Everything you NEED to know about TikTok SEO (Majestic SEO Podcast)

Social Search is becoming more prevalent, none so more than TikTok, so in this episode of the Majestic SEO Podcast we’ll discuss everything you need to know about TikTok SEO.

Joining host David Bain to talk us through the ins-and-outs of TikTok SEO is Alice Bull (founder of Gratified), Mathilde Høj (SEO Manager @ TRANSACT), and Isa Lavahun (Search Strategist and Trainer).

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Transcript

David Bain 

Does SEO work on TikTok? And if so, how does it work?

Hello and welcome to the September 2024, edition of the Majestic SEO panel, where we’ll be discussing how TikTok works for SEO. I’m your host David Bain, joining me today are three great guests starting off with Mathilde.

Mathilde Høj 

My name is Mathilde Høj and I work as an SEO manager at Transact. Denmark. I’ve been working within SEO for the past three years, and I’m specialized within TikTok SEO.

David Bain 

Thanks so much for joining us and also with us. Today is Alice.

Alice Bull 

I’m Alice, and I run a TikTok strategy and influence marketing agency called Gratified. I’ve been working in social media for about 18 years, so it’s been really interesting to see how SEO is becoming more of a priority in social so really excited to talk about it today.

David Bain 

Really excited to have you here. Thanks so much for coming on, Alice and also with us is Isa.

Isa Lavahun 

Hello. I’m Isa. I’m a freelance Search Strategist and been working in SEO for about 15 years. I’m super, super passionate about merging social and search because essentially it’s all part of the same customer journey. So really, really excited to talk about it here today.

David Bain 

Let’s go to Mathilde for the first question. So Mathilde, how does TikTok work compared with a traditional search engine?

Mathilde Høj 

TikTok is much more tailored to each user and their needs. When users are scrolling on TikTok, going on the For You page and searching on TikTok, it’s really, really tailored to the specific rabbit holes that each user wants to be in, whereas when you search on Google or Bing or the traditional search engines, you get what all of the other people also see.

David Bain 

So it’s it’s very specific to each user, tailored to the specific rabbit hole. I love that Alice. Is that a definition that you would agree with?

Alice Bull 

Yeah, I think so. And I mean, that’s one thing that TikTok has become incredibly famous for, isn’t it, to have such a tailored For You page experience, and it means that it’s almost become a completely different content consuming experience when you spend time on TikTok.

No one’s For You page is going to be the same as anyone else’s, and even the smallest nuance of change to your behavior can change the way that you serve the content on the platform. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s become so popularized as a search engine and as a search tool, because it is so bespoke to what you’re looking for and what you want out of your content.

David Bain 

What are your thoughts Isa?

Isa Lavahun 

I agree with both what you said. The only thing I’d really like to add to that is that TikTok is kind of like adapting to behaviors, basically. So we’re all a bit more lazy now, right? So if you’re watching something like a streaming platform like Netflix, or anything like that, it’s everything is served to you. Everything is given to you. Here’s what you might like, here’s what you might view. If you’re on Amazon, it will give you a whole point of the things that you might want to buy based on your history.

TikTok basically does the same soon as you start using it literally, and starts serving you products that you might be interested in without you even thinking about it. I am not the demographic for TikTok, but my TikTok shopping purchase history is now actually growing and growing every day, because it’s really detailed in terms of the types of products and services that I would be liking and enjoying. So I think that’s another way that it’s kind of filling the gap in the market, which is why it’s popular.

David Bain 

So Isa, are people actually looking for things on TikTok, or are they just being served things because the discovery engine so strong they don’t really have to search?

Isa Lavahun 

I mean, I think it’s both because, obviously the because the For You page is so tailored and so bespoke that you do get served things that even that you’re not looking for. If anyone is traveling, they’re looking for restaurant recommendations, looking for things to do and places to see. That’s when it becomes a search engine, because you’re essentially getting user generated content, and you’re getting it in almost real time, the most recent, and also, if it kind of feels a little bit like wearing those virtual kind of VR kind of glasses where you literally go and see, the difference between searching on Google or search engine, is you’re more likely to see an article or branded page or something like that that’s a bit dated.

If I look at the best restaurants in Zurich, it’s going to serve me most recent one, ones that people really like, it’s going to show me how to get in what kind of food they serve. It’s going to give me everything that I want in one go. And I think that’s why it’s giving people much richer content than they would using a search engine.

David Bain 

Alice, what do people tend to search for on TikTok?

