While you can virtually turn any word into a hashtag, not all hashtags are equally popular. To help you get more views and possibly even subscribers, we’ve scoured the web to find the most popular hashtags for YouTube.

How Do Hashtags on YouTube Work?

To create hashtags for YouTube videos, all you need to do is identify a keyword or phrase and add the hash sign (aka the pound sign) in front of the specific word. By placing this symbol in front of the word, the word will instantly become clickable. That being said, ordinary, descriptive hashtags or repetitive sentences aren’t allowed.  Hashtags make it much easier for users to find relevant video content. Alternatively, instead of clicking on the hashtag to be redirected to more similar video content, they can also simply type in the hashtag in the search bar from the start.  Not only does using relevant hashtags for your YouTube videos help your target audience to find your videos, but it also makes it easier for the platform itself to understand your videos’ context and content. By including appropriate keywords in your hashtags, the platform gets more valuable info about your video, helping it to pop up in more search results.  So, hashtags actually become a free marketing tool to some extent that can help the YouTube algorithm to recommend your video to more users. For this reason, video content creators on YouTube should make it a key part of their SEO and YouTube marketing strategy. 

Title vs. Video Description: Where to Add Hashtags?

You can add hashtags to your title, description, or both. When you’ll be adding hashtags to the title, you can, for example, use the same branded hashtag and add it to the start of all your videos. Then, remember to follow this hashtag with a concise, relevant description that will serve as the title of your video.  This approach can work really well if you plan on creating some type of video series as your target audience will be able to find all the other videos in this series easily by simply searching for the hashtag. Plus, another key advantage of creating a branded hashtag is that viewers won’t be redirected away from your content as is the case with generic hashtags that can be used by any channel. If you’ll be adding hashtags to the description, it doesn’t mean that you no longer need to add a summary. You’ll still go about writing a summary of the video as you would normally do and then you’ll simply add a couple of relevant hashtags to the ending of the description. Instead of adding a branded hashtag, you’ll be adding hashtags that are based on keywords. One of the perks of this approach is that YouTube will also use the first three keywords that you’ve added to your description and add them just above the title of your video too.

Rules to Keep in Mind When Adding YouTube Hashtags

If you plan on adding hashtags to your YouTube videos, there are a number of rules that you need to keep in mind. Here are the main considerations:

You can add hashtags in the title or the bottom of the description of the video. All hashtags must adhere to YouTube’s Community Guidelines. If a hashtag fails to meet these guidelines, it won’t pop up.  You shouldn’t include any spaces in your hashtags. So, a phrase that should normally be written as two or more separate words will be joined together when it’s used as a hashtag to create one word.  You should avoid adding too many hashtags to a single video. YouTube’s help page allows you to add as many as 60 hashtags. Though, it doesn’t mean that you should include so many.  By “over-tagging” your videos, you run the risk that your hashtags will become less relevant. Plus, YouTube might end up ignoring the hashtags or removing your video from the search results altogether.  You may not add unrelated hashtags. If there’s no direct connection between the hashtag and your video, YouTube may remove your video. Hashtags that harass, humiliate, intimidate, or threaten a group or individual users will get your video removed. At the same time, any explicit, sexually provocative, profane, or offensive hashtags might also lead to removal or an age restriction. 

To help you skip the irrelevant hashtags, we’ve tried to sort the most popular YouTube hashtags by industry. The following are some of the most common industries and possible hashtags that you can use that are currently trending.

Beauty and fashion

Similarly to Instagram, YouTube is also a huge source of beauty and fashion content. Whether you’re into how-to guides, tutorials, or perhaps even shopping sprees or hauls, here are some of the most popular hashtags that you can use:

  1. #fashionstyle
  2. #lifestyle
  3. #makeupvideo
  4. #makeuptutorial
  5. #jeffreestarcosmetics
  6. #art
  7. #fashion
  8. #beautytips
  9. #fashiondiaries
  10. #fashionaddict
  11. #fashionweek
  12. #beauty

Health and fitness

Increasingly more people are turning to YouTube instead of the gym. From bodybuilding to yoga to simple tips for leading a more healthy lifestyle, there are numerous YouTube fitness influencers who’ve had great success with the platform. If you want to tap into this niche, the following hashtags will help you to tip the scales in your favor: 13. #mondaymotivation 14. #health 15. #healthylifestyle 16. #wellness 17. #stayhealthy 18. #fitness 19. #fitnessjourney 20. #healthcoach 21. #fitnessfreak 22. #bodyfitness

Food and drink

For many of us, if we’re not eating, we’re busy planning our next meal. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that content about food is always trending. Whether you’re trying unusual foods for the very first time, reviewing restaurants, or sharing cooking tutorials, there are loads of different types of videos that you can create about food and drink. To complement your video, you can spice up your description with a few of these trending hashtags: 23. #food 24. #drinks 25. #goodfood 26. #foodies 27. #beverages 28. #cocktails 29. #restaurant 30. #fitnessfood 31. #foodporn 32. #cleaneating

