The platform played an essential role in transforming videos into one of the main content formats,
both for consumption and for Digital Marketing .
Thanks to him, videos became democratic: today, any person, or brand, can publish and view an
infinite amount of audiovisual content on the web.
And with so many videos on the platform, YouTube was forced to organize all that content into its
search tool.
To have a good experience on the platform, users should easily find the videos they are interested in
. That is why the platform created an algorithm capable of positioning the best content for each search.
Thus, today, channels have a challenge: those who want more visibility must adopt video
optimization strategies so that they appear better positioned .
We know these strategies as SEO for YouTube. And that is what we will talk about in this article.
Join us now and learn all about the topic!
What is SEO for YouTube?
Before we look at what SEO is for special database YouTube, it is worth first understanding what SEO is.
Search Engine Optimization is the set of user experience optimization strategies , which aims to
improve the positioning of a page in search engines.
It includes programming , design , content production and links to other websites , so that search
engines consider that page to be the best result for what the user is looking for.
Of course, when we talk about SEO, we’re aiming to conquer the top positions on Google. After all,
that Internet giant dominates more than 90% of searches worldwide. Bing, Yahoo! and Baidu are
other search engines that take up the rest of that number.
Google has a mission : “to organize the world’s information and make it useful and accessible to
everyone.” In other words, by crawling, indexing and ranking web content, the search engine wants
users to find the best results for their searches.
To do this, Google developed an intelligent algorithm capable of identifying pages that offer a good
experience and eliminating from the results those that use spam, plagiarism or other malicious
practices.
With that being said, let’s now understand what SEO for YouTube is.
Search engines exist in many other places on the Internet. When you enter a website, for example,
there is usually also a search engine there that crawls the internal content. Likewise, on social
networks , there is also an internal search engine .
This is also true on YouTube, which offers its own search system to make it easy for users to
find the channels and videos they want .
And the platform has quite a bit of clout among Internet search engines. This 2017 study showed that
YouTube had more searches than search engines like Yahoo! and Bing, for example.
It is worth remembering that the video platform was bought by Google. That is why YouTube adopts
the same search intelligence and has the same purpose, that of offering the best experience for
the user .
When a user types a search term into YouTube , the platform’s robots crawl channels and videos to
deliver the best results, in order of relevance. And, to determine which are the best results for each
person, the algorithm considers several factors.
The user’s search and browsing history, as well as that of Google, are important factors in
personalizing the results page. But for those who publish content on YouTube, it is important to know
that the algorithm also adopts criteria of engagement and channel optimization to position the results.
For example, a video that properly completes the title, tags and description fields tends to rank better
than one that does not.
A YouTube channel that usually receives several comments and likes also ranks better than one that does not have good engagement.
Why does this happen? Because the platform understands that these videos provide a more valuable experience to the user.
And that is also what Google’s own algorithm understands. Since the search engine and YouTube belong to the same company, there is an integration between both platforms.
That’s why when you do a search on Google, the search engine also presents you with video content, both from YouTube and from other platforms that are more relevant to that search.
Look at the following example:
Therefore, the SEO optimizations you make for YouTube are valid both within the platform and also for competing for space in Google searches .
Top 11 SEO Techniques for YouTube
SEO for YouTube does not follow a series regularly update your sitemap and submit it to search engines to avoid indexing problems. of steps to obtain a predefined result. Even if you follow all the guidelines, the decision of which results will appear to the user depends on the platform’s algorithm, which is quite complex.
The algorithm considers various criteria, rules and calculations to determine positioning , including factors that do not depend on your actions, such as user navigation.
However, the more points you earn with YouTube’s search algorithm, the more chances you have of reaching the top positions.
So, let’s now look at some techniques to help YouTube promote your channel and videos in user search results.
Join us!
1. Do keyword research before everything else
Keywords are essential for SEO for YouTube , as well as for Google. Through them, the platform identifies the topic of the video, indexes list of real mobile phone numbers the content and associates it with user searches.
To do this, you must insert the title, tags and description into certain fields when uploading the file —as we will see later— so that YouTube can collect this information and use it for positioning.
Therefore, you need to know which keywords best identify your videos and at the same time have the potential to attract more viewers to your channel.
Now, let’s look at some tips for doing a good keyword research with a focus on SEO for YouTube . These tips can be used to complete the information after recording the videos, but also to get ideas for content with potential for your channel.