Alice Bull 

Oh gosh, what don’t they search for? It is interesting. I think it was towards the end of last year, and Isa, I’d love to know your thoughts on this and your experience that we really started to see some search terms within some verticals overtake those of Google.

I think, as Isa again said, that it has traditionally skewed to a lower age demographic on TikTok, so things like fashion, beauty, travel, I think automotive now has taken over Google, although saying that the biggest growth demographic for TikTok is the age 45 plus. So I’m sure that will change as time goes on.

But really, I mean, what can’t you find? I’m nearly 40 and I search for things on TikTok now, before I go to Google and it’s it’s just, again, I’m just agreeing with everything Isa said, it’s just the immediacy of the results and the user generated quality of the results. So it’s almost like they’re more trustworthy than the sponsored things that you come across on Google, than the brand pages you come across on Google. You can get real people, real results, real opinions, far quicker than you can diving through pages of Google results.

David Bain 

Mathilde how would you compare the search experience on TikTok compared with Google?

Mathilde Høj 

It is much more, of course, tailored, as we’ve all agreed on, but also it’s very it’s much deeper than what Google Offers. We know Google is about to launch, or has launched in some markets, AI overviews, which has some degree of tailoring, but it’s not the same, and it’s definitely not what TikTok does.

TikTok serves what you want to see specifically, but they also do it in different ways. So if you’re for example, looking for a makeup tutorial, you can receive your search in both a video format, but also a text format. What we will see as featured snippet in Google are called Search Highlights. So you get so much more content with less than you do on Google.

David Bain 

Alice, do you find that people are becoming intelligent about what to search for on Google and what to search for on TikTok, and are gravitating towards TikTok for certain searches?

Alice Bull 

Yeah, I think this has come as well with the ‘Digitally Native’ children who are now on TikTok so users that have grown up with the Internet have almost taken over those who haven’t. But I think also TikTok search is very smart. I don’t know kind of the ins and outs of this, but from my experience, would venture to say that TikTok search is smarter than Google, and I guess that comes into in part with it knowing your behavior on the app as well, knowing the things you like, the things you don’t like.

There’s also an element here of the way that TikTok signals to creators what is being searched for on the app as well. There is a tool called Creator Search Insights which creators can use to try and understand the things that are being searched for in their area of expertise, in their area of content production. So TikTok are proactively pushing creators to craft the content that fills the gaps that are being searched for with not enough content to deliver that on those searches.

It really is quite a big ecosystem of trying to fulfill user behavior, trying to predict user behavior, and trying to deliver on exactly the things that people are searching for when they’re searching for them.

David Bain 

Isa, from your own experience, what wouldn’t you use TikTok for? I mean, what would you just naturally go back to Google for because, you know that that’s a better experience?

Isa Lavahun 

I don’t think it’s so much about experience. I think one thing that people don’t really think about with TikTok is the misinformation and disinformation that there is a lot of that at the moment. So, you know, Google’s been around for, you know what, 30 odd years, 25 years. So it does lead in the terms of things like trust and authority and credibility.

Google’s never going to sort of rank something high if it doesn’t feel like that content is relevant and it’s authentic and it’s coming from a source that you know, we’re likely to trust, whereas with TikTok, all it takes is for a video to go viral and to get loads of likes and engagements for it to be popular.

So for instance, if I’m looking for a hotel, I will look at people talking about if this is the best hotel to go to, and here’s the swimming pool, and here’s this and the other and here’s how to get there. But actually, if I’m making the booking, or I’m actually thinking about that transaction, I’m more likely to kind of go to Google and go to the and book from Google, because I’m more likely to trust Google.

I also think with things like like news and news sources, I think people fact check a little bit more. So if I see something on TikTok, I’m not likely to believe exactly what I see, because a lot of it, what is it they say something about couch detectives, there’s that couch detective kind of thing that goes in massively on TikTok when there’s a murder or a mystery, and then everyone puts their take on it, and anything that kind of gets really popular, people kind of go on down a rabbit hole. I’m more likely to go to Google, and back in the day when it was a more credible source, Twitter, aka X when it was more credible, in terms of getting that news information.

There are certain things that you wouldn’t search on TikTok for, but actually there’s more and more stuff that you wouldn’t think to search on TikTok that’s like, booktok, that’s got millions and millions of views. You’ve got how to fix the back of a car, or how to fix an engine, all that kind of stuff is like becoming popular. So essentially, it’s all about where the audiences go, and if people are creating content in that space, there’s going to be some form of credibility there.

