The demand for social media marketing is increasing, and for a good reason. With 42 percent of the total world population using social media, brands are seeing huge opportunities for success on various social channels. Here are the tips for your YouTube SEO Strategy
Social media content types come in various forms nowadays. In the past, most companies banked on the written word. However, different media types are now easing into everyone’s laptops and mobile phones – especially videos. Because videos are excellent mediums to explain complex topics, companies are shifting from blogs to videos or repurposing their content marketing campaigns to videos.
And YouTube remains as one of the biggest social media channels that’s video-centric. With over 1.8 billion users, there is a marketing opportunity on YouTube. As long as you incorporate the right SEO strategies, your brand could be seen on search engines’ first pages.
Before you delve into video creation, make sure you know these crucial tips for your YouTube SEO strategy.
7 Tips For Your YouTube SEO Strategy
1. Put Your Primary Keyword In Your Video Title
Any social media advertising agency knows that keywords are the lifeblood of SEO. Keywords are the language that speaks to consumers as well as search engine algorithms. Therefore, it’s vital always to do extensive keyword research before your video creation.
This will ensure that you know which direction you’re going. If you’re aiming to stand out in your niche, ranking for the same keywords, your competitors rank and doing it better than them will put you one step ahead of the competition.
The first thing you should do is to create a captivating video title that should naturally contain your keyword. This is because titles are the first thing that users see when browsing over a list of videos. If they see the keyword which is relevant to their search, they’ll most likely read the video descriptions. And if you get lucky, they might even click on the video.
A general rule of thumb is to keep the video title short and sweet. Stick to 60 characters and put the most important details front and center.
2. Video File should contain your Primary Keyword
Just like the image titles and alt text in SEO blog writing, the video files are also essential. YouTube’s algorithm can’t literally “view” your video, but keywords are the key to inform YouTube what your video is about.
For example, YouTube scans the first few details of the video for it to rank the video. That said, always make sure you put the primary keyword on the video’s file name. For instance, if you’re running a restaurant and want to rank for “best restaurant desserts,” make sure you put those words in the video’s file name.
This will signal YouTube that your video is not only relevant to your niche but also rank it whenever users search for “best restaurant desserts.”
3. Put Your Primary Keyword on the Metadata
Once you hook YouTube users and stop them dead on their tracks (or mouse), now it’s time to urge them to click on the video. Remember, users who read your video title sometimes don’t click on the video. And this is all because of the meta description.
YouTube users search for particular videos on the channel, and if they don’t find what they’re looking for, they go for the next video. That said, make sure you describe what the video is all about in the meta description.
The meta description or metadata is the short video description underneath the title. Although this has a maximum limit of 5,000 characters, users will only get to see the first few lines of the description on the search results page.
If possible, make the first sentence count and include the most important details on the first two sentences. One way to make your description compelling is to include an action verb to persuade users to click.
For example, if we’re still ranking for the keywords “best restaurant desserts,” your meta description could be something like this:
● Looking for the best restaurant desserts? Check these 20 delectable and affordable desserts that will make your stomach happy.
Let’s dissect this metadata one by one. Your description must have a punchy tone to it. Avoid prepositions and articles as much as possible. The number “20” is also good to give users quantity and easily digestible information. Lastly, the word “Check” is an excellent way to encourage them to click on the video to check it out.
4. Put your Videos in their Respective Catagories
First make sure that your videos are easy to find on search. You can categorize videos so audiences who search for relevant videos in the same category will find yours. Plus, if your videos are in the right categories, YouTube ranks them whenever they have search matches.
All you have to do is go to the Advanced Settings page and go from there. Overall, this will gain more exposure for your videos.
5. Use Hashtags
When SEO started, marketers would usually spam keywords by mentioning it unnaturally throughout the content. However, this is already considered a black hat SEO. Doing this might lead YouTube or Google to penalize your site, causing it to lower in page and domain authority.
Since updating algorithms, YouTube now ranks videos via similar keywords tagged. Therefore, a rule of thumb is to include or tag keyword synonyms to increase video relevance. You can do this in various ways.
One is you can leverage hashtags, or place synonyms on the metadata. And the second one is you can even insert similar keywords on subtitles.
6. Upload Customized Thumbnails for every Video
According to YouTube Creator Academy, 90 percent of the best and most trending videos on the channel mostly have customized thumbnails.
That goes to show how custom thumbnails increase click-through rates. Plus, having customized thumbnails ensures that you have consistent branding across all social channels. Last but not least, custom thumbnails increase brand recognition.
7. Add Cards and End Screens
If users click on your videos, grab this opportunity to promote other videos or websites. Adding cards (the little small “i” enclosed in a white circle) increases the chances of users to go to the next video, link, or even give donations.
On the other hand, if you’re lucky enough to hook viewers from start to finish, then end screens are also just as effective. However, the disadvantage of end screens is that viewers who abandon your video halfway will never see them.
AUTHOR BIO:
Eliza Brooks is a passionate blogger and frequent traveler who loves to write about digital marketing, seo, social media marketing, and more. She is currently working with Arcane Marketing, the leading Social Media Advertising Agency in and around Idaho.
Amazing content. All these tips about Youtube seo strategy are practical and easy to apply.