YouTube SEO is a strategy for optimizing YouTube channels and videos to improve their position in search results. YouTube is the largest video platform. The platform is pivotal in making videos one of the main content formats for general consumers and digital marketing. It is also considered one of the largest search engines. So it’s important to know how to optimize your content for this video platform.
What is YouTube SEO, and how was it formed?
Today, any person or brand can publish or watch much audio and visual content on YouTube. So with such an abundance of videos on this platform, YouTube had to organize all of this content into its search engine. In this way, YouTube SEO was formed.
The reason for YouTube SEO was to have a good experience on the platform. Users should be able to find their favorite videos easily. Therefore, YouTube created an algorithm to rank the best content for each search. But to know what YouTube SEO is, you must first understand the concept of SEO.
Search engine optimization, or SEO in short, is a set of strategies to optimize the user experience, the purpose of which is to improve the position of the desired page in search engines. SEO includes programming, design, content production, website communication, etc. Google is currently the largest and most used search engine.
Keyword research for YouTube SEO
Keywords are essential in YouTube SEO as well as Google SEO. The platform identifies the topic of the video through keywords, indexes the content, and matches it to user searches. The title, label, and description fields must be filled in when uploading the video file.
A video that fills these fields correctly will rank better than a video that doesn’t. Therefore, you need to know which keywords best identify your videos and have the potential to attract more viewers to your channel. Then use them in the mentioned parts. Your competitors can also help you choose keywords for YouTube SEO. To do this, visit the channels that are active in your area.
If they get a lot of views, they probably use good YouTube SEO practices and know how to use keywords. Notice what phrases they used in their most popular videos. To do this, go to the videos page on their channel. Then select the option to sort by most popular videos.
You might think that using keywords most often is a good option. But these words have more competition. It is much more likely that big and well-known brands will beat you in this competition. To learn more about choosing keywords, you can read the article “Introducing the best keyword search tools.”
Use catchy titles for YouTube videos!
After doing good YouTube SEO keyword research, you now have a good set of phrases. One of the parts where the keyword should appear is the title. The video’s title is one of the most important factors of YouTube for content ranking. The title should be as close to the user’s search terms as possible. Research shows that long titles do not perform well in SEO.
The video’s title can have an average of 50 characters and a maximum of 100 characters. So try to keep your titles short and with the main keyword. Remember that the video’s title can be the user’s first contact with your content. So it should describe what viewers are going to watch to encourage them to click on your video.
Adding tags to videos in YouTube SEO
In YouTube SEO, hashtags are essential to rank a video. Hashtags are among the factors that YouTube uses to identify the topics of a video, index it, and recommend related videos. These related video recommendations are an important source of traffic for your videos. In using tags, you can use up to 120 characters. Using this number of characters in 6 to 8 words is better.
Use smart descriptions for YouTube videos!
The description is another important part of YouTube SEO that must be filled in when uploading a video. The description text should provide information about the subject of the video in the most useful way possible. As much as the title should be brief, the description can be longer and more detailed. You can use up to 5000 characters to write the description. Descriptions are essential for ranking for two reasons.
First, it can be a tool to encourage the user to access the video. Because its initial part appears in the search results, try to write the main information at the beginning of the text. Second, descriptions help YouTube’s SEO algorithm identify video content.
So, here you should enter keywords that represent the topics covered in the video. Better yet, use CTA actions in the description to improve your channel engagement. In addition, you can use up to 15 hashtags in your text. If you use more than this value in the text, YouTube will ignore all of them.
Some essential points in YouTube SEO
Remember to edit the file name before using YouTube SEO when uploading a video. In this way, you have also applied SEO to the content of the video itself. For example, a name like “VID_94800805.mp4” is not a good choice for your YouTube videos. Use your main keyword in the video title. Then upload it to your channel.
Longer videos perform better in YouTube SEO. The average time for the top 5 positions of YouTube videos is 11 minutes and 44 seconds. Invest in longer videos.
Interaction is the first word in YouTube SEO. A YouTube channel that tends to get a lot of comments and likes has a better position than one that doesn’t have a lot of engagement. So it gets the attention of YouTube. Because YouTube knows that these videos provide a more valuable user experience.