TikTok still has a way to go in terms of cleaning up its data and making sure that the content it’s pushing through is actually the legitimate and credible so that’s what it’s got to do.

David Bain 

Is that because it’s a young platform, or is it because it’s a platform that delivers a different type of content?

Isa Lavahun 

I think it’s actually more because it’s democratic, right? So if you do content that people are interested in, it’s going to go viral and it gets engagement. So there’s no one there to kind of question it or kind of filter it or look through anything. It’s user generated content that just goes viral, essentially. So there’s no one there to vet. So because of that, things are more likely to get through in terms of viral and popularity than not. So I think that’s mainly the sort of main reason why that is at the moment. So it probably does need to introduce some sort of vetting system into the algorithm.

David Bain 

Mathilde, is TikTok the future of search, or is it only the future of a certain type of search?

Mathilde Høj 

I think it plays a part in the future of search because users use the platform to cross check domains on Google and see how they connect with their audience and the users on the platform. So as Isa says, you can go on Google and do the booking on the website that you found on Google, but you’re most likely also going to cross check the the presence that that brand has on TikTok and how they connect with their audience and what they want to showcase on TikTok.

I won’t say that TikTok will replace Google. I don’t think we will ever see anyone replacing Google, because they just play such a big part of our collective conscience. But I will definitely say that TikTok plays a huge part in the future of search.

David Bain 

What are your thoughts Alice?

Alice Bull 

It’s interesting looking at the behavior of Gen Zs and younger at the moment, because we’re seeing now that streaming platforms like YouTube is overtaking kind of terrestrial TV, and the amount of time spent on on digital platforms, is far away in the amount of time spent on live TV. Who watches live TV anymore? And I do wonder if search will be phased out.

I think Mathilde is right that it won’t completely obliterate it, but I think Google will have to adapt more than they have already adapted so that they are in line with that user behavior, so they are delivering more instant UGC multimedia results over just text, although I do love the new AI context that they give in the searches. So I think it will just look different. I think it won’t be it won’t be gone forever, but it will be different.

David Bain 

Shall we talk about how to optimize for TikTok, maybe specific measures that we can take to try and make it more likely that our content is seen over other content. Mathilde, should we go back to you for that one? How would you summarize the key areas to focus on for TikTok SEO?

Mathilde Høj 

When optimizing for TikTok, you have to find the keywords that you want to target, like in all things SEO, we need to know what our users are searching for and target that specifically.

The magic with the TikTok profile is and the For You page that the users get served that you as a sender, can have multiple subjects on your profile and still, the right user will get that on there for you page. So you can have a video that talks about stress and another that talks about plants, and they won’t ever cross each other on the users For You page. So you need to find all of the relevant keywords and tap into them and then optimizing your videos for them.

David Bain 

Where do you find the keywords? I mean, do we use regular keyword research tools, or are there specific keywords that are more relevant to TikTok that we can find somewhere else?

Mathilde Høj 

There isn’t currently any tools that have search volumes for TikTok searches, because TikTok doesn’t give that information up.

What I would normally do is to perform a regular keyword analysis and then test it in a TikTok environment. I’ll use their Keyword Insights tool, look at their trends reports, but also search in the search bar on TikTok and see what is working in other videos and what suggested searches are coming up in that search bar.

David Bain 

Generally, do people search with shorter phrases on TikTok compared with Google?

Mathilde Høj 

When you do the search bar analysis, it shows long tail searches as well. It really depends on the on the subject you want to tap into.

If you’re just looking on an inspirational level, like a very top level search, it will just say hair care or hairtok. But if you are looking for a deeper knowledge and doing a deep learning search, you will most likely do a long tail search and look for something like, how do I get longer hair or something like that.

David Bain 

Isa, what are some additional thoughts about how to optimize for TikTok?

Isa Lavahun 

I think it’s just thinking about the user journey really because what you were saying earlier about the future of TikTok and how is that going to change, I think it’s kind of thinking about it threefold. One is the user journey for us is completely changed.

We’re not all just going on one platform and getting our information from there, making the decision. So it’s kind of that loop where you go on Google, then you go on TikTok, then you go on YouTube to watch a video, and then you kind of come back and go to the brand website to make your purchase.

