Every day, every hour and every minute, millions of people interact with YouTube. Thousands of videos are added within seconds, while at the same time thousands are consumed by users. This situation reveals the importance of YouTube in reaching large audiences with YouTube SEO.
Thanks to youtube, you can reach thousands of people and create your own passive income with the original content you prepare. Of course, no matter how great the idea sounds, you should pay attention to some YouTube criteria to generate passive income.
In this article, I will tell you how to optimize your YouTube videos, and I assure you that at the end of the article, you will feel more confident about using SEO to get ahead of your competitors.
So here we go…
What is YouTube SEO?
We all want our videos to get more views and revenue. So what do we do for this, what points do we pay attention to? For a more vibrant channel, you can optimize your video rankings and views using Youtube SEO.
These optimizations generally include many stages such as video title, video description, hashtag usage, etc. The Youtube algorithm, just like Google, shows the videos that are best suited to the user’s needs in the top ranks and search results. Of course, like every algorithm, it also has its own complex structure.
I can say that Youtube is most interested in how interesting your videos are for viewers among the ranking factors. It also pays attention to the number of viewers your video reaches and how well it ranks in a certain category.
YouTube ranking factors include growth rate in views, total and current views, where views are coming from, growth rate in views and video age. YouTube will always put the most relevant videos in front of users that can reach the widest audience.
Thanks to the optimizations you will make; you can increase your metrics such as number of followers, awareness, website visits and even revenue; You can have a channel ready to collaborate with brands in the future.
In addition, thanks to SEO, your videos can appear not only on Youtube, but also in search results on search engines such as Google, Bing or Yandex.
How to do Youtube SEO?
As well as optimizing your Youtube videos, the keywords you use in titles and descriptions are also very important. Because for a good ranking, you need to attract the attention of your target audience.
You will see that your views increase, especially if you create content that helps viewers, where they can find answers to the questions they ask, and make them compatible with the user and the algorithm.
You can also direct the traffic you generate on YouTube to your website and other social media channels; you can increase revenue with multi-growth marketing. It may take some time to generate organic revenue without advertising outside of platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Adwords, but as long as you are patient and keep producing, you can get where you want.
You also don’t need big equipment for well-edited and shot videos. Just get out your cell phone with a good camera and a live camera and start shooting. You can create videos that can go viral in an instant.
Why Youtube SEO is Important for Content Creators and Brands
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world after Google. In other words, it accumulates a lot of data and users. You can do wonders by using SEO to reach more users and grow your brand.
It’s not much different for content creators. Because there are so many videos and content with similar topics that you should stand out from them and find a unique topic for yourself and pay attention to your optimizations.
For content creators:
Youtube SEO Criteria and Technical Youtube SEO Tips
You can combine your YouTube strategy with your SEO strategy to promote your brand or channel on YouTube. This will increase your views and attract the attention of your target audience.
One of the priorities of optimizing video content on YouTube is to conduct and apply the right keyword research. By paying attention to the tips I have given below, you can optimize your Youtube channel correctly.
So what are we waiting for?
Find Video Keywords
As with SEO optimizations for search engines such as Google, it is important to do keyword research on YouTube.
While following the trends from time to time, you should also pay attention to which words or phrases people search for these trends. On Youtube, which is a video content production and viewing platform, “how to do it?” questions are searched a lot.
You can search Google for keywords related to your video content. As a result of your search, you will see videos with high viewership and relevance in the ‘Videos’ section. Using this technique, you can search for your own keyword and check if it appears in the results.
For example, the comparison videos we see when we search for ‘apple watch 8 vs 9‘, and if you pay attention, the first three are youtube videos:
Youtube Keyword Research
How to find the right keywords for Youtube videos?
-
Youtube Search Suggest Feature
One of the easiest ways to do keyword research on YouTube is to type a few words about the topic you are interested in into the search box. Like this:
As you can see above, we see that there are multiple and different searches for the keyword ‘natural stone’. Thanks to these searches, you can review previously published videos related to your topic and your competitors.
-
Review Your Competitors’ Videos
You can sort the videos that come up as a result of your search on your topic according to their popularity, and pay attention to which videos, titles or descriptions users interact with.
As you can guess from all these explanations, keyword optimization is a key component of YouTube SEO. If the video has a lot of views, it is probably optimized for popular keywords.
