TikTok wants creators to care about search

TikTok just introduced a new monetization program for creators, and some of the criteria for rewards look mighty interesting to those of us curious about the future of social SEO.

Source: TikTok

First, the basics. To be eligible for the new Creator Rewards Program, creators must be at least 18 years old, have at least 10K followers with a minimum of 100K views in the last 30 days, and have a personal account in good standing. These eligibility requirements are just like the ones from the now-defunct Creator Fund.

But here’s the interesting part. According to TikTok, the Creator Rewards Program will favor “high-quality, original content that is over a minute long, using an optimized rewards formula focused on four core metrics: originality, play duration, search value and audience engagement.”

Originality, play duration and audience engagement are familiar metrics for rewards programs. However, the emphasis on “search value” is new and seems to signal TikTok’s continued investment in search engine optimization.

In other words, it looks like TikTok is attempting to solidify its position as a Google alternative by rewarding creators for producing content that matches user search intent.

The platform has even built new features to support this shift. Creators can now use TikTok’s new Creator Search Insights tool to explore personalized suggestions and trending searches and find inspiration for their next video.

Source: TikTok’s Creator Search Insights dashboard

A keyword research tool and a new emphasis on search intent? Sounds a lot like TikTok SEO to us.