I think it’s thinking about it in that way, in terms of how you optimize. It’s really thinking about the user and how the user’s thinking and where they are in their buyer journey. So if it’s kind of from the discovery phase, then you kind of think about more discovery keywords, best things to do, advice, inspiration, all that kind of stuff. And then if you want more transactional stuff, then you probably would be moving more away from TikTok, and then really thinking about bringing it back into the sort of search engines, because obviously you’re more likely to drive transactions through that, even though I know some things like Instagram shop and TikTok shop are growing essentially, in terms of that transaction, it’s going to be more towards what’s called consideration and purchase. It’s going to be going back into the search engine.

In terms of optimizing, it’s thinking about the discoverable keywords at that stage for TikTok and really making sure you’ve captured all the different audiences. I think it’s yes, like what Mathilde was saying earlier, in terms of the way people search on TikTok is very is slightly different, it is younger. There’s probably a little bit more slang. Things are probably not spelt the same way as they would be spelt grammatically. So it’s looking into all those things and making sure you tick stuff off the list to make sure you’ve captured the whole sort of user journey as people go from start to finish.

David Bain 

Sophie Fell is watching live on LinkedIn and Sophie is saying really great tips and insights from every single one of you and its interesting to hear about the future of TikTok search and Gen Z search habits too.

Alice, do you have any final thoughts on any additional tips regarding how to specifically optimize for TikTok?

Alice Bull 

So I think although it can feel quite scary because it’s a new platform, it’s a slightly different way of searching, the principles are the same as usual SEO. I like to think of it as it’s like you’re writing a blog post. So the meat of your content, is the post, you will have a title, you will have a hook, you will have your keywords, and you will have a caption. It’s just as everyone else has said, it’s just about identifying that keyword and the repetition of it in strategic places throughout your content. It’s about not just writing it in your caption and in your hashtags, but putting it in the words that you speak as well, because the subtitles on TikTok all feed through to the SEO properties of your content.

It’s also about, and not many people do this, but when you have community engagement, it’s about replying to the comments on TikTok with those keywords again. We’ve done a few experiments and it’s really interesting to see how quick TikTok will pick up on the subject of your video and suggest the search terms at the top depending on how many comments are there and how often your keyword is repeated in that comment section.

I think its about keeping up with anything that’s changing with the algorithm, and listening to people who are understanding how search is changing on TikTok and just not getting too tied up over it, because it is the principles of it are exactly the same as if you’re writing a blog post – it hasn’t changed.

David Bain 

Great specific tips there. Let’s move on to content now, because obviously, it’s not just about optimization tweaks. It’s about delivering the right piece of content in the right manner, for the right person, and getting engagement on that piece of content for it to be resurfaced in the future.

Mathilde, what are a few content tips that you would offer regarding TikTok?

Mathilde Høj 

I think the most important one is having the hook within the first two seconds, because if the users don’t like your content, they will scroll past it, and then the video won’t be shown again.

David Bain 

What’s an example of a hook?

Mathilde Høj 

I think that depends on the video and what type of content you are putting out there. For some it might be an open question, or just something wild happening in a video. So that really depends on the case that you’re using.

David Bain 

At the start of YouTube videos, you often see a very quick snapshot of what you can expect by watching whole video.

TikTok videos are quite short, but would that principle still work on TikTok, where you’re just in the first two seconds, giving a summary of what people can expect by watching the whole video?

Mathilde Høj 

Maybe not a summary, but just like starting in the middle of the video, so no introduction, but just starting it out and doing it, and what the video is supposed to be about, that would be the main thing.

David Bain 

SEO Lady Nina Payne saying good to know that traditional SEO on-page practices apply to the visibility of a TikTok post. Thanks for commenting there as well.

Isa, what are your thoughts on the type of content that works best on TikTok?

Isa Lavahun 

I think it’s got to be very authentic. It’s getting to the point now where there’s loads of ads. One thing I will say that is happening with TikTok, as most platforms, as they start to kind of try and drive revenue and try and make it profitable is obviously more ads start coming in, but what the difference is, when an ad comes in, it’s still going to be like your For You page in terms of its going to be relatable to you and the kind of content that you see. A lot of the time you actually have to see that it’s an ad because it’s comes across as so organic.

This is where working with an influencer or content creator and collaborating with them is like a really big one. It’s making sure that it’s really got to kind of come through to be authentic. People don’t like the sort of full salesy type stuff that comes through. That stuff just does not work on TikTok at all. It’s got to be relatable, user generated content. Just getting people to go out and create the content for your brand, for your company, and kind of putting it out on TikTok, I would say what you were saying earlier, Mathilde, in terms of the first two seconds, absolutely.

