10 Tips for YouTube SEO
YouTube is a website that sees a lot of traffic on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, experts estimate that there are 30 million active users who log in every single day. Of course, a large portion of those users also create their own original content and upload it to the website.
But how do they make their videos stand out from the competition? You cannot just hope that your clips are interesting enough to go viral. If you want to increase the traffic on your channel, you have to add some SEO to your content. Here are some of the best tips that will bring more views and subscribers to your channel.
1. Take your time writing the video description
Both Google and YouTube have algorithms that pick up on the text surrounding the videos. They are not so advanced (yet) to listen to you speak, and identify the keywords from the audio portion. So your best option is to write a detailed video description. YouTube has to know as much information about your video as possible. So if you want your video to appear at the top when someone searches for your target keyword, write at least 200 characters in the description.
2. Research the keywords
As you might already know, you can search for YouTube videos through Google. So making your videos discoverable through this search engine is a great move if you want more traffic and views. Therefore, you need to know the exact keywords to use for each clip. Finding the keywords that are popular on both platforms is a must. So don’t hesitate to add long descriptions and text to your video because the bots will scan it, and determine its value, as well as a rank.
3. Invite people to like and subscribe
You have probably seen a lot of YouTubers telling the users to like, share, and subscribe to their channel after each video, and they are doing it for a reason. YouTube takes the positive (or negative) feedback seriously and the number of likes, shares, and subscribers you have can help you get to the top. If your videos are helpful and viewers recommend it, that will very likely increase your rating.
4. Use the tags
YouTube uses tags just like almost every social media website out there. They can certainly help with the SEO ranking, so use as many relevant tags as possible. They can be single words describing your videos, or phrases. Tags can help YouTube categorize the video and make it appear in related searches.
5. Embedding the video
When you upload your video to YouTube, you will also get the embedding code that will allow you to post the clip directly to your website or blog. YouTube will calculate the number of shares in order to record the popularity of your video, and automatically increase the SEO ranking. So don’t hesitate to share your videos on appropriate websites. You can also encourage your followers to do the same.
6. Promotion is the key
If you are serious about your YouTube channel and you want it to succeed, you need to spend some time promoting your content. This means creating a Facebook page, Twitter page, or any other social media profile you might find useful. Sharing links will do wonders for the traffic on your channel, and more people will have the ability to view it. Not to forget that visitors from other pages will increase the ranking of your video.
7. Playlists and keywords
It is not enough to add keywords to your videos only. Your YouTube channel could probably use some reorganizing that will allow users to find groups of videos in a single place. So if you haven’t created a playlist before, you simply have to do it because this will give you an opportunity to add more keywords to your content. After all, if you use more text, your SEO ranking will be better. A playlist that has a lot of keywords will certainly give YouTube more data to work with. This means that your playlist will be included in the search results as well.
8. Adding annotations
Believe it or not, adding annotations to your videos can help with the SEO ranking too. You can use them in order to link one video to another one, or to an entire playlist. This nifty addition is not popular with large businesses, but independent YouTubers do use it often. They are a great way to introduce your audience to your past videos and direct them to see what else you created in the past. Annotations can be a speech bubble, a simple note, etc. They will add more flare to your general style and amp up your popularity.
9. A lengthy video title
Just like the description, you need to add the main keywords to your title as well. Yes, you have only 50 characters available, so think about your main keyword and build from there. Also, take your time putting together a title and make it interesting to other users. After all, you need to stand out from the competition.
10. Link to your website
And finally, if your goal is promoting your business or a blog through your videos, don’t forget to leave a link to it somewhere in your description, preferably near the top. Google will register and acknowledge the link, and your page rating will increase. However, if you leave the link as an annotation, it will not have a huge impact on the ranking of your website. But it will certainly come in handy if you want your followers and viewers to check out your business and learn more about it. You can also include the links to your social media profiles in the description. YouTube is a perfect website for self-promotion, so use it to your advantage.
