YouTube SEO is an essential element of creating outstanding content, and helps it to reach as many people as possible. If you want to rank at the top of YouTube’s search results, gain more engagement and up your subscribers and likes, this article is for you! By following our steps, you will play into YouTube’s algorithm and boost your video’s presence via search results and suggested videos. Let’s get started!
What Is YouTube SEO & Why Do You Need It?
YouTube is a variation of a search engine, meaning that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will vastly help your channel’s traffic, views and so on. SEO is essentially the practice of getting your site to appear in the top results of search engines such as Google. Google also own YouTube – so your SEO skills are just as needed for YouTube!
YouTube has billions of videos, with new ones being uploaded every second. In order to stand out amongst the competition, you need a strategy to make sure your videos get found. If you’re planning to monetize your YouTube channel, you need to know how to appeal to YouTube’s algorithm.
Tips For Using YouTube SEO To Get More Views
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the most important element of SEO, as it is the foundation of the process. Through this research, you can find out what people are searching for, what phrases they’re using, and what to target.
You can do this in the following ways:
- Using tools designed for keyword research such as SEM Rush or Moz Keyword Explorer
- Typing your keyword into a search engine and taking note of the auto-filled queries
- Look at ‘related searches’ on search engine results pages
You can get started by jotting down phrases or topics that your target audience may be searching. Then, check the search volume for each, and see what is both popular but not too overcrowded search-wise.
Optimizing Your Titles
Once you have picked a keyword or phrase and have your video ready, you need to optimize your video for this phrase. This begins with your video title!
Firstly, ensure that the keyword you are targeting is in your videos title. It needs to be exact, with no variations. For the best results, try to get the phrase at the start of your title. All of these steps tell YouTube’s algorithm that you want to rank for this keyword or phrase.
Your title, description and so on should be enticing, clear and interesting. The description should feature your keyword (preferably in the first 25 words), a close variation of the keyword 2-3 times, and be at least 250 words long.
Engagement Signals
Engagement signals are the metrics that YouTube uses to identify whether viewers like your content. Having strong engagement signals means that YouTube will rank your videos higher in the results pages, and recommend it in Suggested Videos.
Some engagement signals include:
- How much of your video viewers watch
- Amount of likes, comments, and shares it receive.
- How many subscribers you gain after they watch the video.
- Amount of people that click on your other videos after watching.
You can improve the engagement signals on your YouTube videos by making them engaging, improving the quality and asking viewers questions to encourage interaction. It also doesn’t hurt to remind your viewers to like and subscribe to your channel! This will help to improve your engagement and show YouTube that people are enjoying your content.
Tags & Thumbnails
Another element of optimizing your videos involves making the most of the tags and thumbnails. Using tags such as your keyword alongside other topics covered is a great way to get the most out of the Tags feature.
Visually, thumbnails are also extremely important. Ideally, they should include text that relays the video’s topic, eye-catching colors and feature images of people that catch audience’s attention.
How Audiosocket Can Help You With Content Creation
This article is all about optimizing your YouTube videos, and that’s where we can help! Taking your videos to the next level includes all the above tips, plus making them the best quality you can.
If you are looking for authentic, top-quality music for your YouTube videos, why not check out Audiosocket? Your content deserves the best, so sign up today and access tens of thousands of songs to bring your vision to life! You can access Audiosocket’s music catalog for just $15 a month as a Personal creator. Not only that, but this allows you to license an unlimited number of tracks at no additional cost. Talk about win-win!
Feel free to also check out our article on YouTube tactics for creators!
