TikTok · 3 min read
TikTok Tag Strategy
Why short hashtag sets and spoken keywords outperform long blocks on TikTok.
Caption space is expensive
TikTok captions are short and the first line does the work of holding a viewer who is about to swipe. Every hashtag you add competes with that hook for space, which is a real cost that hashtag advice written for Instagram tends to ignore.
Three to six hashtags is a reasonable range. Beyond that you are trading attention for a marginal signal.
TikTok reads more than hashtags
TikTok indexes on-screen text, spoken words via automatic captions, and the caption itself. That means saying your key phrase out loud and putting it on screen is often worth more than adding another tag.
Treat keyword tags as script notes: phrases you will actually say, not decorations added afterwards.
Format tags help series
Tags that name the format — part one, storytime, before and after — help viewers find the rest of a series and help you keep drafts organised. They are among the few tags worth using consistently across every post in a run.