In this article I will show you how to rank YouTube SEO. In fact, this is exactly the process I used to grow my channel to 188,300 views per month.
If you want to get a lot of views, subscriptions and traffic from YouTube, then you will love this YouTube SEO tutorial.
Let’s do it!
How have I grown my YouTube channel from zero to success?
Before we get into the YouTube SEO tutorial, let’s take a quick look at the story:
When I started my YouTube channel, I was miserable to get each view. Going fast nowadays, my videos rank mostly for keywords, like the words “On-page SEO”:
“Backlinks”:
Great, I also rank the # 1 position for the word “video seo”:
Because I know how to rank my videos, my channel generates 188,300 views and 6,200 subscribers each month.
That is what you can see me talking about, let’s start with the steps that I use to get those results.
Step 1: YouTube Keyword Research
The process of making YouTube SEO starts with video keyword search. Here is how to find the right keywords for your video:
First, create a list of keyword ideas.
Your first step is to create a huge list of potential keywords. Then, in the next step, I will help you find the best keyword from your list.
Here is how to find your YouTube keywords:
One of my favorite strategies is to use a search engine. Just go to the Youtube page and type in a word or phrase and Youtube will give you a difficult phrase related to what you type.
This keyword suggestion tool is great. Why is that? Because these words people often search on Youtube. So, you do not have to wonder if they are popular or not. If Youtube suggests them to you, then they are 1000% correct.
You can also go to popular videos in your industry … and copy the same keywords that the video is optimizing. As you may know, keyword optimization is the key of Youtube SEO. So, if a video has a lot of views, that is a chance, because they are optimized around popular keywords.
To do this, go to your industry channel. You then filter their videos by “Most popular”
It will list the videos that generate the most views.
Next, choose a video from the list. Of course, you want to choose videos that you can create extremely excellent videos (will be discussed in detail in step 2).
Normally, if the video is in your industry, it will work.
Finally, consider which keywords the video is optimizing. This is easy. Please check the keywords used above title, description and video tag:
(To view video tags, I recommend using the VidIQ Chrome extension. It will show you the video tag on the page.)
You can also search for some good keywords in the YouTube report “Traffic Source: YouTube search”. This report will show you all the keywords that YouTube users have searched for to get your video.
In many cases, there are keywords you already know (because you have optimized them for your video).
But sometimes you will see the benefits of keywords you do not think of. For example, here is an example of the keyword I found in the “Traffic Sources” report:
This is the keyword I thought I would never use any tactic for. But I know people find it on YouTube, so it is a great keyword to put on my list.
Second, find the best keywords in your list
So now that you have created a list of keywords, it is time to choose the best keywords. In particular, you want to target low competitive keywords. It is especially important if your channel does not have many subscribers. If you make an effort, and according to competitive keywords, your video will be buried on the search results page. Instead you want to find keywords where you do not have much competition.
How to check it out?
You only need to do is find your keyword and check in the “Search results” section.
The number represents the total number of YouTube videos that cover that topic. The higher the number, the higher the competition. So, you want to target keywords with low search results.
(How much is low? Each industry has a different number. So, I can’t give you a specific number. Focus on choosing keywords that are low competitive in your industry.)
For example, when I searched for the word “Youtube SEO”, there were about 5,530,000 results:
That is a lot.
If I were to start over, then I would try some other keywords, like “YouTube ranking factors”. Bingo! This keyword has only 390,000 results.
That means this keyword is less competitive.
Finally, one more way: find your keywords on Google
Here is how:
Most of the views on Youtube come from the YouTube platform. But stop there. Your video can be 2 to 5 times more views if you can achieve it when ranked on Google.
How?
The trick is to optimize your video with keywords that already have video results on Google. Google only adds videos on search results for a few keywords. Unlike a page that displays normally with 10 web page results, for some Google keywords to get good places on page 1 for video results:
Typically, Google tends to use video results for the following keywords:
- How-to-keywords (“How to shave a cat?”
- Evaluation (“Car rating”)
- Instructions (“how to install wordpress”)
- Things related to sports and fitness
- Funny videos (“cute cat”)
Why is it important?
Suppose you optimize your video around a keyword without video results on Google. In this case, you will only get traffic from people searching on YouTube. But if you optimize video keywords, you will get the desired traffic going straight to your video from page 1 of Google.
