An Australian hashtag strategy that’s worth the effort
Hashtags are a smaller lever than they were, but local tags still help people nearby find you. Here’s how to pick them.
Use a handful of specific tags rather than a wall of big ones: your suburb or city plus your category (#fitzroycafe, #perthflorist), one or two niche tags, and your own branded tag. Put the location in the caption too, because search now reads captions.
What hashtags do now
Hashtags used to be the main way to be discovered. Today both Instagram and TikTok lean more on what a post is about (from captions, audio, on-screen text and the image itself) and on how viewers react. Hashtags still help label a post, and tag pages are still browsed, especially for local topics. Instagram has also been moving towards fewer hashtags per post, so a few good ones are worth more than many generic ones. Check the current limit in the app.
The four kinds of tag
| Type | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Place + category | #newtownbarber, #sunshinecoastweddings | People nearby searching for what you do |
| City or region | #adelaidefood, #tassiewilderness | Locals and visitors browsing the area |
| Niche | #sourdoughbaking, #vanlifeaustralia | People who care about the topic anywhere |
| Branded | #yourbusinessname | Collects customer posts in one place |
How to find good local tags
- Search your suburb and your city in the app and look at the tag suggestions that appear.
- Open each tag. Is it full of posts like yours, recent, from real local accounts? Keep it. Is it spam, or dominated by one huge account? Drop it.
- Look at what successful local accounts in your category use, then pick the ones that fit you.
- Use the names locals use: #wollongong and #thegong, #melbourne and #melb, #tasmania and #tassie.
Mistakes that waste tags
- Only giant tags. #australia and #love are so busy your post disappears within seconds.
- Tags that don’t match the post. Irrelevant tags can make a post look spammy, and viewers who arrive won’t stay.
- The same block every time. Copy-pasting an identical list on every post is a pattern platforms associate with low-effort accounts. Vary them by post.
- Forgetting the caption. Write “Fresh pies every morning in Mount Lawley” and the caption itself becomes searchable.
On TikTok
TikTok uses hashtags as one hint among many. Two to four relevant tags, including a location if it matters, are plenty. Spoken words and on-screen text help TikTok understand the video, so say where you are.
Measure it
Instagram Insights for each post shows how many accounts reached it from hashtags (where available) versus home, profile and explore. If hashtag reach stays near zero for your tags, try different ones for a month.
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