TikTok SEO: Understanding and applying SEO strategies on TikTok.

While Google was the go-to platform for research in almost all possible ways TikTok now is becoming as important in this regard. Although TikTok SEO is relatively new to digital marketers, it is already extremely important to businesses. Businesses ranked on top of the TikTok search results will get most of the users attention. Concluding, visibility on TikTok has an impact on customer acquisition.

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Factors influencing TikTok SEO ranking

In total there are dozens of different factors influencing the ranking of TikTok videos in search results. To better understand the basics of TikTok SEO, there are three main components to be discussed: information, engagement and technical components.

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Information component

First, it is important to take a look at the information a TikTok video contains. TikTok’s algorithm takes into account the following factors:

• Video: The AI algorithm crawls the content of the video and determines what it is about.
• Audio: Be it spoken word or other sounds used, the AI algorithm extracts the audio and categorizes it. The first seconds of the video appear to be most important with regards to this factor. 
• Text Inserts: Videos can be enhanced by so-called text inserts. This is a layer with written text usually used to set spoken words in context.  
• Captions: The posting caption or video description that appears on the bottom of the feed.
• Hashtags: Additional hashtags (#) put in the caption. (Macready, 2024; Gardt, 2022, Semrush Team 2023)

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Engagement component

Furthermore, engagement has an impact on where a video ranks on TikTok to specific keywords. Generally speaking, the more users interact with videos the higher the chances to be ranked on top of the search results on TikTok. The following factors are considered important:

• Comments 
• Likes, Shares and Saves
• Watch time
• Flagged or marked as “not interested” (Macready, 2024)

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Technical component

Last, there are some technical components that one needs to bear in mind. 

• Account type: Only public profiles have the possibility to rank in TikTok search results. Therefore, the profile should be set to “public”.
• Language preferences: When a user creates a new account, he or she can set language preferences. Videos in the preferred language are more likely to appear on top of the search results. ‍
• Country setting: Also when setting up a new account, a country will be set to default. When traveling to different countries those settings will be adapted. Depending on the current location and the default location, the TikTok search results will be influenced. (Macready, 2024)

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Case Study: TikTok ranking for "Sepp, was machst du?"

From 15th of April to 10th of May we posted videos to Sepp Schellhorn’s TikTok profile (@seppschellhorn) according to the TikTok SEO rules. Search result rankings were fetched for two types of keywords: a) "[recipe name]" and b) "[recipe name] Rezept". The following table shows the results of ranking:

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For the keyword with the name of the dish only, five videos made it to the desired ranking. When considering the keyword added by “recipe” at the end, seven videos made it to the top four in search results on TikTok.

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How to implement TikTok SEO for your own company?

At core TikTok SEO practices are very similar to traditional SEO on Google. The same principles apply in order to rank high for specific search terms, but they need to be translated to TikTok. Therefore, brands operating on TikTok should follow the following three principles:

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Use desired Keywords

It is important to think about specific keywords a brand wants to rank for. In the best case those keywords are included during the first seconds of the video in spoken words and by adding text-inserts that contain the keywords. Additionally, keywords should be mentioned in the captions as well as including hashtags accordingly. 

From the case study with Sepp Schellhorn’s TikTok account, it was possible to find out that the broader a keyword is the harder it is to rank for it. For example, “Sommersalat” or “Sandwich” are broad keywords where a lot of content exists. In contrast, “Spargelcremesuppe” or “Burrata Sandwich” are rather niche keywords where ranking is easy when applying TikTok SEO rules.

In order to rank high you should:

• Think of keywords that you want to rank at. Maybe do not choose the broadest ones, but rather niche keywords. (You won't be able to rank for every keyword, TikTok is just too big already)
• Mention keywords in all possible placements. Even though keyword stuffing still works on TikTok, be careful. Implement them in a reasonable manner.
• Hack: Instead of creating thumbnails and uploading them separately insert them in the first frame of your video. (This is how we do it with "Sepp, was machst du?")

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Create unique and high-quality content

The TikTok videos produced should include unique added value to its potential viewers, while bearing the use of relevant keywords in mind. The main goal of Sepp Schellhorn’s videos is to provide added value by giving away free recipes and special tips from a star chef as well as combining it with entertainment.

It was possible to observe this for Sepp Schellhorn’s videos, too. In comparison to high ranking videos, videos that did not rank at all have not had enough added value. Although the “Sauce Hollandaise” video has performed well in total, it did not rank for the keywords, because the content was more about an entertaining challenge.

In order to rank high you should:

• Create content with added value. This does not only apply to TikTok SEO, but in general when creating vertical videos for any social media platform.
• Resonate with your target group and come up with what they would consider to be added value.

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Engage users

Any trigger that lets users engage with TikTok videos is beneficial to the TikTok SEO ranking. In the case of Sepp Schellhorn, there is always a trigger included - be it a call to comment, a provocative statement or sometimes even a mistake in the recipe made on purpose so that users comment with regards to that recipe. 

The “Burrata Sandwich” or the “Spargelcremesuppe” which ranked high, had large engagement in comparison to other videos that ranked weakly.

In order to rank high you should:

• Implement strategy to engage users to like, share and comment. In Sepp's videos we always try to engage the community, be it with questions or with a bold statement with regards to recipes.
• Also, it is important that the average watch time is high, so try to cut out any parts of the video that are not entertaining or not adding value.

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Conclusion

When applying the rules of TikTok SEO, it is possible to rank on top of TikTok search results. Nevertheless, it was not possible to rank on top with all videos during the period of observation. It would require more time and more iterations to derive the best TikTok SEO strategy for Sepp Schellhorn’s account.

To conclude, TikTok SEO is a field for social media managers and digital marketers that will become more important over time, as TikTok’s vice president Blake Chandlee has stressed in an interview at OMR (Chandlee, 2024)

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Sources:

Chandlee, Blake. (2024, May 11). Q&A with Blake Chandlee [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWX3SDQ84k 

Gardt, Martin. (2022, November 11). Kommt jetzt Tiktok SEO? So läuft der Ranking-Kampf in der Suche der App schon jetzt. OMR. Retrieved on May 11, 2024, from https://omr.com/de/daily/tiktok-seo 

Google. (2024, April 23). Retrieved on May 11, 2024, from https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=en 

Macready, Hannah. (2024, January 19). TikTok SEO: Tips for Showing Up in TikTok Search + Free Tool. Hootsuite. Retrieved on May 11, 2024, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/de/tiktok-seo-tipps/ 

Perez, Sarah. (2022, July 12). Google exec suggests Instagram and TikTok are eating into Google’s core products, Search and Maps. TechCrunch. Retrieved May 11, 2024, from https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/google-exec-suggests-instagram-and-tiktok-are-eating-into-googles-core-products-search-and-maps/ 

Semrush Team. (2023, September 04). TikTok SEO: The Ultimate Guide to Boosting Your Profile Visibility. Semrush. Retrieved on May 11, 2024, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/tiktok-seo/

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