In digital marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a formidable technique to get qualified traffic.
It is a set of techniques that allow you to position your web pages in the first positions of search engine results (SERP).
On social networks and especially on TikTok, SEO is becoming more and more important and it is essential for brands to optimize their content to increase their visibility.
What is TikTok SEO ?
TikTok SEO consists of optimizing your videos so that they are recommended by the TikTok algorithm and appear at the top of the platform’s search engine results.
TikTok’s algorithm is one of the most powerful of the social networks, as it not only allows for high organic visibility, but also for videos that are relevant to users’ interests.
Using TikTok SEO, brands have the ability to optimize their videos and send a signal to the algorithm to recommend them to other users.
By improving your TikTok SEO, you also increase the chances that your videos will be easily found when a user searches on a specific topic.
Why brands should optimize their TikTok SEO?
TikTok new search engine?
In 2021, TikTok became the most visited site in the world before Google according to the American website Cloudflare .
Not surprising for a platform that now has over a billion monthly active users worldwide.
With its unique format of vertical videos with infinite scrolling, TikTok has quickly conquered the hearts of users.
Today the GenZ (people born between 1997 and 2010) is changing its consumption pattern. She now prefers to turn to TikTok and Instagram for information.
Indeed, according to Senior Vice President of Google Prabhakar Raghavan, reported by techcrunch :
“40% of the younger generation prefer to search for a restaurant on TikTok or Instagram rather than using Google Maps or Google’s search engine”.
Young people are now looking for more immersive content and don’t tend to do their research on Google like previous generations.
GenZ looking for more compelling content
Prabhakar Raghavan further explained, “young users are now looking for visually richer content and are not just limited to searches related to where to eat”.
This is what brings them the TikTok search engine with short videos, where they can find answers to their questions more easily.
The challenge for brands is to be able to position their videos in the first positions of search results on many themes.
In France, TikTok users spend an average of more than 90 minutes a day(this is 2 times more than there are 3 years ) .
As far as content is concerned, there are more than 132 billion videos viewed each month, which means that TikTok’s SEO is essential in order not to see its content drowned in the mass.
TikTok Search Ads is coming soon
We explained it to you in a dedicated article, that a new advertising format named TikTok Search Ads is coming very soon on TikTok.
The principle is simple, allow brands and advertisers to position themselves on queries and keywords entered by users.
It is a format very similar to what we can find on Google Ads, but this time with video results.
The video ads will thus take the first positions of the search results at the expense of organic videos.
To maximize their visibility, brands will necessarily have to optimize their TikTok SEO to appear right after the paid ads (like on Google).
Google indexes TikTok videos in its search results
TikTok SEO presents a double challenge for brands, not only does it improve their positioning on TikTok search results, but it also optimizes their visibility on Google.
Users are recommended TikTok videos when they enter keywords in the search bar.
It is interesting to note that some TikTok videos have a better ranking on Google than some websites or blog posts.
How does SEO work on TikTok ?
Although TikTok SEO is similar to Google SEO, there are significant differences between the two.
SEO aims to provide the best possible answer to the users search intent and on TikTok, users are looking for a precise answer that will meet their expectations.
To get good SEO on TikTok, it is important to use the right keywords, but that is not enough.
Authenticity and user engagement are key to success.
To rank well, your videos must be liked by the community, which includes views, shares, comments and more.
All this is taken into account by the algorithm to define your positioning on TikTok.
It is important to note that the ranking of video results on TikTok does not depend solely on the number of views or likes a video has received (although this is of course taken into account).
The relevance of the video as well as its capacity to respond to the search intention of the users are determining criteria for the referencing on the platform.
How to optimize your brand’s TikTok SEO ?
Analyze your audience
The first step to optimizing your brand’s TikTok SEO is to analyze your audience to better understand their needs and interests.
This involves identifying the topics, but more importantly the questions your target is looking for answers to.
By understanding your audience’s concerns, you’ll be able to create videos that address them effectively, which will improve your chances of ranking well on TikTok.
This will also help you tailor your content strategy to your audience’s needs. Therefore, you can create videos that engage your audience and are more likely to be shared and commented on.
The trick : Regularly monitor your industry and identify the content that gets the most engagement from your target audience.
Find the right keywords for SEO TikTok
The second step is to find the most relevant keywords for your brand.
To do this, you can use TikTok’s search bar, which will provide you with numerous keyword suggestions, but also search terms associated with these keywords.
It is important to analyze the search volume and relevance of your keywords to make sure they are relevant to your target audience.
Integrate your keywords in your videos
Once you have identified the relevant keywords for each video, you now need to integrate them in different strategic places.
First, you need to include them in the written introductory sentence (or hook) to capture users’ attention from the start.
Then, you can add them in the texts present in your video to reinforce their relevance.
The caption (or description of your video) is another key element where you can optimize your content using your keywords. With a character limit increased from 300 to 2200, you now have enough space to express yourself.
Finally, don’t forget to add your keywords to the automatically or manually generated subtitles for better visibility.
All these elements will allow TikTok to categorize your content and make it go up on the keywords you have identified beforehand.
However, it is also important not to overload your content with unnecessary or repetitive keywords, as this can detract from the quality of your video and decrease its appeal to your audience.
Use the right hashtags
Hashtags are a proven method to reach your audience on TikTok.
To maximize their effectiveness, it is recommended to use hashtags relevant to your niche.
You can identify both generic hashtags and more specific or longer hashtags for your content.
It’s important to research the volume of each selected hashtag to optimize their use, while avoiding those that are too competitive.
To help you find relevant hashtags here are 3 tools:
- The TikTok search interface
- The Creative Center of TikTok
- The Trendtok application
Using trendy sounds
Popular sounds have a significant impact on the SEO of your content.
They are often tied to specific types of content that can help you stand out from the competition.
When a trend emerges with a specific sound and it is then picked up by the community, TikTok tends to highlight videos that use that sound.
It is therefore wise to identify the sounds in vogue in your industry and integrate them into your content to optimize your SEO.
Be careful not to overuse trendy sounds and not to stray too far from your editorial line.
Do some internal meshing
Using internal linking can greatly improve the user experience on TikTok.
To optimize your referencing, it is recommended to link your videos together via comments.
This technique is especially useful if your videos are made up of multiple parts, as it can increase the engagement of your videos.
In addition, it is important to properly categorize your videos by creating playlists on your profile.
This feature allows for the grouping of topics and easy access for interested viewers.
Get started on TikTok
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By Nathan Elmaleh
