EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TIKTOK SEO

Victory Umurhurhu
5 min readAug 13, 2022

Trust me, doing weird dance steps isn’t one of them…

Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash

TikTok, a well-known social media platform enables users to make, watch, and share 15-second videos taken using mobile devices or webcams. The TikTok app gives users access to a large library of sounds and music excerpts, as well as the choice of adding further effects and filters. Directly adding videos made on your phone is another alternative.

TikTok users spend more than 850 minutes a month on the app, there are 1 billion active monthly users (as of January 2022), 3 billion installations and over 167 million hours of TikTok videos are watched every minute online.

The amount of time spent looking through TikTok is rapidly increasing, and the software is known for hooking people in. TikTok surpassed Facebook and Instagram in 2020, with users spending 38.6 minutes on the app, 4 minutes longer than Facebook’s 34.6 minutes.

People are turning from Google’s long-form content to Tiktok’s short-form content

The long-form content on Google is becoming outdated because people now produce multiple content on TikTok without wasting so much time. These short videos can give information and attract viewers within minutes of uploading.

According to Google’s internal research, about 40% of Gen Z preferred TikTok for search over Google.

People make enquiries on TikTok and get the best answers attached with sincere reviews. With the aid of the algorithm that adapts to how you use the platform, TikTok has also staked a claim to its popularity by making sure that it offers the types of content you wish to view

In 2020, 40% of Gen Z and millennials will be obsessed with Tiktok, reducing Google traffic as the year progresses. Recently, TikTok’s success has mainly been attributed to its growing appeal to Gen Z and Millennial users, who account for 80% of its user base.

Is Tiktok a search engine?

Instead of utilizing more conventional search engines like Google Search and Google Maps, young people are increasingly turning to social networking sites like TikTok to find things to do, places to visit, and even news and vital information. Although, it hasn’t been made official that TikTok is a search engine, it performs more of this responsibility.

TikTok users will spend more time on the social media platform than YouTube users will. This gap will be only a fraction of a second, but it will grow with time.

4 TIPS TO GETTING MORE VIEWS AND DOMINATING THE FOR YOU PAGE

1. Explore current trends

It’s important to jump on current trends, whether it’s a new style or colour, an item in the news or a popular event. If something is popular, people will likely be talking about it and searching for it online. You can use this to your advantage by posting interesting content that relates to the trend and then promoting it through your TikTok page.

2. Use the right hashtags

Skincare hashtag

It’s important to use the right hashtags so that you can get more views and reach more people. Hashtags should be relevant, descriptive and engaging. The best ones will be able to connect your post with other people’s posts.

3. Try out the familiarity principle

The familiarity principle is a psychological bias that suggests that people are more likely to remember what they already know than what they don’t. The more familiar you are with your audience, the easier it is for them to find you.

4. Utilise great cliffhangers

When creating a short-form video, you’ll want to make sure that you’re getting people to watch the entire thing. A good way to do this is by using a “cliffhanger” at the end of your video. A cliffhanger is just a preview of what’s coming up next. You’ll see that this tactic is prominent in many hot videos.

HOW TO OPTIMISE TIKTOK CONTENT FOR SEARCH RESULTS

Understanding the TikTok algorithm to gain views differs from optimising TikTok content to appear in TikTok search results.

It also provides businesses with an opportunity to reach new audiences through its search function. Here are some tips on how to optimise content so that it shows up when people are searching for it:

1. Add your search keywords in the text on your video.

This is a great way to get people’s attention because it’s right in front of them! You can use the first 10 seconds of your video to introduce yourself and what you do, then tell them how they can find more information about this topic by watching this video or visiting my website.

For example: “Hi there! My name is Sarah and I’m an entrepreneur who loves to create travel-related content. I just launched my new website with all kinda travel stuff! But in this video, I want to teach you how to travel on a budget…”

TikTok Search

The best part about using keywords in the text on your TikTok videos is that people will be able to see it right away, without having to watch until the end! You can also use the middle of your video to tell more stories or give more details about what you’re doing.

2. Use keywords in captions

Search engines use the text of your captions to help them understand what your video is about. If you want to be on top of the search results, you should choose words that are relevant and clickable. You should also avoid using too many keywords in a caption — it will only clutter up the text and make it harder for people to read.

3. Put hashtags to rank

Hashtags should be relevant to the post on your TikTok and should be used throughout the content. For example, if you’re posting about how to make a cake, then your hashtag should include “cake” as well as other related hashtags such as “cupcakes” or even just “cookies”. It’s vital that you use these suggested tags when posting on TikTok so others can easily search for them and find your content on their devices.

CONCLUSION

If you’re looking to grow your audience on TikTok and make your content more visible to its millions of users then you need to follow the important SEO practices mentioned above.

Don’t skip a step or do something without thinking about it. TikTok is a great platform for both fun and serious content, and it’s up to you what your experience with it will be.

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