8 Simple YouTube SEO Tips To Rank Your Videos Higher in Search18 min read

YouTube SEO is the strategy of optimizing your YouTube Channel’s page, metadata, description, videos, etc. to improve rank in search results.

We all know that people are more likely to watch videos rather than read articles or blog posts.

Even it is a fact that in terms of learning Video is more effective than just text or articles.

At present, YouTube is the biggest platform where you can watch videos of your choice and that’s completely free.

That’s not all! You can even build your own account, create videos and post them on YouTube.

Do you know? At least 2.514 Billion people from all over the world use YouTube.

There is one more interesting thing. Do you know? After Google, the second largest search engine in the world is YouTube.

As YouTube is a search engine so SEO optimization should be a vital part of it.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the technique of increasing the amount and quality of organic traffic to your website or web page.

Instead of direct or paid traffic, SEO helps you to gather unpaid search engine traffic.

So, if you have a YouTube Channel, SEO YouTube Optimization is quite necessary for you.

How your videos appear in the YouTube ranking broadly depends on their complex algorithm.

YouTube Optimization can help you to raise some essential measures like the number of followers, website traffic, brand image, earnings, and more.

By the end of this article, you will get to know the important aspects of YouTube SEO Optimization.

Like:

• What is SEO for YouTube?
• How does SEO for YouTube Videos work
• What is YouTube’s SEO strategy?
• How your YouTube Videos can rank
• Beneficial YouTube SEO Optimization tips to rank your videos higher

So now let’s get started with learning “What is YouTube SEO?”

What is YouTube SEO?

We all know that Google is the world’s largest search engine on the internet. 90% of all searches are conducted globally using Google.

Google has created a smart algorithm that can recognize the websites that provide a good user experience and also remove those websites that are engaged in spamming, plagiarism, etc. such activities.

For websites that deliver helpful information and provide a good user experience, Google makes them rank on their search result and helps them get organic traffic.

But this process of ranking is not that easy. To deal with the factors that will help your website to rank higher that’s SEO.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the set of tactics that helps to optimize the user experience and increase a website or page’s position in the search engines.

Like Google, another world’s most famous search engine on the internet is YouTube.

Do you know the best part? YouTube has its own search engine to make it simple for its viewers to find the channels and videos they are looking for.

Those strategies that help rank your YouTube channels and videos higher are called YouTube SEO.

SEO for YouTube plays a significant role in optimizing your YouTube channels, videos, etc. to make it rank high in their own search engine and gather a good amount of website traffic.

Not only for YouTube’s search engine but SEO for YouTube channel also helps to optimize all your videos, channels, data, descriptions, etc. for other search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

SEO on YouTube also helps to boost your brand recognition, video views, monthly search, revenue, and more.

Now, in our next section, we will help you to understand “How to optimize YouTube videos?”

How does YouTube Search Engine Optimization work

YouTube and Google both are search engines. Primarily they both focus on providing the best user experience possible.

And also now YouTube and Google both have been integrated to make searching easier for people.

So they use the same types of algorithms to rank their websites, pages, and videos.

Whenever a user enters a search query on YouTube the site’s robots go through all of the channels and videos to present the most relevant results to the user.

The YouTube algorithms also consider certain factors like user search, browsing history, etc. to determine which results are the best for each individual.

But sometimes it becomes difficult to understand those algorithms.

Because it uses channel engagement, and SEO Optimization factors to rank your video content on YouTube higher.

For example, video content that correctly completes the sections like the title, description, and tags usually rank higher than those ones that are not SEO-optimized YouTube videos.

Again, a YouTube Channel with higher likes and comments presents itself positively compared to those with fewer likes and comments.

Do you know why it happens?

Because YouTube search engine optimization helps YouTube to understand that users are getting valuable experiences from those videos with more likes and comments.

Another interesting thing is, as the Google search engine and YouTube has a connection, and both platforms work based on SEO.

So, when someone searches on Google, the search engine also shows video content related to search both from YouTube and other sites.

As a result, the YouTube Optimization you make for YouTube helps you snatch the top position in Google search as well as internal platform searches.

Up next we will try to help you learn about YouTube SEO Strategy.

What is YouTube SEO Strategy?

The process of creating and developing online content so that it appears at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is known as SEO.

You must optimize your video content to attract valuable customers and expand your audiences over YouTube.