This is why I would say TikTok also kind of fits really well in our now, dare I say polarized kind of environment, because people really like disruptive content, content that’s actually going to either make people smile or going to make people angry or going to make people upset or going to make people emotional. It’s that kind of instant, emotive kind of reaction you want from someone in the first two to three seconds. So whether it’s comedy, whether making someone happy or sad, or coming up with something that you know is going to get a reaction from someone, because you’re going to have a whole bunch of people who go, “what the hell are they talking about?”, and then that reels people in to start to listen to what you’re saying.

So it’s really thinking about like what you were saying earlier, Alice, that title of a blog post or anything that’s going to really attract attention and cut through. You’ve got to go even harder with TikTok, because our attention span, especially with the younger generation, seems shorter, so you really need to cut through with your content.

David Bain 

You talked about maybe working with influencers, if a brand’s listening to this and thinking actually, that we could actually dip our toes in the water in terms of TikTok by doing that. We haven’t really used it before, perhaps the best way of doing it is to reach out to an influencer or influencers on TikTok. If they did that, should they have a set of guidelines for the influencer, or would influencers generally know best in terms of the type of content, the style of content that works?

Isa Lavahun 

I think with user generated content, especially the type of content for TikTok, it’s really collaborative. So obviously, if you’re a brand, you need to be ‘on brand’, and you need to make sure that you know whatever messaging you want to come cut through, that you’re not working with someone that’s not going to that’s not going to be a good fit. That you know, the audience you’re trying to reach out to is aligned to your target audience.

All those things need to kind of make sense, but essentially you then need to let the creator do their own thing and kind of make it their own. So yes, there should be some sort of guidelines just to make sure that what’s ‘on brand’, but essentially, you’re choosing the influencer because they’re a right fit for your brand. So you should, there should be some sort of autonomy for you to kind of go, Okay, here’s kind of what we would like you to do, here’s the call-to-action, here’s the objective of this kind of post, go with it like run with it, do what you need to do.

The selection process and making sure you get people that’s the right fit is important. With TikTok it is less and less and less about having a million followers and it’s more about having an influencer that’s really targeted to your target audience, because it’s more likely that when you work with them, their content is going to be shown to your target audience. So it’s less about, I want to work with this TikTok-er who’s got 7 million followers, and more about, I want to work with this TikTok-er who’s got 8,000 or 10,000 followers, but actually the type of content they’re creating is really aligned with us and what we’re trying to say and actually it’s a really good fit.

Ultimately I’d say influence marketing in the TikTok space is even more collaborative than it ever has been before. So if everyone’s thinking about that, those are the things that you should really be kind of keeping in mind, rather than, here’s your brief, put out this post, say this, do that, becuase it’s less likely to work in that kind of format.

David Bain 

Alice is there a type of content you’ve seen work best on TikTok?

Alice Bull 

We normally split solid TikTok content into three buckets. It’s either educational, entertaining or controversial/emotional. So you’ll have to spark something strong in a person, whether that’s an eagerness to learn or an interest in what you’re saying, and a very strong emotion.

Positive emotions work better than negative on TikTok, something entertaining, although that’s phased out a lot over the last year as the algorithm has changed, or controversial, so something that’s slightly shocking or makes you want to hear more. It’s a real value exchange of a program of a platform. So people tend to check their brain when they arrive on TikTok. They just want easy information, and they want for their time they spend on the platform to be exchanged for some kind of entertainment.

The hook is so important. We used to call it the three second hook, but it’s actually 1.6 seconds. It’s that time that you have to make that value of the content very clear. So you have to be very, very upfront with what you are giving up in exchange for that person’s time to consume the content you’re giving to them. There’s lots and lots of different types of content that work, but it’s just about really giving away that value.

We’re also seeing much more visually engaging content. It used to be more about what you were saying, but up to kind of 70% of people now don’t have the sound on when they watch TikTok. So it’s a fine line between what you’re doing audibly versus what you’re doing visually, but you can make any kind of content work on TikTok. It’s just about packaging it in the right way and selling that value super upfront, and then, of course, having the SEO operating for you.

Alice Bull 

You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But no those big, big subtitles doesn’t really work that well, apart from in a few niches like football and the more male-skewed area of finance. Users really on TikTok, it’s a very rough and ready, very low-fi platform. So you don’t want the lovely Instagram captions, you don’t want beautiful fonts. You want the subtitles that are native to the platform, that are out the way, but are very readable. You don’t want lots of flashy stuff on TikTok because it doesn’t work.

