick in how to use it. a) Go to that link above – and set your settings to “infinity”.  Enter in one hashtag like #dogsofinstagram b) You’ll get approximately 35+ hashtags.  COPY AND PASTE ALL 30 back into the black search bar.  You’ll end up with about 180+ hashtags c) Copy and past all 180+ hashtags into the search bar (less any that don’t apply) and you’ll get about 500+ hashtags. d) Now you have over 500 to utilize.  I try to use different “sets” with every post. e)  The other thing you can do at this point… is slide the slider down to 30 and it will give you the best 30 out of the hashtags that are possible.

ENGAGE WITH POPULAR HASHTAGS – CHANCES ARE YOU’LL BE THE ONLY ONE COMMENTING IF THEY DON’T HAVE THAT MANY LIKES AND COMMENTS.

Lastly the other way I use hashtags is to select who to engage with.  Hashtags are like search words in google.  But this time I might choose a specific interest …. or select a VERY POPULAR hashtag (I know this goes against what you might think) but people who use the hashtag “puppy” as an example are most likely new to Instagram.  And don’t know that there are literally thousands of photos uploaded to that hashtag per hour.  However … if you’re the only one that actually leaves a comment on their photo, then you stand out to that person.  Only do this if you’re truly interested in that account and photo!

Where to place the hashtags?

It does not matter as long as you add the hashtags in the first 15 seconds after you create the post.

All of the accounts I have and all of the accounts that belong to our clients post the hashtags in the comments.  And you can see below an example of a post doing phenomenally well because it hit explore.

Keep in mind  a post does not exist on hashtags alone.  No combination of the best hashtags will ever get your post to the explore feed if your photo or video is horrible or not compelling.

How many to use?

There are various recommendations going around to use “five” but I have not found that to be the case.  As I mentioned hashtags carry less weight (between 2 and 10%) so feel free to use up to 30 hashtags.  We always use the maximum number of hashtags and in our test cases less hashtags doesn’t get better engagement.

Remember to keep it a two sided conversation. Hashtags work best if you actually engage in them too.  So that means when someone comments on your photo.  You should comment back even if it’s just an emoji.  Also explore the hashtags you use and comment on photos that resonate to you.  Typically most of your Furriends use some of a combination of similar hashtags already. Where do I store my hashtags? I have an iphone so I keep them on my notepad.  And then I simply copy and paste the set I want to use.

Since we’ve been on Instagram for over a year… I have several sets of hashtags which I am sharing below.

One final note.  Be sure the hashtags fit the story you are sharing about your life with your dog.   These are mine that I use which I am sharing which tell the story of my life with Maggie and Orbit.  Hope this helps you out!

Sample hashtags Following are some sets of hashtags I’ve used.  Feel free to go through them but take a look and edit out any that do not apply (for example those that are Boston Terrier specific).

A post shared by Boston Terriers Maggie + Orbit (@maggielovesorbit) on Dec 12, 2017 at 10:15pm PST

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This post was updated October 17, 2018