If you want people to see your YouTube content, you need to optimize your videos so they can find you.
Here’s the good news: you can rank highly on YouTube. You just need to know how. This post will tell you all about it.
How does YouTube SEO work?
Like any other search engine, the ranking of YouTube videos is determined by a complex algorithm, but we don’t encourage you to get bogged down trying to understand all the factors.
Instead, remember the “goal” of all search engines: to provide searchers with high-quality content that best matches what they’re looking for.
In many ways, YouTube SEO is easier than other search engines.
Why?
Unlike Google and others who weigh rankings by looking at backlink profiles, domain metrics, and other complex factors, YouTube SEO is essentially about optimizing what you can control: a great video, and labeling it properly with technical things like your video description, playlists, and metadata.
No matter how you work it, the success of your YouTube channel depends on getting your content to show up in those precious YouTube search results.
So let’s demystify it all. Let’s look at 10 ways to perfect your YouTube SEO, optimize your videos and channel, and ultimately get more viewers.
How to Rank YouTube Videos Fast
1. Use Focused Keywords
The first of our YouTube SEO tips is all about keywords.
Whether you’re already posting videos to YouTube or haven’t yet broken the record, basing each video on relevant keywords can be extremely helpful to your YouTube SEO efforts.
Like all search engines, YouTube works by matching users’ search terms with the most relevant, quality results.
When reviving an old YouTube video, rewatch it and figure out its main topic. What is the focus of this video? Ask yourself: What are the keywords? (Get creative here! Think diagonally.)
For your upcoming videos, it will be easier if you select relevant keywords before you start. This will allow you to use a keyword research tool to find the most popular search terms. This will help you develop content for your channel.
Popular keyword research tools include Ahrefs, SEMrush, Keywords Everywhere, and KeywordTool.io.
: They all work in a similar way, but if you’re new to keyword research, KeywordTool.io is the most beginner-friendly.
Just select your desired search engine (YouTube in this case) and enter your desired keyword. We chose “Instagram Hacks”:
But the Pro version lets you dig a little deeper by also giving you search volume, CPC (cost per click) and comparisons with your competitors. (Don’t get hung up on the last two, they’re just a rough indication of how hard it is to rank for a keyword, but they’re not necessarily a reliable indicator.) However, the volume matters quite a bit. It is a very good indicator of how popular and frequently searched a topic is, which can help you decide what videos you should make about and in what priority. )
If you have used one of the tools above to find popular topics, you can identify keywords that fit your video topic by writing them down or exporting a list. Keep reading this article for tips on using keywords to rank higher.
Keywords aren’t everything, but carefully researching them is definitely a good start in the world of YouTube SEO.
2. Optimize your video titles
Once you have your keywords, you can start optimizing your videos in different ways to improve your YouTube rankings.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to include your keywords in the title of your video.
However, with 400 hours of video material uploaded to YouTube every minute (!), one keyword alone is not enough to significantly boost your SEO value on YouTube.
Your video title must be enticing. It must tell YouTube users: “Click here!”
A good way to do this is to promise something: “Can you tell my viewers something?” “Will you entertain them?” “Let them know what they’re going to see.”
Your video title must be enticing. It must tell YouTube users: “Click here!“
A good way to do this is to promise them something: “Can you tell my viewers something?” “Will you entertain them?” “Let them know what they’re going to see.” Check out these results for the keyword “Instagram hack”:
The YouTube videos that rank high for this keyword promise to teach their viewers something new. And of course, they have the keyword right there in every video.
But there’s also a little extra explanation: the title “Instagram Hack” isn’t enough to get views, and neither is “I’ll teach you Instagram Hacks.”
You need to think deeper.
: Let your viewers know exactly how many hacks you’ll teach them, or promise something specific and popular, like in the second video in the example above.
Including these promises in your video titles, without going over the character limit, is a great way to generate clicks.
And what happens when YouTube’s search algorithm finds you? You’ll show up better in YouTube search results. This is because YouTube’s automated algorithm has detected that a lot of people think your content answers their questions.
3. Optimize your video description
In addition to optimizing your title, you should also optimize your video description.
