Watch our hour-long Master Class with Nonsensical‘s Chief Content Officer, Sam Gillies, and host Head of Partnerships, Melina Lee, to learn how brands can enhance their TikTok SEO to improve search visibility and optimise content for greater discoverability on the platform.
Watch the replay and check out our summary below.
Here are our key takeaways:
Understand your audience
Knowing your audience is crucial for TikTok SEO. You need to optimise your content based on their interests and behaviours—otherwise, TikTok won’t know where to categorise it or how to rank it.
Creating content that truly resonates with your audience increases engagement, which in turn boosts your ranking in TikTok’s search results.
Start with a keyword research
Get inspiration from TikTok’s Creator Search Insights and discover what’s trending and relevant in your niche.
Use tools such as Semrush and Google Ads Keyword Planner to identify trending keywords. Then, input those keywords into TikTok’s search bar to find related terms and hashtags.
Weave these identified keywords into your video titles, captions, descriptions, and hashtags to maximise discoverability on both TikTok and Google search results.
Remember: Trying to rank for everything will leave you ranking for nothing. Instead, do this where relevant and choose specific target keywords that align with your brand and focus on optimising select videos for those terms.
Let your other content support your growth organically while your optimised videos do the heavy lifting for search rankings.
Watch, check, analyse
Use TikTok analytics such as creator insights to monitor which videos are ranking and performing well. This data helps you refine your strategy by identifying what works and what needs improvement.
If TikTok suggests a keyword in the search bar, it means it’s relevant to the niche you’re operating in—take note and incorporate it into your content strategy.
Repurpose content
We highly recommend repurposing old content or content you thought would do well and try something a little bit differently.
E.g. there might be a term that has gained popularity on Creator Search Insights that is relevant to your content that you can now weave in or try a different title, a shorter cut, a different caption or description.
Work directly within TikTok
Add your titles and captions within the app where possible rather than using third party tools.
Firstly, this is more crawlable than doing it any other way and you will have a better chance at ranking doing this natively within TikTok.
Secondly, the more native a TikTok font looks, the more authentic it looks to a TikTok user – often using heavily branded content may not drive as much engagement.
We know this is not always achievable – if you can pick one thing, make sure your titles are done in TikTok for a better chance at TikTok SEO success.
Consistency is key
Posting regularly increases your chances of ranking in search results. TikTok favours active accounts that consistently produce content.
Sticking to a consistent topic also helps. For example, if you consistently post about “TikTok Tips”, the algorithm will better understand where to place your content, improving visibility.
SEO takes time—be patient
TikTok SEO is a long-term game. Your video might have low views initially but could suddenly gain traction in the algorithm.
Instead of chasing quick wins, consistently produce high-quality, engaging content, and over time, your rankings will improve.
Looking for help with TikTok?
If you’re confused about getting started or want some help with what you’re doing on TikTok at the moment we have some resources for you!
Give our TikTok Marketing page a read for some more tips and options to help your brand succeed on TikTok.
We cover TikTok Tips, TikTok Ads, TikTok News and the TikTok Trends you should know about.
There are also a number of FREE resources from TikTok themselves. Check out their TikTok Academy, Creator Marketplace and TikTok Creative Center.
Additionally, if you are struggling to convince key stakeholders to invest in TikTok, show them some of these stats. You can thank us later!