David Bain 

That’s quite incredible that 70% of people don’t have the sound on, so I would imagine that big captions in the center of the video is standard and best practice?

David Bain 

Ritchie’s asking on YouTube, are follower counts as influential within TikTok, considering the power of the algorithm and For You page. Mathilde, would you fancy taking that one?

Mathilde Høj 

In my opinion, no. Follower counts are not that important. Of course, if you have 100,000 followers, it is 100,000 people that might get to see your video. But it’s not necessarily what’s going to happen, because we have two tabs on TikTok. We have the For You page and we have the Following tab, and most people are scrolling on the For You page, not the Following tab, so they are only going to see your video in most cases if they go to the Following tab.

But in most cases, people are scrolling the For You page and they might see a video, but, but not necessarily. So no – followers don’t have that much of an impact.

David Bain 

Shall we talk a little bit about how TikTok relates to other parts of the user journey? Because I would imagine most brands are using TikTok, or viewing TikTok as being a part of the user journey, but not the whole experience when it comes to making that purchase decision.

So what’s everyone’s thoughts on maybe how TikTok relates to other marketing channels and where it tends to fit in the user journey. Alice, do you fancy kicking that one off?

Alice Bull 

As an agency, we view TikTok as a full funnel platform, and we structure the strategies that we work on around that, knowing the different types of content that we know work at different levels of the funnel. Obviously, whatever objectives you have are very dependent on how you work that funnel, and larger purchases will obviously have to go out of the funnel and somewhere else, but we think it is entirely possible, especially for purchases under 100 pounds or when your conversion is not to have a purchase, but is to have information for a mailing list or to have some other kind of action taken.

We believe it’s possible for TikTok to completely look after that user journey for you, and this is also why we and going back to what Mathilde just said about their follower numbers, which I completely agree with everything she said, it’s so much more important now to build a community around your TikTok content and to really build a strength for yourself, a niche, a content type, a vibe, as the kids would say, because you can get followers, but you will see people who’ve got a million followers but are only getting 500 views per video.

There is not a direct correlation all the time with follower numbers versus those who are viewing your videos. You have to be strong in your content production, you have to adapt to consumer behavior, and you have to adapt to the algorithm, and you have to create that community, otherwise people will get bored and go elsewhere and they won’t even do it. They will just do it in the behavior on the for you page, because they will stop watching you.

David Bain 

Isa, what are your thoughts on the role that TikTok plays in the user journey?

Isa Lavahun 

I’d agree with everything that Alice has said, but I actually work really closely with creative and traditional PR comms agencies into really making search as a whole and social as part of their insight. So it’s great when you have a creative team, we come up with ideas, like let’s do a flash mob or let’s come up with this kind of concept. But actually, it’s even better when you kind of go to find out what the demand is, what are people talking about? What are the trends? What’s getting the most traction on that platform? How are people engaging with it? What are people commenting on those kind of types of content? And actually, that gives you the insight of what sort of ideas you should be coming up with that aligns with demand and aligns with what people are looking for.

In terms of sort of that customer journey, I think you should really be thinking about TikTok and search engines together at the start of that user journey. Because actually, you know, it’s never been a time in our life where we as marketers actually can get a real clear, data led idea of what customers want and what cost, or what potential customers want, what they want to see, what they’re engaging in, what they’re searching for, what answers they want, what questions they want answered. You get all this insight from platforms like TikTok. So I think using TikTok in that sense then starts to feed into that customer journey, and then it dribbles down. It really aligns and it makes sense.

If you are creative PR comms agency, and you’re coming up with great ideas, sometimes it’s massive, big budgets. You’re always trying to get buy-in from clients or stakeholders. You can be like, this is what actually people want, this is what people are searching for, this is what people are looking for, this is the kind of stuff people are really engaged in. I would especially say, if you’re doing quick kind of stuff where you quick turnaround, really jumping on what trends are. I’m sure everyone’s heard of very demure, very delightful, and how many brands have taken on that line and made it their own, and all that kind of stuff.

It’s really jumping on trends, jumping on what you know is actually reactively working at that time and making sure that sort of TikTok and social platforms like TikTok at the start of your user journey, when you’re kind of creating content for for potential customers.

David Bain 

Can any brand utilize TikTok? Or is TikTok better for a certain type of business vertical?

