Have you fallen into the trap of Instagram's 'Shadow Ban'? Here's how to get out of it!

Lately, there has been increasing talk of easy ways to make your Instagram profile more attractive quickly. Using proxy data centres, doing actions via automations, using the same #’s over and over again and using # spam can land your profile in the Instagram Shadow Ban. But what is this specifically about?

Shadow Ban is an Instagram algorithm penalty that affects business profiles. The content posted by accounts affected by Shadow Ban becomes virtually invisible to Instagram users who do not follow the profile. Hence the name of the penalty, and in case you haven’t guessed, the ghost is you, or rather your Instagram profile.

The Shadow Ban limits its scope to the hashtags section. Images published by profiles affected by the penalty are no longer visible in the hashtags section by users who do not follow the profile. The owner of the penalised profile is not aware of this at all. The user continues to see their pictures in the hashtags section. The only thing he notices is a drop in engagement.

So, to sum up:

1. The penalty operates only in the hashtags section
2. Only affects users who are not following you

The Instagram Shadow Ban penalises the coverage of a profile’s posts. Whenever a post is published, there is a significant drop in coverage and likes, significantly lower than posts published in the past, which is constantly repeated for each new post published.

It’s not a case of Shadow Ban when one post has gone wrong or if some posts go well and others go wrong, as this is the normal functioning of the platform. Unfortunately, there is still no magic recipe to make all posts go well, also because if it really existed, and we all used it, we would be back to square one: Instagram would not know what content to highlight, as it should give visibility to all. On the contrary, having fluctuating results is perhaps a good thing, because it gives us the opportunity to better understand what content is working and what is not.

How can you find out if you have been affected? It’s very easy: try logging into your Instagram profile from another profile, or better still from another device. Don’t look at the popular section because that changes all the time, especially if the hashtag you are monitoring is very popular. It is among the recent content that you should look for your photo. If you cannot find it in that section, then your suspicions are confirmed!

But don’t worry, we’ll help you! Here are some ingredients that we think would make the perfect ‘home-made’ recipe:

• Delete #’s from last 15 photos
• Do not post for 3 days (yes to stories and likes)
• After 3 days, make the first 3 posts without #s
• From here you can go back to posting #’s
• Shadow ban usually lasts for around 14 days, provided that you use these measures to get out of it

N.B. Spam #’s should not be used and the same #’s should not always be used in posts.

If you still have doubts after this post, do not hesitate to contact us, our social experts will be happy to help you!