Everybody knows that people would rather watch a video than read a big long blog post (I know, I should have done this as a video too—maybe one day). In fact, 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text. That’s a lot of people. Which means that video SEO can have countless benefits: increased watch time, broader brand awareness, and more sales and leads.
Search engines like YouTube and Google use the same basics in their algorithms for ranking websites and videos. The focus is on providing the user with the best possible experience and YouTube video search results have now been combined with Google search results to make searching easier.
In this blog, I am going to walk you through exactly how to use some simple SEO tips to drive traffic to your YouTube videos.
8 Simple YouTube SEO Tips to Rank Higher in Search
You can combine your SEO and video strategy to improve your marketing in a fairly direct and easy way. This way, not only will you improve your video’s watch time, but you’ll also grab the attention of your customers and later help you with things like YouTube remarketing. Here are eight steps to improve your YouTube SEO to get more traffic and video views.
- Choose your keywords wisely
SERPs are getting more competitive every month. New competitors, new products, new services – everyone is fighting for the top spots. Therefore, finding ways to diversify yourself and your offering is crucial. Do your keyword research and choose keywords that can bring you volume but are less competitive unless you can compete with truly competitive terms.
You can use the same keyword research tools you would use for PPC or SEO such as:
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| Renewal: From $0.99 p/m | Renewal: From $4.99 p/m |
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WordStream’s free keyword tool
Google Keyword Planner.
Moz or Semrush.
Use keywords in your video title
Understanding your audience’s search intent is the first step. We know that the most common types of search intent include informal, commercial, navigation, and transactional. So it is very important to align the content of your video with the intent of your customer in order for your video to be visible in the search results.
Second, make sure you understand WHY you want to make a YouTube video and who the primary audience is. For example, if you want to feature a product review, use the product name in the video title and description. It sounds really easy, but there are so many YouTube channels that miss this step and their videos rank low in Google and YouTube search results.
Below is an example of how competitive the term “Dell Computer Review” is. This term is something someone might look for when thinking about a product. These videos pull through from YouTube, but also from other websites and blogs on the internet.
Paste the keyword into your video file
Super simple, but YouTube can use this as one of the ranking factors when it comes to showing your video in search results. If the filename you upload includes the target keyword, your video has a much better chance of getting a ranking — and a much better chance of garnering more search volume.
