Everything You Need to Know About TikTok SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term we have all gotten quite used to, at least those of us who are actively scrolling through social media, blogs, and Instagram. When we talk about blogs or websites, SEO is often associated with Google and how to optimize our work to rank higher on the platform. But there are specific SEOs and strategies for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.

The Need for SEO

SEO is an optimization strategy that helps make your work visible and rank higher among many other similar works. It indirectly increases traffic to your handle, page, or website, and creates space for more engagement. While traditional SEO, is about your content ranking higher when people search for it, SEO in social media works a little differently. Here, your content would reach a lot more people’s timelines, getting more visibility.

What is TikTok SEO?

TikTok is an entertainment app, like other social media platforms including Instagram and Twitter. Therefore, each of these apps has people searching for different things regularly. If you feel like watching baking videos, all you have to do is type it in the search box, and all videos that have baking content and used keywords and hashtags related to it will pop up. As we all know, there are so many creators on TikTok. So, how do you ensure your content comes to the top as soon as someone searches related to it? It is here TikTok SEO comes into the picture.

TikTok SEO helps you optimize your videos and content. The optimization is done through videos, visuals used in it, keywords, and hashtags, among others. When you optimize your content, the algorithm will realize your works are relevant to the users and help you get more reach. When your content resonates with the audience, the engagement rate climbs, which eventually leads to more reach and follower count.

Does TikTok SEO work on ranking?

When someone says SEO, you might immediately think of ranking. It is common because, in traditional optimization, it is all about ranking higher. This process plays out a little differently in TikTok. Here, your relevancy is not determined by ranking higher alone. The success is measured mostly by the engagement rate - likes, comments, shares, mentions, etc. Your follower count doesn’t entirely influence your ranking. So, the focus should be on creating quality, user-engaging content, with optimized video and captions, which will increase engagement, and the algorithm will take your content outside your follower count and recommend it to most TikTok users who may find it relevant.

Tips to crack TikTok SEO

There are a lot of ways one can optimize their TikTok SEO content. But a few basic yet important ones are using relevant keywords, optimizing the visual content, and use of sounds and hashtags to keep up with the trending updates.

Keywords

Be it traditional or social media SEO, keywords play a major role in reaching more people and ranking higher. These keywords help the algorithm connect with the audience’s searches, thereby helping them find the content they want while aiding you in reaching your target audience. These are different from the hashtags. You can include it in your caption. With the earlier example, if it is a TikTok video about baking a birthday cake, you can use the words ?baking?, ?birthday cake?, ?birthday parties?, ?cake?, etc.… in your caption.

Therefore, when the user searches using a similar word or phrase, your content pops up for them. There are many software and websites that help you find the best keywords. But to begin with, you can easily find the keywords by searching for a base word of your niche on TikTok. Suppose you type birthday in the search bar, the TikTok app will show you several relevant keywords like birthday parties, birthday bash, etc. The same goes for cake or piping. You can then select the popular ones from those (those that appear in the first few suggestions) and use them to optimize your content with relevant keywords.

Where to use keywords

It is a must to use them in the captions of your TikTok videos. However, as we earlier discussed, TikTok is a visual medium and the algorithm also filters accordingly. Therefore, you can use relevant keywords in your video as closed captions or titles. When these keywords appear on-screen, it further enhances your scope to reach more people.

Hashtags

Hashtags were once the SEO king of social media platforms. However, algorithms' dependence on hashtags has slowly reduced. That doesn’t mean hashtags are irrelevant, but that there are also other areas you need to focus on. When it comes to hashtags, you can use both broad as well as niche-specific ones. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to social media, and that applies to hashtags as well. That said, it is good to not overdo it as too many hashtags will be a distraction for the users and can also confuse the algorithm.

Trending sounds

Trending things always help you rank higher. In other words, whatever is topical, you can use it to make your content time relevant. When done in marketing, it is called moment marketing that will bring you more Views on TikTok. On social media platforms, you can create content related to trending events. Another major thing is to use trending sounds. In both Instagram and TikTok, sounds play a huge role in engaging the audience. Therefore, when you use popular and trending sounds, you can easily reach more people. If you want to find out the trending sounds, you can search them in the ?breakout category? in TikTok Creative Center, search for viral sounds on the search bar, or note down whenever you come across popular sounds used by fellow creators.

Consistent posting

While all of these methods boost your reach, none of them will work without consistent posting. The algorithm also determines your relevancy based on your consistency.

Final Thoughts - Be active outside TikTok

This might sound like a ludicrous statement. But today’s users are varied, and it is important to promote your content on other platforms and Google to drive new users and TikTok Followers towards your TikTok account. All said and done, SEO is only a tool to drive your content, and not the content itself. So, your main focus should always be on providing quality content. Try InstBlast Buy TikTok Likes and Buy TikTok Views premium services to gain higher results on social media