Want to know what are search engine ranking factors for
YouTube videos? We all know that YouTube is the second largest search engine on
the planet after Google. It generates an estimated 92 billion page views per
month, which also provides enormous traffic to various websites and blogs.
It is a platform where 400 hours of video is uploaded every
minute! YouTube also offers you ways to monetize the content of your videos. If
your content gets enough views, you can make good money from your Youtube
videos.
However, uploading a video is not enough to get views on
YouTube unless you are a big brand, for example, a music company. There are
techniques that you could follow to optimize your YouTube videos to rank higher
on YouTube search.
In this mega post, I have shared how to rank YouTube videos higher. Ok, so your video is uploaded on YouTube, but you are still not getting
views? If you did not know yet, YouTube videos also need to be SEO optimized
just like your content in order to get ranking in the search result.
I assume you have good quality content and that you will
share and promote your video to get more views. In this article, I will talk
about how you can get organic traffic to your YouTube videos and also how to
work on SEO for better search results.
I’m a YouTuber with good views per month. I also make a fair amount of money from YouTube ads every month by targeting countries like the
USA, along with implementing robust video SEO.
Before I share these tips, you need to understand that YouTube has its own algorithm to rank a video. Even if you buy inorganic
YouTube traffic, it will not ensure that you will rank higher organically.
One of the well-known factors of high ranking YouTube video is view-time. If a user starts watching your video and quits in the first few seconds, your ranking is likely to go down. So, I assume you are already working hard on creating compelling YouTube videos and using a catchy thumbnail to get more CTR from related and embedded videos.
Now, let’s look at some of the most important YouTube SEO
tips, which will help you to get more organic visits to your videos.
Title Of The Video – Use Keywords
Description Of The Video
Naming Your Video File
Optimizing existing videos using search data
Use The Closed Caption (CC) Feature In Your Video On YouTube
Tagging & Keyword Research For YouTube Videos
Best Keyword research tools for YouTube
Tubebuddy
YouTube Studio
VidIQ
1. Title Of The Video – Use Keywords
The video title is how one will know what your video is all
about. A title which perfectly matches your video content will be very friendly
to the viewer and also to the YouTube algorithm for SEO. Take advantage of Google and YouTube auto-complete feature.
This will give you an overview of what people are searching for on Google and
Youtube and will help you optimize your content accordingly.
Similarly, you can use Google’s auto-complete feature to
populate more keyword ideas. Another way, which is my favourite is using
TubeBuddy. This tool is a complete SEO tool for YouTube which let you research
topics for YouTube.
Here is how it works:
Install TubeBuddy chrome addon
The click on toolbar icon
Then click on Keyword explorer
Enter the Keyword or topic that you want to make video on,
and TubeBuddy will show you the topics along with traffic and related keywords.
Now, use this keyword to create a meaningful Video and title
to improve your chances of ranking higher in YouTube search.
2. Description Of The Video
Write a description of your video content. The first couple
of lines play a major role in your video’s ranking in the search engine. You
can also use the search engine’s autocomplete keyword phrases as your
description. If the searched keyword matches the first two lines of your video
description, the video is more likely to get a higher ranking.
Using longtail keywords as your video description will also
boost the ranking of your videos immensely. Enjoy the read and write your video
descriptions wisely so that it can match the search keyword.
3. Naming Your Video File
You have created and edited your video and it is ready to be
uploaded on YouTube, but you rendered your video file as mov001.avi or
random_name.mp4, make sure you rename your video as your_keyword.mp4.
Naming your video file as your focused keyword actually
tells the search engine as to what is in your video, Search engines cannot look
inside video content. It is the file name that tells search algorithm what your
video is all about.
Having the video title as your video file name helps search
engine index videos easily, thereby aiding in achieving a higher ranking. So
put your targeted keyword into the video file name.
4. Optimizing existing videos using search data
This is the golden nuggets of optimizing existing YouTube
videos.
Head over to Studio.YouTube.com
Click on Analytics > Top videos
Click on the video that you wish to optimize. This will
bring up the analytics page for your selected video.
Click on traffic source and select the YouTube search.
This would bring up the page that shows all the queries that
users are using to find your video. Now, you need to optimize your video title,
description and tags based on these queries.
Treat these queries as a keyword which your video should be
optimized for. If you see a query and your video is not explaining that part,
that is the idea for your next YouTube video.
5. Use The Closed Caption (CC) Feature In Your Video On
YouTube.
