If you want to gain popularity on YouTube, it isn’t enough only to create compelling content and hope the right audience will find it. In order to get your YouTube videos ranked high on search results, a certain amount of time needs to be taken for optimizing your YouTube channel and videos. That’s where YouTube SEO comes in to save the day, with plenty of advantages like increased watch time, boosted brand awareness, and a higher number of sales and leads.
Although getting your videos ranked may seem challenging at first, by following these YouTube SEO optimization tips, you’ll get your videos noticed faster and rank higher and in that way maximize your chances of success.
Use keywords in your video title
The next step is to identify the search intent of your target audience which refers to the reason why someone searches for a certain keyword. There are different kinds of search intent like informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. If you want your video content to be visible in search results, what your video is about has to match the intent of your viewer. Also, you need to ensure you comprehend the reason why you wish to create a YouTube video and who is your target audience.
For example, if you want to present a product review, try using the product name in the video title and description. When your viewers are considering a product, they’ll use specific keywords in Google and YouTube search bars. As most of these platforms are interconnected, consider focusing on different media as well – for instance, on improving your blog posts with YouTube videos.
Conduct YouTube keyword research
Before all else, the first thing you need to do is to conduct YouTube keyword research. If you want to have more relevance, you’ll have to search for the right keywords and add them to your video title, description, meta description, and script. There are short- and long-tail keywords you’ll need to include. While short-tail keywords aid you in targeting a broader audience, long-tail keywords will help in getting a more targeted audience.
You can start conducting keyword research by using YouTube’s search bar with an autocomplete trait that will showcase other keywords relevant to your keyword that are searched by real YouTube viewers. Besides YouTube’s autosuggest, there are other quality YouTube SEO tools that you can use not only for finding the right keywords for your YouTube video content but also for generating tags, looking for video ideas, optimizing your titles and descriptions, and tracking rankings over time.
Encourage engagement
What strongly correlates with higher rankings is engagement metrics like likes, comments, shares, and subscriptions. Every time someone comments, likes, or subscribes, it gives YouTube a strong sign that the viewer enjoyed the content. One of the easiest YouTube SEO tips is to encourage engagement. It’s particularly important for Google which is interested in how an audience responds to your content since it’s what keeps people on their site.
If you want to boost engagement, you should encourage viewers to like, share, or comment on your videos, and keep in mind the time needed for responding to comments and messages.
Insert subtitles and closed captions
The final tip for success on YouTube is to use subtitles and closed captions. Video subtitles are considered to be for those who aren’t able to understand the language of the video, closed captions are for people who can’t hear the audio. The text inserted in both subtitles and closed-caption files is a transcript of the video.
Also, the file involves time codes at which each part of the text should be demonstrated through the video, in order to keep up with the speed of speech or another visual element.
Publish a video that keeps viewers watching
After making sure your keywords worked out and you’ve checked your search intent, it’s time to create video content that will keep your audience watching and engaged. The time your viewers are spending on your YouTube channel is very important for YouTube SEO. By ensuring your videos are visually entertaining, you’ll surely encourage your viewers to keep watching your video content. If you add animation and fun editing, it’ll keep your audience engaged and entertained.
To ensure your video content sticks out from the rest, you’ll need to put effort into learning how to edit YouTube videos like a pro. In addition to this, it’s also important to start your video by quickly introducing the topic.
Summing up
It’s of crucial importance to take into account all factors of YouTube SEO at times when you’re creating, publishing, and promoting your YouTube content. With these YouTube SEO tips, you’ll surely stand out from your competition and ensure your videos are noticed faster and are ranked higher.
