Last updated: September 2024
If you’re not taking steps to maximise your reach on TikTok — or, heaven forbid, not on the app at all — then you could be missing out on some glorious brand awareness and discovery…
Grab a cuppa and dive into this lowdown from our team of TikTok marketing experts (or just read the key takeaways, if you don't have time — don't worry, we won't be offended!).
Key takeaways
TikTok is trying to offer a greater, richer in-app search experience.
However, TikTok’s primary behaviour is still scrolling the For You page. Don’t switch your whole TikTok marketing strategy to focus purely on optimising for the search feature — it’s just one element. Remember you’re still creating content to entertain, educate and inspire.
Expect to see Google and TikTok mimic more of each other’s features in a bid to be the go-to for visual based searches. There should be room for both Google and TikTok in your SEO strategy.
To succeed in TikTok search, discover what you’re ranking for, hone your keyword and hashtag use, choose the right sounds and encourage engagement with your content.
Check out your competitors for inspiration on what’s working in practice, as well as Creator Search Insights and TikTok Analytics.
In this article...
2. How is TikTok mimicking Google?
3. How does TikTok differ from Google as a search engine?
What is TikTok SEO?
In a nutshell, it’s about implementing changes, tweaks and other tactics to your TikTok content in order to boost its visibility in TikTok’s search results and subsequently reach more people.
Sound familiar?
Whilst TikTok SEO is a bit of a trendy buzzword of the moment, in truth, it’s not a new concept — all social channels have the ability to search for and return content that matches your query.
This presents the opportunity to implement strategies that give your content the best chance of appearing for relevant searches — optimisation, in other words!
TikTok SEO: a few interesting stats
Nearly half of Gen Z is using TikTok and Instagram for search instead of Google, according to Google’s own internal data.
Videos mentioning ‘TikTok SEO’ have gathered over 1.2 billion views on the platform, with 37% of users discovering new products and services on the platform, according to Exploding Topics.
Google’s Senior Vice President said that 40% of young people go to TikTok or Instagram when looking for a place to eat instead of Google Maps or Search.
55% of users use TikTok to research new brands or products.
52% of TikTok users worldwide say they search for products or shop on the platform.
UK users spend the most time on the platform, at an average of 27.3 hours per month. Scrollers in the US spend 25.6 hours TikToking, with Canadians at 22.6.
How is TikTok mimicking Google?
Top videos
Firstly, TikTok is providing a list of ‘top videos’ in search results, aiming to satisfy user search intent by providing the most popular and engaging — therefore, most relevant — content. This doesn’t necessarily mean the most recent content, of course.
Featured snippet-style results
Like Google, TikTok is also now providing ‘featured snippet’ style responses in its search results. This is something Google has been doing for many years. The aim is to answer the user query with a short, succinct answer from a source perceived to be authoritative.
Location-specific search results
There’s also a TikTok location and new reviews feature, aiming to satisfy location-specific searches (much like Google).
‘Others searched for’
Searchers on TikTok will also notice a ‘others searched for’ section — remarkably similar to Google’s ‘People also ask’ search results feature. Seeing what’s appearing here is great for optimisation, as you’ll have insight into what keywords people are using to discover content on TikTok.
Authority is key
Like Google, TikTok can also favour content created by authority figures — those perceived to be experts in their topic areas. An influencer can add serious weight to the success and discoverability of your branded TikTok content within the app.
TikTok themselves have search engine ambitions
‘Google it’ is everyday parlance, but the app creators are even asking people to ‘search it with TikTok’. Not very subtle, guys — but we admire it.
How does TikTok differ from Google as a search engine? What are its limitations?
No brand dominance for brand searches
If you searched for your brand or business on Google, you’d see your website ranking top (hopefully — if you’re not, then something might be wrong!).
However, on TikTok, it’s not just about owned (brand) accounts. Plenty of the time, you’ll see TikTok content from other people (influencers) ranking well for your brand in the search results - and that’s fine!
