Hashtags on YouTube do less than most creators think and more than the sceptics claim. They will not rescue a video with a bad title, and stuffing thirty of them can get the whole set ignored. But three well-chosen tags put a video into a hashtag results page that competitors may not be occupying, and they help YouTube’s system classify a new channel it knows nothing about. Here is how they actually work, based on YouTube’s documented rules and what I’ve seen across channels I’ve helped set up.
Where hashtags appear and what they do
Add hashtags to a video’s description and YouTube displays up to three of them above the title. Add them to the title itself and they appear there instead. Clicking one opens a results page for that hashtag: a feed of videos using it, which is a real discovery surface, especially on mobile where it sits under the video.
Two effects follow:
- Classification. YouTube’s recommendation system uses many signals to work out what a video is about. Hashtags are one of the explicit ones, and they carry more weight for new channels with little watch history.
- Hashtag pages. Rank in a hashtag feed and you get impressions from people browsing that tag. Niche tags with a few thousand videos are winnable;
#shortswith a billion is not.
YouTube’s rules
- No spaces inside a hashtag:
#VideoEditing, not#Video Editing. - Over 60 hashtags on a video and YouTube ignores all of them. Practically, over 15 starts to look like spam to viewers.
- Misleading tags (trending topics unrelated to the video) violate the spam policy and can get the video removed.
- Harassment, vulgar language and sexual content in tags are prohibited.
- Only the first three in the description are shown above the title, in the order written.
How many, and which ones
Three to five. That is enough to cover the topic, the sub-topic and the format without diluting anything.
| Slot | Purpose | Example (a video on colour grading in DaVinci Resolve) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Broad topic | Tells YouTube the category | #VideoEditing |
| 2. Specific subject | Targets a winnable hashtag page | #DaVinciResolve |
| 3. Exact technique or intent | Matches what the viewer searched | #ColorGrading |
| 4. (optional) Series or brand | Groups your own content | #ResolveIn5 |
Put the three you most want displayed first in the description. Paste the topic into the YouTube Hashtag Generator to get candidates for each slot, then check a few by opening youtube.com/hashtag/yourtag and looking at the feed. If the top videos there have millions of views from big channels, pick a narrower tag; if the feed is empty or stale, pick a more common one.
Hashtags vs. tags vs. keywords
These get confused constantly:
- Hashtags: public, clickable, in the description or title. Covered above.
- Tags: the hidden “tags” field in the upload form. YouTube says these play a minimal role and mainly help with commonly misspelled terms. Fill them, don’t obsess.
- Keywords: the words in your title, description and spoken audio. These matter far more than either of the above. A video titled “colour grading tutorial” will rank for that phrase because of the title, not because of
#ColorGrading.
Shorts
#Shorts is no longer required for a vertical video under 60 seconds (now up to 3 minutes) to be treated as a Short; the format detects it. It does no harm and some creators keep it for the hashtag feed. Shorts benefit from the same three-tag structure, and because the description is hidden behind a tap on mobile, the title is where the visible hashtag should go.
A quick workflow
- Write the title and description first, with the main keyword in both.
- Generate hashtag candidates and pick 3–5 using the slot structure.
- Check each hashtag page for competition.
- Put the top three at the end of the description, or one in the title if you want it visible on Shorts.
- After a month, open YouTube Studio → Analytics → Reach → Traffic source → “Hashtag pages” to see whether any of them sent views. Keep the ones that did; swap the ones that didn’t on the next upload.
Use the YouTube Video Analytics Checker on competitors’ videos to see which tags they use alongside view counts, and the Thumbnail Downloader if you are studying their packaging at the same time.
Frequently asked questions
Do hashtags help YouTube videos get views?
Modestly. They help classify new content and can rank in hashtag feeds. Title, thumbnail and retention matter far more.
How many hashtags should I use on YouTube?
Three to five. More than 60 causes all of them to be ignored; more than 15 looks like spam.
Should hashtags go in the title or the description?
Description for long-form (the first three show above the title anyway). Title for Shorts, where the description is hidden.
Is #Shorts still necessary?
No. Vertical videos of the right length are detected automatically. It is optional.
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