Earlier this year, we published an article examining the use of hashtags on LinkedIn and whether they are still necessary for your posts.

LinkedIn has had a fluctuating stance on hashtags—initially resisting them for a long time before integrating them, then removing them again, and finally reintroducing them in 2018 with a stronger focus on hashtag use for content discovery.

However, LinkedIn has since sent mixed signals regarding the importance of hashtags, including their gradual removal from on-profile displays in Creator Mode. We reached out to LinkedIn to clarify their stance, and they indicated that while hashtags can aid in discovery, their algorithms now also take a wider range of contextual cues into account when matching search queries.

Today, LinkedIn provided further insights with a new engineering overview of its Search system and the advancements made to incorporate semantic matching—meaning they use a broader array of elements to address search prompts.

LinkedIn explained:

“Reviewing our capabilities, we recognized that we needed to enhance our content search results for complex queries. Occasionally, we either returned no posts because none contained all the keywords from a query or delivered posts that had all the keywords but didn’t accurately address the question due to a lack of conceptual understanding. Our analysis revealed that we often had posts in our search index that could provide correct answers, even if they didn’t include all the keywords in the query. This insight led us to develop semantic matching capabilities in our content search engine.”

The overview details how LinkedIn has incorporated more elements to comprehend and respond to search queries, focusing on the full query text (including concepts, not just keywords) and personalization based on past interactions.

LinkedIn evaluates the performance of these updated queries by measuring topic matching and dwell time, which indicate the relevance of the results provided.

The improvements have led to notable advancements in content discovery:

“Our new content search engine with semantic capabilities allows us to effectively respond to complex queries like ‘how to ask for a raise?’ and has enhanced on-topic rates and long dwell times by over 10%. We’ve also seen a positive effect on sitewide sessions, as members engage more with the platform when they receive better search results.”

So, does this imply that hashtags are no longer necessary since LinkedIn’s discovery system is now more adept at matching queries using more than just keywords?

In a word, yes. Based on these improvements, you probably don’t need hashtags like you used to, and if you’ve mentioned a keyword in a post, adding a hashtag of the same term is probably not improving your chances of discovery.

Essentially, LinkedIn’s search algorithm is now smarter, and takes in a broader range of elements from your posts, in order to better align with queries. So even if you don’t have the exact right hashtag, the system will likely still be able to match your content up.

So, my advice would be don’t include a hashtag if it’s replicating a term already included in a post, and don’t go too crazy on tags overall, because they’re probably not adding a heap anyway.