You undoubtedly want more people to watch your videos if you’re a content creator or an avid YouTube viewer. Of course, producing excellent content is crucial, but did you know that your video’s other elements also affect who watches it and when?

Like most social media handles and search engines, YouTube employs several factors to decide where to display your video in search results. Optimizing these various components is the foundation of YouTube SEO, which guarantees that more people will see your videos more frequently.

Here are some tried-and-true strategies and best practices if you’re prepared to learn more about YouTube SEO.

What is the strategy for YouTube Video SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the ever-transforming practice of designing web content to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). Since search is frequently the content gatekeeper, making your content search engine friendly is essential to drawing readers in and expanding your audience.

Regarding rank evaluation, Google looks at backlinks, among other things, but YouTube SEO looks at your channel, playlists, metadata, descriptions, and videos. Videos can be optimized for search on YouTube as well as other platforms.

How does YouTube SEO operate? When ranking YouTube videos and channels, the YouTube algorithm takes into account several SEO factors. These consist of view count, duration of viewership, metadata, tags, thumbnails, titles, descriptions, and more for videos.

The algorithm aims to present users with the most pertinent and helpful YouTube videos and  persuade them to linger longer on the platform.

However, you shouldn’t just focus on optimizing for YouTube. Google and other search engines can rank YouTube videos, too! YouTube videos appear in the Discover tab, Google Images, main search, and video search results.

To put it briefly, a robust YouTube SEO approach comprises two elements:

• YouTube optimization
• External SEO

You could have a lot of success on YouTube if you can successfully integrate these two SEO strategies.

9 Simple YouTube SEO Tips to Rank Higher In Search

It’s pretty easy to combine your SEO and video strategy to help boost your marketing. Doing this will increase viewers’ time watching your videos, capture their interest, and advance your business through YouTube remarketing, among other benefits. These eight steps will help you enhance your YouTube SEO and boost traffic and video views.

1. Look for long-tail, secondary, and primary keywords

Similar to Google, keyword research is a crucial component of YouTube SEO. The words and phrases your audience is most likely to use when looking for content similar to yours are represented by keywords.

Additionally, as users type, YouTube’s search bar suggests related queries; therefore, incorporating various keywords into your video will increase its visibility.

The first step in researching YouTube keywords should be determining the primary, secondary, and long-tail keywords.

Although there are more searches for primary keywords, they are typically more competitive and challenging to rank for. Secondary keywords have a lower search volume but less competition, making them easier to rank for.

Extended and more specialized phrases and long-tail keywords are typically associated with your primary and secondary keywords. A long-tail keyword for your term, “boost Instagram video post,” might be “boost Instagram video post from ads manager.”

The keyword research tools you currently use for external SEO are applicable here. This covers tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMRush. Remember that these tools aren’t directly obtaining data from YouTube.

Sadly, no keyword research tools are explicitly tailored for YouTube now. Nevertheless, they do capture the general tone of web searches. They also give you an advantage in terms of Google ranking.

Read also: Keyword Research: A Step-by-Step Guide To Choose The Right Keywords.

2. Make a Catchy Title For Your Video

The title is one of the first things that catch your attention when searching for videos. The title of your video often makes you click to watch it, so it needs to be clear, concise, and compelling.

Although your keyword plays a significant part in your video’s title, it also helps if the title matches what the viewer is looking for.

Optimizing your title for keywords is a good idea as long as the term makes sense and clearly describes what the viewer will see.

Having done thorough keyword research, you already possess a respectable list of terms. What, then, should you do with them?

Additionally, the video’s title needs to be as close to the user’s search terms as possible for it to appear in a good position.

For instance, the subject of this Rock Content video is essentially brand building. As a result, “brand building” is the primary keyword of this video, and it starts with the title.

According to research, longer titles also tend to perform worse since the top 20 players have titles that are, on average, 47–48 characters long—a label can have up to 100 characters.

Thus, strive to make your titles more succinct and keyword-focused. These conclusions are not guidelines, but they are something to think about.

3. Give your video some tags for better YouTube SEO

It is no longer logical to stuff a page with keywords in the meta tags; anyone involved in Google SEO knows this. Since it was frequently used as spam, search engines no longer consider this factor when determining rankings.

On YouTube, however, tags are vital for ranking a video. These are some of the elements that YouTube considers when determining a video’s subject matter and accurately indexing it, as well as when suggesting related videos.

Additionally, those recommendations are a significant source of viewers for your videos.

But choose your tags wisely. Use relevant tags instead of irrelevant ones to increase views; otherwise, Google might penalize you. Like in your description, start with the most crucial keywords, ideally a combination of standard and long-tail (i.e., answers to queries like “How do I?”).

4. Include the keyword in your file name

As you may know, optimizing your video for YouTube starts before it is uploaded. This is because the file name must already contain the primary keyword of the content. 

Your video will have a far higher chance of ranking and attracting more search traffic if the file name you are uploading contains the target keyword.

The filename is visible when you upload a new video file. Ensure your file name is updated before uploading the video to YouTube, as they use this to determine if it is relevant.

