Survey concludes three is the optimum number of hashtags per tweet

Publishers seeking to optimise the reach of their tweets should include at least two, and preferably three hashtags. 

That’s the conclusion of research from Echobox, the AI-powered publishing solution, which studied  6.5 million tweets from publishers during a one-year period. 

The study found that across all publishers, including exactly three hashtags generates 16% more pageviews on average compared to tweets with no hashtags

The tweets were studied across eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, Arabic and Dutch.

Interestingly the results contradict Twitter’s recommendation of “no more than two hashtags per tweet.” 

The research also concluded that for tweets that regularly generate little to no traffic, the inclusion of hashtags has little impact on pageviews and traffic.

Antoine Amann, CEO of Echobox, said: “Prior to this study, publishers have not had data-backed guidelines for using hashtags on Twitter. Many have missed out on traffic opportunities or spent time curating unnecessarily long lists of hashtags for each Tweet. This new research offers publishers unique insight and precise best practices around how to use Twitter hashtags to their full potential.”