What brands need to know about TikTok SEO
If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn in the last couple of years you’ve probably read that TikTok isn’t just an entertainment platform now, it’s also a search engine.
There’s some wild stats out there that get thrown around by TikTok and different publications:
74% of Gen Z use TikTok for search1
49% of millennials use TikTok for search 2
23% of users search on TikTok within 30 seconds of opening TikTok3
40% of Gen Z now prefer TikTok over Google when it comes to search4
I mean, myself, I use TikTok for about 30% of my searches, and close to 100% when doing any travelling or looking for how tos at the moment. But i’m a millennial and the CCO of a TikTok agency so i’m hardly the canary down the coal mine here.
Whatever the figures are, there is no doubt that TikTok is used massively as a search engine right now, and this figure is only going to increase.
You’ve even seen it with adverts that TikTok has pushed out into the offline world about ‘search it with TikTok’.
TikTok’s pushed it relentlessly for the last couple of years, and with the release of TikTok Search Ads in the US last year (coming soon in Europe), and the continuing expansion of Creator Search Insights (CSI) this is only going to get bigger.
TikTok videos also get pulled into Google search, and there’s even a ‘short videos’ tab now on Google with TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts.
See here for what I found when trying to grab the screenshot of the TikTok ad:
It begs the question for me, why don’t more brands have a TikTok SEO strategy? Or at least have one on the agenda.
Most brands I speak to don’t have a target list of keywords they’re going after, or an incling of how their content is currently ranking.
Despite it’s salience across LinkedIn and the wider marketing world, it still feels like the forgotten thing TikTok world.
So recently we hosted a webinar on ‘How to do TikTok SEO in 2025’. It’s one of a number we do each year, so i’m including what we know to help brands when it comes to creating a TikTok SEO strategy.
Let’s start at the top:
What is TikTok SEO?
It feels simple, but yes that’s it in its simplicity.
If we’re going a bit more hardcore, it’s also about how you get your TikTok videos to appear in wider searches on Google, but let’s keep it simple.
You can see here a search for a' ‘curly hair care routine’ and the journey we go on:
So the name of the game with TikTok SEO is to get our videos to appear in searches that are relevant for our brand.
And I think relevancy is such an important factor for any SEO strategy, particularly when dealing with TikTok where if you’re not thinking about your Tok (your space in the algorithm), your content is going to struggle to be categorised and find the right people who will see it.
But we’ll come back to what the relevant keywords might be for your brand, let’s look at how TikTok ranks content:
TikTok ranks videos based on an AI-powered algorithm that crawls through content and identifies keywords you have included in video, audio and context.
TikTok will also use the engagement and the video views to push the videos further within its search. All of the classic stuff about the TikTok algorithm essentially here, the more organic views and engagement, the more TikTok will push the video out so you have a better chance of success.
So if your video is fundamentally shit and isn’t engaging, then all of your hardcore SEO’ing will be pointless. Good content is always the most important!
But before you begin your SEO journey on TikTok, you need to find your niche and ‘tok’ that you are going after, otherwise TikTok won’t know where to rank your videos.
How to do TikTok SEO in 2025
So let’s start with keywords and what relevant keywords you might need to target.
Well for starters, speak to whoever is running SEO in your business and find out what keywords your business is currently targeting.
Both the primary keywords but also your long tail keywords.
Social and search terms in so many businesses seem to be complete strangers and it’s baffling to me why, when the opportunity is so big.
Get out of your social box and go speak to the SEO geek (used to work in SEO, I can say that, we are inherently geeky), they will be your best friend moving forward. Trust me here.
That’s your starting point, whatever your company SEO strategy is, that should inform your TikTok SEO strategy.
Humans are creatures of habit, and how we search on Google (particularly the long tail) is mirrored onto TikTok. Search habits are very similar so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
Then you need to combine this with what Tok you are currently targeting on TikTok.
Maybe this doesn’t match the keyword set your SEO team are using? But that’s fine, integrate the thinking.
Now if you don’t have anyone doing SEO in your business, then you can do this yourself in a few ways:
Conduct a keyword search - Use tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner or Semrush to identify keywords. Then, input those keywords into TikTok’s search bar to find related terms and hashtags.
Now let’s get inspiration from TikTok’s Creator Search Insights (CSI) and discover what’s trending and relevant in your niche.
Again, if you’ve never used CSI, then go on TikTok, search ‘creator search insights'' and have a look at this wonderful world where TikTok gives you inspiration on what to include in your search strategy:
Now importantly what you need to remember is that everyone’s CSI is totally unique:
On the left is my sausage dog TikTok account (shout out to Gustav), and you can see content about dachshunds.
On the right is a beauty brand we work with that is picking up searches related to beauty.
In the middle is an account I run about going to football matches called afootballpov. You can see it’s inherenty rooted in football tok, ultra fan tok, and football crowd tok.
Now this is a good starter point for you to understand does TikTok understand what your account is about properly and is it categorising your content effectively? Go have a look now and ask ‘does this feel right for my brand’.
You can then go in and search specific phrases to see what is trending within TikTok search, like so and investigate each term:
Couple with this, you can then get tips from TikTok on how to get your TikTok to rank, along with the demographics of said searches.
TikTok can quite literally give you most of the steps you need to follow to get something to rank, it’s absolutely wild!
Importantly, remember there is no public API (yet) that plugs into TikTok to give the true reflection of searches on TikTok, and CSI is only a reflection of the most trending and viral searches.
