Have you heard of Shadow Tagging On TikTok?
Ok for anyone using TikTok this was shared in @Susan Ritchie community and I thought you all could benefit from her research and knowledge. Let us know if this is helpful I was asked like yesterday what shadow tagging is. It’s a term that I at that point had never heard of so I did a little digging in ChatGPT to try and understand what this new term is referring to. I decided to share the results here because I thought it seemed comprehensive and helpful. Shadow tagging on TikTok is a quiet, hidden system where TikTok assigns internal tags to your video based on what it thinks your content is about — even if you never added those tags yourself. These tags decide: - Who your video gets shown to - How far it gets pushed - What audience TikTok thinks you belong to - Whether your content is considered safe or risky You never see these tags… but TikTok uses them to categorize you. ✅ Simple, Grade-5 Explanation Shadow tagging is when TikTok puts secret labels on your video behind the scenes. For example: - “fitness” - “relationship problems” - “money advice” - “side hustle” - “medical content” - “weight loss” - “mental health” - “skincare claims” - “plastic surgery” - “MLM risk” - “kids content” These tags tell TikTok: “Show this video to this specific kind of person.” And if the tag is wrong, your video gets shown to the wrong audience, and views stay low. ❗ Why Creators Worry About Shadow Tagging If TikTok misunderstands your video, it may tag you incorrectly. Example: You teach cooking tips, but you say: - “I lost 20 pounds…”TikTok may shadow-tag you as weight loss, which is a restricted category. Result: Your future cooking videos get pushed out less… even though they’re harmless. ❗ TikTok Also Uses Shadow Tags for “Risky” Topics Videos can get shadow tagged as: - Medical advice - Financial claims - Weight loss - Mental health advice - Affiliate marketing - MLM indicators - Addiction - Legal claims - Plastic surgery