Instagram engagement down - is my account shadowbanned?

[Angela]

My engagement dropped by like 70% over the past two weeks and I'm worried i got shadowbanned. my posts used to get 300-400 likes and now they're getting 80-120

I didn't do anything different. no banned hashtags, no violations, no spam behavior. but something is clearly wrong

How do you know if you're shadowbanned on instagram? and if i am, how do i fix it?

[Uptrend]

Everyone blames shadowbanning but 99% of the time it's just your content not performing well

instagram doesn't shadowban accounts as often as people think. what actually happens is:
- your recent posts got low engagement so instagram stops showing your new posts to as many people
- you're stuck in a low engagement cycle

The algorithm ranks content based on predicted engagement. if your last 5 posts got low engagement, instagram predicts your next post will also get low engagement and doesn't show it to many people

this isn't a ban, it's just how the algorithm works. you need to break the cycle by creating content that performs significantly better

here's what worked for me:
- analyzed my top performing posts from the past 6 months
- made more content similar to those
- used stronger hooks in reels (first 1 second determines if people watch)
- asked questions in captions to drive comments

took about 3-4 posts but my engagement recovered. now i'm back to normal reach

stop looking for external problems (shadowban, algorithm, instagram hates me) and start looking at what you can control (content quality, engagement tactics)

[SarahVlogs]

I thought i was shadowbanned last month but turns out i wasn't, my content just wasn't performing well

here's how to actually check if you're shadowbanned:
1. post a story with a hashtag, then search that hashtag while logged out. if your story doesn't show up, you might be shadowbanned
2. use a shadowban checker tool (there are free ones online)
3. check if you can see your own posts under the hashtags you used

most of the time it's not a shadowban, it's just:
- your recent content underperforming so instagram shows it to fewer people
- algorithm changes affecting your account type
- decreased engagement from your current followers

what i did to recover:
- took a 3 day break from posting
- when i came back i focused on creating really engaging content (not just posting for the sake of posting)
- engaged heavily with other accounts in my niche
- switched up my content style

My reach came back after about 2 weeks. if you're actually shadowbanned it usually lifts after 14 days as long as you don't violate any more rules