Videos with 15+ million views can still be outranked by videos with 1 million views.
It’s a no-desktop zone
TikTok isn’t great for all searches — it has its limitations. Firstly, it’s not going anywhere near searches made on laptops or computers. It’s focused squarely on people using the TikTok app — an experience only currently available to those using a mobile and tablet.
Local isn’t on Google’s level… yet
TikTok hasn’t nailed location-based searching in the same way. Google knows you’re in the UK — a search on TikTok will return global results which may not be relevant.
With TikTok, you don’t even need to actively search
Even if you don’t perform searches on TikTok you’ll still be served content based on the content you consume (watch/engage with) on the For You tab within the platform. Whereas Google needs you to search.
TikTok SEO: how to improve your content's visibility
To get started with TikTok SEO, discover what you’re ranking for. Be sure to hone your keyword and hashtag use, choose the right sounds and encourage engagement with your content. Also, check out what's working in practice — Creator Search Insights, TikTok Analytics and competitor analysis can help with this.
1. Find what you’re currently ranking for
Start by looking for clues as to what you’re already ranking for on TikTok. Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it is on Google. There aren’t any nifty tools like Semrush, Ahrefs or Moz. Nor can we see data similar to what’s available in Google Search Console for discovering the search terms driving impressions and traffic. Instead:
Search for keywords related to your content — but keep in mind that if you’re doing this from a personal account the results will be personalised to you, so best to do this from your brand account.
Tap on your videos and check out the search bar — this appears at the top of your video for related searches, for example, ‘hen do destinations’.
2. Hone your keyword and hashtag use in captions, content and comments
TikTok are rather guarded about their ranking factors, but from our experience creating content for a wide range of clients (and ourselves), we reckon we know what’s behind the arcane algorithm.
Keywords used in captions — so use those increased character limits wisely
Keywords used in content — this is the text overlays you apply to your videos and the captions from any voice overs
Hashtags in captions — this helps TikTok categorise your content. Don’t just go for what’s trending as these are likely to be highly competitive. Similarly, don’t try to be too broad - try more niche terms.
3. Choose the right tunes!
The audio you use can help people to discover you and also helps TikTok to categorise your content.
4. Encourage engagement
This means likes, comments, saves and shares. A healthy volume of all of these strongly signals relevancy. Another boon for your TikTok content can be engagement and interaction with a high-profile account — so consider leveraging creator partnerships.
5. Explore Creator Search Insights for inspiration
In March 2024, TikTok launched Creator Search Insights. The aim: to help creators source inspiration for their content, tailor their creative strategies to meet audience interests and create content that people want to see more of.
Don’t worry, we’ve tested the functionality on both creator and business profiles — both have access to the tool. You can access it by searching ‘Creator Search Insights’ in the search bar of TikTok.
The most interesting element of this tool is the ‘Content Gap’ section, which will pull through topics that are being searched for often, but aren’t featured in many videos on TikTok — therefore presenting you with a ready-made list of great topics to jump on! Cheers, TikTok.
How-to guide for using Creator Search Insights from TikTok
6. Further refine your strategy with TikTok Analytics
TikTok Analytics provides some useful insights into how your content is performing in search, providing learnings to hone your strategy.
Firstly, within individual post analytics, you’ll see both the percentage of traffic that came from search but, more importantly, the top search queries that led viewers to your content.
Reviewing these search queries allows you what terms and keywords are currently working, you can then continue to test specific content built around these.
In your overall channel analytics, you’ll find the ‘Viewers’ section. This reveals posts that people who watched your content also consumed. Whilst potentially quite broad, it can provide interesting insights into the type of content your audience watches and what hooks grab their attention.
Anything to help you dig deeper behind your audience's content consumption habits is always a winner, we think!
7. Get some inspiration — who’s doing it well?
If you see something working in the wild — whether your own content or someone else’s — then reverse engineering this into your own strategy can be a wise idea.
