Thank you, Next! Hashtags v. SEO and the Social Media Slam

You’re in great company if you’ve spent the better part of 10 years trying to make it work by showering your social content with hashtag love bombs. You probably even convinced yourself that it would all work out if you just kept trying the same, exact, relentlessly religious approach. Spoiler: It just wasn’t meant to be. Even Instagram’s CEO has said the quiet part out loud: hashtags are for categorization, not reach. So, there ya go. We could end the romance novel there. But there’s so much more to this sitch. 

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Since Marketing and hashtags have been so tied together through this long history, it’ll seem a little weird at first to move in a new direction. But since we’re talking about a seismic shift in how we thought this all worked, we should probably do a little validation on what the heck is happening out in the field.

• Instagram: As of July 2025, public professional posts are indexed by both Google and Bing. If you missed our post about this, you can check that out here.
• TikTok: Endless changes to their algorithm have been driving content creators up a wall, but they’ve also walled off some of their reach as they transform their platform to be more like a search engine (we see you, YouTube), and less like a social machine. Things like keywords in captions, on-screen text, and audio metadata are much more attractive than any trending tags these days, with the exception of sponsored posts. 
• LinkedIn and X: Hashtags are still pretty tolerable, but engagement isn’t marriage, and we’re keeping an eye on how relevant those relationships are regarding hashtags and if they’re driving visibility the way they used to. They both have a pretty strong position on hashtags, and they are still considered useful by the majority of content coaches on these platforms, but you never know how the story will end until it does.

To put this in a TL;DR sort of way: Hashtags are not dead, but they’re more like background noise.

Enter the SEO Dragon

The reality is that search never left, and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And while it’s not the flashiest partner on the street, it actually works hard at the relationship. To be fair, it always did. 

The new/old flame is burning pretty hot, and marketing loves a familiar fix. Our approach to this issue is pretty simple: create a playbook that defines the pattern we would apply to other types of content:

1. Write for search on your posts, post copy, and promotions. You have to treat your content like it’s living outside of the platform. That includes Titles, Alt Tags, Bios, and the post itself.
2. Any hashtags you use should be done with intent and a cogent strategy towards engagement. Campaign tracking, community engagement, social listening all still have a place, but they won’t be the star of the show.
3. Always consider long-term reach, even on the shortest of campaigns. Social now has to pull dual duty and embrace the potential to surface like evergreen content. That changes how you write, plan, and measure. 

At the start of social, in general, it was all about community, which made a drastic, sudden pivot (to creators/users) where ads ruled the engine. It turned into a pay to play scenario, which also meant we had to make sure SEO/keywords could battle the traffic situation. And now, we’re in a hybrid moment where consumers and brand show up with meaningful copy and descriptions, diving back into their own communities for reach and efficacy. This works well for brands who need to create demand in a specific niche audience. In other words, follow the leader, where the leader is the content.

For more perspectives or to find out how we can help you reach without reaching, reach out. Ahem.