TikTok recently made a change behind the scenes in the guise of a restriction on the number of hashtags per post, limited to five. While some creators responded with frustration, this change is in concert with a larger shift in how social media platforms organize and deliver content for discovery. Hashtags were the primary mechanism for relating posts with an audience through discovery, but as algorithms sharpened the means of behavior and engagement as a basis of relationship, the evolution of the hashtag component has been less central.
However, diminishing the number of hashtags does not necessarily lower content reach. It becomes important to navigate content, while TikTok’s recommendation mechanism ultimately supports content that results in discovery that is personally relevant. One of the downsides of adding so many tags was that it would clutter posts in a way that introduced confusion and spam dynamics, ultimately lowering the quality of user engagement across the platform, and in that regard, for TikTok, this change represents a favorable balance between user creativity and discovery through clarity.
Social Media Platforms Reconsider Hashtag Strategies
TikTok isn't alone in this shift; other leading platforms have started reassessing their hashtag strategies. For example, Instagram recently tested limiting posts to five hashtags to make it clear that over-tagging often leads to irrelevant posts. In doing so, they said there often can be a large amount of spam that is created by spamming the popular hashtags. Similarly, X (formerly Twitter) eliminated hashtags for advertising campaigns, LinkedIn has also put less significance on hashtags or searches, and Threads only allows one tag at a time.
More importantly to note, can supe up that these things say digitizers; that is, spamming trending hashtags don't help creators anymore, humans can show they are creating true engagement, thus making this forced exposure means less. And now, even more than before, the social media companies want to deal with meaningful content and user experience-related issues. So TikTok follows this standpoint of the other platforms, which is promising that it wants to promote meaningful beginnings rather than just a new reach that is boosted by hashtags.
The Future of Content Discovery on TikTok
TikTok has yet to confirm the reasoning behind the change, but many users are saying that it is an effort to limit fluff and enhance the precision of discovery. To decrease tagging, TikTok is banking on creators to pick their tags more judiciously, hoping that they'll pick hierarchy instead of whacking a whole buffet of low-quality selections (than heaven). Sure, this new policy forces creators to research trending tags strategies; however, TikTok has done the work and made it available within the TikTok Trends dashboard, supplying relevant data on up-and-coming conversations.
In the end, if you utilize the TikTok Trends dashboard, you will be able to take advantage of the impending visibility cap. Let's be honest, TikTok didn't put this hashtag policy in place to make it harder for creators to be visible. Rather, it creates an improved experience for TikTok users to identify the content they want to view; it is all about the cap on visibility until verified with relevant and engaging content in mind. Which is better than the previous system, which was more than five hashtags, ultimately providing less clutter and better engagement from the TikTokers and a better browsing experience for both creators and users.
