How to Add Location to a TikTok Video

Adding a location tag to your TikTok post is one of the fastest and most effective ways to boost your visibility and connect with a local audience. This simple step can help the TikTok algorithm show your video to viewers in a specific area, whether it's your local neighborhood or a city you're targeting across the globe. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add a location, why it’s so important for growth, and a few clever strategies for using location tags to your advantage.

Why Add a Location to Your TikTok? (It's More Than Just a Tag)

You might think of the location tag as just a small detail, but it’s a powerful signal to the TikTok algorithm about who should see your content. When you add a location, you’re not just labeling your video, you’re activating a powerful discoverability feature that can have a massive impact on your views, especially if your content or business has a geographic focus. Here’s why it’s so valuable.

Tap Into Local Discovery

TikTok is becoming a local search engine. Users frequently search for things like "best coffee in Brooklyn" or "things to do in Miami." When your video is tagged with a relevant location, it has a chance to appear in these search results. More importantly, every location tag on TikTok creates its own feed. Anyone can tap on a location in a video's caption and see a collection of other posts tagged with that same place. Getting your content onto these pages is like putting a flyer up in a high-traffic area - it exposes you to a new and highly relevant audience that is actively looking for content related to that location.

Boost Your Relevance for Local Audiences

The TikTok algorithm is designed to show people content they’ll find engaging and relevant. Location is a major factor in determining relevance. If a user in Chicago frequently engages with Chicago-based content, the algorithm learns this and is more likely to show them videos tagged with "Chicago, Illinois" or specific places within the city. For local businesses - like a restaurant, salon, retail store, or service provider - this is a complete game-changer. It means your videos are being served to potential customers right in your area, dramatically increasing the chance of turning a viewer into a real-life visitor.

For example, if you run a vintage clothing store in Austin, Texas, and you post a video showcasing a new collection, tagging "Austin, Texas" or your specific neighborhood helps ensure that your video finds its way onto the ‘For You’ pages of people who are actually close enough to visit your store.

Give Your Content Context

Beyond the algorithm, a location tag adds a layer of context to your storytelling. A video of a beautiful sunset becomes more compelling when you know it's in Santorini, Greece. A funny street performance is more interesting when you see it was recorded in Times Square. A location tag grounds your video in the real world, making it more relatable, authentic, and engaging for viewers. It can spark connection, whether it’s someone who has visited that spot before or someone who dreams of going.

How to Add a Location to a TikTok Video (Step-by-Step)

The process of adding a location is straightforward and built right into the posting process. You just need to know where to look. Here is a simple, step-by-step breakdown.

• Step 1: Create Your Video: Film a new video directly in the TikTok app or upload a pre-recorded video from your camera roll. Add your sounds, effects, text overlays, and any other edits you'd like. Once you're finished editing, tap 'Next' to proceed to the post screen.
• Step 2: Navigate to the Post Screen: This is the final screen you see before your video goes live. It’s where you write your caption, add hashtags, mention friends, and configure your privacy settings.
• Step 3: Find and Tap 'Location': Look directly below the caption and hashtag text box. You will see a list of options, including 'Tag people', 'Add link', and 'Location'. The 'Location' option is usually accompanied by a map pin icon. Tap it.
• Step 4: Search and Select Your Desired Location: Once you tap 'Location', a new screen will pop up. TikTok will automatically use your phone's GPS to suggest locations near your current physical position.
  • If you see the location you want in the suggestion list, simply tap it.
  • If your desired location isn't there, you can use the search bar at the top of the screen to find any location in the world. You can search for cities, states, neighborhoods, specific landmarks, restaurants, airports, national parks, and much more.
  For example, if you filmed a travel vlog about your trip to Rome yesterday, you can search for "Colosseum" or "Rome, Italy" and select the appropriate tag.
• Step 5: Confirm and Post: After you select a location, you’ll be returned to the post screen. You will now see the chosen location appear next to the map pin icon. Confirm that your caption, hashtags, and all other settings are correct, and then hit 'Post' to publish your video. The location will now be visible and tappable for all viewers!

