Some time ago I began realizing that some of my Instagram photos were not showing up in tag search results. It was a real bummer because I didn’t think my pics were getting the exposure they deserved, especially when I would work hard to compose an image and then spend time editing it on my iPhone! At first I thought the issue had something to do with a large amount of users on the server and figured that the app just “dropped” images from search results because of the traffic on certain tags, but after a while it was getting so annoying that I decided to research the issue. What I found out was quite a surprise to me, so I thought I should share the information with you in case you are suffering from the same issue! Basically, in order to fight against illegal or explicit photo’s (think pics of drugs or sexy photos), Instagram has blocked certain tags from their search (think tags with curse words or explicit language), but because people normally use more than one tag when promoting these sorts of images, if a picture has a tag that is blocked in the description, the image is automatically flagged and none of your tags will work so that your image is blocked from searches completely!
Now, I am sure you’re thinking to yourself, “I’m not posting explicit photos or using questionable tags in my description but my photos are still not showing up in searches.” Well, I’m sorry to tell you that Instagram’s approach to solving their naughty pic issues aren’t so cut and dry and seemingly innocuous tags like #iPhone have been blocked as well! In my instance, all my photos that weren’t showing up in searches included the tag #iPhone and I had no idea it was a blocked tag. So, if you are having trouble with your images missing from search results, I suggest you go through your tags and select them one by one and if your search results yield no images, you have found your blocked tag. When I went into Instagram and searched #iPhone, it indeed yielded no results, so unless you are using a totally unique tag or a misspelling and your search yields no results, your tag is probably blocked and causing your image to disappear in search!
If searching through your tags one by one seems too daunting a task for you, I have also found a link to A List of Blocked and Unsearchable Instagram Hashtags for your review. Just a warning, this link does show explicit language, so if you are underage or sensitive to fowl language, please don’t click the link. The link itself is to a reputable site, but I just wanted to give you a heads up because most of the list is bad language in hashtag form!
Have you had this hashtag issue happen to you? Have you been using tags that seem innocent enough but found that they were actually blocked by Instagram? Let me know your opinion on Instagram’s hashtag crackdown in the comments!