Straight answer: no hashtag on its own will make a TikTok video go viral, and anyone telling you #fyp or #foryoupage is the secret is selling you nonsense. What hashtags do is help TikTok’s system understand your video’s topic faster, which speeds up how quickly it gets shown to the right test audience. The videos that go viral are the ones that keep people watching, rewatching, and sharing, hashtags just help TikTok sort you into the right room.
Related reading: How Do You Find the Best Hashtags to Grow Engagement With Your Best Fr.
Why I stopped obsessing over hashtags (and what I watch instead)
I ran a small experiment on my own TikTok account back in early 2025. I posted 24 videos over six weeks, half with five to seven hashtags including broad ones like #marketing and #smallbusiness, and half with just one or two specific hashtags plus a proper caption. The average views were almost identical, around 1,800 to 2,400 per video. What separated the four videos that went past 40,000 views wasn’t the hashtags at all, it was watch time. Every single one of those four had an average watch percentage above 65%, while the flops sat under 20%. That gap told me everything I needed to know about where my energy should go.
This isn’t just my own small test. TikTok has said publicly, including in interviews with outlets like the BBC and in its own Wikipedia entry on the platform’s history, that its recommendation system leans heavily on user interaction signals, watch time, replays, shares, and completion rate, far more than on tags or captions. Hashtags exist mainly to classify content, not to boost it.
So what do hashtags do on TikTok?
Think of hashtags as a filing system, not a growth lever. When you post a video, TikTok’s algorithm scans your caption, your hashtags, your audio, and even the words spoken in the video (yes, it reads captions and transcribes speech) to work out what category to test it in first. Get that classification wrong and your video might get shown to the wrong small test audience, people who scroll past without watching, which tanks your early signals before you’ve had a fair shot.
So the real job of a hashtag is accuracy, not reach. Use hashtags that describe the content: #ukbusinesstips, not #viral. #airfryerrecipe, not #fyp. Specific beats broad every single time because specific hashtags have a smaller, more relevant pool of people who are likely to watch the whole thing.
The three types worth using
- Content hashtags: describe exactly what’s happening. #smallbusinessmarketing, #contentcreatortips, #ukhospitality. These help classification.
- Niche community hashtags: smaller tags with an active, loyal audience. Think #booktok, #accountingtok, #smallbizuk. These often have better engagement rates than huge generic ones because the audience is self-selecting.
- Trend-tagged hashtags: tied to a current sound, challenge, or format. These matter for timing, not for magic reach, and they expire fast, often within 7 to 10 days.
What I’d drop entirely: #fyp, #foryoupage, #viral, #trending. TikTok’s own creators and several data teams that track hashtag performance have found these tags now carry billions of posts each, meaning your video is one grain of sand in a desert. They do nothing for classification because they describe nothing.
A simple step-by-step for choosing hashtags on any video
- Write your caption first, hashtags second. Your caption should already tell TikTok and the viewer what the video is about in plain English.
- Pick one broad category tag. Something with a decent but not overwhelming volume, ideally under 500,000 posts if you’re a smaller account.
- Add two to three specific tags that describe the exact content, tone, or niche. This is where you’ll get real classification accuracy.
- Check if there’s a live trend or sound tied to a hashtag right now and use it if it fits naturally, not forced.
- Keep the total to four to six hashtags. Stuffing in fifteen tags looks spammy and, from what I’ve seen across client accounts, doesn’t correlate with better reach at all.
If you want a faster way to spot what’s moving right now rather than guessing, I wrote a full walkthrough on how to find trending hashtags for free, using tools that don’t cost a penny, which pairs well with checking TikTok’s own Creative Center for real-time hashtag volume before you post.
What correlates with videos going viral (from watching hundreds of client accounts)
I’ve worked with small business owners across the UK, the US, and here in Israel where I split my time, and the pattern repeats no matter the country or niche. The videos that take off share these traits far more consistently than any hashtag choice:
- A hook in the first 1.5 seconds. No slow intros, no “hey guys.” State the point, ask the question, or show the result immediately.
- A trending or well-known sound. TikTok pushes content using audio that’s currently popular slightly harder in early distribution, because it’s testing the sound as well as the video. I keep a running note of what’s working, and it lines up closely with what’s covered in this list of popular TikTok songs, which updates often enough to be useful rather than stale.
- A caption that creates curiosity or states a clear benefit, not a string of emojis.
- Native filming. Videos shot in the app, slightly imperfect, outperform polished ad-style clips reposted from other platforms. TikTok’s system can often detect watermarks from Instagram Reels or CapCut exports and quietly deprioritises them.
- Posting consistency over a run of weeks, not one lucky video. Almost every viral hit I’ve seen for a client came after 15 to 20 posts of building the account’s signal, not the very first upload.