There are some unique strategies that you can apply to optimize YouTube videos, those are called YouTube SEO strategies.

YouTube SEO Strategy helps you in optimizing your channel, videos, description, etc. which evaluates rank based on backlinks and other factors.

The most basic SEO strategies for YouTube videos are:

# Target Keywords

In order to increase traffic to your YouTube video the most important thing is to target YouTube keywords.

By focusing on targeted YouTube keywords you can rank higher on Google and YouTube and people can easily find your video content on search engines.

# Video content on trending topics

Google Trends is a free tool that allows you to gather information about what’s trending now.

So, Create videos on trending topics and they will undoubtedly receive numerous views.

# Optimize videos

YouTube Video Optimization is the best way to rank the highest in a specific category.

It also enhances the number of viewers and followers of your videos on YouTube.

# Apply transcripts, captions, and subtitles

As search engine bots don’t watch or understand videos, they must rely on supporting text data to correctly analyze them.

The usage of transcripts closed captions, and subtitles can assist you to improve your user’s journey, engagement, watch time, viewers, and SEO.

# Continue improving video quality

Constantly posting high-quality videos on YouTube for your valuable viewers.

It will help you to get the right amount of viewers and also to build the reputation of your YouTube Channel.

Now, let’s jump into our next section, How do YouTube videos rank higher?

How to rank YouTube videos

If you’re just starting out with creating videos for YouTube, it’s important to understand the basics of YouTube SEO for beginners to ensure that your content gets discovered by your target audience.

You know your video content will receive more views, clicks, and money when your video rank and appear at the top in the search results.

Do you know what mainly works behind your YouTube ranking? That’s YouTube’s Algorithms.

When YouTube’s Algorithm determines your videos are the best choice for people’s queries your videos will rank on Youtube search results.

You must think about what can influence YouTube Algorithms to rank your YouTube videos.

That’s YouTube SEO Optimization.

SEO on YouTube supports your video content to be search engine friendly and rank the highest.

Again, when ranking videos YouTube considers a variety of factors including the effectiveness of your video, the number of subscribers and followers on your channel, etc.

YouTube Ranking videos are influenced by metrics including click-through rate, average watch time, likes, dislikes, etc.

Personalization for each user is another thing that YouTube ranking considers as well.

Your video is more likely to appear as a recommendation on a user’s home page if they regularly watch videos similar to yours.

In our next section, I will give you 8 simple YouTube SEO Tips to help you rank your videos higher.

8 Simple YouTube SEO Tips To Rank Your Videos Higher

YouTube search engine ranking is not an easy task.

Even if you strictly maintain all the rules, YouTube’s Algorithms will ultimately determine the search results that the customer expects.

Again, To decide YouTube SEO ranking it considers a wide range of criteria, standards, calculations, etc. including elements that are not even related to your actions such as user navigation.

At this point, we can help you out with some pretty practical YouTube SEO ranking tips.

So, 8 simple YouTube SEO tips for your YouTube Channel to help your visitors to find your channel and videos more easily are the following:

1. Research and choose low-hanging keywords

One of the most important things of SEO YouTube is Keywords. Search engines like Google, YouTube, etc. heavily depend on keywords.

Keyword helps the platform to determine the topic of the video, categorize its content, and link it to the users’ queries.

So, when uploading videos, keywords should be added in specific fields like title, tag, description, etc. so that YouTube could gather information and use it in the ranking.

You must therefore carefully conduct YouTube Keywords Search that describes your videos best and also have the potential to grow the audience for your channel.

Now, let me give you some effective tips to conduct YouTube Keyword research and choose the best low-hanging keywords.

1. Use a basic YouTube Keyword Search tool

It will help you to find keywords that are user search-based and also can help you generate fresh and popular keyword suggestions for YouTube.

2. Do benchmarking

Visit those channels that are experts in your topic then start researching what YouTubed keywords they are using to gather many audiences.

3. Analyze your channel’s statistics

The most popular keywords used to find your keywords are listed in the traffic source analysis. There you can get ideas for creating fresh content or adding keywords to your uploads.

4. Search and pick long-tail keywords

Because in most cases long-tail keywords have a low amount of competitors.

Must pick those keywords that are relevant to your video content.

2. Use targeted keywords to make an interesting video title

When you are done with YouTube Keyword Search, now it’s time to place those potential targeted keywords in an appropriate field.