The question is:
How can you find such magic keywords?
You only need to find one of the keywords you searched for in the previous step. Then if any of the keywords you find have video results like this:
Easy right?
Once you have found the video keyword, it is time to see if there is a search volume for the keyword. If not, you will probably rank with keywords that only have 20 searches a month. Not worth doing!
So, you should make sure the desired keyword must reach at least 100-1K searches per month on Google (You can use Google Keyword Planner).
Why must there be 500 searches per month?
If you can do video ranking on Google, there will be many searchers clicking on your video on the results page. That means you will have a lot of quality traffic to your videos, and ultimately your website.
Here is the actual example:
Since Backlinko is in the SEO industry, I will search for video keywords using search terms such as “keyword research tips”, “how to build backlinks” and “SEO tutorial”.
Bingo! The keyword “SEO tutorial” has 3 Youtube results on Google:
Certainly, that keyword surpasses at least 500 searches per month.
So, it is a great keyword for making videos. The fact that I did it.
Referring to your video editing….
Step 2: Post videos with High-Retention
The truth is:
If you want to rank Videos, you need to keep others watching. The number of people watching your video is called Audience Retention.
And Youtube has stated that: “Audience Retention” is a huge ranking factor:
In other words, if your video keeps viewers on YouTube, Youtube will rank your video on search. (After all, YouTube wants viewers on the platform for them to click on the ad. And if you help them achieve that goal, they will promote your video.)
The question is:
How do you create videos that keep people engaged?
(Also known as “High-Retention Video”)
Here are 3 simple steps to great results. I had to learn these three steps miserably. But thanks to this short video, you can start creating High-Retention videos right away.
You can see, High-Retention videos do not need a fancy camera or microphone. You also do not need to get tired of having such production tools. As long as your video is valuable and interesting to watch, you’re on the right track.
The worst thing?
If your video is bad, it will not rank … even with SEO optimization.
Unlike Google – which can use backlinks or other signals to evaluate the quality of content – Youtube does not have those luxuries. So, they rely on Audience Retention. Audience Interaction is one of the ranking signals that Youtube applies algorithms to it.
Let me show you 5 other important elements of Youtube:
Video Comments
If someone leaves a comment, that sends a strong signal to YouTube that people really like the video (or at least interact with the video). In fact, when I recently analyzed 1.3 million YouTube search results, I found that the comments correlated strongly with high rankings on search results.
So, make sure to encourage viewers to comment on your video! (and remember to respond to those comments).
Subscribe to the channel after watching the video
If someone subscribes to your channel after watching the video, it gives a huge signal that you have a great video. What is the best way to get more channel subscriptions? Please ask people to register. I find that asking viewers to subscribe to the channel at the end of the video significantly increases the number of subscribers per month.
Share the video
How many people share your video on social networks like Twitter and Facebook? Think of it this way: viewers do not share nonsense videos, right? So, when YouTube realized that viewers were spreading your video, Youtube thought, “This must be super cool content!”. So, they will increase your rank.
Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
When someone searches for your keywords on Youtube, which results will they click on? Your video or someone else’s? As it turned out, Youtube noticed a lot of user behavior. The percentage of users who click on your results is called a “click-through-rate” (CTR). Indeed, the higher your CTR, the better you will get. In other words, you want Youtube searchers to click on your results. If Youtube sees a lot of people clicking on your friend’s results, they think, “We need to rank this video!” On the other hand, if viewers ignore your results, they will drop your ranking.
What is the best way to increase CTR? Create awesome thumbnails and titles.
For example, you can see my title and thumbnail stand out from the other results for this keyword:
Like and dislike buttons
Give yourself your own explanation!
Video length
Like the amount of text in a Google post, the longer the video, the higher the ranking. I definitely think long videos are better than short videos on YouTube and search Google.
And the data proves this. The ranking factors of Youtube I just mentioned show that long videos are usually better than short videos (at least when it comes from Youtube SEO):
For example, if you search on YouTube with the keyword “WordPress”, 2 of the top 4 videos are nearly 2 hours long.
How long for your videos?
I have no difficulty with this. Focus on making the best videos possible. If your video can be longer than 20 minutes, then do it. Do not worry your video is too long. If it is great, people will see it.
The best part is the stats you track them at YouTube Studio. This way you can observe what you do … and improve your videos every time. So, you have created the High-Retention video, it is time to download and optimize it according to Youtube SEO.
