{"id":148746,"date":"2022-11-16T11:21:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T11:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/?p=148746"},"modified":"2025-04-01T07:56:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T07:56:58","slug":"tiktok-algoritm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/marketing\/seo\/tiktok-algoritm\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does the TikTok Algorithm Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

TikTok is surprisingly addictive.<\/p>\n

Ever wonder why?<\/p>\n

It all comes down to one word.<\/p>\n

Data.<\/p>\n

Yes, TikTok has extensive data on its users, and this helps the platform to continuously deliver content that its users love.<\/p>\n

Now, as a digital marketer, if you are marketing to Gen-Zers, you might want your business on TikTok. Maybe users will become addicted to your content.<\/p>\n

To do that effectively, you must know how the TikTok algorithm works.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll cover how the TikTok algorithm works so that you can gain massive traction.<\/p>\n

But first, I have to explain something.<\/p>\n

Is TikTok a Social Media Platform or a Search Engine?<\/h2>\n

\"Is
\nNow, in case you were wondering why on earth I\u2019m asking this, it\u2019s important to understand that TikTok is a little more complex than a typical social media platform like Facebook or Twitter.<\/p>\n

Typical social media platforms deliver content through an ever-changing feed. On these platforms, you generally can\u2019t search for content, or if you can, the search capabilities are severely limited.<\/p>\n

The reason is social media platforms don\u2019t have a searchable index.<\/p>\n

This means you might be able to search for new content in the platform’s buffers but you can\u2019t search for older content.<\/p>\n

The goal of a social media platform is different from that of a search engine. Social media by design is all about engaging with what\u2019s popular or exciting now. A search engine on the other hand is all about being able to find specific content in a database of information.<\/p>\n

TikTok acts like a social media platform by populating the latest popular videos in its For You feed, while also offering you a searchable index that allows for historical searches.<\/p>\n

\"TikTok<\/p>\n

This means TikTok is both a social media platform and a search engine.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll be covering how to get traffic from TikTok\u2019s social media algorithms by exploring how TikTok populates its For You feed. I\u2019ll leave TikTok search and\u00a0TikTok SEO<\/a> for another post.<\/p>\n

How Does the Tiktok\u2019s Algorithm Work?<\/h2>\n

In 2020, TikTok published a blog post explaining how your \u2018For You\u2019 feed is populated.
\n\"For
\nAccording to TikTok, the For You page is:<\/p>\n

“A stream of videos curated to your interests, making it easy to find content and creators you love \u2026 powered by a recommendation system that delivers content to each user that is likely to be of interest to that particular user.\u201d<\/p>\n

To achieve that, the algorithms populate \u2018For You\u2019 feeds based on the activity of each individual user. This means each person\u2019s feed is unique to their likes and interests.<\/p>\n

Now, this might sound simple, but let\u2019s break it down into its various component parts.<\/p>\n

The TikTok algorithm has to deeply \u2018understand\u2019 its user’s interests. It also has to clearly categorize the content it has in its index in order to match the video content with user interests.<\/p>\n

How TikTok Understands Its Users<\/h3>\n

Firstly, TikTok gathers detailed data on its users based on how they interact with content on the platform.<\/p>\n

This means TikTok gathers data on:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The content you generate and view<\/li>\n
  • The comments and live streams you make<\/li>\n
  • Images and audio included in your User Content (including objects and scenery)<\/li>\n
  • The existence and location within an image of face and body features and attributes on your User Content<\/li>\n
  • The audio, text, and words spoken in your User Content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Added to this, TikTok also gathers demographic data into the mix as well as anything you share on your profile. This means the platform \u2018knows\u2019 your age, gender, geo-location, what you had for breakfast (), and more.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve not shared the complete list and if you want to understand exactly how detailed TikTok\u2019s user data is, check out their privacy policy. (Although doing that might give you nightmares and you might never log into the app ever again.)<\/p>\n

    Using this highly specific and detailed user information, TikTok\u2019s algorithms are able to get a clear and accurate picture of your likes and interests.<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s more, as you use the app, TikTok\u2019s user data grows giving the algorithms a clearer picture of the content you enjoy.<\/p>\n

    And\u2026<\/p>\n

    The better the user data, the more potentially addictive the content is.<\/p>\n

    But, in order to serve relevant content, TikTok needs more data.<\/p>\n

    It needs to \u2018understand\u2019 the topic of each video in its index.<\/p>\n

    Understanding the Content in TikTok\u2019s Index<\/h3>\n

    Once the algorithms \u2018understand\u2019 what a user\u2019s likes and interests are, the algorithms also need to \u2018understand\u2019 the topic of each video in its index.<\/p>\n

    That way it can serve you the most enticing content tailored to your likes and interests.<\/p>\n

    In order to \u2018understand\u2019 a video\u2019s topic, TikTok\u2019s algorithms analyze the video content, including:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Hashtags<\/li>\n
    • Video descriptions<\/li>\n
    • Spoken audio<\/li>\n
    • Sounds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      With this information, TikTok is able to almost accurately match content to the user.<\/p>\n

      And that\u2019s the secret to a highly addictive platform.<\/p>\n

      An algorithm that figures out what its users want and understands its content well enough to fulfill its user’s desires.<\/p>\n

      Now that we\u2019ve looked at how the algorithm works, let\u2019s take what we\u2019ve understood and apply it to generating traffic to your content.<\/p>\n

      6 Easy Steps to Gaining TikTok Traffic<\/h2>\n

      Okay, you have the theory. Let\u2019s get practical.<\/p>\n

      As we\u2019ve seen, the TikTok algorithm collects large amounts of detailed user data and builds a profile for each user in order to serve personalized videos to their For You feeds.<\/p>\n

      This means if you want your videos to get massive traffic, you must aim to create content that users love and want to engage with.<\/p>\n

      Typical engagement metrics include:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Clicks<\/li>\n
      • Watch times<\/li>\n
      • Likes<\/li>\n
      • Shares<\/li>\n
      • Comments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        In other words, you need your content to practically jump off the screen and grab your audience by the lapel.<\/p>\n

        In order to create highly engaging videos, the first step is to understand your audience.<\/p>\n

        1. Understand Your Audience<\/h3>\n

        It\u2019s important to note, as a business, you\u2019re looking to make sales or generate leads.<\/p>\n

        Your social media presence should be designed with this end goal in mind. This means you must understand your buyer\u2019s journey and create your social media around that.<\/p>\n

        But, I\u2019ll explain how you can create a winning social media strategy in another post.<\/p>\n

        Instead, in this post, I\u2019m going to just focus on how to understand your target audience in order to get traffic from the TikTok algorithm.<\/p>\n

        In general, your audience consists of a pocket of people that your business is designed to serve. What they have in common is they all have an itch that your business is designed to scratch.<\/p>\n

        This could be a common interest or a problem they need to solve.<\/p>\n

        And having this problem, they have a conversation already going on in their minds. The question is, how do you enter that conversation?<\/p>\n

        The key is to do a bit of research.<\/p>\n

        Start your research by finding videos that are trending in your niche.<\/p>\n

        2. TikTok Audience Research 101 – What\u2019s Trending?<\/h3>\n

        The first step is to know what\u2019s trending. Because as I mentioned above, TikTok\u2019s algorithm favors anything that\u2019s trending.<\/p>\n

        Trends might include things like popular memes or popular content like challenges. (Remember the ice bucket challenge?)<\/p>\n