So how do I find popular competitors? If you are asking, you can reach popular competitors and channels by filtering the videos that appear within the subject you type in the search bar in the same way.
In this way, you can easily find the videos you want to reach by using filters such as the number of views or upload date.
Pay attention to the title, description and even the tags used in the video you want to review. Take a look at which words are driving traffic.
(Tip: You can use the VidIQ Chrome extension to analyze popular YouTube videos and channels. With this plugin, which can be useful for you while doing Youtube competitor review, it will allow you to examine how fast the video can gain traffic while showing the optimized tags or average watch times of some high-performing videos).
-
Youtube Traffic Source Report
With the Youtube search ‘Traffic Sources Report’, you can see the traffic coming from the keywords you already use, as well as discover different words you would never have thought of.
In this way, you can optimize your videos and keep them up to date. Because it is not enough just to produce content and shoot videos. Closely examining the interactions with the videos you shoot will help you better understand why when you experience a drop in traffic.
Go to Youtube Traffic Sources Report:
Youtube Studio → Analytics → Traffic Sources Report
Tools for Keyword Research for Youtube SEO:
- Ahrefs
- Google Ads Keyword Planner
- Keywordtool.io
- TubeRanker
- Semrush
Optimize Video Title
In order to reach your target audience, you should know the search intent of your target audience. You can show your own video in SERP results within the queries made according to the search intent.
Queries according to search intention are divided into 4 categories:
- Informational
- Commercial
- Navigation
- Process
Before producing content based on search intent, determine why you want to produce Youtube content and which questions you will answer. For example, if you are going to shoot a product review, add the product names to the title, or if it is an informational video with ‘how to’, produce titles that include queries.
Thanks to correctly optimized video titles, you can appear in search engine results such as Google and Yandex. So why is this situation that we have expressed in a row so important?
Because as a result of your searches on any search engine, we see videos at the top or middle of the page in the first 10 queries. Even if most of the Youtube views are through the channel, this number can increase more rapidly in views from the SERP.
Rename Your File with Your Target Keyword
Pay attention to the file name before uploading your YouTube videos to the channel! For example, instead of a complex file name like ‘SFSHEFV.mov’, you can make an optimization related to your target topic. If your topic is ‘Youtube SEO Ranking Factors’, you can update your file name to ‘youtube-seo-ranking-criteria.mov’.
In this way, you can show the Youtube algorithm that you have done all the optimizations related to your target topic.
Optimize Your Video Descriptions
One of the other and most important elements of YouTube SEO is of course the video description. Thanks to the short-tail and long-tail keywords you use in your video descriptions, you can appear at the top of user searches.
⊗How to optimize youtube video descriptions?
Your video description can help not only Youtube but also search engines like Google understand which target audience you want to reach by showing what your content is about.
You can update things like the video description, subtitles or hashtags, but I recommend getting it right the first time as YouTube reevaluates every change!
The video description field currently has 5,000 characters. While you can use all this space, you should keep in mind that your viewers are visiting your channel for a visual purpose rather than reading an article.
Even if you prefer long descriptions, YouTube can only show the first 100 characters or so. This is one of the key points that will attract the user to you. Because there may be thousands of videos in a general search result, but the user will choose the one with the closest video description. Therefore, the opening sentence of the text is very important and should be designed correctly.
You can increase your Youtube ranking by paying attention to SEO friendly content guidelines when writing video text.
Guidelines for Youtube Video Description:
- Include your keywords in your videos using natural and friendly language.
- When writing a video description, try to use your focus keyword up front without forcing it, for example within the first 25 words.
- Research popular search terms and look for similar words using tools like Google Keyword Planner. Remember that every user performs a unique search.
- You can include links in the description.
- Choose one or two words that describe your video content and feature these keywords prominently in your title.
- You can add subtitles for users who have to watch without audio. This is my extra suggestion. Because you need to reach out to people of all audiences, keeping in mind that hearing-impaired users are also actively using digital.
- In general terms, do not include irrelevant words in your descriptions that comply with Google and Youtube policies and will not cause a bad view. Instead, write more useful descriptions.