Step 3: Optimize Youtube videos
Here is how to get the most valuable SEO from your video:
Say your target keyword
You may have noticed that Youtube now automatically transcribes your video. And they are also very accurate.
If Youtube sees you mentioned the target keyword in the video, they will “hear” it. Because you really say the keyword you are focusing on optimally, YouTube will better understand that your video is revolving around that word.
Video Title
The title of the video is at least 5 words long. You can add whole keywords without stuffing them.
For example, this video title from my channel is 10 words long … only 3 of them are destination keywords (“higher Google rankings”):
Tip: Like a blog post, I find that you can slightly increase SEO video by putting keywords at the beginning of the title. If you try to rank for the word “surfing guide” you want the title like this: “Surfing guide: Learn how to ride the waves today”
Video description
Description Your video is very important. Video description helps Youtube and Google understand the context of your video. And the better you understand your video, the higher your rankings will be (and the more you will appear on YouTube’s suggestion bar).
Here are the basic instructions for the description:
- Include keywords in the first 25 words
- Write a description of at least 250 words
- Repeat 2-4 times keyword
Optimizing the description SEO will help inform Google and Youtube about something that is not tagged as spam.
Here is an example of my video description that optimizes around the keyword “On-Page SEO”:
Notice how I repeat the keyword twice without spamming. That is what you need to do.
Tags
Tags are not so important but it is useful. Here is how I use tags for my videos:
- The first tag is the correct keyword (eg Google SEO)
- I also add variations of words or sentences (Ex: Google search engine optimization)
- Finally, I made some other topic tags that I mentioned (eg Link building, content marketing)
Summary: Add some keywords to help Youtube and Google understand your video.
Trick: tag not only helps rank keyword destination but also helps you appear often with related videos in the sidebar of Youtube.
So, do not worry when using the same tag as your opponent is using. In fact, this is the most effective way of marketing YouTube over the years. When the video someone is watching has the same tag as your video and Boom you are added to the sidebar. And that is all to rank on Youtube. In this way, it was time for a step that many people overlooked: “Video Advertising”.
Step 4: Video Advertising
We reminded a lot about Audience Retention optimized videos and user experience signals. But for YouTube to measure those signals, you need to get more views! Here are some strategies you can use to target your video views:
Mention your videos on Quora and other Q&A sites
Quora, forums and other Q&A websites are the most popular (in fact, Quora is one of the most popular sites online).
If you try to go in there and spam with the content of your blog, you will be banned in a flash. That is why you want to link to Youtube videos.
Not only can there be a high number of views, but the quality of views from the Q&A page is also quality.
Think about it:
You post your videos at the exact moment when desperate people seek information. So, people watch your video or many videos, they explore many topics.
To do this, find the keyword that is describing the video’s topic. Then find questions that you can answer.
When you find a suitable question, answer the questionnaire as best you can. Finally, link to your video at the end of the answer.
Link your video on Email signature
People who send you emails often like you very much. And if you are like me, you will have tons of emails. So, when you add a link to the latest video in your email signature, you are having high-retention views.
Embed your video into blog post
When you write a blog post (on your own page or as a guest posting on another page), think for yourself:
“Where should I put this video in my blog post?”
For example, when I mention the Skyscraper technique, I embed videos to explain how the strategy works. This always helps my videos have quality views.
Use the playlist
Playlists are one of the best ways to get lots of views for your videos. After all, the playlist automatically plays every video in the playlist it can bring in thousands of views every month.
Optimize channel pages
Optimizing your channel can help your video rank better in two directions:
First, your channel can rank itself on YouTube.
Second, a great channel page = lots of subscribers and lots of views. Can indirectly improve your ranking.
First of all, you want your channel to look beautiful and professional. In fact, when I first updated the channel page it looked like this:
I see 1 plus on views and subscriptions.
And also include keywords for channel intro. See how I use words like “white hat SEO”, “Link building” and “Search engine optimization”.
Image
There are many keywords I want to rank on Youtube. Really, you do not want to use the keyword stuffing what the same. Naturally scattered words and sentences you want to rank.
This is what makes YouTube SEO
I hope this tutorial shows you how to do Youtube SEO.
Start doing your Youtube Seo today
https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/course/bootcamp-foundations