YouTube SEO: 10 Tips For Successful Implementation

Youtube Seo Tips

Have you ever heard of what YouTube SEO is and how it is of importance in today’s market? If you’ve been living under a rock, then, you probably haven’t heard of video bloggers or vloggers, in short. They’re people from the internet who create entertaining, informative, educational, even random videos and they get paid if they get a lot of views.

So, how do they get a lot of views? They need to be on top of YouTube’s search engine.

Yes, it works a lot like Google. The only difference is, instead of words, snippets, and images, it’s about videos!

Before we dive straight into that, let us first discuss the fruit of the topic – YouTube SEO.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO, in the easiest and simplest way possible, is one of the many strategies of optimizing YouTube channels and pages down to videos. This is done in order to improve the placement of a channel or a page in the search results – upward.

Being the most prominent and largest platform on the internet, you would want your content to be placed on the first page – on the top 10 when it is searched, right?

We’ll go to it deeper and slower; for now, let us first try to unravel some of the terms, expressions, and phrases that link and connect to YouTube SEO!

YouTube SEO Glossary: Terms You Have to Know!

Youtube Seo Glossary

There are several terms that are imperative to learn for your experience with YouTube SEO to be smoother and more seamless. Once you have a grasp of these terms, you will find it easy to navigate and learn more about YouTube SEO.

Average Percentage Viewed or APV

This is the percentage that refers to when a viewer watches before they turn off or end the video.

Average View Duration or AVD

The counterpart of APV – the AVD is how much time a viewer watched the video.

Cards

These are popups that are displayed and presented on the right-hand part of the screen when you’re watching a video. Cards can be anything from a channel, a website, playlist, or another video.

Channel

This is the “page” or like the “profile” counterpart of most social media websites.

Closed Captions

In other words, they are the subtitles to a video. They provide minimal SEO value when keywords are included on the captions.

Click-Through-Rate or CTR

This refers to the number off clicks you want your users to click divided by the number of impressions. In simpler terms, it is the total clicks over the times your advertisement (or video, in this case) has been shown.

Description

This is the piece of text that’s used to describe the video. It’s usually up to 1,000 words, where the first 157 words will show up above the fold or the show more area. That is the reason why these top words are considered the hook.

Hashtags

These are the tags that group pieces of content together. They are formatted like Instagram, and are shown and displayed above the video title when it has been typed into the description.

NOTE: A total of three hashtags are displayed above the title. All others are hidden and concealed.

Retention

Retention is just like AVP or AVD. Straightforwardly, it refers to the percentage of a video that a viewer has watched.

Shorts

Shorts are “short videos,” kind of like content that are similar to TikTok videos or Instagram Reels. These short-form videos last up to 60 seconds or a minute long and are typically used to attract audience to watch your primary content.

Stories

These are somewhat similar to Instagram Stories and Facebook My Day where you’re able to share short-form videos or images to followers of subscribers. YouTube Stories expire after seven (7) days or one (1) week.

Tags

The keywords or relative words that are related to the topic of the video. For instance, if you are making a video about how toearn money online, then, the tags that you’ll put has to be related to it – they can be “businesses online,” “online jobs,” “passive income ideas,” etc.

Title

This one is self-explanatory – the title is the title of the video. They can be 50 to 70 characters long and they should be discussing what the video is about.

NOTE: For YouTube SEO purposes, experts recommend including the primary keyword and branding on your title.

Thumbnail

Also known as “cover image,” the thumbnail is the preview of the video that users set to help people gain a better understanding of what the video is about. The most common aspect ratio of thumbnails is 16:9.

View

What’s considered a view, you may ask? Well, it is when someone proceeds to watch at least 30 seconds of your video or if they were able to interact with your ad. Whichever comes first is considered a view.

Watch Time

Lastly, the watch time, which is typically calculated in hours, refer to the total number of hours that your viewers spent on a particular video. This can be computed per video or the entire channel as a whole.

What is a YouTube SEO Strategy?