Mathilde Høj 

I would say any brand can use TikTok. It just depends on what type of content format you put out and what you want out of the platform. For most verticals, it will make sense to broadcast your products or your services, but you can also use it as an employer branding platform and showcase how it is to work at your company, especially if you’re a B2B Company.

I know a great example of this where they use it for employee branding only, where they showcase everyday life at the company in different parts of the world. But then we also have a Ryanair, for example, who just really roast themselves and their services and to get people to buy more Ryanair tickets. So I think every vertical can be on TikTok.

David Bain 

Okay, itsounds like brands are picking something very specific as being just a way to show a little bit more about their personality and let people subscribe to that. But I mean, Alice, it doesn’t sound like a full user journey, so is different types of content necessary to so to serve that full user journey?

Alice Bull 

Yes. So for awareness content you might look at things that are slightly controversial or things that are kind of bang on trends. Isa you mentioned flash mobs, we saw a company do a flash mob a couple of months ago, and it was just delightful that you think that flash mobs have gone out of fashion, but they just jumped on this ‘man in finance’ trend and executed it perfectly. Then in the last week, we’ve seen Currys do a vocabulary of Gen Z speak, which was hilarious.

Things like that both hit the trends thing where you got controversy, where you can speak about, you know, myth busting in your industry, or breaking a commonly held belief that that works really well and tends to do really good numbers. And then you go through to the nurture, where you start telling more of a story about your brand, who you are, how you operate. You might bring in your employees at that point, and then towards the bottom of the funnel, you might talk about your product and service and its benefits, and that’s where you start moving people through to action or purchase.

It’s definitely an art to kind of look at your content within those different consideration brackets, but it can be done really, really well.

David Bain 

Alice you had the last captions question, so I’ll ask this one to you as well. Lottie Griffiths is asking how much context and content needs to be in your TikTok captions?

Alice Bull 

There are benefits where captions work really well on TikTok, for example if it’s a recipe or a step by step, or bullet points or an instructional educational video. We’ve seen that if you voice over to your audience, every of the instructions are in the caption. So save this to come back to later. So those are two of the most important metrics are saves and shares on TikTok. So they are they show a much deeper intent than a like or even a comment at this point.

We always wanted to make sure that our content is as valuable and as shareable as possible. So by bringing more more value into that caption, as well as in the video itself, you will encourage the users to save the content or to share it, to come back to it later, to watch it again, more views, more pushing it out with the algorithm. So as much context and content as you can bring into that caption, the better.

David Bain 

Can you repurpose content that you’ve published elsewhere in the past, maybe on YouTube for TikTok, or should it really be unique content that you’re producing for TikTok?

Isa Lavahun 

One of the key things about TikTok is that its kind of one of biggest platforms for nostalgia. I mean, there’s, you know, “My Money Doesn’t Jiggle Jiggle”. It’s true, that was something from about 10 years ago, and it comes back in and it’s repurposed, and it becomes a massive, big, viral trend.

I think that’s one of the key things about TikTok. Repurposing is fine, but it’s just, it’s got to be done in a way that’s clever. It’s got to be done in a way that taps into something that people are kind of talking about. It taps into a trend, it taps into an emotion, it taps into what’s what’s currently going on in the world. Do you know what I mean? And it kind of fits in. It’s not just about, oh, let’s just rehash this, because it makes sense. It really needs to be strategic.

I think in terms of the format, it’s go to be very short, snappy, like everyone’s saying, within one, one and a half seconds, you’ve got to get the attention. It’s visual, but in a kind of rough and ready way, it’s relatable. I also think one of the biggest things about TikTok is it humanizes people. I’m a big beauty fan, I work in beauty a lot, one of the things that I notice about the content creators I follow on TikTok is they’re kind of comedians, or they’re just kind of a day in a life, or they’re story time type content creators, and most of their content is kind of filmed in their beds wearing a bonnet or kind of with a face mask on. Then when I go on the Instagram, their Instagram platform, I don’t recognize who they are because Instagram is kind of a show me the best of the best, and show you the best version and like the edited version of myself, whereas TikTok is real and that’s what it’s about. People love it and they gravitate towards it because it’s us showing all our ‘warts and all’ and us in our worst case scenario, just telling a story that people are going to be interested in.

I think that’s how, when you’re thinking about how you repurpose content, it’s like what Alice was saying earlier, making anything flashy or making it kind of look great or be wonderful, like no one cares about stuff like that. They want to get to get to know you as a person. Know what your point of view is, and that’s why you would see things like politicians joining TikTok, and brands joining TikTok, because we want to see sort of the real side of who people are. I think that’s the one thing you need to be thinking about if you’re repurposing. Just think about what the strategy behind the repurpose is.

