Once you've made a video, you may wonder what you need to do to ensure that your content is seen by as many relevant users as possible once it's uploaded to YouTube. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help you do this. Don't be scared, our step-by-step guide will show you what you need to do! Here’s what we recommend as a digital marketing agency with years of experience under our belt:
1. step: You can't miss the keyword research
If your goal is to make your YouTube video search engine optimised, there's one step you need to go through in the same way as for any other content: the inevitable keyword research.
This step is crucial because YouTube uses keywords to identify the subject of the video, index the content and link it to users' searches. This requires adding the right keywords to certain fields such as the title, tags and description when uploading a video file.
Careful: use only keywords related to your content! Otherwise, after a few seconds of viewing, the user will leave the video after realising that the content is not relevant to them, which will have a negative impact on rankings.
Although keywords with a particularly high search potential can attract a lot of users, there is huge competition for them.
#m1-y#TIP: Use long tail keywords of 3 or more words, which have a lower number of searches, but a deeper search intent - meaning that those who find your video by searching for these keywords will be more likely to watch a bigger portion of your content. ##
2. step: Use keywords in the file name as well!
The name of the file you want to upload is more important than you think. It may come as a surprise, but search engine optimisation of your video starts at this step
#m1-y#TIP: The file name should be descriptive and include the most important keywords.##
For example, instead of finalvideo.mp4, include your keyword in the file name, such as youtube-video-search-optimalisation.mp4. This ensures that the algorithm correctly identifies video content and matches it to relevant searches.
3. step: Create a convincing title - again, with your relevant keywords
When users search for content on YouTube, one of the first things that catches their attention - besides the thumbnail, of course - is the title. It often determines whether the viewer decides to watch the video or not. The ideal YouTube video title is compelling, concise, searchable, interesting and clear, and it is also essential that it contains relevant keywords.
An extra tip: in general, the first results of a search will show exact match keywords in the title.
4. step: Don't miss the tags
When using tags, it is also crucial that they are relevant to the content of the video. They are particularly useful if the title of your video is often misspelt.
For instance, if you have a video about cooking a popular dish like "lasagne," and you know that many people commonly misspell it as "lasagna," including both variations in your YouTube tags can help your video reach a wider audience and improve its discoverability.
#m1-y#TIP: Use 6-8 relevant tags that refer to the content of your video.##
However, it's also important not to use too many tags in your video description, otherwise you'll violate YouTube's spam, scam and fraud policy.
5. step: Optimise the video description as well
Providing a detailed video description is essential, as it allows viewers to gain a clear understanding of your video's content before deciding to click and watch.
#m1-y#TIP: Write a description of at least 250 words and put your keywords at the beginning of the text.##
This is crucial because if you include keywords in the description, users will find your video more easily.
You should also include hashtags related to your content in the description. These are keywords that are preceded by a # symbol and allow users to easily find similar content using the same hashtag.
Also, don't forget to include contact details for your other social media platforms and a link to your website! This is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your platforms - apart from paid advertising, of course.
6. step: Use subtitles
Captioning your video is not only important for user experience and accessibility, but also for providing textual content that has an impact on search engine optimization. Basically, while you are explaining your topic in the video, you are also automatically mentioning your main keywords, which will also appear in the subtitle, helping the video to rank higher.
Summary
If you follow the steps outlined above, you can be sure that your video will rank higher in YouTube's search list and reach more users. If you want to go one step further, you can create an eye-catching index image or share your video on your website, social media platforms, newsletter or related groups to generate more traffic to your content.
#promobox#Would you prefer to leave the intricacies of video search engine optimization to the experts, sparing yourself the hassle?##
