A smartphone showing the TikTok icon

Should You Be Optimising For TikTok Search?

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘social never sleeps’. But have you been sleeping on TikTok search? For businesses, TikTok has cemented itself as a powerhouse, not just for entertainment but also for marketing and PR.

With an estimated user base of over 22M in the UK, it’s no wonder that businesses are turning their attention to the platform and capitalising on the power of TikTok search. TikTok for business is here to stay. It is no longer a platform just for trends, dances, and cute animal videos; it’s a robust search engine, with 41% of users turning to TikTok to find content, products, and services.

So, if you’re working in social media marketing, should you be optimising for TikTok search? And if the answer is yes, how?

Read on for five things you can do to harness TikTok search for your business.

1. Understand the TikTok Search Engine

Understanding how the TikTok search engine works, will help you think about how to tailor your content to appear in relevant searches.

These are the ranking factors that TikTok’s search engine algorithm uses:

  1. User engagement – including metrics such as video likes, shares, watch time and even videos that users hide from their FYP.
  2. Video information – sounds, on screen text, spoken word and keywords within the caption (this is where you’ll need a solid strategy in place to really stand out from the crowd).
  3. Device and account indicators – TikTok takes location, language and device setting into account when ranking content. While there’s less control here, it does allow you to think about more localised keywords when that’s relevant.

2. Get to Know Your Audience

Knowing your TikTok community is essential. From key topics and trends to the hashtags they are most likely to interact with, you need to understand what your audience wants from the time they spend on TikTok.

Be curious about how your audience is using TikTok so you can get under the skin of what it is that appeals to them. Everything you learn can be fed into honing the content you create and the descriptions you write to better align with how your audience (and new potential followers) are searching.

Anyone who has ever had anything to do with traditional website SEO is familiar with the concept of keyword research.  There’s nothing fundamentally different with how this is being played out on TikTok, you just need to apply the same thought process to the way you research and then craft content for the platform.

While TikTok marketing has been evolving ever since the platform took off, TikTok search is still a relatively new phenomenon, and dedicated TikTok keyword planners are in their infancy. But established options such as Semrush and Google Adwords Keyword Planner do the job well and search habits across Google and social tend to be broadly similar.

You can supplement and refine this research by exploring search terms via the search bar within the platform too. This can be time consuming, but it allows you to cross-reference the terms you’ve identified that are performing highly on TikTok.

4. Incorporate keywords into your content

With your keywords identified, it’s time to start adding them into your captions, on screen text and subtitles.  It’s also important to remember that TikTok’s algorithm favours spoken keywords, so make sure you’re incorporating them into the content you’re filming.

Use your keywords in hashtags, along with variance in phrasing if your character count allows. And don’t forget to add your primary keywords – those with the largest search volume and end user interest – into your profile bio because this will earn you even more brownie points from the algorithm.

5. Test and Learn

We know all too well that algorithms are updated frequently and the social media landscape changes rapidly. What works and what doesn’t will vary from brand to brand and campaign to campaign – there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution.

Taking a ‘test and learn’ approach means you can continually adjust and improve the content you’re creating to drive improved results. TikTok Analytics offers valuable insight into what’s working with your audience. You can track which videos are performing the best, what’s resonating with your audience – as well as what isn’t – and review the traffic sources for videos (whether that is FYP, search, from exploring the profile etc.) so that you can understand the traffic coming to your content via search.

In Summary

Optimising for TikTok search is no longer optional – it’s a necessity. With the platform’s growing user base and sophisticated search engine capabilities, TikTok offers a unique opportunity to reach and engage with your target audience.

Get in touch if you’d like to talk about how we can help you devise, create, implement, and grow your TikTok presence as part of your wider social media marketing strategy.

The author: Jamie Jackson is a senior social media manager who has lived and breathed all things social since 2018. Specialising in bringing social-first content to life, Jamie is experienced working with household-name consumer brands and knows how to analyse campaign performance for growth opportunities.

WPR is an award-winning PR agency, based in Birmingham, renowned for getting the world talking about the brilliant brands we work with. We specialise in consumer PR, across sectors including food and drink, retail and leisure; B2B PR, where we work with companies spanning manufacturing, construction and HVAC industries; and social media.

To start a conversation about how we can get the world talking about your business, please get in touch – we’d love to chat.