Just because a search term isn’t on CSI, that doesn’t mean that it’s not popular on TikTok. But see Google search volume here to inform yourself.
The other thing is that viral videos can cause completely weird search behaviour within TikTok itself as people try to understand what the video was about, and follow searches from what people have commented or TikTok have started categorising.
Before you know it, you’ll be stuck in a deep search about Italian Brain Rot.
So anyway let’s now presume you’ve now got a target list of keywords (yaa!).
Now we need to actually do some SEO’ing.
How to TikTok SEO: Keywords and where to put them
We need to integrate the target keywords naturally within the content.
Essentially weaving these naturally into your video titles, voice overs, captions, descriptions and hashtags to maximise discoverability on both TikTok and Google Search Results.
Alongside this, utilising the location tags to categorise it further.
What you don’t want to do is spam TikTok with keywords and go super black hat on TikTok, just make it natural and don’t over think it.
Here’s one I did last week for my football POV account when I was at the darts (shout out fellow BuntingStans):
I used ‘stephen bunting’ in the title, the caption, the hashtag very naturally and TikTok has categorised in the search bar ‘stephen bunting’.
It’s also picking up searches for ‘stephen bunting walk on’ and other long tail ones around him in Berlin.
Now Beth Thomas (a very good follow!) talked about this recently on LinkedIn and it’s such a post showing the difference after she edited the caption to focus more clearly on the sunrise instead of Richmond Park:
The result was improved performance and is great example of categorisation in action.
Thumbnails
One long term ranking factor for SEO is about the CTR that is seen when a search actually happens.
With so many searches happening on TikTok, you need to make sure your thumbnail is the most relevant (and sexy!) for the particular search your going after. Remember you’re also competing against ads now aswell (see the sponsored).
So make sure your thumbnail includes key info about the search.
I actually wonder how far away we are from horrific YouTube style thumbnails for every TikTok video in an ongoing battle for clicks and search volume… could this be TikTok soon?
Creating search optimised content
Answering questions that people search is a great starting point for content:
Formats that work:
Reviews … i.e ‘Unboxing the new iPhone’
What is x… i.e ‘What is TikTok SEO’
How to…. i.e ‘How to style a trend coat’
Which x should you Y… i.e ‘Which protein bar is best bulking?’
Things to… i.e ‘Things to paint on a canvas’
Top x lists i.e. ‘Top 5 snacks for under £2’
My x routine/setup/process i.e ‘My 5am skincare routine for dry skin’
Local guides i.e ‘Where to go in [City] if you’re hungover’
But.. if you’re video is rubbish it won’t matter…
The more views and engagement a video has, then the better chance of it ranking.
Perhaps then you could register for our upcoming webinar on ‘How To Build a TikTok Strategy That Works’ to discover how to craft an organic TikTok strategy (wink wink).
Next up… Optimise your profile
Searches don’t just happen for content, they happen for users, see this example for digital marketing:
Make sure your username, display name, and bio include relevant keywords that reflect your niche and expertise.
This helps TikTok understand what your account is about and improves your chances of appearing in search results both on and off the platform.
Use a clear profile image and ensure your pinned videos reflect your top-performing or keyword-targeted content.
But 1 more thing here…
Create engaging content and engage!
Remember: If you’re videos are shit, they’re not going to get pushed very far in the algorithm.
Focus on good content alongside everything you do (more on this in a future Subtack)
You also don’t have to try and get every piece of content ranking.
Let your other content support your growth organically while your optimised videos do the heavy lifting for search rankings.
Analyse and anaylse your data
TikTok both has a great data set available and extremely poor (the inherent juxtaposition of TikTok analytics).
Use what you have available within TikTok’s analytics and CSI to monitor which videos are ranking and performing well.
This is an example from one of the communities we run ‘Birmingham Updates’ that has one of the top searches for Birmingham:
Importantly…it can take time to rank
It can take months before something ranks, and then it can pick up views quite rapidly.
So do not write off content even if it doesn’t work right away!
This was the life of a video of one client that continues to have the top search term on a big keyword. It was middling along for the first few months and then started to take off as it climbed the rankings.
Never ever delete content as you never know what might start ranking.
TikTok SEO, like TikTok more broadly for brands is inherently a long game and you need to see how things play out.
Just one more thing….
TikTok Search Ads
TikTok is taking a direct shot at Google with the full launch of TikTok Search Ads (not the toggle, but actual keyword choices) in the US and soon in Europe.
This is going to start giving such a large amount of rich data about what is truly going on in search, but like I mentioned earlier, your thumbnails are going to play such an important role when it comes to both search ads, and competiting against the ads that are going for your organic real estate.
Let’s loop round again
There’s so much to think about with TikTok SEO, but I really do urge you to actually start thinking about it if you’re not.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand, a community or a creator, this is not going away and if it’s not at the heart of your TikTok strategy in 2025 you’re going to be left behind by the creators who are nailing this right now.
It’s a long game, but it can pay off back and it’s another thing to help justify the investment in TikTok and short form video more broadly.
Just whatever you do, at least give it a try and have fun TikTok SEO’ing.
https://www.emarketer.com/content/gen-z-prefers-tiktok-google-searches
https://www.emarketer.com/content/gen-z-prefers-tiktok-google-searches
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-updates-search-ads-campaigns-with-keyword-targeting/727957/
https://www.netinfluencer.com/gen-z-shift-in-online-search-behavior-bernstein-research