What To Do If Your Location Isn't on TikTok

Sometimes you’ll search for a smaller business, a brand new spot, or a specific address, and it just won't appear as an option. This is normal, as TikTok pulls its location data from third-party services like Foursquare, so not every single place on Earth is listed. If you can't find your exact location, you still have great options.

1. Go General and Broaden Your Scope

The easiest workaround is to tag a more general, well-known location that still provides an accurate geographic context. For instance:

• If your specific cafe, "The Blue Bean," isn't listed, try tagging the neighborhood (e.g., "Williamsburg, Brooklyn").
• If the neighborhood doesn't pop up, tag the city (e.g., "Brooklyn, NY").
• For rural locations, you could tag the nearest town, a nearby national park, or the county.

While not perfectly specific, this approach still helps the algorithm place your content geographically and connect you with a relevant local audience.

2. Check Your Sources

Before giving up, make sure you’re checking a platform like Facebook or Foursquare. If your business isn't listed on those platforms, it’s highly unlikely TikTok will recognize it. Creating a location page for your business on Facebook can sometimes help it get recognized by these systems over time. Ensure your business has a complete Facebook Page with an address, as this is often where location data is initially sourced.

Go Beyond the Basics: Smart Location Tagging Strategies

Simply tagging where a video was made is useful, but strategic creators and marketers use location tags to achieve specific goals. Think of the location tag not just as a descriptor, but as a targeting tool.

1. Tag Your Target Audience’s Location

You don't have to be physically present at a location to tag it. If your content is relevant to a specific audience, tag their location to get on their radar. Let's say you're an online life coach specializing in helping tech workers avoid burnout. Even if you're based in Miami, you could create a video with tips for a better work-life balance and tag it with "San Francisco, California" or "Silicon Valley" to reach people who work in that hub of the tech industry. The key is relevance, the content should still feel organic and valuable to the audience in that tagged location.

2. Tag Event Venues and Conference Halls

Are you attending or speaking at an industry conference, festival, or local market? Tag the event venue in all of your related content - before, during, and after the event. People attending or following the event will often browse videos from that location to see what’s happening. This puts your content directly in front of an engaged, hyper-relevant audience, making it a fantastic networking and discovery tool. A musician promoting a concert can tag the venue, an artist can tag the art fair, and a brand can tag the convention center where they have a booth.

3. Use "Aspirational" or Thematic Locations

Sometimes, a location tag can be used to set a mood or align with a particular theme. A fashion creator could discuss Parisian style and tag the video with "Paris, France" to connect with an audience interested in that aesthetic, even if they filmed the video in their own bedroom. A creator sharing career motivation tips for ambitious professionals could tag "Wall Street, New York." This aligns your video with the interests and aspirations of the people searching for or engaging with content from those iconic locations.

Can You Change a Location Tag After Posting?

This is an important point to remember: You cannot edit a video on TikTok after it has been published. This includes the location, caption, hashtags, tagged people, and even typos. The only way to change a location on a live video is to save the video to your device, delete the original post, and then re-upload it with the correct location tag.

The obvious downside to this is that you will lose any views, likes, comments, and shares that the original video had accumulated. For this reason, it's always best to slow down and double-check your location and all other details on the post screen before you hit 'Publish'.

Final Thoughts

Mastering the use of location tags on TikTok is a small effort with a big return. It helps viewers find you, gives the algorithm clear signals about who to show your content to, and makes your videos more relevant, whether you're targeting an audience next door or across an ocean.

Getting small details like location tags right is just one part of a consistent content strategy. Here at our company, we’ve found that the best way to grow on any platform is to have a clear and organized plan. That’s why we built our tool, Postbase, with an incredibly simple and visual calendar that lets us map out our entire TikTok and social media strategy at a glance. It helps us plan our content far in advance, so we can focus on creating instead of worrying about what to post next.