YouTube has become a powerful platform for content creators and businesses to reach their target audience. With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is one of the largest search engines, making it a valuable source of traffic and visibility for your D2C brand. In fact, The New York Times says, “…in different ways, YouTube is a little bit like TikTok, a little like Twitch and a little like Netflix — but I think we underappreciate how often YouTube is a better Google. That is, often it is the best place online to find reliable and substantive knowledge and information on a huge variety of subjects.”
While YouTube is a great place to share content, that also means there’s quite a bit of competition. That’s why it’s important to optimize videos for SEO (search engine optimization) in order to have search engines rank your content higher and reach more viewers. In this post, we’ll talk about some steps you can take to give your YouTube SEO to the next level. From researching keywords to promoting your videos, we’ll cover everything you need to know to create engaging and search engine-friendly videos on YouTube.
Why Should You Optimize YouTube Videos?
Before we dive into the best practices for YouTube SEO, let’s discuss why it is crucial to optimize your videos. As we mentioned above, YouTube is one of the largest search engines in the world. This means that there is a massive potential audience for your videos. By optimizing your videos with SEO, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in YouTube’s search results and reaching more viewers and potential buyers.
Secondly, YouTube is a popular research tool for consumers. People often turn to YouTube to research products, watch how-to videos, and find reviews. By creating informative and engaging videos that are optimized for search engines, you can attract potential customers to your brand and showcase your products or services.
Finally, optimizing your YouTube videos can help increase engagement and drive website traffic. By including links to your website or other social media accounts in your video descriptions, you can encourage viewers to visit your website and learn more about your brand.
Create Engaging Content for Your Audience
Engaging videos are a must when it comes to YouTube. Without engaging content, your channel won’t help you much. To ensure that your videos are both informative and entertaining, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Make sure your video provides value to your audience – Whether you’re creating a how-to video, a product review, or a vlog, your content should provide information that is relevant and useful to your viewers. This will not only keep them engaged but also establish you as an authority in your field.
- Keep your video short and to the point. The average attention span of internet users is short, so it’s important to grab their attention quickly and keep them engaged throughout the video. Aim to keep your video around 3-5 minutes if possible, and make sure that each section of the video serves a purpose.
- Make sure your video has a clear message and a call to action. Your video should have a specific goal or message that you want to convey to your audience. Whether it’s promoting a product, encouraging viewers to subscribe to your channel, subscribing to your newsletter, etc., make sure that your video has a clear and concise message. Additionally, include a call to action at the end of the video to encourage viewers to take action.
Creating engaging content for your audience is crucial to the success of your YouTube videos. By providing value, keeping your videos short and to the point, and including a clear message and call to action, you can create videos that are both informative and entertaining.
Optimize Your Video Title
Optimizing your video title is a must when you need to improve the visibility of your YouTube videos. This might seem tricky at first, but with a few easy steps, you’ll be off to a good start. If you are familiar with SEO and title tag optimization, this process will be quite similar.
First, you’ll want to use your primary keyword toward the beginning of your title if possible. Including your keyword in the title helps YouTube’s algorithm understand what your video is about and makes it more likely to appear in relevant search results. If you can, use the exact keywords, you want to rank for in the title.
Secondly, make sure your title accurately represents your video. Your title should be descriptive and give viewers an idea of what your video is about. Avoid using clickbait titles that misrepresent your video, which can lead to disappointed viewers and damage your channel’s reputation. Finally, keep your title under 70 characters to prevent it from getting cut off in search results. Longer titles are more likely to get truncated, which can make it difficult for viewers to understand what your video is about.
Optimize the Video Description
Even with an optimized video title, you’ll also need to optimize the video description. The video description is an opportunity to provide viewers with more information about your video, increase engagement, and improve the visibility of your video in search results.
The first step in optimizing your video description is to use your primary keyword at least once and then sprinkle related keywords throughout the description so long as it reads naturally. Including your keyword in the description helps YouTube’s algorithm understand what your video is about and makes it more likely to appear in relevant search results. Avoid keyword stuffing, as this can lead to your video being penalized by YouTube.
Another important aspect is to write a detailed and informative description of your video. Your description should give viewers an overview of what they can expect from your video. Be sure to highlight the main points and benefits of your video to grab viewers’ attention and encourage them to watch. In addition to the main content of your video, consider including a table of contents to help viewers navigate your video easily. You can include timestamps to help viewers jump to specific sections of your video based on the topics that they are interested in. This is a big step for longer videos (more than 5 minutes).
Using relevant tags to describe your video and its content is another crucial step in optimizing your video description. Tags are used by YouTube’s algorithm to understand the context of your video and make it more likely to appear in search results. Be sure to include relevant tags that accurately represent the content of your video. Consider using long-tail keywords that are specific to your video’s content and subject matter.
Finally, adding links to your other social media accounts, website, and products is a great way to promote your brand and drive traffic to your other online platforms. Be sure to include a call-to-action encouraging viewers to click on your links. By optimizing your YouTube video description, you can increase the visibility of your video, engage your audience, and drive traffic to your other online platforms.
Add Closed Captions or Transcripts
Adding closed captions or transcripts to your video can make it accessible and searchable to a wider audience. It’s also important to note that many people watch videos without sound. Videos with captions are popular with many viewers because of this. Use your primary keyword in your captions or transcripts and ensure that they are accurate and error-free. Captions can improve your video’s engagement and retention rates, making it more appealing to viewers and search engines.
Promote Your Video
Once you’ve uploaded your video and optimized it for search engines, it’s time to promote it. You’ll want to start by sharing your video on social media platforms. This can help increase visibility and drive traffic to your video. You should share your video on platforms where your target audience is active and share your video with a catchy caption that encourages people to watch it. You can also use hashtags to make your video more discoverable.
You’ll also want to embed your video on your website or blog to help increase engagement and drive traffic to your YouTube channel. Choose a prominent location on your website or blog to embed your video and make sure it’s easy for visitors to find and watch. Lastly, encourage viewers to like, share, and subscribe to your YouTube channel. This can help increase engagement and build a community around your content.
By following these tips, you can promote your videos while increasing visibility and engagement with your target audience. Remember to monitor your video’s performance and make adjustments to your promotion strategy as needed.
Monitor and Optimize Your Video Performance
Once your video is uploaded and published on YouTube, your work isn’t quite done yet. To ensure that your video is performing well and reaching your target audience, it’s important to monitor its performance using YouTube Analytics. YouTube Analytics provides valuable insights into your video’s performance, including the number of views, watch time, engagement, and demographics of your viewers.
With this information, you can identify which videos are doing well and which ones need help.
Using the data from YouTube Analytics, you can optimize your video’s title, description, tags, and content. For example, if you notice that your video is getting a lot of views but not many likes or comments, you might need to adjust your content to make it more engaging and encourage viewer interaction. Similarly, if you notice that your video is not getting as many views as you expected, you might need to revisit your keywords and tags to ensure they accurately reflect the content of your video and are relevant to your target audience.
Laurel is a member of the executive team at Stryde. She’s been doing digital marketing for businesses for 10 years. Two years ago, she started set up her own ecommerce business selling baby gowns and knows the struggles of a small business owner. She loves talking about digital marketing, content, SEO, and conversion rate optimization.
