Do you notice that sometimes whenever you search for a topic on google, the first results are YouTube videos? Appealing contents, right! 

Everytime you search for a topic, it directs you to posts that link with your search. 

For instance, By inputting this text on a search engine; “How to make smoothies,” the results display top YouTube videos on smoothies; moreover there are thousands of videos on how to make smoothies on YouTube.

The question that might comes to your mind could include; 

• Why is your video not there? 
• How can your YouTube video rank on Google? 
• How are your competitors achieving this?
• What’s the difference between their videos and yours?

The reality is everyone wants to trend in their niche but there are certain steps to get there and SEO is one of them. Wondering if you can do SEO on your own? Yes, you can.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is actually a strategy or an approach to specifically analyze and increase the number of visitors to a website and obtain a high-ranking placement in the results page of search engines. And YouTube SEO is a strategy to optimize YouTube channels and videos to improve placement in search results.

Do you know that Youtube was purchased by Google? If you are interested in YouTube SEO, read on! 

Keyword Research For YouTube SEO

Keyword is a word which acts as the key to a code. Keywords are words that define the meaning of your content. Keyword research is essential as these words determine the ranking of your video. 

As a YouTuber, the keyword for your videos must be specific, relevant, and able to target the right audience. 

The question is how you can specialize and find niche keywords that match your content?

Keyword research are examples of on page SEO.

There are important tips and techniques to consider for keyword research. One of the first steps is conducting research on your topic. Sometimes you need to put yourself in the position of your audience to understand what they desire and what to input. 

This would help in recognizing and considering what keywords to use to optimize your content. 

Use keyword research tools like; Semrush, Ahrefs, Hubspot, Google search console, Google Trends, Serptest, Uber suggest;  Ubersuggest is a free powerful SEO tool that shows you keywords monthly search volume, CPC and competition data, etc.

These tools are designed to find topic ideas that people search on search engines like Google, Bing, Amazon, etc. 

Using Keywords By Traffic

Keywords by traffic involves checking your competitors’ videos, checking out those that rank first, and analyzing the keywords they used. Then insert their keywords to yours. 

Optimizing YouTube Videos

Here are the steps in optimizing YouTube Videos:

Craft A Compelling Title

After performing good keyword research and selecting the keywords to use, the next step is crafting a catchy and compelling title. For Your video to appear in a good position, your title must be similar to your user’s search terms. Note that the first places of searches usually use the exact match of the keyword in the video title.

You need to describe what your viewers are going to watch, but also drive them to click on your video. Therefore, you must be very creative and smart in creating your descriptions. The first 150 characters are very important, as it is the first text your viewers would see. 

Use Specific Hashtags

It is expedient to know that tags and categories are also essential for your videos to rank. They are among the factors that YouTube considers to identify the subjects of a video and index it correctly, and also to recommend related videos which creates traffic for your video. 

YouTube’s categories organizes millions of videos on the site into groups with common topics – like music, games, sports, animals, etc. Choosing the right category gives YouTube crucial information as to what your content is actually about, which is great for your YouTube SEO strategy.

One good tip is ensuring your tag comprises about 6 to 8 words. Your utmost priority should be the first tag , so input your keywords as your first few tags. Popular keyword tools you can research for your tags are; VidIQ, Keyword Tool Dominator, Keywordtool.io, TubeRanker, TubeBuddy, Google Trends, Keyword Planner, etc. 

Create Thumbnails

As a YouTuber, you should know that thumbnails are an essential part of growing a YouTube channel as it’s the first thing people see when they are searching for content. Your thumbnail must be visually appealing. 

How Can You Create A Good Thumbnail?

To create a good engaging thumbnail you need to include images, clear text, and vibrant colors. Keep it simple, straight forward and natural. 

Online Tools like Adobe Spark, Canva, Snappa, Picmonkey, Foto etc., are good for creating YouTube thumbnails. 

• Select an image, or upload a custom image from your computer. 
• Then adjust that background image to meet your needs. 
• Add text, overlays, logos,etc as you desire. 
• Then download the YouTube thumbnail to your computer, and upload it to your video.    

Create A Quality Video

Your eyes send messages to the brain, the retina uses optic nerves to send signals to the brain. No one is interested in watching a low quality video. 

As a YouTuber, you need to ensure your videos are created with high quality. To begin with, ensure that you are using a high-quality camera for your filming. Investing in a great video camera or renting one when necessary can help. 

You can also use your phone camera if needed, provided that it produces the right quality of videos. Create long videos, which are about 10 minutes long.

