Nine steps to getting your YouTube SEO right
Want to help your videos get found by more people? Find out how to increase your rankings with these nine YouTube SEO steps.
Over the past few years, our consumption of online video content has increased dramatically. American adults spend an average of three hours and 50 minutes per day watching digital videos – 55 minutes more than the average daily time spent watching TV.
Of those daily minutes watching videos, 48.7 minutes were spent on YouTube. This is perhaps not surprising when you consider that around 241.8 million people watch YouTube in the US.
Creating videos can also help with your SEO. A study by Search Engine Watch discovered that pages with videos are 53 times more likely to rank on Google. And while that study was conducted in 2019, our passion for video – and the influence video has – has only grown since then.
Indeed, according to Google themselves, over 90% of people say they discover new brands or products on YouTube. More than half of shoppers say online video has helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy, and over 40% of global shoppers say they have purchased products they discovered on YouTube.
So video marketing is important. But how can you get found on YouTube? Much like ‘traditional’ SEO, you need to apply some simple strategies to help your video content get ranked – and found. Here are nine steps that can help your YouTube SEO.
1) Choose the keyword you want to rank for
Do your usual keyword research, just as you would for any page on your website. And remember to search directly on YouTube too.
YouTube’s search bar suggests related queries as you type, so make the most of these. They can help you find related search terms you hadn’t considered.
Remember that recency matters on YouTube, so even if the top results have a lot of views for your chosen search term, if they are relatively old you could have an opportunity to replace them.
Another tip is to look at the size of competitors’ YouTube channels versus their video’s views. If channels with small followings are getting a lot of traffic, it could be a clue that the keyword is popular and gaining traction.
2) Add your keywords strategically to your videos
Once you have your chosen keywords, you need to add them to your videos. Include them in the following places:
- File name
- Video title
- Video description
- Tags
- Title cards and overlays
- Video chapters
- Video script
According to Google you should place your keyword as close to the beginning of the title, description, and tags as possible. Try to combine longtail keywords, synonyms, or related terms when writing your descriptions and adding tags.
It’s important to remember that your video descriptions have two parts:
- What viewers see before clicking “Show more” on desktop or “more” on mobile
- What they see after clicking
Make sure the first few lines of your description really ‘sell’ your video as that is what viewers will see first, and the more enticing it is, the more views you’ll get.
Also make sure that every video has a unique description. This will make it easier to find through search, and help it to stand out from similar videos.
The rules for keyword stuffing count here, just as they do in ‘traditional’ search. Always use your keywords as naturally as possible, and don’t be tempted to cram too many in.
Good YouTube SEO means making your content easier for your viewers to find. If you overuse your keywords you could get penalised by YouTube and Google.
3) Use captions
Captions are a vital part of social media accessibility, as they help viewers with hearing impairments. They also provide context and fill in any audio gaps that people might miss. Studies show that many people watch videos on mute, and rely on captions to understand what is being said.
Another big benefit of captions is that they are an opportunity to include your keywords. But make sure they are added naturally by planning your videos around your keywords, rather than trying to unnaturally make them fit the script after it’s written.
4) Use cards and end screens
YouTube cards enable you to link to other videos, playlists, channels, and external links from your YouTube video. Cards appear with a custom message in the top right corner of your video for a few seconds, and viewers can click to learn more.
Cards also appear below your video description so viewers can access all linked or relevant videos. This is a great way to direct viewers to additional video content on your channel.
End screens appear on screen during the last 5-20 seconds of a video. They give you the opportunity to promote other videos, encourage subscriptions, or point viewers to your playlists.
While cards and end screens don’t directly impact SEO, they so help to keep viewers engaged with your content longer – which can help deem it more successful in YouTube’s eyes. In turn, this should help with its SEO.
5) Add timestamps to your videos
YouTube timestamps let YouTube know when the most important parts of your video begin and end. This helps YouTube to understand the content of your video better, which boosts your SEO. After all, if YouTube doesn’t know what your content is about, how can it rank it for the right search queries?
So add timestamps (also known as chapters) to your video description and video. As well as making it easier for your viewers to navigate to the parts they find most interesting, your chapters will appear below your description.
Here’s another SEO benefit of timestamps: in Google search results, they appear in a “Chapters” dropdown next to your video. If someone searches for a certain phrase and Google sees that this phrase is used as a timestamp, it will direct the person to the exact part of your video where they can find the answer.
6) Choose a category for your video
YouTube uses categories to group videos into topics, like “Education” or “People and Blogs.” While categories may not directly affect your ranking, they let YouTube know which channels are producing the best quality content on that topic, which makes it easier for it to recommend related content.
You’ll find the Category area under the Details tab when uploading your videos.
7) Create a custom thumbnail
Your work isn’t over once you appear in YouTube search results – you still need people to actually click on your video. Not only will this achieve the aims of your search, but it also helps your YouTube SEO as your click-through rate increases.
This is why it’s important to make your YouTube titles accurate and descriptive, and use thumbnails that are appealing enough to stand out from the crowd.
If you have a verified YouTube account, it’s worth creating custom thumbnails and not simply relying on YouTube’s auto-generated options.
Here’s what YouTube recommends when creating thumbnails:
- Use thumbnails with a resolution of 1280×720 (minimum width 640 pixels)
- Upload them in image formats such as JPG, GIF, or PNG
- Make sure they are under 2MB for videos (10MB for podcasts)
8) Record longer videos
Much like written content, it seems the length of your YouTube video matters when it comes to SEO. Videos that rank on the first page of YouTube have an average length of 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
So when planning your content, consider extending it – while ensuring you still create content that is engaging. Remember that the number of comments, views, shares and likes are all strongly correlated with higher YouTube rankings. So don’t simply stretch out a five minute video for a quarter of an hour!
9) Place your YouTube videos correctly
If you are adding your YouTube video to a web page, hoping to rank, it’s also important to consider the placement. If your video is the main star of the page, place if towards the top. However, if it’s secondary or complementary to the main content, place it towards the middle or or on the side.
And ensure your video is easy to find and watch. Don’t bury it in dense text. Also consider including a transcript, or even just a brief summary of the video. This can help users who are unable to listen to your video. It also enables Google to understand what your video is about, as it cannot interpret video content (this is a great opportunity to get your keywords in, too).
A quick guide to YouTube video SEO marketing
So that’s our nine-step guide to using SEO for YouTube. Here’s a quick recap to help you get started:
- Choose the keyword you want to rank for
- Add your keywords strategically to your videos
- Use captions
- Use cards and end screens
- Add timestamps to your videos
- Choose a category for your video
- Create a custom thumbnail
- Record longer videos
- Place your YouTube videos correctly
