Hashtags are commonly associated with Twitter. Twitter was the first social media platform to formally adopt hashtags over a decade ago. It has since gained popularity on other social media sites, including YouTube.
While virtually any word can be a hashtag, not all hashtags are created equal. We’ve looked up the most popular YouTube hashtags to help you get more views and possibly subscribers.
- How YouTube Hashtags Works
- Rules for Adding YouTube Hashtags
How YouTube Hashtags Works
To create hashtags for YouTube videos, simply select a keyword or phrase and add the hash sign (aka the pound sign) before it. By putting this symbol in front of a word, it becomes clickable. But no ordinary descriptive hashtags or repetitive sentences.
Hashtags help users find relevant video content. Alternatively, they can type the hashtag directly into the search bar instead of clicking on it to be redirected to similar video content.
Using relevant hashtags for your YouTube videos not only helps your target audience find them, but also helps the platform understand their context and content. Adding relevant hashtags to your video helps it appear in more search results.
So hashtags can help the YouTube algorithm recommend your video to more users. As a result, YouTube video content creators should include it in their SEO and marketing strategies.
Rules for Adding YouTube Hashtags
There are a few rules to follow when adding hashtags to your YouTube videos. Here are the main points:
- No spaces in hashtags. So, a phrase that should be written as two or more separate words becomes one word when used as a hashtag.
- Avoid using too many hashtags in one video. YouTube’s help page allows up to 60 hashtags. That doesn’t mean you have to include them all. By “overtagging” your videos, you risk losing relevance of your hashtags. Plus, YouTube may ignore hashtags or remove your video entirely from search results.
- No unrelated hashtags allowed. YouTube may remove your video if the hashtag isn’t directly related to it.
- Videos with harassing, humiliating, intimidating, or threatening hashtags will be removed. Explicit, sexually provocative, profane, or offensive hashtags may be removed or age restricted.