Youtube Seo Strategy

In order to understand what a YouTube SEO Strategy is, let us break the two  terms down.

What is YouTube?

YouTube is an online platform that enables users to upload, view, and share videos with a global audience. It was created in 2005 and has since become one of the most widely used websites for sharing and watching videos, with millions of users accessing the site every day.

The platform supports a wide range of video content, including music videos, vlogs, tutorials, and more, and allows users to interact with one another through comments, likes, and other features.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its ranking on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

The goal of SEO is to increase the visibility and organic search traffic of a website by improving its relevance, authority, and user experience. This is accomplished through various techniques such as keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and content creation.

Effective SEO can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic, and improved online visibility for a website.

What is YouTube SEO?

It is the combination of both of these things. It is the practice of designing and engineering YouTube channels and videos so they can rank better and higher in Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs.

Contrary to what many people might think that optimizing in YouTube is the same as conventional SEO, it’s not. In regular Google SEO,you would need a perfect mixture of content optimization, backlinks, internal linking, and other factors in order to rank – YouTube SEO does not work like that.

Instead, YouTube SEO involves a comprehensive mix of optimizing metadata, descriptions, channels, videos, and playlists. What’s even better is that you can optimize videos both within and outside YouTube.

10 YouTube SEO Tips to Rank Higher

YouTube SEO does not have to be complicated – it doesn’t have to be shrouded in mystery as to how you want it to be.

10 Youtube Seo Tips To Rank Higher

Tip #1: Find the Right Keywords For Better YouTube SEO Implementation

YouTube Keyword Research – that’s the keyword for it! Just like in regular or conventional SEO, you need to make sure that you are targeting the correct keywords for your niche or industry.

You can’t just blindly include and use keywords without digging through it thoroughly. For this, you want to ensure that you’re selecting the best possible keywords – and by the best, we mean those that have a decent volume but are not too saturated that they’re already difficult to rank in.

To find the best possible keywords, list down several keywords. You can do this by typing in a word or two  of your keywords on YouTube. You see the suggested search? Those are excellent because those words are typed in by REAL PEOPLE on YouTube – they’re searched!

That’s one way – you can also use advanced keyword research tools like:

  • Google Keyword Planner
  • SEM Rush
  • Moz
  • Ahrefs
  • Surfer SEO

NOTE: YouTube’s keywording is different from how Google, Bing, and other platforms do it. So, be sure that when you’re doing keyword research, you use YouTube, not Google.

Tip #2: Naturally Use Your Keyword in Your Title and Description

Finding keywords makes up about 30% to 40% of the total effort you need in optimizing YouTube content. So, when that’s done, the next steps would be what you can consider “minimal.”

So, the next tip would be to use your keywords in both your title and description. We discussed above what a title and a description is, so, you should already know that. The question is, how do you optimize them?

If you’ve been through an SEO training, optimizing should never be an issue. In fact, it’s the same! You want to include the keywords you picked for headers like titles, descriptions, tags, etc.

And when we said naturally, we really meant it. There are a lot of channels and videos there that are tagged as “spam” simply because the keywords don’t fall out naturally within the context. You want it to appear seamless and smooth throughout the text that you have.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Make it seamless and connected to whatever the video is about. Like Google, YouTube has its crawlers that can detect if you are writing a description that is far or is not connected to what the keywords are.

Tip #3: Use High-Retention Videos

In YouTube terminology, retention is what you think it is. It’s the idea of making people watch you, and then watch you again. The real truth behind YouTube’s algorithm is that the more a viewer watches you, the more you appear to that viewer.

Creating videos to keep people engaged and wanting more is not a walk in the park. But, for beginners and for experienced YouTubers who are struggling with retention, here’s a video by Film Booth explaining crucial things to have on your videos to keep people interested.

Even if you have the best YouTube SEO strategy, if your videos don’t click, it won’t rank. Remember, greatness comes first – profit comes in second.

Tip #4: Optimize YouTube Tags

Like with any other platform, hashtags and tags are helpful in keeping people connected and on the line with your videos or content. Adding hashtags to your YouTube videos will help people find it as YouTube itself will group it with other videos in the same hashtag.