Your YouTube video title is one of the most appropriate fields to place your targeted keywords.

First, you need to understand what your audience’s search intent is.

The most common search intents are informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional.

Then pick and include keywords to make a smart and interesting title.

Your video title must be as similar to the user’s search criteria as possible in order to show up at the top of their search results.

Try to use the precise match of the keyword in the first place of your video title and keep your video title short.

One more important thing! Update keywords on YouTube.

When you will update the keywords of your YouTube video it will help you to increase your search volume and catch more and more traffic.

Remember one thing! You can encounter your users through a precise and smart YouTube video title.

3. Optimize YouTube Video description

Another vital area that needs to be filled out while uploading your video on YouTube is the Description.

In this area, the topic of the video must be described in as much detail as possible.

As we usually use short titles for our videos, the descriptions can be longer and more in-depth. YouTube provides you with a character limit of 5000 for writing your video description.

An optimized YouTube video description can help you to improve your search volume.

Also, you may boost your videos ranking and gain YouTube points by using an attractive description.

So, to optimize YouTube video descriptions you can simply apply the following tips:

• Include keywords that are most relevant to your topic at the start of your video description.
• Instead of just listing keywords, provide a summary of your video in natural language
• Choose one or two keywords to represent your video on YouTube and make sure to emphasize them in both the title and description.
• Find useful and popular keywords and their synonyms using keyword tools like Google trends, etc.
• Avoid including keywords that are unnecessary in your description.
• Add call-to-action text such as subscribing to your YouTube channel, downloading your video, watching suggested videos, etc.
• Use timestamps to point viewers to specific significant sections of the video, particularly in longer videos.
• Add resources to your video description to answer your user’s follow-up questions.

4. Add well-known keywords as Hashtags

Like LinkedIn and Instagram, Hashtags are a new addition to the YouTube user interface.

Hashtags play a very important role in video ranking. It lets you add relevant terms to your video content.

YouTube hashtag appears directly above the title of your video before turning into a hyperlink for quick clicking and visibility.

Hashtags can be added to your YouTube video’s title and description. This makes it easier for viewers to find your video when you search for a particular hashtag.

Specifically, tags assist in improving YouTube searches because they highlight important trends.

But of course, keep one thing in your mind ignore using hashtags more than 15 times.

Because the YouTube algorithm is continuously looking for spam. Overusing hashtags could unintentionally flag you.

So, for avoiding this type of accident, instead of using all possible hashtags, pick out two or three potential hashtags that you believe best present your video.

5. Must classify your video

In the process of optimizing your YouTube videos, one significant step is to classify your video.

Classifying or categorizing makes it easier to find your video content and also assists the YouTube algorithm to understand your content topic.

The main page, the explorer page, and the sidebar menu all of them utilize classification.

Users can choose the search to watch videos from different categories while looking for specific video sophisticated options.

So, it’s necessary to organize your YouTube videos with categories prior to uploading them to increase your chances of being found by users and improve search volume.

You can discover a category on YouTube that best fits your video because there are a lot of alternatives available on YouTube.

While uploading your video, you will find the option of choosing an appropriate category.

6. Create and add a unique video thumbnail image

One effective strategy for boosting your YouTube SEO ranking is to use eye-catching thumbnails that accurately reflect your content.

YouTube video thumbnail image is the very first thing that a viewer sees when they come across it.

It has the power to actively influence whether or not they choose to click on it.

Excellent thumbnail images can significantly enhance your audience and average watch time which will boost your video ranking not just on YouTube but also on other search engines.

So, to ensure that your video is seen, try to create and unique video thumbnail image that will help you to stand out from the crowd and attracts attention.

YouTube has an automatic option that can help you to create your video thumbnail image.

But to get the best result make a customized thumbnail. Through a customized image you will able to explain to your viewers what your videos are about and how they can help you.

To make a unique video thumbnail image you can apply the following hacks:

• Create an image that is 1280×720 pixels
• Images shouldn’t be more than 2MB
• Type a large text where the benefit of watching this video will be stated
• Set your face or someone else’s face with lots of emotions like happiness, sad, or shocked
• Draw an outline around the thumbnail or inside the thumbnail to indicate a picture
• You can even use Canva to generate a creative image

It’s essential to keep in mind that in order to upload a customized thumbnail image, your YouTube channel must have to be verified.

