Is TikTok a search engine? Why assembly searchers’ wants issues greater than semantics

The talk round whether or not TikTok must be thought of a search engine continues to divide the website positioning group.

However right here’s the factor – customers don’t care about definitions or technicalities. For a lot of, particularly youthful audiences, TikTok is a go-to place to look and uncover info.

So, whereas we argue semantics throughout the website positioning group, manufacturers that aren’t contemplating TikTok as a part of their search technique danger dropping visibility and engagement alternatives.

Let’s discover why customers aren’t focused on our jargon-fuelled definitions and why they deal with TikTok as a search engine. 

The shift in search engine dynamics

As SEOs, we historically see a search engine as a system designed to conduct internet searches. It crawls via the online systematically to find particular info laid out in a search question. 

The traditional examples embrace giants like Google and Microsoft Bing. These platforms index and rank webpages primarily based on key phrases, backlinks and different components, presenting them in an ordered record in response to consumer queries.

Nonetheless, the idea of what constitutes a search engine is evolving quickly. Whereas we’re arguing over which platforms are literally search engines like google and yahoo, customers are simply looking out – in every single place.

This evolution isn’t just within the expertise that powers search engines like google and yahoo but additionally of their kind and performance. Siri, Alexa, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, ChatGPT, Gemini (previously Bard), and SGE signify this shift.

Platforms not historically thought of search engines like google and yahoo at the moment are fulfilling related roles to the likes of Google and Bing. So far as customers are involved, they’re doing so extra successfully. They see these platforms as search engines like google and yahoo, so why can’t SEOs?

And, please, don’t take my phrase for it.

Gen Z customers favor extra personalised, algorithm-led social networks (48%) over search engines like google and yahoo (44%) when on the lookout for details about manufacturers, services or products, per WARC’s 2023 Shopper Developments report (subscription required).

This shift is broadening the definition of a search engine, for my part. It ought to signify an innovation in executing search advertising methods and enthusiastic about platforms.

Central to this transformation is consumer habits. The way in which individuals seek for info has modified dramatically.

There’s a rising choice for fast, concise, and visually participating content material, particularly inside these Gen Z and Millennial audiences (which are usually my focus).

We’ve all seen the “40% of younger individuals, once they’re on the lookout for a spot for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram” quote by Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior VP at Google.

With regards to consumer habits, these youthful audiences worth these platforms’ velocity, comfort, and relatability, usually preferring the visible and interactive content material format TikTok presents.

Dig deeper. Survey: 51% of Gen Z ladies favor TikTok, not Google, for search

website positioning right this moment: Assembly customers the place they’re

Somebody may seek for a cooking tutorial on TikTok as a substitute of Google. Maybe they’re searching for extra than simply the recipe.

They is perhaps within the platform’s participating presentation, improved consumer expertise, and group facet. This might be as a result of sure searches are suited to visible content material or as a result of their reference to a selected creator.

Search engines like google are now not nearly indexing and retrieving internet content material. They should meet customers the place they’re and within the format they like – and Google acknowledges this shift.

In response to those developments, “Views” has been created to problem these platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Reddit) and their search capabilities and produce customers again to a Google SERP for a majority of these queries. Google additionally lately has been testing TikTok movies in SGE and featured snippets.

E-E-A-T has been iterated, inserting extra emphasis on the first-hand expertise of content material and its creator. This can be a essential issue driving individuals to different platforms within the first place. This exhibits an additional dedication to enhancing the relatability and trustworthiness of content material options.

Dig deeper: The fashionable search panorama: How and the place to achieve your audience

What truly issues 

This debate can drag on endlessly, with arguments over semantics and definitions attempting to sway individuals to at least one facet. Nonetheless, this received’t make a distinction for our manufacturers.

As a substitute, we must be seeking to our audiences to information us. As a result of, as a lot as we are able to argue TikTok isn’t a search platform, if audiences are looking out there and your model isn’t current, you allow beneficial visibility on the desk.

Finally, we must always prioritize activations on the platform that finest meets our model’s strategic wants and develop search content material there.

If that ends in a TikTok search technique, nice.

If we as a substitute focus solely on Google as a result of that’s what will transfer the needle, then improbable.

It might even be a mix of them each, leveraging a extra holistic “search in every single place” method.

The important thing right here is to not flip down a platform as a result of it doesn’t meet your definition for a search engine proper now. As a result of whereas we’re debating about this, a model competitor is probably going executing these observations and gaining visibility.

Finally, as has all the time been the case, it’s not our job to dictate to customers the content material they need to eat and the place they need to eat it. 

Moderately, we react to the indicators supplied by our audiences and create the content material options they want within the format they count on them to look. 

And, in an increasing search universe, on the platforms, they’re conducting such searches. 

Dig deeper: Search universe evaluation: A deep dive