We wouldn’t be fit to call ourselves a TikTok marketing agency if we didn’t provide some inspiration, of course.
@lick have been optimising their videos for home decor trends such as ‘painted ceilings’ and ‘small room idea’ searches.
@tastyhealthy_recipes have been cleverly optimising videos for popular recipe searches such as airfryer, nandos and chicken katsu curry.
TikTokers with a thirst for the best bars in Brighton will find @alcotraz’s prison-themed bar concept in the top spots of their search results.
@theordinary’s feeds are full of content covering everything from niche to trending beauty terms, as well as popular and brand-based searches.
If you’re after dog gates and love a good TikTok scroll, then look no further than @dogg8co (The DOG-G8 Co) — these guys are top dog (sorry) when it comes to optimising for TikTok search.
8. Align your SEO strategy with TikTok
If, like us, you’re a digital agency with multiple teams, you’ll know that sharing’s caring — and this is particularly the case for your TikTok SEO strategy.
There’s major overlap between what’s hot in Google Search and what people are searching for on TikTok, so if your social media and SEO teams can make a habit of sharing keywords, phrases and trending topics, you’ll be a well-oiled TikTok SEO machine.
Content that performs well on one of these marketing channels could be repurposed for the other. Repurposing content on social created for your website - and vice versa
Be sure to take a look at which TikTok videos are ranking in Google Search — TikToks can appear in search results. This can be done manually or by using SEO tools to analyse the search positions for a certain TikTok profile’s content.
On Semrush, you can do this by heading to Organic Research and slapping in the URL of the profile you’re analysing (like www.tiktok.com/@madebyextreme) and making sure ‘subfolder’ is selected. Be aware that their databases aren’t exhaustive, so you’ll likely be ranking for many more keywords than those that are appearing, especially if they’re a bit niche.
Case study: stopping the scroll & shaping up Inspired Health’s TikTok feed
If you’ll allow us to toot our own trumpets momentarily, be sure to check out our campaign for a leading UK health products retailer, Inspired Health.
We researched who was currently ranking for the phrases we wanted to appear for. Some were super competitive, but there was some low hanging fruit.
For example, we noticed ‘gut health’ top videos didn’t have many likes or views on them, so one of our KPIs was to rank for TikTok searches for that phrase with our video content.
TikTok SEO: what could be to come…
The emergence of TikTok as a search engine player — a tool customers are using to discover new things to do, places to eat and products to buy — means that social and SEO are bound to become even closer bedfellows.
TikTok is reportedly testing a feature that highlights keywords in comments and links them to search results. Over time, expect to see even more personalised results — and hopefully some new analytics tools to measure the performance of your content in TikTok search.
If you’re looking to get started with your TikTok strategy more generally, we’ve put together a few interesting resources that may be of interest.
Why your TikTok videos aren’t getting views (and what to do about it)
How TikTok is changing the food & drink industry (and how your brand can succeed)
How TikTok is impacting the travel & tourism industry & how brands are taking advantage
How TikTok is changing the fashion industry: sales & customer behaviour
If this all sounds a little like hard work, our team of TikTok marketing experts are only a quick message away, too.
Talk to our TikTok marketing maestros
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Extreme's resident Instagram queen, Beth lives and breathes all things social media! After graduating with a degree in Advertising, she explored all aspects of the digital world before firmly finding her feet in the land of social. Day to day, you can find her brainstorming for campaigns, drafting up witty content and strategising to help clients soar on social.
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Since forming Extreme’s social media department back in 2012, our Head of Social Donna and her team’s work has been recognised nationally. With extensive experience spanning mutiple sectors, Donna specialises in social strategy, ideation and paid social advertising.
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From film and television campaigns at Warner Bros to captivating the Cath Kidston community, Lucy has some incredible social media management experience. Away from her desk at Extreme, you’ll likely find Lucy working on her home renovation (that’s if she’s not having a TikTok scroll break in between DIY projects…).