To make your channel verified, simply visit ” youtubew.com/verify ” and follow the directions there.

7. Add accurate closed captions and transcript

A transcript is a description of what you have discussed in your video content.

You can either write a transcript on your own or you can use the Youtube tool to create one.

It’s a well-known fact that YouTube’s algorithm doesn’t understand images or videos. It only understands text and code.

So, making a transcript is one tactic you may use to ensure that it understands the subject matter of your video.

You can put your transcript in your video description to display it to your viewers.

Closed captions are kind of the same thing. A text that describes what has been discussed in the video can also be described in closed captions.

You can easily create a closed caption out of your transcripts by just adding timestamps.

These are used as an accessibility aid for those who are deaf and allow viewers to follow the video even when they are unable to activate the audio.

Adding transcript and closed captions often leads videos to YouTube Search Engine Ranking.

8. Add YouTube Cards and End Screens

If you want your viewers to take a certain action as a result of watching your video, you must directly give them a strong call to action (CTA).

It not only helps to reduce decision fatigue but also ensures that your viewers will take proper action and not miss the shot.

Besides using verbal CTA, you can also use YouTube’s built-in tool, which is called YouTube Cards.

The upper right corner of your video will display YouTube cards, which are actually preformatted visual notifications.

Users feel encouraged to explore more videos, links, or other video content of yours by the interactive nature of your YouTube cards.

You can easily add a maximum of 5 YouTube cards with every video to encourage your viewers to click on desired CTAs.

Another important thing is the End Screen. When your viewer finished watching the entire video, the end screen appears.

Every video content maker must utilize their end screen. You can ask your viewers to visit your website, watch more of your videos, subscribe to your channel, etc.

Use this interactive feature strategically because it plays a very significant role in increasing watch time, engagement, subscriber growth, and YouTube SEO ranking.

Wrapping Up! – 8 Simple YouTube SEO Tips To Rank Your Videos Higher in Search

YouTube video optimization for search engines is an essential step in increasing visibility and engagement on the platform.

SEO for YouTube channels will help you to create a successful channel from where people will watch your videos and help you to get the highest amount of traffic, engagement, and conversions for your business or personal brand.

Applying the eight basic and simple SEO tips we have described includes keyword research, creating creative titles and descriptions, and advertising your videos on social media.

You can enhance your chances of appearing higher in YouTube search results and engaging a wider audience.

Remember, it’s not just about creating content, but also about making sure your content can be easily found by your target audience.

So, create your videos on YouTube in an encouraging way, update keywords on YouTube, stay up-to-date with the SEO best practices, and continuously improve your strategy.

In the end, we hope that our blog will help you to understand YouTube Video Optimization and that the tactics we covered will help you to increase your chances of being discovered by your users.

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FAQs! – 8 Simple YouTube SEO Tips To Rank Your Videos Higher in Search

1. What is SEO YouTube?

ans: The process of optimizing your channel, videos, and associated metadata like video titles, descriptions, tags, etc. to improve your visibility and rankings on the search results page is called SEO YouTube.

2. What is SEO on Youtube mean?

ans: SEO on YouTube refers to the process of optimizing your YouTube videos and channel to improve their visibility and rankings on YouTube’s search results pages and other video platforms.

3. How to find the best YouTube Keywords?

ans: You can find the best YouTube Keywords using the following YouTube keyword tools:

1. YouTube Analytics
2. Google Trends
3. Ashrefs
4. Buzzsumo Keyword Research tool
5. TubeBuddy, etc.

4. How does YouTube index videos for search?

ans: YouTube indexes videos for search by analyzing the content of the videos as well as the associated metadata such as titles, descriptions, and tags.

Here are some of the key factors that YouTube’s search algorithm takes into consideration:

1. Video Title
2. Video description
3. Video tags
4. Video Content
5. Engagement metrics like, views, watch time, likes, comments, shares, etc.

5. How to optimize YouTube videos?

ans: Here are some tips for easy YouTube Video Optimization:

1. Research and choose low-hanging keywords
2.  Use targeted keywords to make an interesting video title
3.  Optimize your YouTube Video description
4.  Add well-known keywords as Hashtags
5. Must classify your video
6. Create and add a unique video thumbnail image
7. Add accurate closed captions and transcript
8. Add YouTube Cards and End Screens