TikTok SEO is a rising trend in the world of SEO. With the massive number of users on TikTok everyday, and with Google adding TikToks to search results, it is natural that SEO would become important to TikTok creators. Interestingly, TikTok SEO applies not only to Google and traditional search, but also to the search within TikTok itself, as the TikTok company recently came out with guidelines on how to receive a higher search ranking within the app.
In the past, TikTok posts weren’t included in Google searches, but now they show up in the SERP. Furthermore, Buffer.com says that “according to Google’s internal research, when looking for a place for lunch, almost 40% of young people…go straight to TikTok.” This change in where consumers go to look for products/services presents a unique opportunity to begin optimizing TikTok content in order to get your product seen.
So, how does TikTok SEO work? Unlike traditional SEO, TikTok SEO rests heavily on visual optimization rather than text optimization. Creators need to be certain that they’re optimizing their visual content to be relevant to their audiences. Additionally, hashtags are the equivalent of keywords. The hashtags used on a video need to be relevant to the content created, but also popular and highly searched.
TikTok also ranks videos based on interactions with followers. These are things such as likes, shares, comments, etc. This shows the search engine that the video is relevant and interesting to consumers.
Another way to get a good SERP position with TikTok is to have valuable details in your video, like trending audio and relevant captions. The text on TikTok videos should reflect the specific unique niche that your TikToks serve. This will alert the search engine that your video is relevant to that specific following, and will result in your TikTok’s being more highly recommeneded to that audience.
Ultimately, TikTok’s popularity, and the addition of TikToks in the google search results page, means that TikTok SEO is a crucial addition to any content creator’s strategy.
4 Responses
I think this is a very interesting look into TikTok’s dominant role in society today. Because TikTok posts now show up in Google results and many young people now use TikTok as their primary mode of searching, TikTok is an ideal platform for companies to advertise their products. The way TikTok utilizes visual optimization and data from users makes its version of SEO very successful, and I agree that it is definitely a form of social media that companies should consider using.
This post was very interesting, especially with how popular TikTok is becoming these past few years. I agree with what you said about hashtags, visuals, and certain audios being important to enhance search. Often times when I am on TikTok, I click on a certain sound, and that’s how I may find another video I want to watch. Also, hashtags are very important because they can almost be used like Google- if you have a specific search, you can go to TikTok and type a hashtag of your choice and get shown thousands of videos related to what you are looking for.
I liked how you mentioned how important it is for online creators to optimize their visual content. Using trending sounds and covering popular topics is a great way for people to get noticed. However, I often see so many variations of the same content online, especially on TikTok, that I can’t imagine it’s easy to stand out. Great post!
TikTok has become a very popular social media platform, so it is smart to add SEO to TikTok. Influencers want viewers to see their videos first and not their competitors, and search engines would allow for them to get a large number of views. It is also an interesting statistic about how 40% of young people go to TikTok and not Google. That means if you want to reach the younger generation, companies should really invest in publicizing themselves on TikTok.