You don’t need a million followers on social media to use TikTok for your business. You don’t need a ring light, a video editor, or a Gen Z intern managing your account. What you do need is a basic understanding of TikTok SEO, because that’s how the right people in your area find you, even if you only have 47 followers.
TikTok has quietly become one of the most powerful local search tools available to small businesses. Whether you’re posting a video about your services or showcasing products through TikTok Shop, this guide is for the business owner who doesn’t have time to go viral, just time to get found.
What Is TikTok SEO?
TikTok SEO is the practice of optimizing your TikTok content so it shows up when people search for topics related to your business, either inside TikTok’s search bar or on Google (yes, TikTok videos rank on Google too).
Just like traditional search engine optimization helps your website appear in Google results, TikTok SEO helps your videos get found on one of the fastest-growing search platforms in the world. The difference is that instead of optimizing blog posts or web pages, you’re optimizing short-form videos using keywords, captions, hashtags, and even what you say out loud.
And here’s the part that matters most for small businesses: the TikTok algorithm doesn’t care how many followers you have. A brand new account can show up at the top of TikTok search results if the content is optimized correctly. That’s a big deal when you’re just starting out.
Why TikTok SEO Matters for Small Businesses (Even If You’re Not “On TikTok”)
Here’s a question we hear a lot: “Do I even need TikTok if my customers aren’t really on it?”
The honest answer is: they probably are. Research from Hootsuite found that Gen Z, people aged 16 to 24, are now using social platforms like TikTok more than traditional search engines to discover brands and local businesses. They’re searching for restaurants, contractors, orthodontists, and services the same way older generations used Google. They’re just doing it on TikTok.
That means if you’re a small business in Utah County and someone searches “best orthodontist in Orem” on TikTok, a properly optimized TikTok video from your practice could be the first thing they see in search results, before they ever visit your website. And if you sell physical products, a well-optimized TikTok Shop listing paired with strong TikTok content can drive purchases directly without the customer ever leaving the app.
Beyond TikTok itself, this matters for your broader search engine presence. TikTok videos are increasingly indexed by Google and Bing, which means your optimized content can drive traffic from multiple directions at once.
How TikTok SEO Is Different From Google SEO
If you’re already familiar with Google SEO, TikTok SEO will feel familiar in some ways and completely foreign in others. Google rewards backlinks, domain authority, and long-form content. The TikTok algorithm rewards engagement signals, things like watch time, shares, comments, and replays.
On TikTok, the ranking factors that matter most are:
- Video information: your captions, hashtags, on-screen text, and the words you actually say out loud in your video
- User interactions: likes, comments, shares, and how long people watch your content
- Account settings: language, location, and content categories
Notably, follower count is not a ranking factor on TikTok. A small business with 50 followers can outrank an account with 50,000 if the content is more relevant to the search. That’s what makes TikTok SEO such a powerful tool for businesses just starting out, the playing field is surprisingly level.
Building a TikTok SEO Strategy That Actually Works
Before diving into individual tactics, it’s worth stepping back to think about your TikTok SEO strategy as a whole. A strategy isn’t just “post consistently and use hashtags.” It’s a clear plan that answers three questions:
1. Who are you trying to reach? Define your audience as specifically as possible. Are they local customers in your city? People searching for a specific product type? Parents? Business owners? The more specific your audience, the more targeted your keywords can be, and the more relevant your content will be to the people who actually find it.
2. What are they searching for? This is where keyword research comes in (more on this below). Your TikTok SEO strategy should be built around the exact phrases your ideal customers are typing into the search bar, not the terms you assume they’re using.
3. What content will you consistently create? Your TikTok SEO strategy should include a content plan you can actually sustain. Two or three optimized videos per week beats seven rushed ones. Consistency is what teaches TikTok’s algorithm what your account is about.
With those questions answered, the tactics below become much more effective.
Keyword Research for TikTok: How to Find the Right Words
Keyword research is the foundation of any successful TikTok SEO strategy. It’s the process of identifying the exact words and phrases your potential customers are typing into TikTok search, so you can make sure those words appear in your content.
Here’s the good news: you don’t need expensive tools to do keyword research for TikTok. You can start with three completely free methods.
Method 1: TikTok’s Own Search Bar
The simplest and most effective keyword research tool is TikTok’s own autocomplete feature. Open the app, tap the search bar, and start typing your topic. TikTok will immediately suggest popular searches related to what you typed. Those suggestions are based on what real users are actively searching, which means they’re gold for your content strategy.
For example, if you’re a plumber in Provo and you type “emergency plumber,” TikTok might suggest “emergency plumber near me,” “emergency plumber Utah,” or “emergency plumber cost.” Each of those is a potential keyword for a video.
Method 2: TikTok Creative Center
The TikTok Creative Center is an often-overlooked free tool that TikTok itself provides for content creators and advertisers. Within the Creative Center, there’s a keyword insights feature that shows you trending search terms, their popularity over time, and what industries they’re most relevant to.
Using the TikTok Creative Center for keyword research gives you a significant advantage over competitors who are just guessing at what to include in their content. You can see search volume trends, identify rising keywords before they peak, and filter results by your industry and region. If you’re not incorporating the TikTok Creative Center into your keyword research process, you’re leaving useful data on the table.
Method 3: Study Your Competitors
Search for your top competitors on TikTok and pay attention to the language they use in their captions, hashtags, and on-screen text. If a competitor’s video has strong engagement, it’s likely they’ve, intentionally or not, hit on a keyword that resonates with your shared audience.
Top TikTok SEO Tips to Get Found Without Going Viral
You don’t need to chase trends or post every day. Here’s what actually moves the needle for a small business focused on local discoverability:
1. Put Keywords in the Right Places
TikTok reads your content in multiple ways, so give it as many signals as possible. Include your target keyword in your caption, in any on-screen text, in your hashtags, and, importantly, say it out loud in the video. TikTok’s algorithm actively processes spoken audio, so if you’re not saying the keyword, you’re leaving SEO value on the table.
