Earlier the scope of marketing was limited to print media, but things have changed considerably with the boom of the internet and social media. A well-prepared content strategy comprises write-ups such as articles, e-books, blogs, and digital modes like videos, vlogs, pictures, audios, etc.
Videos have gained considerable popularity as preferred content by viewers all around the world. That is why YouTube, having 1.9 billion users, has grabbed second place of being the world’s most popular social media platform.
All about YouTube SEO
YouTube SEO is the method of improving your channel’s and video’s visibility and searchability on YouTube’s organic search results. Optimization is not just limited to your channels and content but also includes transcripts, thumbnail, Meta descriptions tags, CTAs, links, etc.
With nearly 500 hours of videos uploaded on YouTube every minute, it is a gateway for accelerating your brand success and business growth. Therefore, you need good optimization techniques that will improve your rankings and brand value and divert traffic to your website.
Let us dive into tips and tricks that will help you optimize Youtube videos to achieve better results in searches.
Keywords are must
The first and foremost step in optimizing your search results on YouTube is searching for the right keywords. For this, you require an SEO tool that identifies exact keywords for your video content. When you are done with the above process, place the specified keyword in your video file.
It should be done before uploading the video to make it a lot easier for YouTube’s search engine to read the file name and the code attached when uploading.
Knowing your audience
It is one of the critical aspects to keep in mind when researching keywords. You should have a clear understanding of what your target audience wants, their likes and dislikes. You can even take help from analytics software and tools that will help you identify your target audience.
These tools offer a graphical representation of analyzed data consisting of different social media platforms. You can find which topic is trending and gaining viewer’s attention from the reports generated from these analytics tools.
Tagging videos using the right keywords
YouTube itself recommends using tags to make viewers aware of your video. Tagging videos acts as an informer helping both the audience and YouTube establish your content’s context, enabling better optimization.
Moreover, tagging helps YouTube link your videos with related content in a better way. Make sure you make a correct choice when using tags since an incorrect tag could lead to a penalty from Google’s algorithmic updates.
Have an Engaging Thumbnail for Your Videos
While auto-generated thumbnails are available, creating one will help catch the viewers’ attention and increase your ranks, click-rate, and search results.
The following tips could come in handy when creating an attractive Thumbnail for your videos-
- Using a good quality image
- You can even add catchy text, colors to the video, along with special effects.
- To upload the created thumbnail, you need to ensure that your YouTube account is verified.
Pay Close Attention to Comments on Your Videos
A comment left on your YouTube video holds a lot of importance not only for you but for YouTube as well. It indicates whether someone liked, disliked, or engaged with the content. So, is YouTube using comments to rank your videos?
The answer is yes, moreover, video comments have a strong relationship with your video rankings. Videos having a considerable number of words feature in ranks best in YouTube. Therefore, make sure to encourage your audience to comment on your videos, and you should try to reply to received comments as much as possible.
Place Your Videos in a Suitable Category
An excellent way to classify your content and line it up with similar videos on YouTube is by using the “Advanced settings” tab. Categorizing videos help in placing them in several playlists and maximizes their exposure to larger audiences.
Optimize Your Video Description
As per Google’s official regulation, the character limit for YouTube video descriptions is 1,000 characters. Most of the users prefer watching the video rather than reading about it.
YouTube shows either two or three lines of text equal to 100 characters at the beginning. Beyond this point, you have to hit the “show more” tab to view the full description.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
CTR is a term prevalent in digital marketing that calculates the number of clicks advertisers get on their ads per number of impressions. In the case of YouTube, CTR means how many times your video is clicked when it appears in the search results.
Obtaining a good CTR is important since YouTube monitors CTR behavior. If viewer-click increases on your videos after searching results, then YouTube positions your video to a higher rank so that your videos appear on top of search results.
Add Subtitles or CC (Closed Captions)
It is recommended to use CC (closed captions) and subtitles for optimizing YouTube search results by highlighting keywords. An SRT (SubRip Subtitle) file is best suited for meeting all kinds of subtitles and CC requirements.
The procedure for adding subtitles is as follows-
- Click “Video Manager” present under the “Videos” tab.
- Search the video for which you want subtitles to be added and hit the drop-down arrow beside the edit button.
- Select the “Subtitles/CC” option, and choose how you want subtitles to be added.
Create Playlists of Your Videos
The first and foremost priority of YouTube is maintaining the viewer count and keeping people engaged on the platform. Therefore, you don’t need to create videos but also well curated playlists. Many popular YouTube channels and Youtubers make playlists for their videos.
Try To Collaborate Or Appear On Another Channel
Collaboration requires good judgment since you want to tie up with channels that complement your genre rather than your competitors. A good example could be an education channel. You can tie up with a channel that offers additional courses so that you and your viewers benefit more.
- Do extensive research and analysis.
- Select the channel with which you want to link up.
- Send requests asking channels to tie up with you
Utilize Youtube Analytics
YouTube Analytics is a tool to analyze and understand your channel’s performance through key metrics and reports.
How to go to YouTube analytics-
- Log in to YouTube Studio and hit the Analytics tab at the menu on the left.
- Place the video to be analyzed and click on Analytics.
Different options on YouTube analytics-
- Overview
- Reach
- Engagement
- Audience
- Revenue
Conclusion
YouTube has become the gateway for the common masses to showcase their talents and an opportunity to become famous. Gone are the days when celebrities were the only ones active on the platform. Now, people like you and me too can showcase our creativity and earn rewards.
All you need is good quality content, good communication skills, sound editing, and knowledge of Youtube SEO. Making videos on YouTube does not require substantial financial backing and setup, but the focus should always be on the uniqueness of the content.
