If becoming a popular YouTuber is your aim, then you are in the right place. When we come across the most viewed videos and channels on YouTube, we think that the channel already has lots of subscribers. But do you know every single YouTube user started with 0 subscribers and 0 views? Yes, every single person.
So, how can a video about “10 tips for a healthy life” attract millions of views, whereas another one on the same subject has barely 10 views? The answer is simple, “YouTube SEO.”
If you want more and more people to see your videos, you must optimize your videos according to YouTube SEO tips. This has become important especially now when a new video is uploaded now and then.
Videos are a great medium to share your message with your target audience. Around 92% of marketers believe that videos are an important component of their online marketing strategy. With the help of videos, brands can promote their products and services.
From gaining new customers, nurturing prospects, and even recapturing present customers, videos can help you to meet your brand objectives when done correctly.
With over 2 billion users, YouTube is one of the popular video platforms, and using it to your benefit is the smartest way to market your business.
YouTube SEO Tips to Boost the Ranking of Your Videos
1. Build a good channel- It is one of the most significant YouTube SEO tips that one must follow to enhance ranking. Creating a Google account is the first important step in creating a YouTube channel. While building a good YouTube channel, make sure it is customized as per your audience’s preferences and tastes. YouTube offers a wide range of layouts to brands to personalize their channels as per their requirements.
While you create a YouTube channel, make sure you include good branding elements as they improve the complete brand aesthetics. Try to use various visual elements to design a channel that your customers can distinguish from your competitors. From fonts to color palettes, to high-quality video resolutions and images, good branding helps you to maintain consistency throughout your content and makes it easier for the customers to remember your brand.
2. Use a Focus Keyword- Another important step to keep in mind while doing YouTube SEO is to use a focus keyword. No matter whether you have already posted the videos on your Tube channel or have not started recording yet, finding a focus keyword for every video will boost your rankings. All the search engines work by linking the user’s search term with the most appropriate results- and YouTube also does the same!
Before you start creating a YouTube video, choose a keyword. You must use keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Keywords Everywhere, SEMRush, and KeywordTool.io to find the most popular search term.
3. Filename and video title must be the same- Before you click the Upload button, ensure that your video title and the file name match each other. It is another important step to keep in mind while doing YouTube SEO. When these two matches, it gives YouTube an idea about your video.
For instance, if the title of your video is “Top 10 Content Marketing Tips for Improving Traffic”, and the file name is “10 marketing tips for writing good blogs”, your videos will not achieve a good ranking.
Keeping both the file name and the video title the same ensures that you have at least one keyword in both which means your video will appear often in the Google search results.
4. Optimize the title and description- After you get your keyword, you can start using it to optimize your video in various ways to improve your YouTube ranking. Optimizing the video is one of the vital steps in YouTube SEO. One of the easiest ways to do so is to include the keyword in your title. But using keywords is not enough.
Your title must be catchy. Your video should have a message that compels the audience to click and watch your video.
Along with optimizing your title, you must optimize your description also. While the main motto of the title of the video is to attract potential viewers, you can go a bit in-depth with your description.
YouTube shows the initial 125 characters of the description, but it is better to write more, around 250 words. It is recommended to insert the most important keywords at the beginning of the description. Your audience will read this too, so make sure you keep them engaged.
5. Use appropriate tags and categories- Another vital step in YouTube SEO that plays an important role in deciding the ranking of your video is to use the correct tags and categories. When you upload videos on YouTube, you must categorize them into different categories like health, gaming, music, entertainment, etc. Categorizing helps YouTube to show it to the target audience.
If you want your videos to appear in the search results faster, then using tags is another option. Tags are descriptive phrases and keywords that help your videos to appear in front of your target audience. They give YouTube an idea about what your video is all about.
6. Customize thumbnails- When you upload a video and are all set to publish it, YouTube offers thumbnail suggestions. Customizing your thumbnails is an important step as it creates a good impression on your target audience. It can either attract or fend off your audience.
If you want more and more viewers to see your video, then you must convey your video’s idea through catchy content in your thumbnail.
7. Share the video on Social Media- Sharing the video on social media platforms is one of the best ways to boost the ranking of your YouTube videos. This will help your videos get more visibility from viewers, which in turn will grow your reach, improve audience engagement, and show your brand values.
One of the interesting ways to share your video is by designing unique GIFs that can capture your audience’s attention. There are plenty of interesting ways to share your content, so start thinking creatively!
8. Include keywords in your title- A good YouTube SEO tip is the title should always contain targeted keywords. Rather than using short titles, go for descriptive titles that will help your target audience find you and differentiate you from your competitors.
If you have already posted your video without optimizing your title, no worries! Video optimization can be done even after publishing the content. Although YouTube allows 70 characters for a video title, it is better to use up to 50 characters. This way, your title will not be cut off when it is displayed in the search results.
9. Focus on Long Videos- A list of YouTube SEO tips is incomplete without mentioning long videos. Long YouTube videos outperform compared to short ones. Try it yourself. Type a phrase or a keyword in the YouTube search option. You will find that the videos that appear at the top are lengthy ones.
YouTube uses the duration of total view as an important ranking factor. So, keep in mind, the longer your YouTube videos are watched, the higher your rankings will be. This means that YouTube supports longer videos than people can watch for a long time. If you want to boost ranking, then this YouTube SEO tip is very important to follow.
However, it does not mean that you should drag your videos to make them longer. If your videos are short, still engaging, and keep viewers watching them, then YouTube will take a note and start it to rank higher.
10. Create Playlists- Playlists are one of the best ways to increase the total watch time of your channel as they play automatically. So, rather than watching any one of your videos, a viewer might watch four or five!
To make a playlist, you must collate a couple of videos that have a similar theme or topic together. Playlists also help to get in touch with those who create similar videos. You can request them to add your videos to their playlists. This way more and more viewers will watch your videos.
Try these YouTube SEO tips and reach millions of users in no time. Do let us know how many shares and likes did you get for your recent YouTube video.