How to find out if you're shadowbanned on Instagram and—better yet—how to fix it
Raise your hand if you're like "What in the hello kitty is shadowbanning??" 🙋🏻♀️
AND... to take it a step further, you have no clue how to figure out if your account is shadowbanned. 🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️
I'm here to break it alllll down for you:
What is shadowbanning?
When your account is shadowbanned, it means your posts are not discoverable. They won't be found on the hashtags you worked so hard to curate or even the explore pages of anyone who follows you. Terrible, I know.
How do you know your account is shadowbanned?
So how do you find out if your account has been dinged enough to land yourself in Instagram jail with no "Get Out of Jail Free" card in sight?
There are a couple ways:
1. If you have a business account, you can use your insights to see if you've seen a drastic drop in non-followers viewing or interacting with your content.
📲 Click on "view insights" on an individual post and under Discovery you'll see ____% weren't following @yourhandle. If the percentage has been consistently abysmal despite your efforts to add geotags, hashtags, and more, your account has most likely been shadowbanned.
2. The most reliable way to find out is to post and then log into a different account or ask a friend to see if your post is showing up on the hashtags you used. If it isn't visible, you've been shadowbanned.
How have you ended up here?
The most common reasons for Instagram shadowbanning. Either you're:
- Not complying with community standards.
- Buying followers or faking engagement.
- Using banned or flagged hashtags.
- Using the same hashtags over and over.
- Over-engaging (yes, that's a thing).
- Do a little hashtag spring cleaning. Audit them and make sure they aren't banned or flagged by IG. You can do this by typing the hashtag into the search bar. If it doesn't appear in the search results, it's been banned.
- Slow your roll on the over-engagement. Instagram only allows up to 500 actions a day—that includes: likes, comments, DMs, and follows or un-follows.
- Comply with all community guidelines. If you believe you've complied and are still shadowbanned, report the issue to Instagram. Tap on Settings, then Report a Problem.