How to Optimise Your search on Channels Other Than Google

It has been reported that consumers are using platforms like TikTok and Pinterest as search engines. That’s why optimising channels like Bing and social media platforms are even more important to expand visibility further. 

By optimising content and creating platform-specific media, we can reach users at each stage of the purchasing journey.

Want to learn more about utilising other platforms? Read our guide to get started.

Bing

Bing is the 2nd most popular traditional search engine after Google. Although both serve the same purpose, there are differences between these two search engines, including:

1. Bing has emphasised imagery for a while. On image search, you can do a lot more with Bing, including filtering images by different attributes.
2. When it comes to videos, Bing also has more visual elements to video search results that make it easier to see.
3. Bing looks at off-page SEO signals when it comes to their rankings, including social media signals and any business listings.

Insight into Bing’s Algorithm

has the same aim as other channels, and that is to provide the most comprehensive, relevant and valuable collection of search results. Below are the factors that Bing takes into consideration:

• Relevance: Bing looks at whether the landing page matches the intent of the search. 
• Quality & Credibility: Alongside the landing page, Bing looks at the site to see the purpose of it, its usability & how it’s laid out. It also analyses the authority of the website by looking at its backlinks.
• User Engagement: Bing will also look at the behaviour of the user. It sees which results the user clicks on & how long they spend on the page.
• Fresh Content: Likewise with other channels, Bing loves fresh & relevant content.
• Location & Language: Bing looks at the user's location and the hreflang setup of the website to ensure the right page is delivered to the user.
• Page Load Time: Bing also looks into site speed as a ranking factor. The quicker a page loads, the more likely Bing will rank it as it will give users a better user experience online.

How to Optimise for Bing

Backlinks

Bing will look at the backlinks that are pointing back to your website. In the guidelines, Bing mentions quality over quantity. We want to build backlinks from domains which are relevant to our website.

Index Pages Quicker with IndexNow

You can index your new and updated pages quicker with Bing, using IndexNow. It is a protocol which allows websites to notify a search engine of any new or updated content. It is fantastic to get search engines to notice your content quicker and ranking them for keywords. You can find out how to exactly set this up on .

Write High-Quality Content

Before we optimise our content for Google, we also want to write for the consumer. We need to write content that users will get value out of.

On-Page Elements

Alongside the high-quality content, we need to ensure we optimise content that Bing can understand. We need to place our primary & secondary keywords naturally in the following places:

• H1
• Meta title & description.
• Within the first section of the content.
• Internal links pointing to the page.

Media

Each page type will need a different amount of images and types of media (static images, infographics & videos). Image size will also depend on the type of page you create. However, we want to ensure each image has optimised alt text with the keyword in it & the video is transcript enabled.

We can see below how Bing encourages users to interact with organic listings:

Social Media

Social media accounts are a great way to reach audiences who might not know of your website. Increased brand awareness can improve the engagement and trust of your users. Creating quality social media content and linking to your website is what Bing looks at. 

Local Listing

If you have a physical location for your store, you can create a local listing on Bing so customers can discover you online and get in touch with the store and head to your website. Adding images, reviews and descriptions increases chances of visibility for you on Bing.

TikTok

TikTok, the channel used to make the viral dances, has turned into so much more. Nearly a quarter of the world's population uses TikTok, so it’s a platform we don’t want to ignore.

Insight into TikTok’s Algorithm

The foundation of TikTok’s algorithm is the For You Page. The place where it shows relevant content to users based on what they watch.

The following ranking factors are as follows:

1. User Interactions: TikTok recommends content based on what the users watches, likes, saves, creates & what videos they watch until the end.
2. Video information: TikTok looks into the video captions, sound, hashtags, effects & trending topics.
3. Device/Account settings: Even down to user settings can help TikTok to provide relevant content. Including looking at language preference, country, mobile device and categories of interest.

How to Optimise for TikTok

Carry out TikTok Research

Before creating or optimising any TikTok videos, keyword research needs to be completed. TikTok has its centre where you can see the trending hashtags and what to go after.

You can also make use of TikTok where you can utilise their content gap tool.