While the title is primarily intended to grab the attention of potential viewers, you can also make your description a bit more detailed.
YouTube will display the first 125 characters of your description, but we recommend that you aim to write double that, to 250 characters if possible. YouTube also recommends putting your most important keywords at the beginning of your video description.
Of course, it’s not just about the algorithm. Your viewers will read this too, so keep an eye on their engagement. Writing exclusively for robots is never a good idea.
A link to the creator’s website will appear right away. Below that are several long paragraphs about the video, including the video title and the keyword from the first sentence (building an online business).
A unique, optimized description like this helps YouTube understand what your video is about and serve it to the right people.
4. Insert the correct tags.
After you’ve inserted your keywords in the title and description, you should also insert them in the tags section.
Tags are for YouTube’s reference only, so viewers won’t see what they contain. And to be completely honest, it’s been hotly debated how much weight these actually have in YouTube’s algorithm, and the general consensus is “not much.” But it happens so quickly that it’s child’s play.
Add as many variations of keywords and search terms as you can think of.
If we stick to “Instagram hack” examples, here are seven you can use:
Instagram Hacks
Hacks
Life Hacks
Social Media Hacks
Social Media
Social Media Tips
Note You don’t have to be super specific.
There’s a Chrome extension for YouTube called TubeBuddy.
Among its many other features, it has keyword ranking tracking, which determines search rankings for different tags so you can use the best tags for SEO.
You could also consider an app like VidIQ to see what tags your competitors are using. Using the same tags as your competitors will help your video appear in the “up next” section when someone watches your video, helping you to get noticed.
5. Create an Engaging Script
You might be tempted to skip this point.
After all, a script can be wooden and awkward, and you want to seem natural and spontaneous, right?
An engaging, well-written script can actually increase the chances of coming across as natural and spontaneous, while preventing you from getting distracted and losing your audience.
A script can help you tighten up your language, eliminate “um,” “uh,” and “where was that?”, and capture your audience’s attention. This also means you can create videos more quickly, freeing you up to focus on producing more content.
A 2015 study by AdAge (way back in the days of video marketing) found that marketers have just 10 seconds to captivate and delight their audience.
Their study also found that if a viewer isn’t fully engaged within the first 30 seconds, you could lose 33% of them. Remember, this was 2015; it’s even harder today.
So make sure you create a script with a short, compelling introduction that gets straight to the point and makes it clear why your viewer should stick around. Think of it as an extension of your title. Make a promise at the beginning that you’ll keep to the end.
Another quick tip – say your target keywords in your video. YouTube is getting better and better at automatically “listening” to and transcribing your videos. Ideally, say your target keywords early on and several times – in a natural way that sounds natural to a human viewer, of course – and you might just boost your rankings a little.
6. Start creating longer videos
Contrary to popular belief, longer videos actually perform better on YouTube than shorter videos. Enter a keyword or phrase into YouTube. The highest ranking videos are usually very long,
. In fact, it is widely believed that YouTube uses watch time as a ranking factor. If you think about it, it makes sense. The longer the watch time, the more engrossed you are, the more likely you are to watch more videos, and the more likely you are to see ads. This means that YouTube is also commercially successful. !!!
The longer the watch time of a video, the higher the chance of ranking. Of course, this means that YouTube prefers long, engaging videos that viewers watch for a long time.
However, this does not mean that you should try to make your video as long as possible. It just means that you tend to answer questions completely and comprehensively, rather than splitting your video into five parts.
If your video is long and comprehensive, yet still engaging enough to attract viewers, YouTube will definitely take notice and your ranking will improve.
7. Increase Engagement
There’s a reason why every YouTube video seems to end with this sentence: “If you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to hit the Like button below and subscribe for more content…”
… or some variation of it.
Not only does this help grow a creator’s audience and make it easier to reach previous viewers with future content, it also sends healthy SEO signals. Think about it: every like, comment, and subscription is a vote of confidence in your content. It’s saying: That was awesome. Check out this graph:
It’s based on a study of 1.3 million YouTube videos by Backlinko founder Brian Dean, and it shows a clear correlation between video comments and YouTube rankings.
