YouTube is a huge platform with unlimited opportunities for young creators. The platform has over 2 billion users and more than 500 hours of newly uploaded videos on YouTube every minute. New YouTube creators find it very challenging to rank their videos through SEO on the platform given the competition.
Creators on YouTube spend hours creating a fantastic video for their channel by recording, editing, and uploading it. While the final result is incredible, they find it very difficult to reach their audience and get views on their videos. You might wonder why YouTube views are important! YouTube views not only help make your channel become well-known on the platform but also monetize it.
If your videos are great and your channel is filled with high-quality content, and yet no one subscribes to it, you have missed a few steps before uploading your videos. That vital step is YouTube SEO. So, read till the end to know what YouTube SEO means and how you rank your YouTube video with these optimization tips.
What is YouTube SEO?
YouTube SEO is the process of ranking your videos on YouTube’s search engine result page. This involves optimizing your YouTube videos, conducting keyword research, tracking your video’s performance, etc. These practices also help grow your channel and rank higher on the search engine, garnering more views on your videos.
How to optimize YouTube videos for SEO
Sharing some of the top strategies you can implement to push your video in the trending section of YouTube.
1. YouTube Keyword Research
Wondering why YouTube keyword research is so important? Keywords play a crucial role in SEO ranking. Keywords help the algorithm understand your content and helps users find the information they are looking for.
But how do you find the right keywords for your content? You can use online tools like Google Keyword Planner to find the best keywords that suit your content. You can use these in your Youtube video’s title, description, and tags. Look for trending and complementary keywords and use them too. While the tool mentioned above is free, if you are looking for a more insightful tool with detailed results, you can use Ahrefs, a paid tool but worth every cent for upcoming creators.
Another way to look for keywords is to understand what your audience is searching for on Google or YouTube. You can simply type in your primary keyword and look at the list of suggestions that appear below the search bar. Try out different variations in the search bar and use the suggestions most relevant to your video content.
YouTube Content Consistency
Consistency plays a vital role in your search engine rankings. While many creators focus on creating great video content for their YouTube channel, many forget to be consistent. When I say consistency, it goes both ways – with your content upload timeline and content theme. If you are looking to increase your YouTube views and increase your subscriber base, this is how you can do it.
Video content consistency
When creating videos for your YouTube channel, always remember to create a fixed theme and branding elements used in your videos. Your videos will set a brand image recognized by the algorithm and your audience when mixed with your high-quality content.
Video upload consistency
Producing high-quality videos on time is a great habit all creators must inculcate. You need to prepare an uploading schedule to show how active and attentive you are to your audience. Irregular posting will only hurt your chances at ranking. Many times, users unsubscribe to a channel if they don’t find any new content on it. So, try never skipping an upload and maintain consistency with your upload date and time.
YouTube Video Optimization
The crux of your video rankings on YouTube depends on the following factors. If you want your videos to rank higher on the search result page, here’s where you start.
Title
As a user, the first thing they read when they come across any video is the YouTube video’s title to know more about the content. Your video’s title must be catchy and appealing. You don’t need to use any technical terms or any sophisticated words. Try using humorous, friendly language that appeals to your audiences. Tell them why they should be clicking on your video through your title. Even though this is mentioned one too many times, remember to insert relevant keywords for better ranking.
Thumbnail
A YouTube video thumbnail is the small image next to your video title on the search results page. According to experts, a video’s thumbnail gets brings more clicks to a video than the title. Of course, we all know the role visuals play in attracting users. This is why your YouTube video thumbnail needs to visually impressive. Your thumbnail will give your users an idea about your video and why they should click on it.
To create attractive thumbnails, you can read our blog on the tips to customize your YouTube video thumbnail. Note that you can only customize your thumbnail if you are verified on YouTube.
Description
You will come across two types of YouTube descriptions. To rank your videos on YouTube, you will have to optimize both the descriptions. YouTube video description is the text that appears below a video; your description’s first line should hook the user to click on the show more button. YouTube channel description is the information that appears on your channel’s homepage, which gives users an idea about you and your channel.
Tags
Youtube tags are keywords that you can add to your videos to help users find your content easily. If your video is about “Beauty products,” you can use tags like “beauty,” “skincare,” “make-up,” etc. These tags will help the YouTube algorithm understand your video content and show it to the users looking for it.
Track YouTube Search Rankings
After all the work you have put into ranking your videos, it would be foolish not to keep track of their performance. Make it a habit to check on which position your videos are ranking on Google or YouTube. Here are many tools that can help you track your video’s ranking; this practice will help you understand how you can make your videos better and beat the competition to reach position zero.
YouTube Analytics
YouTube Analytics helps creators monitor and analyze their channel and video’s performance. You can find YouTube Analytics in your YouTube Studio account. Every YouTube creator must use analytics because, with its advanced features, you can know what your video lacks and what your audience expects from your channel. You also have access to detailed data such as demographics, traffic sources, no. of subscribers, etc. Since subscriber conversion is essential, this information will help you achieve that goal. You can also use Google Analytics to access additional data.
To learn more about the workings of YouTube Analytics, read our blog.
YouTube Promotions
Lastly, after all the efforts and hard work you have put into creating your videos and optimizing them, it would be a shame if people didn’t know about it. This is where promoting your videos comes into play. You can promote your videos on social media handles like Facebook, Instagram, etc., through posts and stories.
Another way to promote your YouTube videos is through online promotional services like Veefly. These promotional services take your videos directly to your target audience by using the latest YouTube promotional strategies.
If you are looking for a more detailed version of YouTube promotions, check out our blog on how to promote your YouTube channel.
Conclusion
You have reached the end of this blog, and I hope all your questions have been answered. YouTube is a very overwhelming place for beginners, and understanding SEO might be complicated. But these pointers will help you ace YouTube SEO and give your videos the rank they deserve on the search engine page.
If you have come across any challenges that haven’t been mentioned in this blog, let us know in the comments.
https://blog.veefly.com/youtube-marketing/how-to-rank-youtube-videos-in-2023/
