Mastering Hashtags: Instagram SEO Strategies for Cycling and Beyond

Hello and welcome back to the Instagram Bootcamp, where we'll continue in section one. We're going to do some hashtag and SEO research together, and you're also going to do an SEO research activity on your own. So let's go back to my Instagram homepage, right, and here you see along the left side the famous search magnify search tool with the magnifying glass right.

So from here I can search for content, right? If you are a cycling enthusiast and you want to find content around cycling, you might either enter a SEO term on Google, in this case, cycling as a keyword, and then you can click to see what content on Instagram has been categorized as cycling-related content. Now, once here, you can also click on any of these pieces of content and see which hashtags are being used for road cycling and the cycling community.

We can see what is road cycling in terms of types of hashtags it's an it's an industry hashtag right or category hashtag and it's um let's see is it high density or low density well we can click on it um actually the better way of doing that is going to the search and then just type in um using the hashtag and do hashtag road cycling and we can see um road cycling 5.5 million posts so that would be a high density hashtag right. I can click on that, and now I'll get all the content that relates to road cycling right here. So again this is a lot of the same content right in each case this is content that are that is ranking very high within this category um you're seeing a lot of the same ones come up whether I put in the SEO term cycling or the hashtag road cycling okay and the whole goal of what we're learning is to maximize the likelihood that your content will show up in people's searches whether it's by hashtag or by um or by um terms SEO type terms.

If you were a brand that manufactured and sold bicycles, bicycle equipment, or cycling apparel, you would want to understand exactly what cycling enthusiasts are searching for on Instagram. If you're creating content for this audience, knowing which hashtags to use is essential for getting your posts in front of the largest and most relevant group of cycling fans.

Clicking back into a piece of content, we can see additional hashtags being used. For example, #cyclingcommunity is clearly a community tag that connects enthusiasts, while #cyclingmotivation serves a similar purpose. You may also see more specific category tags like #procycling, which represent a niche subset of the broader cycling category. You can click on any of these to view all posts associated with that tag. Some will have thousands of posts; others will have millions. As you scroll, you’ll notice similar content ranking highly within each hashtag category, and your goal is to position your content so it appears in these searches as often as possible.

Let’s take #cyclingcommunity as an example. If we search it, we see it has just over 300,000 posts, a solid mid-range hashtag. If you misspell it, the hashtag becomes essentially irrelevant, returning only a few hundred posts from users who made the same mistake. This demonstrates why spelling matters: a misspelled hashtag disconnects your content from the audience you're trying to reach. When comparing #roadcycling (a high-density tag at 5.5 million posts) with #cyclingcommunity (a lower-density community tag), you start to form the foundations of a hashtag strategy for brands in this category.

From a brand perspective, you might also include your own company name as a branded hashtag. This helps you build recognition over time and allows users to browse all of your content easily. So let’s return to our slide on hashtag types:

• A branded hashtag is your specific brand name.
• A community hashtag is something like #cyclingcommunity or #instacycling.
• An industry hashtag would be broader such as #roadcycling, while a niche version, like #proroadcycling, narrows your audience.
• Geographic hashtags help you target specific regions (e.g., #BrooklynCyclers).
• Event hashtags are used for competitions or gatherings and allow all posts from that event to be found in one place.
• And if relevant, you may include celebration or holiday hashtags tied to something happening that day.

With this framework in mind, you can now use both keywords (SEO-style searches) and hashtags to evaluate which tags are high-density, low-density, branded, community-based, or niche. A strong hashtag strategy includes a thoughtful mix of these types to increase your chances of ranking in searches and reaching the right audiences.

Now let’s move into an exercise. I'm going to show you a picture, and I want you to choose five hashtags or SEO keywords that best represent the image on the next slide. For this exercise, stick to five hashtags. Look up each one to see how many posts are associated with it, and check the most recent posts to understand activity level and density.

This next image is in a different industry, still a similar hobby space, but now focused on skateboarding. Start by searching for skateboard-related content. Look at what hashtags creators are using, then research those hashtags individually to identify which are high-density, which are low-density, and which might be useful depending on your overall strategy.

Once you’ve done that, consider your perspective. Are you posting as a skateboarding influencer trying to build a personal audience? Or are you representing a skateboarding brand, a board company, an apparel line, a skate shop, or even a skate park? Your strategy will shift depending on that role. Think about which mix of hashtags would be most effective for the account you choose.

Take a few minutes to complete the discovery and pause the video here. When you’re ready, we’ll discuss some considerations that can help shape an effective hashtag strategy for this scenario.