Can TikTok do SEO? Research shows that Generation Z prefers to search on social media

For more than a decade, whenever companies talk about search engine optimization ( SEO), we assume they are talking about Google search. However, with the rise of giants in e-commerce and social media — including shopping platform Amazon and short video platform TikTok — online searches have begun to shift elsewhere.

At a recent conference in Aspen, Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, revealed that a large portion of young people aged 18 to 24 are avoiding Google when looking for information and turning to social media for searches.

He added: “Our research shows that about 40% of young people don’t use Google or Google Maps when looking for a restaurant, but instead open TikTok or Instagram. We are gradually realizing that the new generation of Internet users think differently from the older generation and have their own unique demands.”

It is understood that the weakness of Google search has begun to show signs: a study published by big data company Bloomreach in 2016, which was widely cited at the time, showed that 55% of consumer product searches came from Amazon, and this number is still growing. In addition, as technology companies continue to launch new network products, platforms and software, Google's market share will be further diluted.

For content creators and brand marketing experts, this means that now in addition to relying on mysterious algorithms, it is crucial to learn SEO optimization for social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which will help them present the right content to users. Different platforms have different optimization methods, but for most platforms, strategic layout around keywords and tags will achieve twice the result with half the effort.

On TikTok, a whole new type of video has emerged, which focuses on helping creators improve their SEO rankings and make them more visible to users. The bloggers who post these videos emphasize the importance of using the right keywords and give some useful tips, such as how to use TikTok's search bar to find the most popular search phrases and create relevant content based on these words.

Former social media manager Yvonne Dekoning believes that unlike short-lived memes or trending posts, search-optimized content will gain continuous exposure over time because people will deliberately search for relevant content.

Meanwhile, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn have expanded their product capabilities, most notably LinkedIn and its recently launched creator tools, which allow users to easily publish searchable multimedia content on existing platforms.

Under the current trend, cross-border sellers can focus more on the content of major social media platforms while paying attention to Google SEO, and gain more exposure for their brands by embedding keywords, adding topic tags, etc.

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