So, if you have good content, if you’ve optimized correctly, and if you are using relevant and popular hashtags? People will swarm in and watch your videos – not only that, but they will also be kept engaged and interested to watch more from you.

There are multiple ways of finding hashtags but the best ones would be hashtag searching and the use of LSI keywords.

Hashtag Searching

Hashtag searching or mapping is simply the idea of finding appropriate hashtags that are fit for your video or your content. The better the hashtags, the easier people will be able to find you.

Keep in mind, though, that it’s not a battle of “who has the most hashtags,” but rather who is using the hashtags more and better.

LSI Keywords

LSI, short for latent semantic indexing is a program that’s designed to locate synonyms with the idea of context. Therefore, it’s an effective tool for SEO because it would give people the chance to see content even if the exact keywords aren’t searched.

For instance, some of the LSI keywords connected to how to make money online include:

  • Online businesses
  • Passive income
  • Work From Home (WFH) jobs
  • Online jobs
  • Online careers
  • Online work
  • And much more

PRO TIP: You can use LSI Graph to locate the best-performing LSI keywords based on the main or primary keywords you put in.

Tip #5: Comments, Subscribers, and CTR

Comments are one of the strongest, non-spoken ways that people are interested in what you’ve shown them. It’s a strong message that there is somebody that has taken their time to leave a comment about what you said, what happened, or what the video is about.

Backlinkowent on and analyzed over 1.3 million YouTube videos and according to their findings, video comments have been one of the most determining factors of rank. In simpler terms, the more and longer comments videos had, the better the rank is.

Another thing to note is that when your video gets a comment, its relevance is refreshed as the system updates it automatically. It transfers it atop the ladder of the niche or keyword seamlessly.

Subscribers

Gaining a subscriber after a person watches your video is one of the best signs that your video has value. In YouTube’s eyes, that is a goldmine – they’ll immediately think that you are important.

So, the more subscribers you gain the better your content will look like and appear in front of Google’s eyes.

But how do you gain subscribers? There are proven and tested number of ways to gain YouTube subscribers, but the best one, according to a handful of YouTube experts is by asking people to subscribe.

You read that right, asking people doesn’t seem to really get you off the hook, right? But in actuality, it has been proven to be the best and most effective, especially after you provide value. It gives this sense of urgency to them that what you just told them will have an impacting effect on their lives.

CTR

CTR, short for click-through-rate, is the calculation of percentage of the people that click on your video or content. To cite an example, when people search for “how to make money online,” and yours is the 2nd, people will click on it, right? When they do, that’s calculated as the CTR – and, believe it or not, YouTube pays close attention to this in determining whether your content is relevant or not.

These three , when used as a whole, can have impact you never imagined.

Tip #6: Master Thumbnail Creation

Thumbnails are the windows to your content. A good thumbnail would always seem like “clickbait,” even if they’re just too good.

So, you want to master creating the perfect thumbnail for your video content because this is one of the primary reasons why people drive and land on your channel. There are a wide array of tips, strategies, and techniques in creating YouTube thumbnails. The most important ones, however, would be the following:

  • Use people’s emotional trigger when writing text in your thumbnail BUT use LESS TEXT
  • Thumbnails MUST be the shortened visual representation of what your video is all about
  • Abuse the power of contrasting colors in your thumbnail. Make your colors STAND OUT
  • Use the correct dimensions and measurements in creating and making your thumbnails

These are just some of the best and most useful tips in creating thumbnails for your YouTube videos.

Tip #7: Add Closed Captions

Closed captions or subtitles has been one of YouTube’s most successful and effective tool, especially when it comes to accessibility. Primarily, closed captions have been designed and engineered to accommodate people who have a hard time hearing or those who are deaf – basically what subtitles are.

Well, here’s an awfully effective tip for you – these closed captions are crawlable! Yes, you read that right, search engines and those pesky little robots also traverse through closed captions.

