Brian Appleton — February 20, 2018 — February 20, 2018
If you’ve fallen victim to the Instagram shadowban, your posts are basically invisible to all non-followers. But don’t worry, the shadowban doesn’t have to be permanent–you can fix it. While it sounds like something straight out of a video game, the shadowban is Instagram’s attempt to enforce their platform rules and discourage unfair and spammy posting tactics.
The shadowban essentially removes the ability of your posts to be seen by anyone but your current followers. Hashtags become next-to-useless because non-followers will not be able to discover your hidden content, even if they search a specific hashtag. If you’re worried about the shadowban, or your account has been shadowbanned, read on to see how you can avoid the Instagram kiss of death.
Potential Symptoms of the Shadowban Effect
If you opened your Instagram account one morning and noticing that you had just one pitiful like, you may have experienced an “Oh S#%t” moment. If you normally receive 100 likes a day (or even 40) and suddenly experience a massive drop, you may have been shadowbanned.
Signs You’ve Been Shadowbanned:
- A drop in engagement
- A drop in impressions
- A drop in reach
- A drop in comments
Make sure you correctly identify the cause as shadowbanning before doing anything else. Here’s how: search for one of the hashtags included on your most recent post. If you can’t find your post in the search results, you’ve been shadowbanned.
How to Remove the Shadowban From Your Instagram Account
Overcoming the Instagram shadowban requires you to make some quick adjustments to your existing posts, and modify your ongoing posting practices. Start with the most immediate items first.
Change immediately:
- Delete ALL of the hashtags on your most recent Instagram posts
- Contact Instagram and tell them that your posts aren’t showing up in hashtag searches, but DO NOT tell them you’ve been shadowbanned
- Do not post for at least 2-3 days
Posting practices to adopt:
- Place your hashtags in the post, NOT in the comments–keep your post looking clean by adding white space between the copy and hashtags
- Use fewer hashtags, and definitely don’t approach the maximum number allowed (30)
If you follow these steps, there’s a good chance you can recover your account to its pre-shadowban days.
What Contributes to an Instagram Shadowban?
Breaking Instagram’s Terms of Use is the fastest way to land your account on the shadowban list. While Instagram hasn’t come out and provided any details on the shadowban, it’s a good guess that it was put in place to fight “spammy” practices. Make sure you’re not liking more than 150 posts, posting more than 60 comments, or following/unfollowing more than 60 accounts every hour.
Also, don’t use third-party programs and software that violate Instagram’s Terms of Service. If you do, Instagram will instantly detect the differing IP addresses and flag your account. It’s also a good idea to switch up the hashtags that you use after a month or two so your posting looks more organic.
And one more thing: Don’t ever purchase followers.
If you’re using bots to follow/unfollow accounts and engage on Instagram, you could be in violation of their Terms of Use.
How to Avoid the Instagram Shadowban
Follow Instagram posting best practices and focus on creating and sharing non-promotional, authentic content. Instagram wants users to contribute to a fun, safe community, so also refrain from posting offensive content.
Avoiding the shadowban is pretty simple really; just comply with the rules of Instagram and you’ll be golden. Play by the rules, contribute great content, and you’ll have nothing to worry about.
This article was originally published here.
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