How to Conduct SEO for Your YouTube Videos in 3 Easy Steps

Eazi-Apps Support • 17 June 2017

YouTube is not only the biggest global provider of streaming video content but is also effectively the second most used search engine on earth. Second only to its parent company Google. Globally YouTube has had over 1billion unique visits and delivers over 4 billion videos views every single day.

YouTube is not only a search engine, video platform hybrid. It’s also one of the most downloaded and most commonly used mobile apps to date. The big difference between YouTube and other search engines is that YouTube search results are not collected from around the web, it’s search results are only comprised of video’s which have been uploaded to the YouTube platform. So, it does work a little different from that perspective.

Just like any other search engine YouTube has its very own search algorithm to determine how to rank its video content when someone performs a search. Though this is considerably simpler than SEO as you know it, there are some major similarities. If you want to make sure your brands YouTube videos can be found easily via the world’s second largest search engine platform, here’s 3 steps to help guide you on your way.

Step 1: Keyword Selection for Video

Searches conducted for video slightly differ from standard searches. As such your keyword strategy for your website is not directly transferable to your YouTube SEO. You’re going to need to re-evaluate this before you get started.

Not only are habits of video searchers on YouTube different, but as we have moved in to an era where the majorities of search engines employ a universal search approach. Which means displaying results from a number of different media types, websites, news alerts, social media posts, images and of course video. As such there are certain phrases and search query architectures that are more likely to produce video results within a search engine like Google.

Here are some common video specific keyword phrases:

How-to searches are very closely associated with video and are likely to trigger video results. Eg. “how to build a treehouse”
Tutorial searches are the same as how-to’s without using the how-to part. Search engines like Google are smart enough to recognise that video content may be the best response for some searches. Eg. “Creating custom shapes in photoshop”
Reviews are another increasingly common video first media format. Eg. “Samsung Galaxy S review” or “Review of the Samsung galaxy S”
Comedy specific searches have become synonymous with video content. So, trigger words like ‘funny’ and ‘hilarious’ are often used. Eg. “funny cats playing”

The reason it’s important to be considering ‘video keywords’ like this is that by doing this kind of research upfront you can select keywords which are popular on Google as well as YouTube, meaning you have considerably more potential traffic potential should you succeed in earning top ranking positions. Some of the most popular videos on YouTube get the majority of their traffic from Google and other search engines linking directly to the content and not from users searching within YouTube itself.

A screenshot of a google search for funny cats playing

Step 2: Keyword Relevant Content

In the same way as the SEO fundamental practise you would apply to your website content, YouTube content needs to be created with keywords and SEO efforts in mind. After all search engine bots can’t view and determine if the actual video content you’ve uploaded is more or less relevant for a user’s search. Hence it arrives at this decision based on the information you provide.

This includes the file name of your video when uploaded, the title and of course the description. Think of these much like image names, page titles and main page copy but for your video.

To-do list when uploading a video and supporting content:

Your video file name should be similar to your chosen upload title
The title of the video should be 5 or more words long
Focus SEO keywords at the start of the video title
Keyword density when writing your supporting copy is important the same as it is for general web copy
Include your keyword in the first 25 words of description at least once
Don’t rush your description text. Aim for a 250-word minimum
Don’t get sucked in to only pleasing search engines. Make sure your copy is all focused on being readable for the users too.

Step 3: Encourage and Support User Engagement

Search engines like to please their users and provide relevant results for their search. As such the perceived popularity of your video content is important as a ranking factor. How well liked, subscribed, average time watched and comments made are all taken into consideration in the same way load time, bounce rate and other factors affect website SEO.

Ways in which user interaction will affect video ranking:

Having a good click through rate versus the number of times your video appears in search rankings will increase your chance of moving up the ranks
Average view rate – How much of your video users actually view before they stop or leave shows positive or negative reaction to the video
The number of subscribers earned from your video views is another good quality indicator
Naturally likes and dislikes of your video content are a pretty direct sign of how viewers feel
The amount of comments left as well as the date and frequency of those comments can help YouTube tell if your video is still relevant and creating discussion

YouTube can potentially be a huge traffic generation tool for any brand or business and there are many businesses who launch primarily through the use of YouTube and video content alone. Whether you’re a new business or an established business looking at capitalising on video content, don’t neglect the significant role YouTube can play and follow these tips to get your natural discovery off to the best possible start.

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