TikTok creators have extra alternatives to optimize their content material for person searches due to a major lengthening of video descriptions.

In line with a notification despatched to customers, TikTok is increasing the size of descriptions from 300 characters to 2,200 characters.

Along with making content material extra searchable, TikTok makes use of textual content within the description to resolve which movies to suggest to customers.

Social media analyst Matt Navarra shares a screenshot of the message he obtained relating to the change:

Wow…! TikTok has elevated the character restrict for video descriptions to 2,200 characters!

That is large for builders and big given TikTok’s plans to develop into a search engine pic.twitter.com/kGhnL97uUM

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) September 23, 2022

The message reads:

“Now you can enter as much as 2200 characters within the descriptions of your posts: this fashion you’ll be able to categorical extra particulars about your creations, describe what your movies present and provide the alternative to get nearer to your viewers, generate extra engagement whereas additionally changing into extra searchable and beneficial by TikTok viewers.”

Youthful generations are more and more utilizing TikTok as a search engine, and TikTok continues to lean in by permitting customers to make their movies extra search-friendly.

I first wrote about this shift in search habits in June, when TikTok started including hyperlinks to go looking ends in video descriptions.

See: Might TikTok be a search engine? For a lot of customers, it already is

In July, Google publicly acknowledged that TikTok and Instagram are the major search engines of alternative for a major variety of younger individuals.

Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said:

“In our research, round 40% of younger individuals when in search of a spot to have lunch go to TikTok or Instagram as a substitute of Google Maps or Google Search.”

Growing the size of video descriptions from 300 to 2,200 characters permits customers to optimize movies for extra search phrases.

For instance, native companies that market themselves on TikTok can embrace extra key phrases associated to their metropolis and state.

This might enhance their probabilities of being discovered for a search question like “unbiased companies in downtown Toronto.” They usually have loads of area so as to add descriptive textual content concerning the video.

Character enhance additionally permits creators so as to add extra context to what individuals see in a video.

Creators usually present extra element by way of in-video captions, however this textual content is not useful to search engines like google and yahoo.

Let’s not overlook that Google indexes TikTok movies. Writing detailed descriptions could make movies extra discoverable on conventional search engines like google and yahoo and TikTok.

Will probably be attention-grabbing to see what creators do with 1000’s extra characters in a video description.

Will creators fill the outline space with key phrases like within the early days of search engine optimization?

Will they spam the outline part with hashtags like individuals used to do on Instagram?

Some experimentation might be wanted to determine what works for TikTok search, so perhaps we’ll see the entire above.

TikTok search engine optimization is an space I will regulate as prolonged character size turns into obtainable to extra individuals.

Featured picture: Daniel Constante/Shutterstock