What Is TikTok SEO? Ranking Is Made Easier with These Techniques!

A leading search engine like Google usually comes to mind when it comes to SEO. Nowadays, SEO has expanded onto different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even the currently popular TikTok. With more than 35.8 million users in Thailand alone, the fast-growing content-sharing application allows users to share short video clips, the platform’s primary selling point.

For this reason, many businesses have made a shift to perform TikTok marketing as it is a platform that easily promotes visibility and quickly builds brand awareness. Yet, more brands on the same platform mean that competition is also tougher. As a result, brands are now competing for SEO to rank higher on users’ search result pages.

In this article, you will learn techniques to perform TikTok SEO to make your content more discoverable and easily searchable. But first things first, let’s learn more about what TikTok SEO is.

What Is TikTok SEO?

TikTok SEO involves creating and optimising your content on TikTok to make that content visible in the top rankings when users search with related keywords, whether on the TikTok application itself or on other search engines like Google or Yahoo!

TikTok is a social media platform that is easy to use and features a variety of enjoyable content that many TikTok users consume. With over 1 billion users worldwide, the number of Tiktok users is expected to increase even more over time, especially those between 18-24 years old, which comprise the most users, followed by those aged 25-34. To cater to this demographic, more and more creators and online sellers focus on TikTok marketing and, using SEO, achieve great results.

Who Should Perform TikTok SEO?

While influencers, online sellers, and brand owners typically use TikTok SEO, any user who wants to build their brand, business identity, or income can take advantage of SEO performance to achieve their goals. TikTok SEO is easy to learn and use and doesn’t require a high budget, so this meets the needs of virtually all users. TikTok SEO is especially effective when targeted toward its largest audience demographic of 18-34 years old.

TikTok SEO Techniques

Include Keywords with Hashtags

The key to performing SEO is using keywords. For TikTok SEO, however, the key is using “hashtags.” Therefore, it is recommended that you combine the two elements and plan and study the different hashtags related to your content. More importantly, use trending hashtags to help users discover your content more easily. 

One advantage of TikTok SEO over other kinds of SEO is that a hashtag has no word limit. You can include hashtags with short keywords or long-tail ones. Remember to choose the hashtags relevant to your video content to reach out directly to your target audience.

Use Hit Tracks

Another highlight when using TikTok is the ability to insert a track into your content without piracy issues. (This feature is so popular that Instagram also adopted it to attract more users.) Use the trending track of the moment and creative video content with a tone and theme that go well with the song. It is a powerful tool to boost engagement, such as likes, shares, or comments.

Maintain Content Quality

Generating quality content is the most critical factor in performing SEO on any platform. To sustain and grow your audience base, you must maintain the standard and continue to develop your content quality. Content is vital to keep people watching and attract new people to watch as well.

Provide Interactive Content

Another selling point of TikTok is how content creators can interact with their audience, mainly through comments. TikTok also allows you to reply to comments with video content. This  is an excellent opportunity to interact with your audience regularly and build a rapport. Having engaging content is important to be able to motivate people to make comments and interact with you and with other viewers. 

Develop External Linking

One way to achieve results using TikTok SEO is to build a network of external links that direct to your website. External links can increase your site’s traffic and bring more people into your sales pipeline. Having reputable sites include external links to your website can boost your site’s SEO rankings, indicating site authority and credibility. 

Share on Other Platforms

A TikTok SEO technique that is a must-do is to share your content on other platforms. Doing this helps widen your audience reach by increasing visibility to new viewers, boosting your content’s popularity and SEO ranking. 

Consider TikTok SEO Precautions

Although TikTok is a platform that supports a variety of content and allows users to access their desired content freely, there are several conditions to pay attention to. TikTok is a social media platform that values security, tolerance, inclusivity, and authenticity, including copyrights, intellectual properties, and user data security. Here are some TikTok precautions to consider:

Youth Safety

TikTok doesn’t support content that infringes on youth safety or takes advantage of minors. Content that promotes sexual exploitation, prostitution, nudity of those under 18, sexual objectification of minors, or sexual abuse is a red flag. Posting contact channels or sharing minors’ personal information is also discouraged.

Harmful Behaviour

TikTok strictly monitors content that shows, promotes, or glorifies harmful behaviours that can lead to severe injury or death, such as possession of tools and harmful objects such as guns, knives, or explosives. Same with content that features self-harm and suicide topics. Content that features dangerous and risky activities, such as operating a vehicle while filming, may be banned. 

Adult Nudity

TikTok has policies against content that feature sexually suggestive content and sexually explicit language. Nudity, pornography, or sexually explicit content is not allowed on the platform.

Bullying and Harassment

TikTok doesn’t support content that intimidates, degrades, or disempowers others. Any interaction that insults or hurts individuals or groups may be reported if they violate Tiktok’s community guidelines.

Behaviour of Hatred

TikTok bans discourse content or hateful behaviour, such as content that attacks, threatens, incites violence or dehumanises an individual or a group of people, as follows:

• Racial traits
• Ethnic
• Nationality
• Religions
• Social status
• Sexual taste
• Gender
• Sex
• Gender identity
• Severe disease
• Disability
• Immigration status

Engagement Spam Behaviour

• Content that suggests how to increase views, likes, followers, shares, or comments.
• Involvement in selling or buying views, likes, followers, shares, or comments.
• Advertisement of service to increase views on TikTok.
• Opening several TikTok accounts with a hidden agenda or scam to distribute spam commercially.
• Creating harmful software or modifying the codes to drive traffic, shares, followers, shares, or false comments.

Copyright and Trademark Infringement

• Content that contains copyright and trademark or other intellectual property infringement. 
• Words, symbols, slogans, or designs that suggest the source of other’s products and services.
• Reviewing products or services legally is not considered policy infringement.

Conclusion

While TikTok SEO is still considered quite a new online marketing channel, experts expect that from this year onwards, TikTok will become the most popular marketing platform. This is due to an algorithm that is consistently improved and developed to meet users’ needs and a search system that is continuously being optimised to function like the search engine Google. Marketers need to learn about TikTok SEO—the sooner you start, the more you can outpace your competitors.

If you need to boost your social media marketing, Primal Digital Agency is a comprehensive marketing company ready to give help and expertise to design unique strategies to grow our customers’ businesses. Contact us for a consultation today.