Building YouTube Channel Authority

The most effective way to build your YouTube channel authority is encouraging viewers to watch more content and subscribe. It is also important to adopt strategies to keep the user engaged with the video until the end. 

Don’t forget to add appealing words that prompt responses from your audience, like ; give us a thumbs up, comment, subscribe to the channel, Share the video, etc. 

You can also ensure you post your video on your social media platforms to generate more views. 

For the comments section, you need a dialogue to keep a conversation going, you need to respond when your viewers place a comment, this would build a relationship and encourage your viewers to feel valued and come back more often to comment.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” This is called consistency. For you to build your brand, you need to be consistent as this builds trust. 

The more you repeat this process, it’s very easy to recognize you and then you become a boss in your niche. Always put in mind that consistency is what transforms average into excellence.

How To Drive Traffic To YouTube Videos

As said earlier, you would realize that optimizing video SEO for search engines is very important as it drives traffic to your YouTube videos. Compelling titles, appealing tags and descriptions, would drive traffic to your YouTube videos. 

To drive traffic to your YouTube videos you need to promote your videos on external websites and platforms. It takes a lot to create high-quality YouTube videos, yet it can take even more work to build a YouTube audience. 

You can buy Google ads to gain YouTube subscribers or you can organically boost content by using YouTube SEO strategies like; 

• Posting high-quality videos. 
• Creating descriptive video titles.
• Using trending keywords in your video title.
• Trying YouTube title generator tool.
• Creating custom YouTube thumbnails. 
• Writing accurate YouTube video descriptions.
• Promoting YouTube videos on other social media platforms. 
• Collaborating with other YouTube creators. 

You can also offer a mix of live and pre-recorded videos, use YouTube Analytics, create playlists to existing videos, create YouTube Shorts, Insert your videos on other websites, create interactive content through YouTube community tab. Follow up YouTube trends. 

These tips would guide you and drive traffic to your YouTube videos. 

Analyzing And Adjusting YouTube SEO Strategies

As a YouTuber, you need to monitor your video analytics and your performance metrics. YouTube Analytics allows you to monitor your users engagement, like the number of views, watch time, and number of new subscribers. 

YouTube Analytics and Google Analytics are very much alike. It can reveal which of your videos perform the best, which can give you clues about what content to improve on.

As a YouTube SEO beginner, you need to stay active on YouTube and keep track of your videos. Look for content trends, like YouTube Shorts, Live Streaming, Community Engagement, ASMR, DIY/Life Hacks/How to, Immersive Shopping, 360 Video, Bring on the Metaverse, explainer videos or music videos, or format trends. 

Find ways to join in on popular trends without your personal brand in line. 

The world is revolving and the interests of the public are continually changing, to stay on trend, you need to do more research!

Google Trends is a great tool to determine your growth. One tool to also consider is explodingTopics.com as it gives you an opportunity to browse on trending terms that are similar to your niche. 

For continuous improvement, utilize A/B testing. 

What Is A/B Testing? 

A/B testing is an experiment that is conducted to test and compare small variations in your social media content to find out the content that best reaches your audience. For example, you could test:

• Regular image versus animated GIF. 
• Photos of people or products versus graphs or infographics. 
• 10 mins video length of a 30 mins video.

Beating The Algorithm

The YouTube algorithm is a system that decides the videos to suggest. The algorithm’s job is to make your video rank based by checking and studying its importance, quality, and viewers behavior. 

YouTube’s algorithm pays attention to viewers. To beat the algorithm, what is essential is crafting appealing contents for your viewers which would drive and increase your views. Your focus should be directed to the contents for your videos. 

The factors that affect how the algorithm works are the beauty and uniqueness of your content, the recommendation location based on your viewers current searches from their homepage, external factors, etc.  

As a YouTube SEO beginner, when creating your content, attract your viewers with an appealing introduction, use good titles and tags as said earlier. 

Try to keep track of YouTube algorithm updates and trends. Be up to date! 

Ensure to always perform keyword research, optimize on-page elements; like enticing titles and tags, build high-quality backlinks, and create relevant and authoritative video content to maintain your stance as a YouTuber Boss. 

Conclusion 

A friendly reminder, keep this in mind is that you should conduct in-depth research on topics related to your videos, keep track of your video performance, craft appealing titles, tags and keywords. Always update your title, keywords, and description to match your viewers search and rank high as much as you want. 

Don’t just read blog posts, jot down the tips you have learnt from this blogpost, practice and get good results! Your video content must be irresistible and it must rank!