Let’s get straight to the point: YouTube SEO is a must-have because YouTube has become one of the most visited sites on the Internet, surpassing Facebook and is second only to Google itself. (which of course owns YouTube) YouTube SEO is now more important than ever because being ranked high on YouTube will put your product or service in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Brand exposure!

If you know the ins and outs of YouTube marketing, you’ll be way ahead of the competition. Get your video to rise to the top of the more than 300 hours of video uploaded every day!

So, to begin with, you’ll need to know exactly how the search algorithm works if you want to rank well on YouTube.

The Origin Of The YouTube SEO Ranking Algorithm

Google has been refining their search engine algorithm for many years now, so it makes sense that they would use that research and information to create the YouTube ranking algorithm. But Google went a step further and is actually using the same algorithm that decides what ranks at the top of the search engine results for determining the Youtube ranking factors. That’s why YouTube SEO isn’t just important, and it’s vital for anyone who is using YouTube as part of a business enterprise.

The advantage with SEO YouTube videos is that while most of the websites on the search engine results page are practicing SEO (and good SEO at that), most of your competitors are simply uploading videos without sparing much thought for SEO or any of the important factors that rank videos higher. At the very best, they might be doing one or two of the things that make for good SEO. That means that ranking on YouTube will be quite easy for you if you pay close attention to the advice here and implement it on your videos.

YouTube SEO Ranking Factors

YouTube’s ranking factors number in the dozens and interweave with each other and cycle back so that factors that change with the age of the video will be taken into account and used to improve ranking accuracy. YouTube Video marketing is very popular and as more and more people realize the benefit of YouTube SEO, the more difficult it will be to rank videos high and to garner tens or hundreds of thousands of views.

Some of the on page factors that YouTube takes into consideration include:

• The title and keywords, which depend upon the video file name (make sure the video file name is the same as the title)
• The trust of the video, which is affected by the age of the channel
• The type of reaction the video got
• How the video is shared
• Number of subscribers
• The description
• Keywords
• Tags
• and of course, the number of views.

1) Doing Keyword Research for YouTube

The first thing that you have to do if you want to succeed in Youtube ranking is to choose the keywords that you want to rank for. You can’t just throw up a video and hope for the best, you actually need to have a target keyword and a plan in place to rank for it.

So what keywords do you target? You want to use keywords that get plenty of searches traffic as well as turn up a page of video results on Google. If you choose a keyword that could result in either a video or text, you will see a couple of video results on the Google SERPs.

However, if you choose a keyword that results in a whole page of video results you’ll increase your traffic drastically because your video will appear on Google search for that keyword. You can also filter the keyword for video results only to see where your video ranks.

2) Write the Right Description

Make sure that you write a unique, long and relevant description for your video. YouTube cannot watch your video know what it is about, so it relies on the description as well as other factors. Use relevant keywords naturally throughout your description but don’t stuff too many into it. Otherwise, your Youtube ranking will suffer.

3) Choose Your Category Carefully

Again, YouTube cannot watch your video, so if you put it in the wrong category, you will suffer for it by not ranking in that category. Also, when you do keyword research, be sure to check the categories of the videos that are on the first page for that keyword to make sure you chose the right category.

4) Earn Your Inbound Linking

YouTube video optimization should not be a solitary activity. You should attempt to get links from other channels that YouTube considers an authority in your niche. How do you do that? Well, one way is by simply asking. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to do it if you ask nicely and offer to link to them as well. Another great way to get links is by “guest vlogging” on an authority channel. Of course, you normally have to be invited. You can also ask your viewers to link to your video and do replay video events. You should also read this blog post: Be Careful of Who you link to.

5) Inspire Your Viewers With Great Content

This is a tall order because it comprises everything from the production quality (how good your cameras, makeup, lighting, backdrop/sets and sound are) to the actual content that you are providing them. Are you achieving your conversion goal? That’s the right way to do YouTube video optimization and it is the best long-term strategy for Youtube ranking and getting viewers that will subscribe and watch, and then buy.

6) Creatively Call Them to Action

Ideally, you want every viewer to become a subscriber and every subscriber to watch, rewatch, hit the thumbs up button, comment and share your video, as well as purchase your product or service. That isn’t going to happen, but if you call them to action creatively, you might get some of them to like, subscribe and comment.

The more comments, shares, likes and views you have, the better your ranking on YouTube will be. This goes hand-in-hand with quality content. If you provide them with something that has very little value, they won’t want to return, they won’t like it, they may “thumbs down” it and not share it.

7) Create a Playlist to Boost Views

Having your videos as part of a playlist does nothing for YouTube SEO, but it does give you another opportunity to pitch your product. Users that watch a video may watch the next one if it starts automatically. YouTube has an autoplay feature already, but the next video they choose may not be one of yours, so you should create a playlist anyway.

When it comes to YouTube SEO, even this little bit of SEO goes a long way, because if you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche, you will always be able to get traffic to your videos and your Youtube ranking is sure to soar high. I hope you will apply these YouTube SEO Tactics and recommend some other practices if there is anything else I might have missed in the comments section.

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Updated: 13 December 2024

About Winnie

Winnie is an aspiring copywriter & internet marketer in the vast world of digital marketing. She's as curious as she can be; constantly hunting for answers to her questions, never saying no to new experiences. When she's not spending her time typing up a storm, she is at home keeping up with her never-ending movie marathon & books.

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