Education

Education-related content, especially videos aimed at children, is a huge niche. As a matter of fact, a few of the most popular content creators on YouTube target kids. And, you don’t necessarily need to be a kid influencer like Ryan Kaji to start your own YouTube channel for kids. To help your channel get found, here are some hashtags that you can use: 33. #nurseryrhymes 34. #peppapigenglish 35. #peppa 36. #peppapig 37. #loolookids 38. #babysharkchallenge 39. #kidssongs 40. #games 41. #education 42. #learning 43. #children 44. #littleangelnurseryrhymes

Entertainment

If you’re less concerned with educating your viewers, but simply want to share entertaining content, you can try to incorporate a few of the following hashtags: 45. #music 46. #newmusic 47. #funny 48. #vlog 49. #memes 50. #soundcloud 51. #podcast 52. #spotify 53. #entertainment

Gaming

While Twitch might be the biggest online video gaming streaming platform, many users also turn to YouTube for gaming content. To help you stay ahead of the game, here are some of the most popular hashtags for videos in this niche: 54. #gaming 55. #fortnite 56. #game 57. #xbox 58. #playstation 59. #live

Tech

Many people turn to YouTube for their daily dose of tech news and, with the rise of cryptocurrency, fintech specifically is a hot topic. From product reviews to unboxing videos to trending rumors, there are various types of videos that you can create about tech-related stuff and a number of hashtags that you can use like: 60. #technology  61. #design 62. #technews 63. #gadgets 64. #engineering 65. #tech 66. #fintech 67. #investment 68. #bitcoin 69. #crypto 70. #cryptocurrency

Lifestyle

Lifestyle is one of the domains in which YouTube influencers can help to impact consumer decisions a lot. It’s quite a broad classification and can also include some of the other categories, like food, that we’ve already listed. In any case, if you’re creating content with the goal of improving your viewers’ overall quality of life, here are some hashtags that might be relevant: 71. #motivation 72. #photography 73. #love 74. #knowledge 75. #travelphotography 76. #travel 77. #homedecor 78. #luxury 79. #art 80. #style 81. #life

Generic

There are also a number of more generic, popular hashtags that you can add to your YouTube videos to help boost viewership and attract more subscribers. These include: 82. #subscribe 83. #subscriber 84. #newvideo 85. #video 86. #youtube 87. #youtuber 88. #youtubechannel 89. #youtubecommunity 90. #youtubecontent 91. #youtubeguru 92. #youtubevideo 93. #youtubeislife 94. #shorts 95. #like 96. #viral 97. #follow 98. #trending 99. #news 100. #tbt

How Many Hashtags Should You Add?

Now that you have a better idea of which hashtags you can use, you’re probably wondering how many you should use. Sure, YouTube has its own limits, though, that doesn’t mean that you should use the maximum number allowed.  According to SproutSocial, it’s best to cap the number of hashtags to no more than two in your title. With regards to hashtags placed at the end of the video’s description, you’re looking at about three to five. However, keep in mind that as only the first three will appear at the top of your title, it’s best to organize them in order of relevancy. 

Where Can You Find More Hashtags?

While the above-mentioned list has some of the most popular YouTube hashtags at the moment, it doesn’t mean that they will necessarily be relevant for your type of content. At the end of the day, you shouldn’t just add hashtags for the sake of adding something. As mentioned earlier, if there’s no direct connection you end up running the risk that YouTube might delete your video. When this happens, not only won’t your target audience be able to see any hashtags, but your actual video won’t be viewable.  To help you find more relevant, popular hashtags, you can try the following:

Use YouTube’s autosuggest feature

When you type in the hashtag symbol (“#”) into the search bar, the platform will automatically display hashtags that are currently trending. If any of these trending hashtags are relevant to your video’s content, you can add them. Alternatively, you can also begin your search by typing in your topic (preceded by the “#” symbol) to see which are some of the most popular hashtags.  

Use a third-party tool

If you’re searching for something more powerful and capable than YouTube’s autosuggest feature, you can turn to a third-party tool. There are a number of hashtag research tools that can help you to uncover the most effective words. You can, for example, check out Keyword Tools that you can use for YouTube and Instagram hashtags. 

Tips for Using Hashtags on YouTube

To help you make the most of these most popular YouTube hashtags listed above, you still have to do some research. Before you add a hashtag to your video’s title or description, it’s a good idea first to do a quick search and see what else shows up. In some instances, a hashtag can mean something quite different than what you think and it could end up damaging your brand. Also, you don’t want to be associated with irrelevant or low-quality content.   Then, after you’ve added your hashtags and uploaded your videos, you still have some work left. Just like you should do your research before adding hashtags, you should also set some time aside to check out your own stats. This extra step will help you to keep tabs on how your videos are performing, helping you to identify which words work better than others.

Wrapping Things Up

Hashtags offer a number of perks. Not only can it help you to categorize your videos (without having to create playlists), but it will also increase viewership. If you don’t want to use any of the hashtags mentioned in this article (or you can’t find one that’s relevant to your videos), you can always turn to YouTube’s auto suggest feature or invest in a third-party tool. Whatever you do, never overuse them or add an irrelevant one just for the sake of using hashtags. The last thing you want is for your video to get removed over one silly hashtag mistake.  Working with other video content creators Starting an email newsletter in which you share links to your latest video Marketing it via social media or a podcast Running a competition Talkwalker ViralStat TubeBuddy Vidooly YouScan Digimind