Nowadays, it seems like everyone wants to become an online creator. But it’s easier said than done. As aspiring content creators, we already know about the foundational pillars of successful content like engaging storytelling, production quality, and a unique perspective that sets us apart. Once production is complete, it’s about getting our great content noticed by our target audience. We as creators have to not only produce creative and high-quality content but also be consistent and stay up-to-date on new technologies and trends. To help us achieve this, I want to talk about search engine optimization (SEO) best practices on YouTube, the second most popular social media platform with over 2.4 billion monthly active users (Semrush).
SEO is an integral part of successful content marketing strategies. YouTube SEO “combines basic SEO practices with YouTube-specific optimization techniques” (HubSpot). This process involves optimizing various elements like titles, descriptions, and tags to draw more organic traffic. Other factors such as views, watch time, likes, and shares also help to improve rankings in YouTube search results.
Implementing SEO techniques for your online content is now more important than ever. “Every minute, approximately 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube,” and “over 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube daily” (LinkedIn). Today, it takes more than just making great content. You have to stand out in this crowded digital space, and the first step to increasing your content’s visibility is through SEO best practices and strategies for YouTube.
YouTube SEO Best Practices
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of YouTube SEO is conducting thorough keyword research. Let’s be honest, many of us are eager to dive right into optimizing our videos with what we believe are relevant keywords without taking the time to do the proper research. However, this approach can be a mistake because keyword research provides us with insights on user behavior and preferences that help us to tailor our content accordingly. Without this, we risk missing out on valuable opportunities to increase our reach. Here are a few tools and practices to help you conduct keyword research for YouTube:
- YouTube Search Bar: Use YouTube’s search bar suggestions and results to view popular search queries and understand what types of videos are ranking well.
- Keyword Research Tools: Use tools like Ahrefs, vidIQ, or TubeBuddy to find target keywords and estimate their search volume.
- Google Trends: Use Google Trends to identify trending topics and search patterns.
- Competitor Analysis: Analyze the keywords used by competitors.
Once you have identified your target keywords, it’s time to strategically incorporate them into elements of your video. I want to start with the most common video optimizations:
- Video Title: Integrate your primary keywords and aim for 75 characters or so. To help you get started, try posing a question, making a listicle, using “how-to” or tutorial, or comparing and contrasting (Sprout).
- Video Description: Start with a brief summary of the most attractive information. Keep it simple and naturally integrate your target keywords. I also suggest including useful timestamps.
- Tags: Improve your content’s visibility by tagging your videos with descriptive terms. Don’t overdo it, stick to around five or so tags.
- Custom Thumbnails: Improve your click-through rate by creating appealing thumbnails that attract viewers. If you’re not a designer, I suggest using Canva’s design templates to create your video thumbnails.
Now that we have covered the fundamental aspects of optimizing your videos for searches, it’s time to consider other video elements to optimize. While titles, descriptions, and tags lay the groundwork for effective SEO, there are additional elements within your videos that can further enhance their visibility and engagement:
- Closed Captions: Add captions and make sure they’re accurate as this will not only make your content accessible to a wider audience but also improve searchability.
- Cards and End Screens: Encourage viewer engagement and increase watch time by using interactive elements like cards and end screens.
- Timestamps: As stated above, I highly recommend making your videos more navigable and searchable by adding key timestamps to the video description.
- Categories: Help the YouTube algorithm understand your content better by categorizing your videos appropriately which can increase your discoverability.
- Hashtags: Use a few relevant hashtags to increase your content’s reach. Don’t overdo it because YouTube’s algorithm views this as spammy (Hootsuite).
To wrap it up, the final components of our YouTube SEO best practices involve strategies to foster engagement, maintain channel activity, and harness the power of analytics for continuous improvement:
- Build Playlists: Organize your videos into playlists for easier navigation and to improve user engagement by keeping them on your channel longer.
- Promote Across Social Networks: Share and embed your videos across social media platforms like Twitter to enhance SEO and encourage interaction.
- Consistent Posting and Edits: YouTube’s algorithm will recognize you as an active user if you post and edit videos regularly. This can help increase your ranking.
- YouTube Analytics: Use YouTube Analytics to track performance metrics and adjust your strategies based on audience insights. Always strive to learn and refine.
Overall, effective YouTube SEO requires a comprehensive strategy that begins with keyword research and extends to optimizing video elements, leveraging platform features, and maintaining consistent engagement. There are still a few additional considerations I would like you to keep in mind. Don’t overlook the impact of renaming your video and custom thumbnail files with relevant keywords. These small details can further enhance your visibility. “Search robots don’t crawl the video content, only the source code of your video (HubSpot). Also, experimenting with video length can provide valuable insights into viewer preferences and engagement patterns. Last but not least, don’t underestimate the power of leaving a pinned comment on your own video to encourage and guide audience engagement.
All things considered, I know that I plan to implement these YouTube SEO best practices in the future, and I hope you do too. I also encourage my fellow aspiring content creators to come up with a YouTube content marketing plan. It may be a lot of work but it will prove useful. This content plan should include a clear and concise idea, short but compelling title, category and tags, SEO keywords, high-quality images, and some kind of call to action. In the end, online content creation is both an art and a science that requires experimentation.