YouTube SEO
Today we will learn how to raise your video rankings on YouTube with some easy to use SEO Tips. So I am going to share my experience of how I ranked my videos on top of YouTube by following these simple 9 tricks for improving my channel SEO.
Before starting my channel, I looked at a bunch of videos from the so-called Youtube-SEO “experts”. And was hellishly inspired before the launch of the channel. I said to myself: “count up, your videos are about to be ranked and get heaps of views!”
There was only one problem – this did not happen.
No matter how hard I puffed over the video, the views barely moved. At some point, I stopped following the advice of these SEO experts. I pulled my lab coat and plunged into the research of all this SEO on my own. Believe me, I tested everything: different combinations of keywords, video length, previews, tags and a whole lot more.
To understand how everything works, I went on a whole month of continuous research. But in the end, I developed a video ranking formula that really works. This helped my videos quickly improve positions, views, subscribers, and traffic.
Every schoolchild and even his mom knows that you need to use a keyword in the title of the video. But not everyone knows that Youtube gives more weight to the words at the beginning of the title.
For example, we want to move forward on the phrase “cold-brewed coffee.”
Most would call the video as “The 7 Best Ways to Make Cold Brewing Coffee.” Normal title, nothing. But it can be made more effective by putting the keyword in the beginning. Then the headline will look like “cold brewing coffee: 7 best ways.” It works so well that I write all my headlines that way.
Last year we conducted the largest study of ranking factors on Youtube. We analyzed more than a million videos to understand why some are ranked higher than others. What did we discover?
We realized that videos with more signals involving ranks better.
What are these signals? These are sharing, likes, comments, and subscriptions.
That is, no matter how a person is involved in the content, it tells Youtube that people like this video.
Our research has shown that comments affect the ranking more than all other signals that involve.
Then the question arises: how to make people comment more? After conducting a lot of tests, I realized that the call for specific action at the end of the video works best.
Most bloggers use the usual call to action, such as “comment” or “let them know what you think.” But I realized that a specific call to action works much better. So, instead of the usual “comment”, let the audience comment on something specific.
For example, at the end of this video, I asked subscribers which of the two strategies they would try first. Due to the fact that the question was easy to discuss, hundreds of people commented on the video.
According to our research, tags are not as important as they used to be but it still matters. So it’s worth spending some time on them.
Unfortunately, most bloggers use tags like a macaque scalpel.
Remember. Tags are designed to help Youtube understand the content of the video, and for this, they do not need to collect a whole bunch. When there are a lot of tags, it even confuses Youtube and Google. They just can’t understand what the video is about.
If Youtube does not understand what the video is about, then it will not rank normally. Therefore, I advise you to use a little, but very specific tags.
I called this approach the TAB formula (Targeting, Alternative, Broad) – an abbreviation of targeted, alternative, broad.
If, for example, your keyword is a herbal smoothie recipe, then the very first tag will be a herbal smoothie recipe. Easy peasy.
Next, write another two or three tags that will be alternative versions of the main one.
For example, options for our main key would be “herbal smoothie recipe for breakfast”, “simple herbal smoothie recipe”. The easiest way to find keyword options is to enter it in the Youtube search and see what else it offers. Such hints will be ideal alternatives to the main key.
And finally, you need to write one or two tags with a key in broad accordance. This tag describes the video in general terms or indicates the scope of activities. The essence of these tags is to give Youtube more context for understanding the video.
For example, a wide tag for a “herbal smoothie recipe” would be “healthy food” or “smoothie”.
You probably already know that clickability on Youtube is an important ranking factor.
In other words, the more often your video is clicked, the higher it rises in the output. How to get more clicks? Easy. Use addictive previews. What it is?
These are previews that are specially made to attract attention and get more clicks.
This preview is done in two steps:
Step 1: do not use in Youtube color previews
What does it mean? The main colors of Youtube are white, red and black. If you use them, the picture will simply merge with the background. Therefore, I advise you to take contrasting colors – green, blue, purple, gray and orange.
Step 2: write on the preview in large bold
My research confirmed that the previews with the text click more readily than without it. It is also quite small in size, which means there is not so much space for writing. Therefore, I advise you to use a maximum of 30 characters in the text.
At the very beginning, I did not put any useful thoughts into the description at all. It turned out that this is a huge mistake.