Use the closed caption (cc) feature of YouTube. This shows
your text over the video which helps viewers understand your video narration
better. It can also be translated into different languages thereby reaching out
to more people. Upload the transcript also helps.
Transcripts contain the text of what was said in the video.
YouTube’s new algorithm automatically converts your voice into a transcript
which makes it easier to activate it. You can also write a closed caption if
your video doesn’t contain voice.
Using closed captions gives the video a new way to get the
index into the search engine since it has keyword written in there. Also, write
your transcript into video description. Doing so makes your video keyword rich
which is very friendly to the search engines. You can also take advantage of
service like Rev, to create captions for your uploaded YouTube videos.
6. Tagging &
Keyword Research For YouTube Videos
Tags are another important way to get a better ranking in
YouTube search. Here are a few tips to put tags in your videos:
List specific tags first: Write your main keyword first.
Doing this will put weight in algorithms.
List general tags: Write general and matching keywords. For
example, if your main keyword is “Freedomhype”, general tags can be “Blogging
tips”, “Venture Tips”,” YouTube Tutorial” etc.
You can use the Tubebuddy tool which helps you find the
right tags to be used with your video. It also shows your ranking for the
particular keyword. This tool is used by many pro YouTubers and is highly
recommended for your YouTube channel as well.
TubeBuddy in action
Also, include the misspelling of your tags: For example, if
you have a keyword as “Real SEO”, also put “Reeal SEO”. Go to TouTube analytics
and check for traffic resources to see how people are searching for you.
Include singular and plural of your tags: If your keyword is
” Tattoo Art”, also put “Tattoo Arts”,
and separate your keyword into different tags like ” Tattoo” &
“Art”.
Include phrases into tags such as your longtail keywords.
Keyword Research For YouTube Videos
Getting the keyword idea is one of the important parts of
SEO. You cannot think of all possible keywords to include in your video. I have
already shared a strategy above (#1) about finding keywords for YouTube videos.
Here, I’m using the Google Display Planner tool and TubeBuddy tool to get
keyword ideas.
Google has two such tools – Keyword Planner and Display
Planner. I recommend you to use Display Planner in order to get relevant
keywords.
Google display planner
Display Planner not only gives you a huge number of keywords
but also provides an insight to the searched keyword. Download these ad group
ideas into an excel file and include these keywords and phrases into your tags,
title, and description.
Having the same targeted keyword in the video title, description and tags will index and rank your videos higher in search engines.
Best Keyword research tools for YouTube
1. TubeBuddy
This is the most popular youtube keyword search tool that
you can use right away. This is available as a chrome extension and also
available as a mobile app (iPhone and Android). The interesting angle of this
tool is, it shows you how tough or easy it is for you to rank on a Keyword
based on the existing content of your channel.
Check out TubeBuddy
2. YouTube Studio
Using YouTube Studio you can find the keyword which are
driving traffic to your existing videos. Using this data, you can optimize your
existing videos to make them rank higher in YouTube search.
Just follow the steps as mentioned below:
Head over to YouTube studio
Click on Analytics > Reach viewers
Click on Traffic source > YouTube search
Click on any Keyword to reveal more data.
Once you have the keyword that is driving traffic to your
existing videos, you can start optimizing them.
Make your YouTube video description more targeted to
Keywords you found in the above step.
Add the Keyword as a tag on your YouTube video
3. VidIQ
Many of you might not be knowing this, but VidIQ is also a
keyword suggestion tool for YouTube.
There are more features offered by VidIQ which will help in
improving the overall ranking of your uploaded YouTube videos.
4. Ahrefs YouTube Keyword Research
Ahrefs is a popular search engine marketing tool and they
have recently integrated YouTube Keyword research tool. If you don’t have an
account, get an account here (they offer trial account).
Once you are inside the dashboard, click on Keyword explorer
and start doing keyword research.
So this is the useful tool to help rank higher on YouTube
search for now, the above tools are the best ways to do YouTube Keyword
research.
In the end, it’s up to you on creating compelling and
interesting YouTube videos, especially when you are working on tutorial videos.
You should focus on a target audience, and prepare your script targeting those
audiences.
Ensure that you ask your viewers to like and share your
videos on favorite social-networking sites. Another good YouTube SEO tips are
to embed your videos within the blog post.
It helps you get links to your YouTube videos and more
views. I religiously follow all the above SEO tips for my YouTube videos, and I
recommend you to do the same.
If you know of any other SEO trick for YouTube, feel free to
share with us via comments.
Don’t forget to share this useful resources with other
YouTubers on your Facebook and YouTube community profile.
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