TikTok Expands The Character Limit For Video Descriptions To Help Creators Make Their Content More Searchable

Source: TikTok/Matt Navarra

TikTok is expanding the character limit for video descriptions. Previously capped at 300 characters, it’s increasing to 2,200 characters, matching Instagram’s character limit.

With the increase, creators can provide more context for their videos. Due to previous limitations, creators leaned on more descriptive text overlays and voiceovers for their videos. Those elements, however, aren't indexed in search.

Like Instagram’s keyword and topic search experience, TikTok enables creators to make their videos more searchable and discoverable by sharing detailed captions that include relevant keywords and topics users are actively searching for.

Because of this, creators and brands need to consider making search engine optimization (SEO)- friendly content across TikTok and other social platforms, similar to what is done when writing content for a website or blog.

For example, when brands build out their campaign briefs for influencer marketing campaigns, they should provide creators with relevant keywords to include in their captions to optimize their content for search while still allowing creative freedom. In order to identify keywords that may be effective, marketers can search for a general keyword related to the type of content creators will share and see what related keywords appear.

This can help to get the content in front of users who increasingly leverage social media to find places to visit, recipes to make, career advice, and more. Optimizations like these also help increase the lifespan of content, allowing branded content to have an impact beyond campaign windows.