AI in the Work Job: Transforming Careers Today

8 Simple YouTube SEO Tips to Boost Your Video's Search Rank

Everyone understands that people would rather watch a video than read along blog post (I know, I should have done this as a video as well—maybe one day). In fact, 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text. That's a large group of people. As a result, video SEO can provide numerous benefits, including increased watch time, increased brand awareness, and increased sales and leads.

In their algorithms for ranking websites and videos, search engines such as YouTube and Google use the same fundamentals. The goal is to provide the best possible experience for the user, and YouTube video search results have now been combined with Google search results to simplify how people search.

 

In this blog, I'll show you how to use simple SEO techniques to drive traffic to your YouTube videos.

8 simple YouTube SEO tips to help you rank higher in search results

 

You can combine your SEO and video strategies to help supercharge your marketing in a fairly straightforward and simple manner. This will not only increase your video watch time, but it will also catch your customers' attention and help you later on with things like YouTube remarketing. Here are eight steps to increasing traffic and video views on YouTube.

1. Choose your keywords wisely.

 

Every month, SERPs become more competitive. New competitors, new products, and new services are all vying for the top spots. Finding ways to diversify yourself and your offering is therefore critical. Conduct keyword research, and unless you can compete with extremely competitive terms, choose keywords that will bring you volume but are less competitive.

 

You can use the same keyword research tools that you would for PPC or SEO.

 

• The Free Keyword Tool from WordStream

• Keyword Planner by Google.

• Semrush or Moz.

• Google search—search suggestions, questions asked, related searches, and more!

2. Include keywords in the title of your video.

 

Understanding your audience's search intent is the first step. The most common types of search intent are informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional. As a result, matching what your video is about with the intent of your customer will be critical for getting your video visible in search results.

Second, make certain that you understand WHY you want to create a YouTube video and who your target audience is. For example, if you want to highlight a product review, include the product name in the video title and description. It may appear to be a simple step, but many YouTube channels skip it, resulting in their videos ranking low in Google and YouTube search results.

 

The term 'dell computer review' is highly competitive, as demonstrated below. This is a term that someone might look up when they are considering purchasing a product. These videos are sourced not only from YouTube, but also from other websites and blogs across the internet.

3. Incorporate the keyword into your video file.

 

Simple enough, but YouTube may use this as one of the ranking factors when displaying your video in search results. If the target keyword appears in the file name you're uploading, your video has a much better chance of being ranked—and gaining more search volume.

You can see the filename when you upload a new video. YouTube uses this to ensure that the video is relevant, so make sure your file name is up to date before uploading!

 

4. Improve the description of your YouTube video

 

Making sure you have a solid, optimised video description is one of the most important ranking factors for YouTube SEO. YouTube will reevaluate the video if you change or update any YouTube video element, including video descriptions, subtitles and closed captions, and video thumbnails. This can be beneficial or detrimental... so make sure you get it right the first time!

YouTube suggests that you put your most important keywords in the first couple of sentences of your description – and that your description be no more than 200 words long. In general, make your description useful. If it isn't useful to a user, remove it.

 

The keyword I typed into Google is highlighted in bold in the descriptions of the videos that have appeared, as shown below. This is YouTube's way of informing me that the videos are relevant based on their descriptions.

Youtube has some great resources on the Youtube Creator Studio, which is constantly updated with new information. It includes a handy checklist that walks you through the steps to creating a successful video description:

• Include a natural-language overview of your video, rather than just a list of keywords.

 

• Put your most important keywords at the start of your description.

 

• Choose 1–2 key words to describe your video and include them prominently in both the description and title.

 

• To identify popular keywords and synonyms, use keyword tools such as Google Trends and the Google Ads Keyword Planner. Including these terms can help you increase search traffic.

• Irrelevant words in your description should be avoided because they create a poor viewing experience and may violate Google's policies.

5. Make use of video hashtags to boost YouTube search results.

 

Hashtags (#) are now widely used on social media to help users find content that answers their questions across a variety of platforms. In video descriptions, you can use related hashtags (#) to help viewers find your video when they search for a specific hashtag.

 

Tags, in particular, help to drive search by making key trends more visible. When you include a hashtag in the video description, it will appear above the title and become hyperlinked.

 

It's also important to keep in mind where you include video hashtags in this section. If you include a hashtag in the video title, hashtags from the description will not be displayed next to the video title.

 

6. Choose a video category

 

When searching for a specific video with advanced options, users can select the search to show videos from specific categories. When uploading your video, it is critical that you contextualise it with categories so that it can be found by a user.

 

YouTube offers a wide range of category options, so you should be able to find one that fits your YouTube videos. When uploading your video, you have the option of selecting a category.

7. Make your thumbnail image unique.

 

Thumbnails can either help or hurt your YouTube videos. When people look at YouTube search results, they are the first thing that catches their attention. A strong thumbnail can result in more watch time, which can have a significant impact on YouTube ranking. Make something that catches people's attention and stands out from the crowd in order for your video to be noticed. These thumbnails, for example, are simply taken from the video and are probably not the most relevant for capturing the user's attention.

The best way to see results is to create a custom thumbnail—showing people what your video is about and how it will benefit them is the real key to success.

 

8. Include closed captions and subtitles.

 

The final tip for YouTube search success is to use subtitles and closed captions.

 

While video subtitles are intended to communicate video dialogue to viewers who do not understand the video language, closed captions are intended to communicate audio to viewers who cannot hear the audio.

 

Subtitles and closed-caption files, like transcripts, contain the text of what is said in the video. The file will also include time codes for when each piece of text should be displayed in the video, so that it can correspond with speech or another visual element. Here's a list of the file formats that YouTube accepts.

 

Another advantage of having a transcript for your video is that it can be found by broad search engines, just like a blog.

 

You can choose your file and video language on the video upload screen. There are numerous excellent guides available online for creating an SRT file for your video. Here's one I frequently use!

 

With these YouTube SEO tips, you can achieve a higher ranking.

 

If you want to promote your business on YouTube, use the following YouTube SEO tips to increase video traffic and watch time:

 

• Select your keywords wisely.

• Include keywords in the video's title.

• Keywords should be included in the video file.

• Improve your description

• Make use of video hashtags.

• Choose a video category

• Make use of eye-catching thumbnails.

• Subtitles and closed captions should be added.

Finally, conduct research in the same manner as you would for any other piece of content. Concentrate on making evergreen videos that you can use to expand your content portfolio. The more useful content you provide users, the more traffic you will receive to your business and YouTube channel!