Whenever you think or hear about search engine optimization, your thoughts start revolving around Google. It is obvious as it is a leading Search Engine used by the major population of the world but don’t mislead yourself by thinking it as the only search engine. There are other search engines available like Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, etc. YouTube has become the second most used search engine where almost every people perform search queries to find out videos they want to view.
It might feel awkward to consider YouTube a search engine, but the fact is that it actually is a search engine, a search engine to look out for videos.
Just as you want your websites to rank higher on Search Engine Result Pages, you would want to get your videos on higher ranks on YouTube. And, as YouTube is different from other search engines, the SEO process is also different. When you are aware of the SEO for videos, you know how to make your videos more discoverable and expand the audience of your channel.
Let’s start with introducing YouTube SEO
It is a process to optimize the videos posted on channel, playlist, and channel to have a higher rank on YouTube search engine. A YouTube SEO will help you to expand the audience by making it easier for them to find you.
You must have noticed whenever you enter a search query on the YouTube search bar, you will get several results including what you have typed in the search bar. Just the way Google does on its SERP, YouTube too shows ads on the top and the other organic search results following it.
Working of YouTube algorithm
Both of the On-page and inner content of videos matter the most in the ranking of a video on YouTube search like the way Google algorithm does. The main ingredient of higher rankings is higher user engagement. More is the number of views on any video, more is the number of ads shown to it, and more will be the money earned by both YouTube and the creator.
It is simply give and take, if you give them more engagement of users on your videos, they will reward you with improved visibility. Enough of chitter-chatter; let us get straight to the business.
Tips to optimize your videos with YouTube SEO
Keyword Research
If you are not focusing to target the keywords with high search volume, then you are missing a big chunk of traffic. YouTube video keywords are quite different from Google’s website keywords. You can use tools as YouTube suggests or Ubersuggest to find out the relevant keywords. YouTube always indicates its users with the keyword viewers might be using to find the videos.
Just type the keyword or phrase related to your video in the search bar and you’ll see a lot of relevant keywords. But don’t copy those keywords as they are. You can also use them as a new topic suggestion for your videos.
Optimization of Video title & description
As you need optimized Meta title and description in your website, videos also require the same to get optimized for YouTube. Create an enticing title within 75 characters. You can also create one in a form of questions like “how to”, “what is”, “top 10 best”, “why should”, and many others.
Write an eye-catching description under 5000 characters. It’s all up to you, to use the length accordingly. It is not necessary to write it in lengthy in 5000 characters, you can use the length you feel appropriate.
Just remember it’s important to optimize the On-page metadata of every video to make it reach to a broader audience. You can also use the link to your website in the description.
Ask your audience to comment
You can ask your audience to leave a comment whenever they see your video. It will help you make your video popular. It will be great if you end your video with a question to initiate a discussion. Similar to Google, YouTube also loves user-generated content.
Use convincing and appealing Thumbnails
You can use your creativity here and see through the viewer’s eyes and think of a thumbnail that can convince him. The thumbnails you use must be relevant and appealing to the eyes, and strong from your competitors. But don’t use the misleading ones since YouTube hates such things and won’t allow you to rank for those.
Optimize your Channel
Alongside optimizing the keywords, videos, or metadata, you need to optimize your YouTube video channel page too. You have to understand that it’s crucial for a YouTube channel that it has done optimization for some highly competitive keywords. Ensure that you have performed enough of the research before you optimize your channel page.
Subtitles and captions
Whenever you upload a video on YouTube, you are given an option to upload subtitles with the captions to have a bigger reach of the audience. It can be helpful for the ones having a hearing impairment. Do not forget to add keywords in such captions. You can have dual benefits from this, i.e. reach a large audience, and get better rankings.
Use YouTube stories and posts
YouTube has added a new feature of YouTube stories which is very helpful in terms of YouTube SEO and is similar to that of Facebook and Insta stories. You can upload posts with polls too in your stories. This is helpful in improving your video or channel ranking.
The volume of the audience on YouTube is innumerable. And if there is any search engine having popularity as much as Google, it is YouTube. YouTube can help your brand to grow and retain more conversions. The main task in YouTube SEO is a user engagement, which is a deciding factor for ranking.
You have to make appealing videos and if the user likes your video and it is perfect, YouTube SEO will do miracles for you.
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