Think of it like this: every time you include your keyword in a new “location” within your video (caption, audio, text overlay, hashtag), you’re sending another signal to TikTok about what your content is about.
2. Use TikTok’s Native Text and Caption Tools
Here’s something most beginners miss: TikTok can only read text that was created using its own in-app tools for SEO purposes. If you add text overlays using a third-party editing app like CapCut, TikTok’s algorithm cannot read that text when ranking your video in search results. Always use TikTok’s native text feature so the platform can actually categorize your content.
This is a surprisingly common mistake that costs creators real search visibility, and it’s completely avoidable.
3. Keep Hashtags Focused (3 to 5 Max)
More hashtags doesn’t mean more reach. In fact, stuffing your caption with 20 hashtags can confuse TikTok about what your content is about and hurt your ranking in search results. Stick to 3 to 5 hashtags: one or two broad category tags and one or two specific, niche tags that match your exact topic and location.
For a local service business, a strong hashtag set might look something like: #plumbertips #utahplumber #emergencyplumber. Specific beats generic every time.
4. Enable Auto-Generated Captions
Turn on TikTok’s auto-generated captions for every video. Even if you drag them off-screen for aesthetic reasons, having them active gives TikTok a full transcript of your spoken content, which is a significant SEO signal. It also makes your content more accessible to viewers who are watching without sound, which is a large portion of TikTok’s audience.
5. Write Intentional Captions (Not Afterthoughts)
Your caption is prime SEO real estate. Don’t write it last and don’t treat it as optional. A strong caption for TikTok SEO purposes should open with your primary keyword, give a clear description of what the video covers, and naturally include one or two secondary keywords. Keep it conversational, TikTok isn’t LinkedIn.
6. Post Consistently Within a Content Niche
TikTok’s algorithm gets smarter about your account the more you post, but only if you’re posting about related topics. An account that posts about plumbing 80% of the time and random content 20% of the time will rank better for plumbing-related searches than an account that posts sporadically across dozens of topics. Niche consistency is a long-term TikTok SEO advantage.
Using TikTok Analytics to Improve Your SEO Over Time
Once you’ve been posting for a few weeks, TikTok analytics becomes one of your most valuable tools for refining your TikTok SEO strategy. TikTok analytics is available to all accounts through the Creator Tools section of the app, and it provides data you can act on.
Here’s what to look for in your TikTok analytics:
Traffic source types. This is the most directly useful metric for TikTok SEO. Under Video Insights, TikTok shows you where your views came from, whether that’s the For You Page, your profile, following feed, or TikTok search. If a video is getting a meaningful percentage of views from TikTok search, that’s confirmation that your keyword strategy is working. If it’s getting zero search traffic, revisit your keyword placement.
Audience demographics and location. TikTok analytics shows you where your viewers are located. For local businesses, this is critical, if your content is reaching people in your target geography, your local SEO is working. If it’s not, you may need to add more location-specific keywords to your captions and on-screen text.
Watch time and completion rate. While these aren’t directly about search rankings, they feed into the engagement signals that TikTok uses to determine whether your content deserves more distribution. Higher completion rates lead to more For You Page exposure, which leads to more overall visibility, including in search.
Top-performing content. Review your TikTok analytics monthly to identify which videos are pulling the most search traffic. Look for patterns: are certain topics outperforming others? Are videos where you clearly state the keyword in the first five seconds doing better? Use those insights to inform your future content.
Making TikTok analytics a regular part of your workflow, even just 20 minutes a month, is how you go from guessing at what works to actually knowing.
How Much Time Does TikTok SEO Actually Take Each Week?
This is the question every small business owner really wants answered, and the answer is less than you think.
Once you understand your target keywords (a one-time research session of about 30 minutes using TikTok search and the TikTok Creative Center), applying TikTok SEO best practices to each video adds maybe 5 to 10 extra minutes per post. That means writing an intentional caption, choosing focused hashtags, enabling captions, and making sure you say your keyword in the video. That’s it.
You don’t need to post daily. Even two to three pieces of well-optimized TikTok content per week can build meaningful local search visibility over time. Consistency matters more than volume, TikTok’s algorithm gets better at understanding and categorizing your account the more regularly you post.
Add in 20 minutes per month reviewing your TikTok analytics, and you’re investing less than an hour a week in a search engine strategy that most of your local competitors haven’t even started thinking about.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a TikTok SEO strategy? A TikTok SEO strategy is a deliberate plan for how you’ll use keyword research, content creation, and performance analysis to build search visibility on TikTok over time. It starts with identifying who you’re trying to reach, moves into keyword research to understand what they’re searching for, and is refined over time using TikTok analytics.
What is the TikTok Creative Center and how does it help with SEO? The TikTok Creative Center is a free platform provided by TikTok that includes a keyword insights tool showing trending search terms, their search volume, and industry relevance. It’s an excellent supplement to in-app search autocomplete for discovering high-value keywords before building your content plan.
What keywords should I actually use on TikTok as a small business? Start with what your customers would search for, your service plus your location. Think “HVAC repair Utah County” or “wedding florist Provo.” Then use TikTok search autocomplete and the TikTok Creative Center to find variations people are already searching for. You don’t need a fancy tool to start, TikTok tells you exactly what people want to find.
How do I use TikTok analytics for SEO? In TikTok analytics, pay close attention to your traffic source breakdown. If a meaningful share of your video views is coming from TikTok search, your SEO is working. If not, revisit your keyword placement. Also monitor audience location data to confirm you’re reaching your target geography, and track which video topics generate the most search-driven views.