First, you can use a basic YouTube tool: the auto-complete feature in the search bar.
It is used to facilitate user searches, based on the terms that are usually most searched for on the Internet.
This can also help creators: you can get new ideas for keywords that have a high search volume, thus increasing the viewership potential of your videos.
Another step in keyword research is benchmarking . Yes, your competition can help you too.
To do this, when you are on the channel, go to the Videos tab and select the option to sort by most popular.
In the case of the channel Un mundo inmenso , for example, the video that appears first on the list is about why Turkmenistan is the most unusual country in the world.
As you can imagine, one of the keywords is Turkmenistan . If you want to analyze them further, you can also discover the tags that were used in this video.
However, they are not visible to the user. To do this, you need to open the source code on the video page (by right-clicking) and search for the keywords within the code.
You can also analyze your channel’s statistics. Within the traffic source analysis, you can find the most frequently used terms to reach your videos. There, you can find inspiration for recording new content or include keywords when uploading your videos.
To search for keywords you can use the following tools:
- Keywords Everywhere – Free Google Chrome extension for SEO that shows you an estimate of monthly search volume on Google and YouTube.
- Google Trends : A free tool from Google that shows search trends (you can filter only YouTube searches) and helps you identify trending topics.
- VidIQ – Free Google Chrome extension that adds an info bar to YouTube videos.
marketing on youtube
2. Select keywords with good reach potential
With the tips mentioned above, you already have a good list of keywords. So, how do you select the best terms for your videos?
Of course, you might be thinking, “I’m going to choose the keywords that have the most searches.” Yes, the most popular terms tend to attract more people. However, they also have more competition, and the competition can be made up of big brands and influencers , who are difficult to compete with.
Therefore, probably the best choice —especially if you have a small business— is long tail keywords .
Long tail keywords don’t have as much traffic, but they don’t have as much competition either, which is why it’s easier to rank well with them. In addition, they usually represent bottom-of-the-funnel searches (i.e., closer to conversion).
But how do you know which are the long tail keywords? They are generally longer (three or more words) and represent a more specific search.
“Content Marketing” for example, is a top-of-the-funnel keyword. It generates a lot of hits, but it is more popular for positioning.
To do this, you can further specify your search using the term “Instagram Content Marketing,” which already filters out the competition. If you choose the term “Instagram Stories Content Marketing,” your search becomes even more specific and increases the chances of your video ranking well.
Either way, it’s always important to select keywords that relate to the content of the video . Imagine leading users searching for “Instagram Stories Content Marketing” to a video that gives decorating tips.
It doesn’t work, do you know why? Because the user will abandon your video in just a few seconds. And that counts as negative points in YouTube’s evaluation of the video’s engagement and, as a consequence, in your ranking. It’s a shot that backfires.
3. Use a good video title
After doing some good keyword research, you now have a good selection of terms in your hands. So, what do you do with them?
One of the fields where the keyword must appear is the title. This is one of the most important factors for YouTube to index and position the content. And, for the video to appear well positioned, the title must be as close as possible to the user’s search.
In the Shopify video, for example, the content is about “how to find business ideas,” so this is the primary keyword and appears at the beginning of the title.
In addition, a study conducted by Briggsby analyzed the correlation between the positioning of videos in YouTube search and the platform’s possible positioning factors.
As for titles, the company noted that top search results often use an exact match to the keyword in the video title.
The search also showed that longer titles tend to perform worse, as the top positions are more objective: the top 20 positions have titles of 47 and 48 characters, on average, and the maximum is 100 characters.
So, try to keep your titles more concise and keyword specific. These considerations are not rules, but they are worth considering.
Also remember that the video title may be the user’s first contact with your content .
Therefore, it should describe what viewers will see, but also encourage them to click on your video. In this case, it is worth using creativity to spark curiosity.
4. Insert the video tags
Anyone who works with SEO for Google knows that stuffing a page’s code with keywords in the meta tags is pointless. The search engine no longer uses this aspect as a ranking factor, as it is used as spam.
On YouTube, however, tags are essential for the positioning of a video.
It is one of the factors that YouTube uses to identify the topics of a content and make the correct indexing, as well as to make the recommendation of related videos. And those suggestions are also an important source of traffic for your videos.
In this field, YouTube allows you to use 120 characters. We recommend that you use 6 to 8 words, so as not to confuse the algorithm with terms that are far from your content.