Increasing engagement is one of the easiest YouTube SEO tips to implement and can significantly improve the performance of your YouTube content.
8. Create an interesting video thumbnail
Viewers only see two things before clicking on your video: the video title and the video thumbnail. And thumbnails are very important because visual information is processed 60,000 times faster than text.
YouTube automatically assigns a thumbnail for your video, which is just a random excerpt from the video.
To stand out, you need to use unique, attention-grabbing imagery that will get people clicking. Check out these examples:
Each thumbnail is chosen to grab the viewer’s attention: the presenter looks directly into the camera, and on-screen text reiterates what the video is about. Illustrated elements in contrasting colors in the thumbnail grab attention and make it look professional.
In some ways, you can think of YouTube’s SERPs as a digital storefront: you sell your content, and searchers spend time on it. You need to stand out in all the SERPs by providing the best, most professional, thorough content on the topic they’re looking for.
This encourages people to click on your video. (Warning, we’re not excited!) A high click-through rate will boost your rankings significantly, as it gives YouTube’s algorithm even more of a chance to see “this is clearly the best content” on this topic.
9. Create Playlists
Playlists are a great way to increase the total watch time on your channel because they play automatically. This means that instead of viewers watching just one video, they’re likely to watch 5-6 other videos.
Again, watch time is super important for YouTube SEO.
To create a playlist, you need to group several videos with a similar theme or theme together, like this:
: It also helps to reach out to people who create similar content as you (but not your competitors!) and ask them to add your video to one of their playlists. The more playlists your video appears in, the better.
Here’s an example of what you might say:
“Hey [name],
I love your channel!” I thought your last video on [topic] was really interesting because [add complex content to show interest].
I think my videos are pretty similar to yours, so adding some of my content to your playlist might help keep viewers on your channel. Here are some videos that I think fit this description:
[insert left]
Tell me which videos I should add to my playlist.
Good luck!
[Your Name]”
When you reach out to these people, make sure you tell them why it would be a good thing for them. You don’t want them to think you’re just asking for a favor. By adding your video to a playlist, you’re catering to a need of your audience and increasing their watch time. It also helps to offer to add their video to your own playlist. It’s a kind of deal.
: 10. Add subtitles
YouTube videos can support subtitles to help people with hearing problems.
An added benefit of these subtitles is that they can improve your YouTube SEO, as they are crawled by YouTube and Google. YouTube can automatically add subtitles to your videos, but this usually involves errors.
To get your captions indexed and good for YouTube SEO, you need to either edit the captions YouTube provides based on the transcription of your video file, or upload your own captions. Here’s how to do it
The 3 Best SEO Tools for YouTube
Another good news is that you don’t have to do this alone. There are plenty of software tools out there to help you master video SEO like a pro. Here are the top five…
Keyword Research: Ahrefs Keyword ExplorerAhrefs is the industry leader in keyword research and is also great for YouTube research. Keyword Explorer can help you find keywords to rank for and get ideas for new videos.
Channel Management: TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy is a great tool for managing your YouTube channel. For example, you can use it to upload multiple videos at once, add custom thumbnails, optimize tags and titles, and more.
TubeBuddy is a great tool for managing your YouTube channel. For example, you can use it to upload multiple videos at once, add custom thumbnails, optimize tags and titles, and more.
And – because you need to stand out on the search results page for human viewers too – let’s talk about Canva.
Canva is a great tool for creating custom thumbnails and graphics for your videos. It allows you to create professional looking graphics without having to hire a designer. There are even pre-made templates so you can create great video thumbnails with minimal effort. It’s worth checking the latest YouTube banner aspect ratio and resolution guidelines, though.
Final thoughts
With so many people visiting YouTube every day, there’s a lot of competition to share your content. While the competition can be daunting at times, remember that there are still plenty of ways to rank your videos, improve your YouTube SEO, and make your channel and videos more profitable for your business.
If you’re struggling to even come up with ideas for the best video content, our blog post “21 YouTube Video Ideas for Business” is a great place to start. Or, if you want to learn how we can help you create your videos, check out our YouTube Video Info page.