To avoid confusing YouTube, use a descriptive name that includes the keyword (e.g., Tips-to-Improve-Your-YouTube-Video-SEO.mp4) instead of uploading the video with a character full of numbers and codes(e.g., VID_648102804.mp4).

As a result, the file name allows the platform to determine the video’s subject matter.

5. Add personalized thumbnails

It’s crucial to constantly be mindful of how your content displays in search results because it will affect the likelihood that users will click on your video. While YouTube thumbnails should be visually striking enough to stand out from the crowd, titles should be precise and descriptive. The art of copywriting might just help here if you know it.

Thumbnails influence the number of times people view or click on your video, affecting your YouTube SEO.

We advise against using YouTube’s automatically generated thumbnails if you have a verified account and instead recommend making your own. YouTube suggests:

• The resolution of thumbnails is 1280 x 720 pixels, with a width of 640 pixels.
• Be uploaded in JPG, GIF, or PNG picture formats.
• Be no more than 2 MB for videos and 10 MB for podcasts.

6. Create playlists

Since YouTube is a repository for video content, arranging your videos into playlists optimized for search terms is critical. This facilitates more straightforward content navigation for viewers and helps YouTube understand what subjects your channel covers.

Don’t put videos about gardening or woodcraft in a playlist you make for “Everything You Need To Know About YouTube SEO,” for instance. 

Alternatively, titles like “How to Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO,” “10 Best YouTube SEO Tips,” and “Ultimate YouTube SEO Guide” will assist YouTube in directing users to your content.

7. Include closed captions and subtitles

The last piece of advice for optimizing YouTube search results is to use closed captions and subtitles.

Closed captions are meant for viewers who are have hearing problems but they are helpful to those without the hearing problems also. In contrast, video subtitles are meant to convey video dialogue to viewers who are unable to understand the video language.

The text of the video’s words is included in closed-caption files and subtitles, acting as a transcript. For the reader to correspond with speech or another visual element, the file will also include time codes for when each text segment should appear throughout the video. Check out the file formats that YouTube offers here.

Having a transcript for your video has the added advantage of being indexed by significant search engines.

Read also: 5 Easy Steps To Create Content That Works: 2024 Edition

8. Include timestamps in the video

YouTube timestamps inform YouTube of the start and finish of your video’s key sections. This enhances YouTube’s comprehension of the content in your video, which benefits you with a higher YouTube SEO ranking signal.

I recommend including timestamps, also known as chapters, in the video description and content for ease of navigation.

Timestamps facilitate YouTube’s algorithm’s understanding of your video content and help SEO. This makes your video show up for search terms that are relevant to your video’s content and its general theme.

Also, not to mention that viewers love it!

9. Choose a category for your video

Users can choose to have their search show videos from specific categories if they want a particular video with advanced options. It’s crucial to contextualize your video when uploading it with types to increase the likelihood that a user will find it.

You should be able to find a category on YouTube that works well for your videos because many options are available. When you upload your video, you can decide the category.

Videos on YouTube can be categorized into broad subjects like “Sports” or “Technology” using these categories. This facilitates the search for relevant content and reveals which channels create the highest caliber videos in that niche to YouTube.

You are communicating the subject matter of each video you upload to YouTube by choosing the relevant category. YouTube will use this data to decide whether or not to show up in search results for particular subjects.

Read also: Optimizing SEO with YouTube: A Deep Dive into Top WordPress Plugins in 2024

Conclusion

After reading the guide, let’s not forget what we discussed in the beginning: the user experience. Remember that this is the focus of Google and YouTube; with that, it should be yours, too.

As a result, the main goal of every piece of advice in this article is to enhance internet users’ experiences. For instance, coming up with catchy titles and adding subtitles are attempts to improve people’s lives and enhance the experience of watching a web video.

Ensure the algorithm can identify your optimization efforts when you strive for a positive user experience. I hope you found this guide on tips to improve your YouTube SEO helpful. Feel free to share any tips or doubts you have in the comments section below. 

Happy YouTube SEO-ing!

FAQs

Why is YouTube SEO important for video creators?

YouTube SEO is paramount for video creators because it helps a more extensive audience discover their videos. Optimizing videos for search engines improves visibility, increases click-through rates, and enhances overall channel performance.

How can creators improve viewer engagement for better SEO?

Encourage viewer engagement by asking questions, responding to comments, and creating content that captivates your audience. Engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, watch time, and signal to YouTube that your content is valuable, potentially improving its search ranking.

Is there a recommended video length for better YouTube SEO?

While there’s no specific recommended length, creating content that keeps viewers engaged is essential. YouTube values watch time, so focus on delivering valuable content without unnecessary filler. Longer videos should maintain viewer interest throughout.

Can sharing videos on other platforms boost YouTube SEO?

Yes, promoting your videos on other platforms can positively impact YouTube SEO. Cross-promotion increases visibility, attracts more viewers, and can contribute to higher engagement metrics, improving your video’s search ranking on YouTube.