Optimise Your Profile

We want to make sure our profile relates to your brand to provide a consistent experience for customers. The account description is limited to 80 characters so you should prioritise:

• What the account & business is about.
• Add a link to your website & Instagram account if you have one.
• Include a call to action to encourage engagement.

Get Creative With Your Video

Before you even think about ways to optimise the video, you must evaluate whether the video content is relevant and engaging. You don’t want to be stuck in TikTok’s 200-view jail. Once you are happy with your video, here are ways to optimise it further:

• Add 3-6 hashtags that are relevant to your video.
• You want to fill the TikTok video description with concise information that tells you exactly what the video is about.
• Ensure transcript/subtitles are enabled as this is another way for TikTok to understand the context of the video. It also allows better accessibility for users who are hard of hearing. 
• Trending songs can help you to appear on For You pages. The feature in the ads centre can help you to find the right song.

On the TikTok search page itself, TikTok sometimes shows its search highlights, which pull the text from the most relevant video. 

Open a TikTok Shop

If you want to take it further, you can even open a TikTok shop to sell your goods. There is a fee to sell on TikTok (usually 2-5%) but here are some statistics that might convince you to open a shop:

• of TikTok users agree TikTok has helped them to decide what to buy.
• 2 out of 3 users are likely to buy something whilst on the platform.

Pinterest

Pinterest has always been a popular platform, it has been around since 2009 and has users with multiple interests. It is a social media platform where people can create and share ‘pins’ and add them to their boards. Here are some reasons why you should consider Pinterest as a platform:

• 85% of weekly users have made a purchase from a pin.
• 96% of searches are .

Insight into Pinterest’s Algorithm

There are two ways which pins get seen organically on Pinterest, 

Content gets seen by:

• Home feed: This is where the algorithm shows all pins that are similar to what you have interacted with previously.
• Search: The search page is where you can manually look for specific pins. The initial set up of the search page shows recommended searches based on popular Pinterest searches & their relevance to the user’s behaviour. 

The main goal of Pinterest’s algorithm is to provide relevant pins to the user. It takes into account the following factors:

1. Domain quality: There are no guidelines for domain quality but there are requirements for eCommerce brands to sell on Pinterest. These requirements help to show Pinterest that the linked website is relevant.
2. Profile quality: Your Pinterest profile also needs to be 100% filled out, have a good number of boards & create quality pins.
3. Topic relevance: This is all about how your pin & its destination match with the user intent.
4. Pin quality: Both the content & visuals of the pin must be of high quality. Pinterest looks at pin saves, the click-through rate, and time spent looking at the pin & external links.

How to Optimise for Pinterest

To get the ultimate reach on Pinterest, follow these steps to get started:

Create Your Business Profile Account

You want to make sure your username is memorable and concise. We also want to add keywords and what exactly is your business in the description. Adding a link to your website from Pinterest allows Pinterest users to explore other channels.

Nordace has a really good profile which shows their logo, website & description of the account. It gives a really good idea of what to expect from their account. 

Claim Your Website

Adding your website to your profile helps you to appear in search results on Pinterest. Verifying your website not only increases trust but helps drive more traffic to your website. Users can shop for products from your pins if you are also a verified merchant. 

Do Some Keyword Research

The easiest way to do keyword research is by simply using the search bar, it will automatically show relevant keywords you can target.

You can also use the Pinterest Trends tool that allows you to search for search data around different keywords. 

Create Some Boards

Think of boards as groups or categories to house pins. Pinterest users can easily navigate related pins of the same topic e.g. travel packing tips or Rome travel advice. 

Boards will show up on the search results page, so we want to ensure they are optimised. Using your keyword research, we want to include keywords in the board title & description.

Start Making Pins

For image pins, there are different that Pinterest recommends which makes it flexible for creators. You will see a mixture of infographics to standard images with no overlay. 

Videos are becoming even more visible on Pinterest and something the platform prioritises. The sweet spot for videos is between 6-15 seconds and a pin size of 1:1 (square).

For both image and video pins we want to make sure that we have our keyword within the title and description of the pin. You can also optimise the pin by tagging related topics, and products, adding it to a board & including a link to your website (if applicable).

We mentioned earlier that you can create product pins. You can tag your highlighted products in pins and drive customers to your website - increasing chances of conversion.

