What is TikTok SEO?

TikTok SEO optimizes your videos on TikTok to rank higher in search results. Just as you would use SEO to optimize content on your website, there are some SEO strategies you can use to help your TikTok videos appear in more search results.

Why TikTok SEO?

1. Generation Z search engine: According to Google’s internal data, close to 40% of Generation Z users will prefer social media like TikTok and Instagram to specialized search engines like Google when searching on mobile. SEO is essential to prioritize and be seen when users search.
2. Improve Google ranking: TikTok’s content is displayed on the Google search results page, so good SEO optimization can also improve the video’s ranking in Google to get higher exposure.

What is the principle of TikTok’s algorithm?

1. Locating topics of interest to users

TikTok analyzes the content of each video to determine its topic, including analyzing the hashtag, video description, TikTok audio used, and text audio.

As users continue using TikTok, the platform will recommend videos with content that closely matches yours. Still, it will also make recommendations based on personal information such as gender, age, and location. The TikTok Privacy Policy adds “speculative information” to your profile, such as age, gender, and interests.

After categorizing users into different interest groups, TikTok connects different topics in terms of their closeness and recommends topics you might be interested in, even if they are topics you have never engaged with on the platform.

2. Optimizing Algorithmic Bias

TikTok’s response to the algorithmic bias effect is straightforward: the platform will show you random content occasionally.

To avoid homogenization of content, TikTok started showing users content they don’t normally engage with, including random hashtags, video aesthetics, audio, and topics. The attempt is to keep things fresh by avoiding content duplication, so you’re unlikely to swipe through two consecutive video entries from the same creator or video entries that use the same audio.

Another point of the algorithm is to show users fresh content that has yet to be covered. If you’re a TikTok user, you may have noticed this as well.

How to do TikTok SEO?

1. Understand the needs of your audience

Before doing SEO for videos, sellers should have a preliminary understanding of their target audience and build a relatively accurate user profile. In this way, no matter when selecting keywords or producing specific content, there will be a more precise direction.

2. keyword selection

Keyword selection is an essential part of Google SEO optimization, and the same is true in TikTok SEO optimization. Sellers need to focus on the following two factors when choosing keywords:

Keyword heat: if the keyword you choose is too hot, it will be tough to get the video ranked high, but if the keyword heat is too low, it doesn’t make much sense to rank high.

Target users’ search habits: what are the standard search terms used by target users? What are their search habits like? Generally speaking, the closer the keywords chosen by sellers are to users’ search habits, the more accurate the traffic they get.

Sellers can find popular keywords through the search box association and traditional SEO keyword-finding tools to expand the keywords further.

3. Keyword Layout

a. Add video script: Add keywords to the video script and say them spoken. This will allow TikTok to recognize your content quickly and enable platform users to promptly understand your video’s topic.

b. Use tags with keywords: Tags are one of the most critical factors influencing TikTok’s filtering, and using tags with keywords not only improves the probability of your video appearing in the search results page but also enables TikTok to push your video to a more precise group of people.

c. Add to the title and description: the title and description are also prioritized by TikTok for screening and matching when retrieving search results, so sellers also need to integrate keywords into the title, cover title, and detailed description.

4. Increase play volume and interaction rate

Play volume and interaction rate are critical factors affecting the video’s exposure and key factors determining the video’s ranking.

To improve these two indicators, sellers, in addition to efforts to produce more high-quality videos in line with the preferences of the target audience, also need to interact with users actively; we need to set aside a certain amount of time every day to respond to user comments and private messages.