The uncomfortable bit nobody wants to say out loud
Here’s the part that annoys people when I say it in workshops: for most small businesses, chasing viral hashtags is a distraction from the thing that pays the bills. A video with 200,000 views and no clear call to action, no link, no follow-up, is often worth less to your business than a video with 3,000 views that brings in five genuine enquiries. I’ve had clients get more booked calls off a 4,000-view TikTok with a direct offer in the caption than off a 500,000-view video that was purely entertaining. Virality feels brilliant and looks brilliant on a screenshot, but it doesn’t automatically convert to money, and treating hashtags like a lottery ticket keeps business owners busy without keeping them profitable.
If you’re running TikTok for a business rather than for fun, the hashtag question should come after you’ve answered a bigger one: what do you want the viewer to do next? I go into this in more depth in my guide on how to effectively promote your business with TikTok, because the strategy around the video matters more than the four words you type into the hashtag box.
Hashtags on TikTok versus other platforms, and why the comparison trips people up
A lot of confusion comes from people carrying over habits from other platforms. On Facebook, hashtags barely move the needle at all now, they’re mostly cosmetic and searchable rather than distribution tools, which I’ve covered in detail in my piece on Facebook hashtags and what they do for reach. On Instagram, hashtags used to matter enormously around 2018 to 2020, then Instagram quietly reduced their weight as Reels took over distribution. TikTok’s hashtag system is closer to a search and classification tool than a discovery amplifier, and treating it like the old Instagram playbook, where you’d stack thirty tags in a comment, just wastes your caption space.
The one place hashtags still carry real weight on TikTok is search. TikTok has openly positioned itself as a search engine for younger users, and Google has confirmed in its own reporting that a meaningful share of Gen Z now starts product and recommendation searches on TikTok rather than Google. So a hashtag like #londonrestaurants or #ukfreelancetips isn’t there to trigger the algorithm, it’s there so someone typing that exact phrase into TikTok’s search bar finds your video. That’s a completely different job to “going viral,” and it’s arguably more useful for small businesses because search intent converts better than passive scrolling.
What to do with a viral video once it happens
This is the part that gets skipped constantly. If a video does take off, hashtags played almost no part in what happens next, but your response does. Reply to the top comments within the first hour, TikTok’s system reads that as active engagement and can extend the video’s reach further. Post a follow-up video referencing the viral one within 24 to 48 hours while attention is still warm. And repurpose the moment, turn the clip into a Reel, a YouTube Short, and a LinkedIn native video, because one good hook filmed once can earn you views on four platforms rather than one. I’ve written a full breakdown of the tools that make this fast rather than a three-hour editing job in my guide to the best content repurposing tools for video, audio, and social.
None of that repurposing decision has anything to do with hashtags either. It’s a strategy decision, and it’s the piece that separates accounts that have one viral fluke from accounts that build a real audience out of it.
A quick, honest checklist before you hit post
- Does the caption alone explain what this video is about, without the hashtags?
- Have I used one broad tag and two to three specific ones, total four to six?
- Have I dropped #fyp, #foryoupage, and #viral entirely?
- Is there a trending or recognisable sound attached?
- Does the video have a clear hook in the first 1.5 seconds?
- Do I know what I want the viewer to do after watching?
If you’re building this into a wider social strategy rather than posting on a whim, it’s worth stepping back and looking at where TikTok fits against everything else you’re doing, which is exactly what I cover in my piece on social media as a genuine marketing engine rather than a place you post and hope.
Frequently asked questions
Do more hashtags mean more views on TikTok?
No. My own tests and client data consistently show no meaningful correlation between hashtag count and view count. Four to six accurate, specific hashtags perform just as well as fifteen generic ones, and often better because the video gets classified correctly and shown to a more relevant test audience.
Should I still use #fyp or #foryoupage?
There’s little reason to. These hashtags carry so much volume, often billions of posts, that they describe nothing to TikTok’s classification system and add zero targeting value. They were more relevant in 2019 and 2020 when TikTok’s algorithm was less advanced.
How many hashtags should a TikTok video have?
Four to six is the practical range that shows up consistently across accounts I’ve worked with: one broader category tag, two or three specific descriptive tags, and occasionally one trend-tied tag if it fits the content.
What matters more than hashtags for going viral on TikTok?
Watch time and completion rate matter far more. A video that keeps 65% or more of viewers watching to the end will consistently outperform a video with perfect hashtags but a weak hook, because TikTok’s recommendation system prioritises engagement signals over tag choice.
Related reading: How Do You Increase Engagement on Instagram Organically? and How Do I Improve Engagement On My Instagram Posts.
For the bigger picture, see my full guide to social media marketing.
For Facebook and Instagram specifically, try the free generator I built for Reels. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and it weights the set towards the small and mid sized tags you can realistically rank in.
