If you are recording and publishing videos online, you probably know all about YouTube. The world’s biggest and most popular video-sharing site and the second largest search engine is the target for many video marketers. In this ultimate guide for Youtube SEO, we’ll share 10 tips proven to optimize your video for search, so you boost your chances of ranking high for your intended keywords. Let’s get started optimizing your videos for search engines by defining video SEO.
What is Youtube SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. The fact that you are reading this article means you probably already knew that. There is a good chance that you currently operate a video blog, or simply want some search engine optimization tips for the videos you are posting on youtube, whether that be on your website, YouTube, Facebook or elsewhere. In either scenario, you can create better performing videos in the future and repair poor performers using the following video SEO tips.
When you use the video SEO practices you are about to learn in this guide, you’ll surely get generic traffic on your videos.
1. Embrace the “Under 70” Rule
Even the best video in the world won’t get clicked on as much as it should if it doesn’t have a title. Your video title should encapsulate what your content is about, how it can benefit your viewers, and it should stop web surfers dead in their tracks and make them click. It should also be short. Many search engines only display the first 70 characters of a video title. Keep your video titles below 70 characters to appeal to potential viewers and search engines alike.
2. Use All You Are Given!
Wherever you market your video, you are probably going to be given a chance to write a description and may be able to provide a transcription as well. Whenever you have a chance to provide text which accompanies a video, use all the characters that are available.
For example, YouTube video descriptions can be up to 5,000 characters long. This gives you a generous 5,000 characters to describe your video, link to your web properties and social media accounts, and connect with your audience. Those 5,000 characters are viewed by search engines as extra information that tells them what your video is about.
Don’t waste this space. Max out your video description character count whenever you can to give your viewers more value, and to provide search engines with more data so they can effectively rank your video for the applicable search terms.
3. Go High Defination
Search Google or YouTube for just about any phrase and the videos that appear highest in the search results are often recorded in high definition(HD). Video search engines and universal search engines like Google strive to give their users the best possible experience, and when it comes to video, that means HD. Don’t Forget the #Hashtag Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus all support the use of hashtags. It is easy enough to add a few hashtags to your video description to improve the odds of search engines and web surfers finding and viewing your content.
4. Don’t Go YouTube-Exclusive
YouTube is a great place to share your content. It is the second largest search engine in the world, and it is owned by the largest search engine in the world, Google. That means YouTube videos often rank on the first page of Google for their targeted keywords. Accordingly, you should probably be placing your videos on YouTube. Additionally, each video should have a dedicated page on your site, and add your videos to social media sites
and other video sharing sites like Vimeo, Facebook, instagram etc can additionally help you reach your business goals.
5- Create Great Content
Search engines always reward great content. Great video content gets clicks, views, comments, shares, likes and occasionally goes viral. While you certainly should be optimizing every one of your videos for search by using the above-listed tips, the first thing you should do is make a great video. When your content is of high value to your viewers, you impact your SEO efforts in the best way possible.
6. Use Longtail Keyword Phrases
Every video you market online needs a title. The title is often the first thing someone looks at to decide if they are going to view your video or surf away to some other part of the World Wide Web. When your title includes the keyword or phrase you are targeting, the video follows up on the promise made in your title, and your description includes your target keyword as well, you give yourself a lot of firepower for the ongoing battle over youtube page one search placement.
One of the major factors youtube considers in its search algorithm is click-through rate (CTR). If your video appears in search results for a particular phrase 100 times and 10 people click to view your video, your resulting CTR is 10%. If another similar video targeting the same keyword or phrase has a CTR of 5%, everything else being equal, your video is going to rank higher in search results for that phrase. According to our research longer keyword phrases have consistently produced higher CTRs than shorter 1 to 3-word keywords and phrases. As it is generally very descriptive and sometimes asks a question. It’ll help your potential viewers to quickly understand what your video is about. This longtail specificity simultaneously boosts your conversions while telling Internet search engines exactly what your video is about. As long as you follow up with high-quality video and audio, as well as a video that delivers on your titular promise, long-tail keywords are beneficial for video SEO in a number of ways.
7. Make longer Videos
If the two largest search engines in the world, Google, and YouTube, reward more watch time with better search engine placement, this means they will accordingly reward longer videos, as long as those videos are creating extensive watch time. In 2017, YouTube revealed that lengthier videos certainly do rank better on average than shorter videos.
They claim that is because there was more information available for the viewer, and this led to more views and greater watch time. Google has pulled no punches regarding video length. They have reported longer videos have the opportunity to rank higher than shorter similar videos because there is more data for their search engine spiders to crawl. If you add a word for word transcript, a lengthy description, and closed captioning, you benefit from the presence of more rankable data in a longer video than a short one.
For a lot of reasons, longer videos may outperform those that are shorter.
8. The Magic of “How To” Video Titles
For better video SEO and higher search result placement for your targeted keywords, including 2 little words, “How To”, in your video title can improve your clicks and views.
Google uses a lot of factors to decide where a video should be placed in search engine results. How long people watch a video, that video’s click-through rate, video quality, and other factors are taken into consideration. In the case of video titles that begin with the words “how-to,” videos on average often perform better for their target keywords on average than similar videos with different types of titles.
This probably happens for a number of reasons. First and foremost though, “how-to” titles sometimes match word for word what your prospect is entering into a search field.
Begin experimenting with “how-to” titles in your video marketing efforts, and you may find this is a simple way to improve your search engine ranking
Conclusion
Youtube has grown in popularity as people have come to realize the value of entertainment and learning opportunities through videos. Brands that learn how to capitalize on this organic channel using SEO can further grow their traffic and drive sales.
YouTube SEO has the potential to impact your rankings in search if you do video SEO properly. So spend some time working on Search Engine Optimization to rank your video on youtube and to have organic traffic.
Chris Taylor
I'm Chris Taylor, an enthusiastic Content Manager and Copywriter specializing in social media and emerging technologies. My talent lies in creating engaging and relatable content that captures the audience's attention and encourages interaction.
As an expert in social media, I'm always up-to-date with the newest trends, using them to develop content that's not just educational but also enjoyable and widely shareable. Recognizing the power of storytelling in brand development, I'm committed to crafting stories that forge a personal connection with audiences. My combination of attention to detail and creative flair ensures that every content I produce resonates deeply with its intended audience.