There is a list of search keywords attached to every TikTok video you have ever posted. You didn't write it. For years you couldn't even see it. And it quietly decided which searches your video was eligible to appear in.

That list is now editable.

TikTok surfaces the auto-assigned keywords directly on posts and gives creators two controls: suggest keywords you want attached to the clip, or block keywords that don't accurately represent it. The in-app message reads: "This post displays keywords automatically added by TikTok based on popular searches."

For a coach, that gap between what TikTok thinks your video is about and what it is actually about is the whole ballgame. A ten-minute breakdown of how to handle a defensive direct report can get filed under motivational quotes, land in front of people collecting inspiration, and go nowhere near anyone shopping for a leadership coach.

Why the wrong keywords cost you twice

TikTok has always attached keywords automatically, based on what viewers did and what they searched before they found you. If it decided your video was about something else entirely, that was that — and you watched the wrong audience arrive, bounce, and drag your retention down with them.

So the damage compounds. Wrong audience, worse watch time, weaker distribution on the next post.

The search stakes are no longer marginal. A 2026 Adobe Express report found 49% of American consumers have used TikTok as a search engine, rising to 65% among Gen Z. That's up from 41% two years earlier. Keyword metadata is the mechanism TikTok uses to match videos with those queries.

The back catalogue is the real prize

Most coverage treats this as a publishing step. It isn't.

Keywords can be edited at any time, including on old videos, which makes this a back-catalogue opportunity rather than a box to tick after uploading. If you have two years of content sitting there, some of it is filed under terms that will never bring you a client.

The route people report is consistent: open a published video, tap the three-dot menu, and look for the keyword option. It's a post-publish check that takes under a minute per video and quietly decides which searches your clip is eligible for.

What's still unclear

Be honest about the state of the rollout before you build a process around it.

Social Media Today reported the feature on 26 April, based on screenshots shared by app researcher Jonah Manzano on Threads. It resurfaced this week in a creator-economy digest, which is how a lot of coaches are hearing about it for the first time.

TikTok has not published a newsroom announcement or a help centre page for it, so there is no official statement on who has it, in which markets, or on which app versions — and nothing published points to a Business account requirement. Everything described so far happens in the phone app, so if your workflow runs on desktop, someone needs a phone. If you can't see it, update the app and check again in a couple of weeks.

Two cautions

This is not a tagging free-for-all. TikTok keeps final oversight, so a suggested keyword still has to be judged relevant. You are correcting the machine's read of your content, not overriding it.

And blocking is sharper than it looks. Excluding the wrong terms can limit your reach. A keyword that feels off-brand may be doing more work than you think — check your search traffic before you cut it.

Start with your five best-performing videos and your five that should have performed and didn't. Read what TikTok thinks they are. That alone tends to explain a lot.