Reaching Large Audiences Using Hashtag
Hashtags, which continue to be actively used on social media channels, offer a search experience that allows users to access all content related to the questions they are looking for. I recommend that you pay attention to the use of hashtags in your description texts in order to appear in the search results of your viewers.
You can learn the correct hashtag usage rules by visiting my ‘How Should Youtube Hashtag Strategy Be?‘ 🌟
The use of hashtags informs not only the users but also the Youtube algorithm about the video and suggests that you use them to tell the viewers what the video is about.
Even if it basically allows you to enter 120 characters in the tag section, my advice is to focus on 4-6 tags that are relevant to your video. You can examine the tags used by your competitors in the competitor analysis mentioned above.
Likewise, don’t forget to add common and long-tail keywords in the description section. This will help Google and YouTube understand your content. As a bonus, it increases the chances of your video appearing in the youtube recommended bar. You can use the tags that your competitors use by examining the suggested tags area. Remember, your first tag should be your target keyword!
Encourage Commenting!
While YouTube used to be a platform where only videos could be uploaded, it has developed itself over time and expanded its network of possibilities. We have talked about how your videos need to be watchable and leave an impact on people, especially to earn income on YouTube.
For more views and interaction, you should encourage viewers to comment. In this way, Youtube can increase your ranking by thinking that your video is popular. Just like Google!
It’s not always easy to convince people to leave comments. But if you invite them into the game, i.e. create a discussion, you can get them talking to you.
In the same way, you can ask for their thoughts, give them calls to action such as ‘if you like my video, follow me for more, subscribe’.
Add Subtitles to Your Videos
As well as having good audio and video elements in your videos, adding optimized subtitles can have a positive impact on your viewership numbers.
For people who do not understand the video language, you can add subtitles in a global language such as English and subtitles in the video language. More if you have the talent, of course 🙂
In addition, since subtitles can be crawled by search engines, a transcribed content will provide strong SEO support if used effectively. Although Youtube provides automatic subtitle support, it may not be perfect. I recommend that you prepare your own text.
How to Add Youtube Video Subtitles?
When adding subtitles, you can limit the amount of text you want to be displayed, or you can make automatic transcribe using the auto add subtitles option.
For both options:
- Log in to your Youtube channel.
- Click on your video manager.
- Find your video under the video manager and click on the drop-down arrow next to the edit button.
- Select Subtitles/CC.
- You can then choose how you want to add subtitles.
- You can either auto-transcribe and then update the resulting text. Or you can design your own text file to synchronize with your video.
Optimize Your Channel Page
Optimizing your channel page will help your videos rank better in 3 ways. These are
- If you have an optimized, up-to-date and dynamic channel, your channel can gain rankings.
- A well-designed channel will bring more subscribers.
- YouTube can make more sense of the relationship between your channel and your videos and give you a place in different playlists.
In the about section of your channel, you can add keywords about yourself and your content. However, you should be careful not to spam here. The most correct thing would be to let your sentences flow naturally.
Use Your Social Network
To increase the visibility of the video you share on your Youtube channel and make it reach more audiences, don’t forget to share it on different social networks you use such as Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest or Facebook!
Of course, again, my suggestion here is shorter, for example, you can do it with short videos that will make users curious and mobilize in the style of reels, and you can share remarkable stories.
At the same time, you can add links to the stories you will share so that users can click on them and interact with them.
Add Your Videos to Playlists
You can add your content to playlists so that it can be ranked with similar content. In the playlists you will create on your own channel, you can also use Youtube SEO in the title and description fields to ensure that Youtube shows you with related videos.
Related Attractive Video Cover Image
I have mentioned above how important the title, description, subtitles or tags of the video you have prepared are. However, there is a subject that I cannot leave unsaid, which is the ‘video cover image’.
Remember, YouTube is a visual platform. This means that all of us, myself included, focus on visual content as much as the texts that interest us. Just like people who listen to irrelevant songs because they like the music video 😄
Even if your video thumbnail is not a direct ranking factor, it has a big impact on your SEO. YouTube pays a lot of attention to behaviors such as which video users linger on longer and click on in search results. Your videos need attention-grabbing titles and descriptions, as well as visuals that can attract the user.
While you can add automatic thumbnails, I still recommend adding them manually. When you pay attention to the search results, you can see that videos with interesting thumbnails are watched more.