So, be sure to consider adding closed captions on your videos! Just make sure that what you’re talking about includes your keywords, too!

Tip #8: Level Up Production

Of course, over time, you will need to improve and develop your production. The better your videos are, the more attractive it will appear in front of your users and viewers. You don’t have to go full-on director mode for it, anyways – simple improvements and enhancements are enough, including:

  • Using a better video camera
  • Getting and setting it on top of a tripod
  • Use backdrops for clips where you’re explaining
  • Adjust lighting
  • Use a mic!

You will see and eventually find out what types of improvement you have gone through, and the number of people watching and viewing your videos will dramatically increase.

Tip #9: Build Links to Your YouTube Channel (Not Just Videos)

Like in SEO, the more people that point to your YouTube channel, the better and more appealing it will look. You want to build links not only to videos, but also directly to your channel.

Don’t mistake it though, it’s still important to build links towards individual videos, too. With channels, it’s just telling YouTube that you are a known channel and that you should be put towards the top of the search results.

As much as you can, try to build links towards your channel, playlists, and videos – it’ll be like hitting multiple birds with one stone!

Tip #10: Share and Promote Your Videos

Last but most definitely not least is to promote your videos. Promotion is the number one factor that you can control on your own or with a team.

Today, there are many different channels and avenues to promote your videos and YouTube channel to – you have social media, webpages, newsletters, and other places.

Sharing via Comments

Forum websites like Quora is one of the best avenues where you can share your channel. Try to look for questions that are relative to your niche or industry and simply link your channel there – with an answer, of course!

Sharing via Social Media

When sharing on social media, make sure that you put context. People won’t click on it unless they know what they’re getting into, right? So, add context when you share it on social media.

Social media isn’t just limited to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – there’s also LinkedIN, TikTok, WeChat, WhatsApp, and many more!

Those are the top ten (10) tips on how you can improve your YouTube SEO and come up with your own SEO strategy.

How Important is SEO For YouTube?

SEO is like a two-way street – it allows the channel owner to gain more traction, more users, and more subscribers, and for users, it gives them an easier path towards finding the right content they’re looking for.

So, it’s safe to say that SEO is an extremely important factor for both consumers and businesses because it helps everyone no matter which side you are on.

For us to understand it better, let’s take a look at YouTube without SEO. Without SEO:

  • Users would find it difficult to locate the specific content they want
  • Suggestions would be limited since the algorithm will not be based on it
  • YouTube channels will find it more difficult to rank, and therefore, they won’t be put in front of the people who need them the most

FAQs About YouTube SEO

There are still grey areas when it comes to the totality of YouTube SEO and how you can successfully implement it. So, we listed down some of the most frequently asked questions about it that you should know!

Do YouTubers Need SEO?

YouTubers would want to use SEO as it is the simple fact of optimizing the content for the particular platform. Since YouTube is now considered one of the best and largest search engines, it would be right to perform the necessary SEO strategy to make it rank higher.

How Do Beginners Do SEO?

There are a lot of framework options for beginner SEO for YouTube, but the simplest and most basic one would be by doing the following:

  1. Find the right keywords
  2. Ensure that the keywords are in:
    1. Page Title
    2. Page URL
    3. Meta Description
    4. Header
  3. Use keywords on the content of your pages
  4. Build links to your page
  5. Monitor your ranking

YouTube SEO Checklist

Like your regular SEO checklist, YouTube also has a set of things that need to be considered in order for specific content to rank. The most common and most relevant ones are:

  • Keyword Research
  • Google Search Console Literacy
  • Meta Description Optimization
  • Sitemaps
  • Google Analytics Experience
  • Content Optimization
  • Backlinking

Final Verdict

Finding out what YouTube SEO is might not be a walk in the park, but it’s not rocket science either! You just have to know and have distinction between what’s possible and what’s not for you to gain a full grasp of it!

The next time you find yourself in need of information about YouTube SEO, you know where to go! Whether you are a beginner and you’re trying to source out data or you’re at the advanced level and you don’t know where to go, this article will provide the information you need!