Are you having a hard time getting discovered on TikTok?
TikTok is a fast-moving platform that jumps from one trend to another as quickly as the first one came around. It can be hard to keep up.
Not to mention that it's been over five years since the app first went popular during the pandemic. The majority of niches are filled with competition by now.
In this post, we share tips on how to utilize TikTok SEO to get discovered on the platform.
1. Create better TikTok content
There are small tweaks you can do with your captions, profile and publishing schedule, but none of these will make a difference if your content isn't very good to begin with.
So, before you optimize anything else, make sure you're optimizing your content for quality and coming up with better content ideas.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you create short-form content that's under a minute?*
- Does each video contain a hook that captures your audience's attention within the first three seconds?
- Is your content helpful?
- Is your content entertaining?
- Do you have good audio quality?
- Do you use captivating narrations and visuals to ensure not one second of your video lulls?
*Not every video needs to be under a minute, but it can certainly help if most of your content is short.
Take a good hard look at your content, and ensure it meets these criteria before you decide to optimize it in other ways.
2. Be more consistent
Consistency on social media means two things: how often you post content and the types of content you post. Audiences love both, and so do social media algorithms.
So, instead of publishing a tiktok as soon as you create it, choose a specific publishing schedule, and stick with it. That way, your audience knows when to expect your next video.
But like I said, consistency can also mean the types of content you create.
If you publish a review, publish more reviews. If you publish a tutorial, publish more tutorials.
If a social media user genuinely enjoys a video you created, they're going to want to watch more like it. When they like one video, they'll see similar videos you created on their For You page (fyp).
3. Choose a better publishing schedule
How do you know when to post content? And how do you manage your TikTok publishing schedule more effectively?
The TikTok analytics section within the app has a subsection that lets you know when your audience is most active. Consider publishing content during or just before this time.
As for scheduling TikTok content, you can schedule posts from TikTok Studio or use a social media scheduling tool like Viraly.
The latter option also allows you to schedule posts for other social media platforms, organize your social media content into groups and manage your social media inbox from a single dashboard.
4. Add captions to your videos
Very few elements affect TikTok SEO, but one of them are the captions you add to your videos.
Users read captions to understand videos a little better while the algorithm uses them to understand what videos are about.
As such, they're quite important.
TikTok captions can be up to 4,000 characters long, which is almost twice as long as Instagram's limit of 2,200 characters.
Users are more likely to read captions that are shorter, but if there's relevant information you don't want to include in your video, consider adding it to your caption instead.
Make your captions as captivating as possible, but keep things relevant and descriptive at the same time.
5. Use keywords
When you post content, use a keyword research tool and TikTok search suggestions to find suitable keywords that relate to that content.
When you find the right keyword, add it to your post caption using natural language.
So, instead of creating a caption that just reads “purple acrylic nails tutorial” with some hashtags, write something a little more captivating, like “This is my favorite way to do purple acrylic nails.”
You can use primary keywords in your bio and username as well, if you wish.
Just avoid placing too many keywords in one caption, and definitely don't add unrelated keywords to your caption. This is known as keyword stuffing, and algorithms see it as spam.
6. Use hashtags
Add a few relevant hashtags to your captions as well. But probably not as many as Adam did in the example below. 😅
TikTok's search tool has a tab for hashtags, which you can use to find relevant hashtags in the same way you used it to find relevant keywords.
It's best to choose no more than five hashtags that relate to your content. Choose the ones that are the most strongly related to your content.
Some creators insert trending hashtags into their captions so they appear in the results when users search for those hashtags, but if your content isn't relevant to those hashtags, users and the algorithm alike will ignore your content.
7. Use trending sounds
TikTok has a unique feature in which a creator can turn the audio portion of their video into a sound so that other creators can use that sound as the audio portion of their own videos.
As such, sounds can trend on TikTok.
Spend at least 20 minutes browsing TikTok every few days. You'll get a good sense of which sounds are currently trending on the app.
Consider posting your own take on these sounds. Your videos may pop up when users browse those sounds.
It's surprising how these sounds can help. Even some of the less trending sounds.
It helped one of Adam's BMX videos get over 7,000 plays on the video below. Wild thing is? It was on a fresh account with hardly any followers.
8. Use trending filters
TikTok also has filters, which are screen overlays you can interact with or use to change the appearance of your video.
Sometimes filters become quite popular. Consider joining in on the trend when they do.
9. Take part in trends
Some trends are independent of hashtags, sounds and filters.
For example, “stick nation” is a trend in which TikTok users share interesting sticks they've stumbled across.
Again, the more you browse TikTok, particularly the For You page, the more you'll familiarize yourself with trends that become popular on the app.
When you do take part in trends, try to make them as relevant to your niche as possible. Not only does this get you noticed in your own niche, it gets your niche noticed by the general population among TikTok users.
For example, if you're in the martial arts niche, you can use the stick nation trend to showcase your bo staff skills.
10. Add headlines to your videos
Headlines are text overlays you can add to your videos that only appear as thumbnails in certain parts of the app, including your profile page and the search functionality.
Headlines are useful for two reasons: they help the algorithm understand what your video is about, especially if you use a relevant keyword in your headline, and they help users find videos that are relevant to them when they browse your page.
When a user is able to find more videos of yours they enjoy, they'll like those videos, comment on them and possibly even share them.
The more users do this, the more your content will appear on the For You page.
11. Get your audience to engage
As you know by now, the more engagements your content receives, the more it'll be favored by the algorithm.
Here are ways to get a TikTok audience to engage with your content more:
- Include funny, surprising or exciting moments in your videos
- Add the exciting moment of a video at the start of the video to give your audience a taste of what's to come, then play the rest of the video from the start as usual
- Ask your audience to like your video. An example would be to say, “make sure you hit that like button if you want to see more videos like this one”
- Ask your audience to share your video with someone who would benefit from it
- Challenge your audience! Tell them you'll do something exciting if they hit a certain like count. For example, that “nailtok” creator from earlier could say, “I'll wear five-inch long acrylics for a whole day if we reach 10,000 likes”
12. Collaborate with other creators
This is a common technique creators of all sizes use to get their content in front of more people.
When you collaborate with other creators, especially creators who have a larger following than you, your brand and content gets introduced to an entirely new audience.
This causes your new follower rate to grow quite quickly for a short period of time, and it also increases engagements for some of your videos.
Your content will appear more on the For You Page as a result as will the content you create with that other creator.
13. Engage with your audience
Respond to more comments, and consider answering comments with videos from time to time.
You should especially do this if you receive content requests you can easily fulfill. Not only does it make for more interesting content, other viewers might chime in with their own requests.
14. Monitor your performance
How can you be sure your performance is improving as you optimize your content?
Your best bet is to use a TikTok analytics tool.
SocialBee, for example, includes analytics that allow you to monitor your engagements, reach and views.
Final thoughts
Over 1.5 billion people use TikTok. And its algorithm is more forgiving to new users than platforms like Instagram. Well, it is in our experience.
But despite how forgiving its algorithm is, it's well worth taking the time to go through the tips above and implement them.
This will increase the likelihood that your videos will go viral and make it to the for you page.
Just remember that it all fundamentally comes down to the quality of your content.
The better your content, the better your videos will perform.
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