Alice Bull 

I can add to that as well, because you can actually repurpose your old TikTok content and lots of people do this, very successfully on a kind of a rolling-quarterly basis. So if something does very well for you on TikTok, if you save the clean version of it, then re upload it, perhaps switch around the subtitles slightly. You can maybe do some A/B testing. Lots of people see success with just rolling their big hitters until people stop engaging with them and they stop becoming relevant. But that is something that I don’t see a lot of people doing, but it is so effective because it’s a big undertaking to create new content for TikTok all the time. So just have what we call a ‘banger bank’ which is a bank of content ready to go.

David Bain 

So TikTok may or may not be the future of search in itself, but it’s certainly part of the future of search, and businesses need to be thinking about that a little bit more certainly if they’re offering, I guess, is skewed more towards Generation Z, or people that are more likely to be using TikTok.

Let’s finish off by getting each of you to share one thing that businesses can do to better prepare themselves for the future of search using TikTok, and then I’ll get you to share your contact details, just to remind the listener where to find you.

So Mathilde, what’s one thing that businesses need to be doing now to prepare themselves for the future of search?

Mathilde Høj 

First of all, if they aren’t on the platform, they need to join the platform and see what it’s all about. They need to look into the trends that’s going on and really just keeping the nativity in mind. Like both Alice and Isa have said, it’s really about keeping it authentic and user generated, and make the content feel like that, so it’s not an ad that the users will meet when they scroll through your content.

I am over at the omctransact.dk or on my LinkedIn profile.

David Bain 

Thank you so much for joining us, also with us. Today was Isa, what would you say is that one thing that brands can do to prepare for the future of search using TikTok?

Mathilde Høj 

Well, yes, obviously join as what Mathilde was saying. But I think if you’re really overwhelmed and think, oh my God, I don’t even know where to start or I don’t even know what content to create, use it as a listening tool. I think that’s like a really good start. Just listen. See what people are talking about, see what algorithm comes up for you see, you know what trends are kind of coming back over and over again, what kind of verticals are working better on TikTok than others. And just like listening, lean in and kind of find out where you could kind of fit in, in terms of what you want to say. I would also say with TikTok, it is kind of stripping things bare.

If you’re going to think about any kind of TikTok strategy, again, if you haven’t started thinking about TikTok strategy, it’s thinking about everything that you would put on a glossy magazine or an Instagram post. Think about how you would do that in an opposite way? No one really cares about that on TikTok. How are you going to show the raw version of you that’s going to be like a unique that’s going to cut through, that’s going to kind of really relate to your audience, or your target audience, and is actually going to be able to kind of move the needle in terms of the perception of who you are as a brand. Before you even start creating the content, think about that concept as well.

You can find me on digiprcomms.com or on my LinkedIn, and I’m also on X for anyone who still uses it.

David Bain 

Isa, thank you so much for joining us. Alice, what are your thoughts on that last one step that a brand can do to get more aware of the future of search using TikTok?

Alice Bull 

Just have fun with it. We see so many brands join TikTok that treat it like a brand platform. Obviously it is a brand platform and it is a marketing platform, but it’s very different to even Instagram. It’s completely possible to see massive success on TikTok without putting paid media behind it. But you have to have fun with it. You have to understand that it is a quickly changing, algorithmic platform that will respond really quickly to the content you’re producing.

But that is a positive thing, because it means you can change your behavior as quickly as it responds to it. So just consume content as much as you can consume it critically. So watch content and understand what you like about it and what you don’t like about it. Talk to your work colleagues. What do they consume on TikTok? What do they enjoy?

Try not to be scared of it, because I feel like lots of people are scared of going out on TikTok. It’s like this big, scary foreign platform, and no one knows how it works, but it is, I believe, one of the most interesting formulaic places, because once you work out a content formula, once you work out your SEO strategy, you know that if you piece together a piece of content using x, y and z, it will do a certain amount of numbers, because that is just the way the algorithm works. So just don’t be scared of it.

You can find me, my agency is called Gratified. You can find us getgratified.com and we do a free newsletter once a week where we do trends and insights to the algorithmic behavior.

David Bain 

I’ve been your host David Bain, and you’ve been listening to the Majestic SEO panel. If you want to join us live next time, sign up at majestic.com/webinars and, of course, check out our other series at SEOin2024.com (that domain name might be changing soon as well…).

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