YouTube SEO
YouTube Basics
You thought about why you are making a Youtube channel, picked an audience, learned about equipment, and got to know yourself as a Youtuber in How to Start a YouTube Channel for Beginners. Now that you know the fundamentals, it’s time to dive in deeper with Youtube SEO.
Across the world, YouTube is second only to Google in the sheer amount of visits. YouTube SEO doesn't work in the same way as Google SEO, despite the fact that they now work together. Ranking well on Google doesn't necessarily mean that you'll do well on YouTube, and vice versa. It is essential to optimize your keywords specifically for what works for YouTube videos.
Choosing Keywords
Essentially, YouTube is a search engine for videos. Like any search engine, it relies on keywords, so picking the best keywords is important. However, you don’t just want to come up in searches.
You want Youtube to suggest your videos after related videos and place them in the recommended feeds for viewers. Choosing the best keywords can enable you to rate well in searches and earn Youtube recommendations.
YouTube SEO Tools
You can easily get an idea of which keywords are searched most often on YouTube. Just start typing a keyword into the YouTube search box. The autocomplete feature built into the search box on YouTube will bring up the most popular searches for each letter you type.
Google Trends is another great tool for brainstorming keywords for Youtube optimization. Under the web search option, you can choose a YouTube search to find search volume data specific to YouTube. This is a great way to compare keywords to one another and choose the ones that are best for your SEO plan.
Accurate
Arguably the most important characteristic of keywords is that they be accurate. The keywords that you choose should perfectly describe what each video is about. You will lose the clicks of people who want to watch your video by failing to accurately describe video content.
Furthermore, the people who do click on your video may be disappointed and choose not to watch all the way through if keywords are misleading. This will dramatically hurt your search rankings. If you're finding that the keywords which most accurately describe your videos have too much competition, it may be worthwhile reconsidering your video content to be more specific for a lower competition keyword.
Low Competition
You want to create content for the keywords that people are searching. If there are already a lot of very high-quality videos for a keyword, your video’s chances of ranking high enough to actually get watched aren’t very good. To find out how many results there are for a given keyword, search for it and look at the number of results that come up.
There is no set rule for deciding what number of results you'll be able to compete with. Every industry and video goal is different. In general, however, try to choose the words with the lowest competition for your niche.
Long-tail keywords are an easy way to lower the competition, but they also require that searchers identify more of the same words as you do and they take up more room. A few long-tail keywords is a good idea, but it is best to find as many specific low competition keywords that are single words or short phrases as possible.
Versatile
When you are choosing the primary keywords to focus on, make sure that they work well for all elements of YouTube SEO, including titles, descriptions, tags, and captions. A keyword may work wonderfully in descriptions but be impossible to work into a title. A title like “How to do X” works very well, but that phrase may be difficult to work into descriptions or captions. Make sure that the keywords that you choose are versatile enough to read smoothly in all areas of content.
YouTube Optimization Tips
Title
The title of your video is very important. It must accurately describe your video, encourage clicks, and include the keywords and phrases that are most frequently searched. It is a delicate balance between optimizing your title for human readers and search engine bots.
Search engines are accurate at picking up keyword stuffing. People are very likely to notice a strangely worded title. When you are choosing your primary keywords, be careful to choose ones that work well in titles and in content.
Titles can only be a hundred characters long, with the most important information within the first 65 characters. Compelling language like how-to, tips, advice, or numbered lists like “Top X ways to... ” tend to generate clicks.
Description
The description can be as long as 5000 characters, but most people are only going to read the first 150 or so. If you want clicks from the video to another link like your website, the hyperlink should be included in the first 150 characters with the full-length link including the http://, or it will not be clickable.
Even though most people will only read the first 150 characters, there's no reason not to use the full 5000. Make sure that you are not keyword stuffing, but use keywords naturally throughout the description to encourage search engines to find your video.
Closed Captions
YouTube automatically transcribes your videos, however, it isn't particularly good at it. Search engines penalize anything that they think is spam. Their definition of spam includes automatically generated words that end up being gibberish, which is often what auto transcribing creates.
Auto transcribes could end up causing your video to be flagged as spam in search results. It is worth the effort to put in your own closed captions with SEO in mind. Since search bots can't watch your video, they'll rely on closed captions to find out what the video is about. Plenty of relevant keywords help your video rank appropriately for those keywords.
Transcript
There is lots of room in the transcript for you to include keywords for search engines to index. You may easily be able to use the same wording for the closed captions and the transcript, which can save you effort while upping your search engine rankings for every video.
Tags
Tags are the most straightforward way to load your videos with keywords. You can use up to 120 characters. Double quotes should surround phrases so that the correct long-tail keywords are identified.
Since you are limited in the amount of space that you have for keywords and a long-tail keyword takes up a lot of room, it is best to use as many specific words and short phrases as possible. Only use the best long-tail keywords at your disposal.
How to Get Your YouTube Videos to Rank
Make Longer Videos
YouTube is trying to compete with good old-fashioned TV. That means they want high-quality content that runs long enough to fit in a few ads. If your content is good enough to hold viewers through the ads, YouTube can charge much higher advertising rates. This makes Youtube more likely to rank your videos highly and suggest them.
Keep People Watching
The closer you are to 100% audience retention, the better. Audience retention means people watch the video to the end. YouTube wants people to watch your videos all the way through. The better your audience retention, especially for longer videos, the more likely you are to be suggested on YouTube.
You can increase audience retention by accurately describing your video so people know what they are clicking. You can also actively work to keep them watching with suspense or promises of what is to come, especially right before commercials.
Accurate Keywords & Descriptions
All of your keywords and descriptions should accurately match the content of your video. The more accurate you are in describing your video, the more likely it is that the people who watch your video will be watching the content they were looking for and will watch it all the way through. Accurate and thorough descriptions help your videos rank better in search results as well.
FAQs about YouTube SEO
Q: Are long or short keywords better?
A: Long tail keywords have historically been the go-to for anyone trying to get started achieving search engine rankings. Longer phrases generally have lower competition and higher accuracy. Long keywords often describe a location, experience level, or exclude another option.
For instance, a short phrase keywords would be “dog groomer”. A longer one would be “dog groomer in LA”. A keyword with much greater specificity but no added length would be “poodle groomer in LA”. In general, it is better to gain specificity without adding words. This is because you are restricted in the number of words in the title, description, captions, and other areas of your YouTube content.
Long keywords take up many more characters without necessarily adding more specificity. Choose the shortest phrases for the most specific words that you can. This way you can eliminate competition by narrowing down searches to your specific content without wasting space on unneeded words.
Q: I can't decide on keywords. Should I be more general or more specific?
A: In the beginning, specificity is your friend. Eliminate as much competition in your keyword choice as possible. This may mean that your videos are more specific than what you originally had in mind. Instead of covering the entire topic, you may only want to cover a small area of a subject with great detail.
You will likely become discouraged trying to build enough content to compete for more general keywords. Very specific keywords are more likely to attract a small but enthusiastic audience who are likely to engage with your video, click to your website, or subscribe to your channel. As you attract viewers, you can learn more about what they like and don't like and broaden your channel as you go along.
Help with YouTube SEO
If you want help getting started optimizing your Youtube SEO, choose a company that is dedicated to achieving success for you quickly and thoroughly using both YouTube and other marketing to grow your business. Perfectly Optimized has extensive experience in YouTube marketing. They can also optimize your website and other social media feeds for a synchronized public Image. Whether you want someone to continuously manage your YouTube and other online marketing or you just want some help getting started, Perfectly Optimized can help.