Everybody knows that people would rather watch a video than read a big long blog post. In fact, 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than reading text. That’s a lot of people. This means that video SEO can have countless benefits: increased watch time, broader brand awareness, and more sales and leads.
In this blog, I’m going walk you through exactly how you can drive traffic to your YouTube videos using some simple SEO tips.
Step #1: YouTube Keyword Research
The YouTube SEO process begins with video keyword research.
Here’s exactly how to find the right keywords for your YouTube videos:
First, generate a list of keywords ideas.
Your first step is to generate a big list of potential keywords.
(In the next step I’ll help you find the best keyword from your list.)
One of my favorite strategies is to use YouTube’s Search Suggest feature.
All you need to do is head over to YouTube and pop in a word or phrase…
… and YouTube will hand you a bunch of keywords related to what you typed in.
These suggested keywords are GREAT.
Why?
Because these are terms that people actually type into YouTube.
So there’s no need to wonder if they’re popular or not. If YouTube suggests them to you, they definitely are.
You can also go to a popular video in your niche… and copy the same keywords that the video is optimized around.
As you probably know, keyword optimization is a KEY part of YouTube SEO. So if a video has lots and lots of views, chances are, that video is optimized around a popular keyword.
Step #2: Pick Your Keywords Wisely
New competitors, new products, new services—everyone is fighting for the top spots. So, finding ways to diversify yourself and your offering is crucial. Do your keyword research, and unless you can compete with really competitive terms, pick keywords that can get you volume, but are less competitive.
You can use the same keyword research tools you’d use for PPC or SEO, like
- WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool
- Google Keyword Planner.
- Moz or Semrush.
- Google search—search suggests, people also ask, related searches, and more!
Step #3: Use Keywords In Your Video Title
Understanding the search intent of your audience is the first step. We know that the most common types of search intent include informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional.
So, matching what your video is about with the intent of your customer is going to be really important for getting your video visible in search results.
Secondly, make sure, you understand WHY you want to create a YouTube video and who the primary audience is.
For instance, if you are looking to showcase a product review, then use the product name in the video title and description. It sounds really simple, but there are so many YouTube channels that miss this step and their videos show up low on Google and YouTube search results.
Step #4: Publish A High-Retention Video
Here’s the truth:
If you want your videos to rank, you need to keep people watching.
The amount of your video that people watch is known as Audience Retention.
In other words:
If your video keeps people on YouTube, YouTube will rank your video higher in the search results.
(After all, YouTube wants people to stay on the platform so they click on ads. And if you help them with that goal, they’ll promote your video.)
As you can see, High-Retention Videos DON’T require a fancy camera or microphone. Actually, you don’t really need to sweat production value that much.
As long as your video is valuable and interesting to watch, you’re good to go.
The bottom line?
If your video stinks, it won’t rank…no matter how optimized it is for SEO.
Unlike Google (uses backlinks and other signals to evaluate the quality of a piece of content) YouTube has no such luxury. So they rely on Audience Retention.
That said, Audience Interaction is one of several ranking signals that YouTube uses in its algorithm.
Step #5: Optimize Your YouTube Video Description
One of the most important ranking factors for YouTube SEO is making sure you have a solid, optimized video description.
Whenever you change or update any YouTube video element—which includes video descriptions, subtitles and closed captions, and video thumbnails—YouTube will reevaluate the video. This can be good or bad… so it’s important you get it right the first time!
YouTube recommends that you put your most important keywords in the first couple of sentences of your description – and that your description should be no longer than 200 words. Broadly speaking—make your description useful. If it doesn’t help a user—delete it.
Step #6: Use Video Hashtags To Drive YouTube Search Results
Across social media, hashtags (#) are now used to help users find content that answers their questions across a range of platforms. You can add hashtags to your YouTube video descriptions and titles to help viewers find your video when they search for a specific hashtag.
Tags specifically help drive search as they make key trends more visible. Once you add a hashtag to the video description, it will be shown above the title of the video and then become hyperlinked.
It’s also important to remember where you include video hashtags here. If you add a hashtag in the video title, hashtags from descriptions won’t get displayed in the video title.
So I hope this guide helped show you how to rank your YouTube videos.
Now I’d like to hear from you:
What’s helped you rank your videos on YouTube?
Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.
Empowered Woman | Entrepreneurs 
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