Are you getting just a few views on YouTube? Are you facing problems to rank your videos?
In this post, we'll explore tips and tricks to optimize your videos for search engines. From keywords research to creating attractive titles, this post will be worth of your time.
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For more: How to become a YouTuber: a beginner's guide
Introduction to YouTube SEO
If you're a YouTuber then ofcourse you want your videos to get popular. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a powerful tool to grow your channel. To get recommended on YouTube search results and related videos, you need to optimize your videos for SEO. By optimizing your videos, new viewers can discover your channel and gain popularity.
The Importance of Video Rankings:
Vidoe rankings directly impact the visibility of your videos. Higher rankings mean greater visibility in search results and related videos. Appearing your videos on the first page of search results greatly boosts the chances of your video being clicked and watched.
Overview of YouTube's Search Algorithm:
YouTube's search algorithm is a complex mechanism to rank high-quality videos. It considers elements such as video titles, descriptions, tags and engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares). If you understand the YouTube's search algorithm and make strategies, you will have a very high chance of being viral.
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For more: How to monetize your YouTube channel
Keyword Research for Video Content
Keywords are one of the important fundamental aspects of YouTube SEO, helping creators understand what their target audience is searching for and enabling them to optimize their videos. By selecting relevant and high-traffic keywords, the chances of appearing your videos on search results will increase.
Choosing Relevant and High-Traffic Keywords:
Relevance: Choose keywords that accurately describe your content. Think about the main topic, theme and subjects of your video. For example, if your video has educational content about Freelancing, the keywords can be — "Freelancing", "Freelancer", "Freelancing Career" etc.
High-Traffic: Search for keywords that have a significant traffic. High-traffic means that a high amount of users search that keyword.
In conclusion, search for keywords that have high-traffic and that are relevant to your videos.
Utilizing Tools for Keyword Research:
YouTube Search Suggestions: When you type in the YouTube search bar, you can see the suggested popular search terms. These search terms can provide understanding what viewers are looking for.
YouTube Analytics: When you have uploaded a few videos and you're getting average views, you can reveal the search terms that is driving traffic to your channel. This helps you get an idea of what your viewers usually search and watch.
Examples of Websites for Keyword Research:
Using external keyword research tools can give you an extra amount of data like how much traffic it has, where it is mostly famous, competition, related keywords etc.
Google Keyword Planner
SEMrush
TubeBuddy
Ahref
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Crafting Video Titles and Descriptions
The titles and descriptions play a major role for SEO. By creating compelling, keywords-rich titles and making your video descriptions, you can increase your visibility in search engines.
Writing Compelling and Tags-Rich Titles:
Keyword Placement: Add relevant keywords naturally within your title. It can create a great impact on search engine rankings.
Example- 7 Essential Photography Tips for Beginners | Mastering Your Camera Settings
Be Descriptive: Don't just add relevant keywords, make the title so it can accurately describe your video. Users should have a clear idea of what they expect when they click.
Example- Delicious and Easy Vegan Recipes | Quick Meals for a Healthy Lifestyle
Make suspense: Make your titles so they create a suspense for the viewers. Viewers will get curious and they will click the video and watch it. Remember, they should get what they expected, don't lose trust from your viewers.
Example- What happened in my house will shock you
Optimizing Video Descriptions for Search Engines:
Add Keywords: As always, add relevant keywords naturally within your video description. Provide a brief description about your video while adding some relevant keywords.
Include Timestamps: If your video covers multiple topics or chapters, include timestamps for each topic or chapter. This enhances the viewers experience and encourages longer watch time.
Links: Add links of your website, social media profile and related videos. By this viewers can follow your profile or watch more videos from you.
Utilizing Video Tags Effectively
Video tags and keywords are almost same, keywords are placed in description or titles but you can add tags directly when you're uploading your video. Unlike keywords, tags are invisible to viewers. These tags provide additional context to YouTube's algorithm, helping it the content and the theme of your video. When used effectively, video tags can improve your video's chances of appearing in search results.
Understanding the Role of Video Tags in YouTube SEO
Tags are metadata that provide information about your video in just a few words. They help YouTube's algorithm categorize your video, making it easier for the platform to recommend your videos to viewers interested in similar topics. Tags play important role to recommend your videos to viewers with similar interests.
Adding Relevant and Specific Tags to Your Videos:
Be Descriptive: Use tags than can accurately describe your content, topic, themes and elements of your video. Think about the words what viewers might use when searching for content.
Limit Tag Usage: You can use multiple tags, but avoid using irrelevant tags. Overloading your video with too much tags can make confusion and create more negative effects.
Examples of Relevant and Specific Tags:
For a Makeup Tutorial:
-makeup tutorial
-beauty tips
-smokey eye makeup
-makeup for beginners
-beauty products
For a Travel Vlog:
-travel vlog
-adventure travel
-exploring [destination]
-cultural experiences
-local cuisine
For a Tech Review:
-tech review
-gadget reviews
-[product name]
-best tech gadgets
-technology trends
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Thumbnails and Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Viewers will see your thumbnail first before watching the video, and the click through rate (CTR) measures how much your thumbnails attract viewers to click and watch your video. Make thumbnails so viewers will get curious or interested in your video and click to watch it.
Designing Thumbnails for Increasing CTR for Better Rankings
High-quality thumbnail: Create thumbnails with high-quality images and graphics. Use clear and vibrant images that stand out in search results and recommended videos.
Represent Content: Your thumbnails should represent the content of your video. Say a viewer saw your thumbnail and he will get curious and click on it. Then he finds out that the thumbnail was clickbait, he will get disappointed. So make sure, you don't use misleading thumbnails for your video.
Express your Emotions: Many YouTubers use their face on their thumbnail. They express their emotions on the thumbnail. Shocking, curious, sad- these emotions will attract viewers to watch your videos.
Text: Include some texts on your video about the main topic. Use good-looking font and ensure it describes the video accurately.
Test: Try to experiment with different styles of thumbnails. Then analyse those videos performance and see which video got the most CTR. Now select your thumbnail style based on the analysis you have done.
Consistency: Maintain a consistent style for your thumbnails. This helps viewers easily identify your videos.
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Video Transcriptions and Closed Captions
Adding close captions to your video has a lot of benefits. These close captions enhance the viewing experience and reaching to more viewers. These also helps you to rank your videos for SEO.
Benefits of Transcribing Your Videos:
Accessibility: The viewers that are from other countries prefer closed captions. Your international viewers experience will increase by a lot.
More Viewers: There are many viewers that prefer reading closed captions over watching videos. They can watch your video in their own suitable way.
Searchability: Search engines can crawl this text, making it easier for your video to rank on search results. Including keywords in your captions can boost your videos for ranking on top.
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