YouTube SEO: 6 Tips to Rank Your Videos
YouTube SEO
YouTube SEO is a process of optimizing your YouTube videos and channel to increase its rankings via YouTube. Search engines, like YouTube, have an intricate algorithm that determines how your videos will appear in YouTube rankings. Optimizing for YouTube can help increase important metrics like follower count, brand awareness, website visits and revenue. You can optimize your videos for YouTube’s search engine as well as other search engines. Users can come across your videos via Google, Bing, etc.
In this article, we reveal most important ranking factors that are key to optimizing your YouTube presence.
Most Ranking Factors:
Pick your keywords wisely
SERPs are getting more competitive every month. New competitors, new products, new services—everyone is fighting for the top spots. So, finding ways to diversify yourself and your offering is crucial. Do your keyword research, and unless you can compete with really competitive terms, pick keywords that can get you volume.
Optimize your YouTube video description
One of the most important ranking factors for YouTube SEO is making sure you have a solid, optimized video description. Whenever you change or update any YouTube video element—which includes video descriptions, subtitles and closed captions, and video thumbnails—YouTube will reevaluate the video.
Use video hashtags to drive YouTube search results
Across social media, hashtags (#) are now used to help users find your marketing content that answers their questions across a range of platforms. You can use related hashtags (#) in video descriptions to help viewers find your video when they search for a specific hashtag.
Tags specifically help drive search as they make key trends more visible. Once you add a hashtag to the video description, it will be shown above the title of the video and then become hyperlinked.
Select a video category
If users are searching for a particular digital video with advanced options, they can select the search to show videos from selected categories. When uploading your video, it’s important you contextualize your video with categories so you will have a better chance of getting found by a user.
YouTube has a variety of category options to pick from, so you should be able to find a category that suits your YouTube videos. You can select the category options when uploading your digital video.
Customize your thumbnail image
Thumbnails can help or hinder your YouTube videos. They are the first thing that grabs people’s attention when they look at YouTube search results. A strong thumbnail can lead to a higher watch time, which can have a big influence on YouTube ranking. Create something that grabs people’s attention and stands out from the crowd so that your video gets noticed.
Add subtitles and closed captions
Using subtitles and closed captions is the final tip for success on YouTube search.
While video subtitles designed to communicate video dialogue for viewers who can’t understand the video language, closed captions are for viewers who can’t hear the audio.
Both subtitles and closed-caption files contain the text of what said in the video, like a transcript. The file will also contain time codes for when each bit of text should be displayed through the video. So it can match up with speech or another visual element.