The Internet is constantly evolving and changing, users are too, and searches are no longer what they were a decade ago.It is essential to adapt to these changes if we want to survive in the jungle of the internet, where trends and social networks are stronger than ever.Following this point, TikTok has become an impossible to ignore source of earnings, visits and popularity.
Since 2020, TikTok has become more and more popular with the talk of the world. It’s not an app that’s just for teens, it’s an app that a billion users choose to use daily across all demographics. That’s why many can’t help but wonderTikTok will replace Google?
The app evolved little by little as it grew. From being used by teenagers for leisure activities to influencing the behavior of millions of people. Everything seems to indicate that the next step for the social network will be to become the next search engine.
Will TikTok really replace Google?
Currently, TikTok has an internal content search engine that will only show us everything that appears on the social network, focusing on videos. In a nutshell, TikTok and Google are used to satisfy search intent, so it won’t replace the internet giant, at least not yet.
Why do we search the social network?
Currently, TikTok is taking a big slice of the market from Google when it comes to searches for food, travel and gardening. These are relatively low searches, so the “damage” that could be caused to the internet giant is practically nil. When we are looking for something that does not need a specific or objective answer, TikTok is the solution.
If we’re trying to find answers where visuals really matter, TikTok is the best tool we currently have. Therefore, to search for cooking or gardening tutorials, the social network is ideal.
Another big reason why people use the social network to search is because we usually see an expert in the field providing the answer. On Google, we can find too many niche bloggers. Additionally, we find social proof that the experience of the one who gives the answer is really the correct one. Comments, views, likes, followers, etc.
Active search and content discovery
In the social network we have two attitudes that are key and that we will have to learn to differentiate: active search and content discovery. Let’s explain it in detail.
Content discovery is one of the most important behaviors on TikTok and the one we are most familiar with. Basically, it is about any user simply using the application, scrolling through different content with the idea of finding entertainment, tips, ideas, etc.
Millions of users have enjoyed a good experience when it comes to content discovery. Finding different interesting things that they did not expect to find. And this is the key to understanding TikTok’s rise as a search engine.
Positive content discovery experiences make users trust the social network. They know perfectly well that they want to consume content found in this app and when they need to search for something, they turn to the app.
As for active search, it’s when someone specifically searches for something by typing the question into the app’s search box. Users can scroll through all the content they come across without having to open different browser tabs.
Obviously, this greatly improves the experience by satisfying the user, reducing friction and making it clear that TikTok is the best answer to get one to our questions.
about psychology
Resistance to persuasion is a natural psychological defense when we feel that someone is trying to force our way of thinking, understanding, or simply wants us to do something. Persuasion is perceived as a threat by inertia, so we try to stay away or go against it.
Some time ago, the advertising industry began to worry about the increasing drop in CTR on display ads. Popups stopped working, banners started to be ignored. Users had realized that advertising was everywhere and trying to sell them something by force.
This generated a phenomenon called by psychologists as resistance to persuasion. In the case of advertisers, they called it “banner blindness.” Four fundamental strategies were developed to counteract resistance to persuasion.
The first thing was to make the ads similar to the content, so that they would give the impression that they are part of it. Calling them “native ads.” Next, ads were placed in totally unexpected places, where users were less likely to be mentally prepared to avoid them. moved on to social proof and began to harness the power of trust. What generated the famous influencer marketing that has been generating millions for years.
TikTok takes advantage of all four strategies
In the case of the social network, take advantage of these four strategies to combat resistance to persuasion by design. But how did they get it?
Content creators earn money through the Creator Fund based on the number of views or engagement they have on their videos. This encourages them to create more and better content. They show their routines from different products they use, with or without brand sponsorship. Which makes people see it as normal content and gives them confidence. Ads appear in the same format as your normal content, in the exact same way! With a small label that allows you to know that it is advertising content. All videos allow you to quickly see who created it, how many likes it has, counts of visits and comments. It is a huge social proof!
However, SEO is not paid social or influencer marketing. So why is it important to us?
The change in SEO is now omnichannel
The foundation of what we do is, simply put, putting the right content in front of the user at the right time. If we want to continue down this path and meet the goal, we must provide content where the user searches for it.
Little by little, technology is becoming a noticeable part of our lives and we have seen the emergence of multiple searches. Google created the term as a way to integrate its Google Lens functionality into the way we talk about search and SEO.
Currently, we search by asking our smart assistant devices questions, taking pictures, etc. We search through Google Maps, YouTube, social networks like Instagram, TikTok, even Amazon; none of these will be replaced.
Gone are the days where SEO was based on answering a query in a simple search box.
When we publish our content on TikTok and work hard to optimize it for search, we help users find our content when they need it, where they want it, and in the format they like.
TikTok in the SERPs
Thanks to an omnichannel SEO strategy we will be able to interact with our users beyond our website and we will be able to help our brand occupy more space in the SERPs.
Google wants to diversify the domains they show in search. So if we want to appear several times in the SERPs, we will have to try to distribute our branded content in different domains.
For example, TikTok has over 31 million pages programmatically built around topics, hashtags, and sounds.
Taking into account the data available thanks to different tools, we know that this section of TikTok has almost 160 million monthly organic clicks. Based on these numbers, then the benefits of having branded content on the social network speak for themselves.