After a lot of tests, I found that a long description on Youtube is ranked better. Because such a description helps Youtube to understand what your video is about. Therefore, I recommend making posts about 100-200 words in the description. To do that more efficiently, you can transcribe video to text and then put certain parts inside the description.
And what is so much stitch-up?
It is only necessary to describe the content of the video in general terms, without revealing the essence.
In this form, even if someone reads the description, he will still need to watch the video to see the useful content itself.
So what is better for Youtube-SEO: long or short videos?
After analyzing more than a million videos, we found that long clips are usually ranked above short ones. Our research has shown that the average length of a video on the first page of output in Youtube is 14 minutes 50 seconds.
What the heck is that?
The fact is that Youtube loves videos that keep the viewer on the site longer.
Viewing the videos automatically increases the time spent on the site, which would be impossible, with a two-minute video.
What is the result? Whenever appropriate, shoot videos from 8 to 15 minutes. My experience says that this is the ideal ratio for high positions.
As I said, the clickability of a Youtube video is a ranking factor. And yes, the preview is an important part of this equation. But do not forget about the title – this is very important. Youtube says it this way: a good title can affect how your video is viewed and shared or scrolled.
One of the easiest ways to increase clickability is to add a square or round brackets to the video header.
Studies conducted by HubSpot say that adding parentheses to the header increases click-through rate by 38%.
For example. Imagine that we just uploaded a video about video marketing with the heading “Video Marketing Tips: 10 Ways to Get More Views.” Now, according to the HubSpot study, if we add “(today)” to the end, we will receive many times more clicks. In general, parentheses work so well that I use them in each of my headings.
Here are some good examples of what can be written in brackets. (quickly!), (case study), [new research], (effectively), (real story).
That is the trick. Youtube SEO is more than just a ranking in issuing. You can get as many views, if not more, and in the video to which our video is offered as similar.
The proposed video is when your video appears next to the one you are viewing, in the right sidebar. So, if our video appears next to a very popular one, we will steal some of its views.
The best way to do this is to use the same tags.
When Youtube notices matches in tags with a popular video, it understands that your video is on the same topic. So, it is more willing to rank the video as suggested.
For example, we want to be offered to a video. First, we look at what tags he has. To do this in Chrome, you need to right-click on a free field and click “view page code.” Next, find in the code section “keywords”. The key phrases in this line will be the video tags. You can use TubeBuddy or VidIQ to not dig into the code.
Now, take a few tags found and copy. Be sure to copy the tags exactly – word for word. And if the video is of good quality and at least close to popular, Youtube will rank our video as a suggested video.
There are millions of small channels who have videos whose performance is better than others on the popular channel. Why is that? There are many reasons, but after analyzing millions of videos, I noticed that successful videos have one thing in common – a great indicator of viewing time.
We talked about watching the time a couple of minutes ago. This is all the time that the viewer has spent on watching the video. Recently, I found a great way to pump this indicator, that is, to turn donkeys into unicorns.
Here is how it works.
First, you need to go to the analytics panel of the channel, in the “audience retention” tab. This report shows how many minutes from the video was viewed and at what minute the viewer left. Now you need to find on your channel video with the best performance. Note where the audience retention is highest, with peaks above average. Look at this passage and draw conclusions that kept the viewer’s attention. Maybe you added a graph to the screen? They joked on excellent or just changed the angle of shooting.
Take these points on the note and use in the next video.
I know, I promised nine strategies, but recently I found one small hack that worked very well for me. I want to share it with you.
Viewers want to see modern and relevant content.
Yes, yes, yes, thank you cap. But the thing is this. How to show the viewer that your content is useful today? Add current year to headline.
When you do that, your videos stand out from the video and the proposed videos. That means more clicks and views. In addition, most people when looking for something in Google and Youtube add to the request the current year. Therefore, adding a year to the title and description of the video, you rank better for such requests.
Start to put the keyword in the beginning? Or are you ready to turn donkeys into unicorns? Tell us in the comments.
View Comments
Hey Vaibhav, this is really a great post. Yes, Youtube SEO is really important for youtube channel. Not only does it rank your videos, but it’s also useful for increasing viewers and subscribers. There are many tools that will help with YouTube SEO, such as Google Keyword Planner and TubeBuddy.
I really enjoyed reading your post. It’s informative, interesting and I have certainly learned a thing or two. Thanks!