YouTube treats hashtags mostly as a search and categorization signal rather than a discovery feed people scroll through. They show above your video title when added to the description, and they link to a results page for that tag, but the video’s title, description, and how well it holds attention matter far more to whether it actually gets recommended.
Tags by content type
Tutorials and how-to
- tutorial
- howto
- stepbystep
- beginnerfriendly
Vlogs and lifestyle
- vlog
- dayinthelife
- behindthescenes
Gaming
- gameplay
- gamingchannel
- letsplay
Business and finance
- smallbusiness
- personalfinance
- entrepreneurtips
Reviews and comparisons
- review
- unboxing
- comparison
How YouTube actually uses tags
Hashtags added to a description appear above the video title on the watch page, and up to three of them show there. Beyond that first three, additional tags still get associated with the video for search purposes but don’t display prominently. YouTube’s separate “tags” field, a different feature from hashtags, plays an even smaller role in search than it used to and matters far less than the title, description, and how long people actually watch.
How many to use
YouTube allows up to 60 hashtags total, but only the first three show above the title, and using close to the maximum reads as an attempt to game search rather than a real classification. A handful of specific, accurate tags does more than a long list of generic ones. A YouTube hashtag generator can help narrow down a relevant set, and a hashtag counter keeps you from overshooting.
What to do instead
Spend the real effort on the title and the first two lines of the description, both of which carry far more search weight than hashtags do. A specific, accurate title beats a vague one with ten hashtags stapled on every time.