Everything you need to know about TikTok SEO to get your video content seen by your community

We’ve all heard it: “TikTok is the new search engine!” 

It's more than just a saying – even TikTok is embracing it. Most recently, TikTok announced that its Creator Rewards Program will now base rewards on four key metrics: originality, play duration, audience engagement, and search value. This is TikTok’s play to make sure all user questions asked in the in-app search have a related video.

Here are a few TikTok SEO-specific things you can do as a social media manager to help your community find your video in TikTok Search or on their FYP (For You Page).

What is TikTok SEO?

TikTok SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing content on TikTok to improve its visibility, discoverability, and ranking within the platform's search results and feeds.

It’s important to consider TikTok SEO because the FYP and search results pages are two of the most used ways to discover new content on the app. Plus, as you saw above, TikTok is now encouraging creators to make content more search friendly.

How does TikTok rank content?

Before we get into how you can improve your TikTok SEO, let’s talk first about how TikTok decides which content should show up on your FYP and which shouldn’t.

According to TikTok’s support page, the platform looks at 3 things:

1. User interactions: What is your community currently interacting with on TikTok? TikTok learns what your community members like based on their interactions: likes, shares, comments, how long they watch for, who they follow, and whose profiles they visit.
2. Video information: What is your video about? TikTok will read captions and hashtags, take note of the sound, and look at the country of origin to determine if your community’s FYP is a good fit for your video.‍
3. User information: Who are you as a creator or business? TikTok will read your device and account settings, language preference, country, time zone, and device type to check if your content matches your community’s profile.

TikTok does note that while all of these factors go into the algorithm, some factors are more important than others. For example, how long someone watches a video is ranked higher than device type.

And . . . you’ll be happy to know that follower count does not impact how your video will rank! So if you’ve yet to hit your follower count goals, don’t worry – this shouldn’t impact your discoverability.

5 things you should include in every TikTok video to help the algorithm

Here are 5 things you need to include in every video to make your content show up on your community's FYP and more findable in search.

1. Use hashtags in captions

TikTok uses hashtags to determine what your video is about and who should see it. 

There are two places to find relevant hashtags. The first is in-app. Head to the search bar in TikTok and type in your industry or what your video is about. Swipe over to the Hashtag tab to view the popular hashtags and their views.

The second way to find hashtags is through TikTok Creative Center. You can see how hashtags are trending, how much they've been used, which creators are talking about them, and more.

It might be tempting to choose the hashtag with the highest number of views. With larger hashtags, there’s potential for your video to be seen by a larger crowd. But it also means that it will be quickly buried due to the sheer volume of posts. On the other hand, niche or small hashtags will have lower competition but you might not see the same views.

We recommend experimenting with a mix of different-sized hashtags. There’s no official hashtag limit on TikTok, but a solid 1–5 is a good place to start.

2. Include keywords in captions

Hashtags are the first half of caption optimization. The second is keywords. 

You can technically add keywords after you’ve created your content, but ideally, you should look for good keywords before you start your video. That way you’re sure you’re filling a content gap.

You can identify keywords directly in the app by adding your video topic or industry to the search bar. 

Or, you can use a third-party app/website like ahrefs that has a free keyword generator tool.

Similar to hashtags, you’ll learn that some keywords get a lot more searches than others. The smaller the keyword use, the more niche your community but the more engagement you’ll likely see. With larger keywords, there’s more potential to be seen by more people, but it will be harder to compete for attention.

Tip: Don’t let your need to include keywords impact the creativity of your caption. Your community will see right through you. The best captions are engaging and concise first and keyword-optimized second.

3. Hop on trends

TikTok’s algorithm favours trends because they almost always encourage users to engage with content, stay on the app, and in some cases, make their own reaction videos.

In addition to trending hashtags and keywords, there are a few ways you can incorporate trends into your content:

Trending audio

There are a few ways to get trending audio:

• Bookmark HeyOrca’s trending audio resource – it’s updated weekly and does the work for you.
• Look at trending audio in the TikTok Creative Center. 
• Scroll through your own FYP until you find audio trends.
• Use the in-app search bar sound category to audio and their associated usage. 

Trending challenges

Do you remember the “Pass the phone to the . . .” challenge that was trending mid-2023? This is an example of one of many trends your team/brand can take advantage of to get more eyes on your content.

Trending topics

Whether it’s a larger pop culture reference or something niche to your industry, hop on trending topics to help your content stay relevant and engage with your community. 

For example, Brightkins Pets, a pet toy store, hopped on the Barbie train in this behind the scenes look at their offices.

4. Create engaging content

Even with all the trending keywords, audio, and hashtags, if the video itself isn’t engaging, you’re sunk. But don’t worry, there are several things you can do to increase engagement:

Encourage engagement 

Ask your community to like, share, leave suggestions, and more. The more you create content that they ask for, the higher likelihood they’ll engage.

Use high-quality video

There’s no need to invest in a high-quality camera – a decent phone will do the trick. The main goal here is to not have overly blurry footage. We’d also recommend spending time doing small edits, like cleaning up transitions, removing unnecessary footage, and using a TikTok hook.

Partner with creators and influencers

Look at Meghan Trainor and Chris Olsen – they both benefit from their on-camera content. While not every brand can afford this level of collab, there are tons of micro-influencers itching to work with the brands they love.

5. Understand your community with analytics

As you continue to post content, use TikTok analytics to determine what works and what doesn’t. Then, repeat the good stuff and expand from there.

For example, creator Keegan Robin describes how he tried a variety of content before learning that unique dog clips are what resonated most with his audience. Since pivoting to focus strictly on dog content, he has since grown to almost 2M followers on TikTok. 

In-app TikTok analytics

Head to your profile, tap the three dots, choose Creator tools, and then Analytics. Analytics are organized into three categories: overview, content, and followers. As you click on these different tabs, you’ll see things like:

• Follower growth
• Video views
• Profile views
• Engagement (likes, comments, shares)

Summary

We can’t wait to see your TikTok videos blossom! If you have more questions, join our HeyOrca Community on Facebook. We’re an engaged group of almost 7K Social Media Managers and counting and we’re always on the lookout to help a fellow Social Media Manager in need.