Most people don’t realise that next to Google, YouTube is the largest search engine and it is often overlooked and a source of web traffic. As a search engine, YouTube has ways of ranking your videos, which include things such as the relevance to the search keyword, the number of comments, likes and shares as well as the ‘quality’ of you channel. These simple tips can make a huge difference in the traffic to your videos and website. Video is a very powerful tool for building your brand and marketing your business, it is the most engaging type of content that you can create.
SEO in YouTube is not at all complicated. These SEO tips can be easily followed by anyone to improve the exposure of your YouTube videos:
1. Have clear and catchy video titles – Think of titles that would make a viewer click on your videos. If it is possible, include your chosen keywords. However, make sure that your title is relevant to your content. You don’t want another YouTube member complaining of a video you have uploaded with a title irrelevant to your content, this can lead to the termination of your YouTube account.
2. Always include your website URL in the first line of the description box – Keep in mind that you would not just want people to view your video. In the long run, you would want them to be your client as well. A clear, visible link on the description box will increase the number of viewers that visit your site and turn into paying customers.
3. Place relevant keywords on your tags – It is not enough that you will just choose a category for your website. Proper keywords assist in helping clients find your video faster in the YouTube search engine. Think about possible keywords that your clients will most likely search for when viewing your content. If you have trouble with generating keywords, YouTube also has a keyword tool. You can find it in this link: https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool
4. Create video captions – Search engines may not be able to crawl the content of your video but they can crawl captions in your video! It is also great as well for people who are hearing impaired or have faulty sound system. To make video captions, you can use software like Dragon Naturally Speaking or you can manually create video captions through the use of Notepad.
5. Place call to actions in your video – Call to actions at the end of your videos such as asking your viewer to visit your website for more information is another way to generate traffic.
6. Make use of insights – Insights will let you know what people like and don’t like in your video. It will help you improve to make better videos.
7. Create playlists – If you have a group of videos with similar categories, creating a playlist is beneficial. YouTube viewers will be able to watch relevant videos without the hassle of searching for it on your channel. Also, playlists appears on the YouTube search engine which is an added bonus!
8. Choose an interesting thumbnail – If you are a YouTube partner, you have the privilege to upload a thumbnail even one that is not in your video. However, for normal users, you have the chance to choose from three thumbnails based on your video. Choose one that is interesting, relevant and colorful.
9. Optimize your YouTube channel – As much as possible, make your channel design similar to your business website. Add personality and put relevant information about your business. Make the featured video your most interesting video and also add in playlists.
10. Do cross promotions – Annotations and hotspots feature helps you link a certain part of your video. If you have related videos, try to put links so that it will also garner views.
11. Be active – Most YouTube viewers ask questions if they have inquiries about your video. Make sure that you are always updated with the comments and respond promptly. It is also best to check daily to delete spam comments.
12. Promote your videos on other social networks – Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have a large number of users. If your video is good, it can even get viral and earn a lot of likes and shares!
13. Link building – Of course, in SEO link building is very important. Link building will help gather a wide audience and traffic from other websites, but it will also improve the ‘Page Rank’ and relevance of your video and channel for certain keywords, improving your rankings with Google and within YouTube.