Rich pins are created to boost engagement and clicks to your website. There are 4 types of rich pins - recipe, article, app and product. Pinterest will take information from your website and turn it into a rich pin.

YouTube

According to an article by , YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine with 2.5 billion users. YouTube is a great platform if you can create high-quality videos to share with your customers. This can be for customers earlier on in their purchasing journey or looking for post-conversion content. Why choose YouTube? of people use YouTube to inform them of making a purchasing decision & 67% of viewers watch videos for product reviews. YouTube videos now rank on Google so you have more exposure to your content.

Insight into YouTube’s Algorithm

YouTube’s algorithm has changed a lot over the years, here is its brief history & what the algorithm prioritised:

• 2005-2011: Clicks and View
• 2012: Watch time
• 2015-2016: Satisfaction and personalisation
• 2016-present: Demonetisation and policy updates (#ad)
• Today: YouTube wants viewers to enjoy videos and stay on the platform for as long as possible - they do this through recommendations.

YouTube’s algorithm is based on what people have liked to watch historically & will match your video based on relevancy.

YouTube prioritises the following elements:

• Relevance: match factors like tags, descriptions & titles.
• Engagement: signals like watch time, percentage, likes, comments and shares.
• Quality: looks at channel authority & trustworthiness.
• User search & watch history: what have users enjoyed watching in the past?

How to Optimise for YouTube

Carry out Keyword Research

It is important to carry out keyword research before uploading any videos on YouTube.

We want to have our keywords in these main places:

• Video file name.
• Video title & description.
• Video script.
• Channel description.

We can use some paid tools for keyword research specific to YouTube. However, you can utilise YouTube’s auto-fill tool in their search bar and search your analytics if you have an account to see how people find you.

Optimise Your Channel

A YouTube channel can rank in the YouTube search results. A good channel can mean more subscribers and better rankings.

To optimise your channel you should:

• Include keywords in the ‘About’ section, be careful not to keyword stuff.
• Use channel keyword tags under advanced settings.
• Update the channel trailer to improve relevance.
• Create playlists - this helps to improve watch time as videos will continue to play when you watch the channel.
• Add links to your website to show authority.
• Building links from other YouTube channel videos further improves authority.

Make an Engaging Video

Although the algorithm doesn’t take into account your video for showing it to other users, you still want to publish a good video.

The more time people spend on your video & engage with it, the higher the chance your other videos will be recommended.

Audience retention is the amount of your video that people watch - it is a HUGE ranking factor.

Write a Good Title & Description

Titles should be clear, compelling and concise. A title that is too long or unclear risks users not clicking on the video.

The title needs to closely match the content of the video itself, to improve the relevancy of the videos that are being created.

The official character limit for descriptions is 1,000 characters. However, it’s worth noting that only the first 100 characters are displayed before a load more button shows more content.

It’s important to include the most important information at the beginning.

A good description should include:

• Your target keywords.
• A good overview of the video.
• A Call to Action.
• Links to relevant pages.
• Transcripts are also indexed, and this is also great for accessibility for people who have to watch it without volume.
• Adding timestamps (linking to certain points in the video) helps viewers to skip to where they want to watch. It can also be shown on SERPs as key moments.

Refy does this well by clearly showing what the video is about - ‘Everyday Make Up using Refy’ capitalising on both non-brand & branded terms.

Make a Custom Thumbnail

of the best-performing videos have a custom thumbnail, they tend to have a higher CTR. YouTube automatically chooses the thumbnail, but it is recommended to create a custom thumbnail. 

Some things to note:

• YouTube recommends the use of images that are 1280x720 pixels representing a 16:9 ratio. 2mb or smaller. JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG.
• A YouTube account has to be verified to upload a custom thumbnail image.

Try End Screens

End screens display information to continue users' journey for that channel, including adding a subscribe button & a link to other videos. It’s great for getting viewers to continue watching your content, but it’s important that it doesn’t obstruct the current video being played.

NOVOS Thought’s

Invest time in the platforms where your customers are and optimise your content to match users' intent. These platforms have developed so quickly and they are only going to keep growing. They offer fantastic features that we can take advantage of to grow our businesses further and increase engagement with your community.