Youtube hashtags – how to use them?

What are Youtube hashtags?

These are tags with # symbol, which can be added to Youtube video titles or descriptions.

Youtube hashtags work exactly the same as on other social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin – when you click on it – other content with the same hashtag will be displayed.

Youtube hashtags were introduced later than tags, playlists and other core Youtube features. But, they have become a powerful tool in promoting your Youtube videos.

So, Youtube hashtags can appear in two places – Youtube Titles and Descriptions.

If you add hahstags in Youtube Titles – they will appear like this.

If in the Description – they will appear just above the title.

Note, that Youtube hashtags can’t be both in Title and Description.

If you have added Youtube hashtags in Title and Description, the ones from Title will be prioritized and Youtube will display hashtags only in Title.

How to add Youtube hashtags?

In Title – just add hashtags.

In Description, you can add max three Youtube hashtags. You can put them anywhere in your description – doesn’t matter – they will still be recognized nicely.

To save time, in the new Youtube studio, you can add hashtags just from Videos tab.

Just click on Edit title and description.

And then add Youtube hashtags both in Title and Description without need to go to Video editing tab.

Can Youtube hashtags bring you more views?

According to official Youtube Creator Academy, hashtags can “help viewers to find your content, when they search for a specific hashtag”.

In my experience, I didn’t notice some crazy Youtube traffic spikes, after I started adding Youtube hashtags. In most cases, it is not a deal-breaker.

How people can discover your videos via hashtags?

1. Click on a hashtag from popular videos

And here is what they will see:

2. Viewers can actually search for hashtags or at least popular tags

Here is a Youtube SERP for #seo:

and “SEO” (not a hashtag):

As you can see, the results are different. In the first case, Brian Dean’s video is not available – it doesn’t have #seo hashtag in Description or Title.

3. Better content understanding

Also, Youtube hashtags can help both Youtube algorithm and viewers to better understand the content or broader topic of your video. Sometimes, if your Title is not clear, it may help a lot.

For example, hashtags #youtubemarketing #youtube #youtubetips will suggest Youtube that your video is about Youtube marketing.

4. Alternative to playlists

Youtube hashtags can also be an alternative to Youtube Playlists.

You can organize your videos by the same hashtag. For example, Google Webmasters channel put all Google I/O 2019 videos under #io19 hashtag. Nice!

Youtube hashtags tips

Here some tips, you can apply to Youtube hashtags:

• Add hashtags to key parts of description for better discoverability.
• The best use case for Youtube hashtags is with some trending or hot topic – e.g. some news event. This is where viewers might actually click on hashtags to find more relevant content.
• Add only related hashtags, which have some connection with your topic.
• Do not spam 🙂

Here are tips from Youtube Creator Academy.

However, Youtube is not clear, if these strategies will guarantee you a success – these are just recommendations from other Youtubers.

How to find hashtags for Youtube videos?

There are a few ways, which can help you to find better performing Youtube hashtags.

1. Steal hashtags from Trending videos.

To do this, filter Youtube videos within a time span of last month or week, for a particular topic.

Here are some good performing videos for last 30 days about “digital marketing”.

And here are some hashtag suggestions.

2. Hashtags from your competitor most popular videos

Just go to the most popular tab on Youtube or just find mega-popular videos in your niche.

There can be some nice hashtags there, which you missed out.

By the way, I think competitor research is super powerful in SEO and digital marketing. Read my guide.

3. Youtube suggest

Just type your hashtag in Youtube Search and you will see a bunch of suggestions.

4. Branded hashtags

It is always a good idea to grow and promote your own brand.

Hashtags are perfect for this.

Your branded hashtags can be super handy for viewers who want to filter out all your content among other videos.

Neil Patel uses his brand hashtag “NeilPatel” all the time.

Obviously, when you click on his hashtag, you will see a nice list of his videos.

5. Use Youtube hashtags tools

There are a bunch of hashtag generator tools, which might help you a lot.

Some the best hashtag tools:

• Hashtagsforlikes
• Hashtagify
• Ritetag
• Keyhole

However, most of these tools are developed either for Instagram or Twitter. But, still, there might be some good ideas.

Here is an example from Hashtagify:

And a list of suggested hashtags.

Further reading

• Youtube SEO – How to Rank Youtube Videos (I tripled my views)?
• Youtube Tags – How I’m getting views from YT Search