Among the social networks that can make money, YouTube is considered the most profitable platform today. However, the number of YouTubers is increasing day by day.
So how do your videos show up at the top when people search? What are the steps you need to take to optimize your YouTube channel for search?
In this article, Ola City will guide you on how to optimize YouTube SEO effectively and simply in 2021. Let’s follow along and share with your friends!
I. What is YouTube SEO?
YouTube SEO is a process of optimizing your YouTube videos and channels to increase their rankings on the YouTube platform. YouTube’s search engine has a complex algorithm that determines how your videos appear in the YouTube rankings.
Optimizing for YouTube can help increase important metrics like follower count, brand awareness, website visits, and revenue. To put it simply, if you’ve ever learned how to SEO your website to the top 1 of Google, this platform will too. Your video will be on the top 1 of YouTube’s search when someone types in any related keyword that is connected to your product/service.
Note: You can SEO your website successfully, but it is unlikely that you will succeed with YouTube SEO because the algorithms of these two platforms are different.
In addition to performing on YouTube’s search engine, you can also optimize your videos for other search engines. Users can view your videos via Google, Bing, ..
II. Important factors for YouTube to rank videos
- User retention rate or video viewership rate
This is the percentage of people who watched your video, the higher it is, the higher it will be rated by YouTube.
- Total watch time of the video you want to SEO
Besides user retention, the total time watching a video is also an extremely important factor for YouTube to rank that video.
You should note: If you have a video with a duration of 15 seconds and the average viewer of 11 seconds will not be favored by YouTube as a 10-minute video but the average viewer is only 5 minutes. Because of the longer time, YouTube can make more money from the ads.
- Video engagement
This is the user’s interaction with the video you post, including: comment, subscribe, share, like, …
- Optimized keywords
When keywords are optimized, YouTube will understand what video content you want to convey to users for the purpose of evaluating and ranking the video.
III. Instructions on how to optimize YouTube SEO effectively
1. Keyword research brings the best results
First, write down a list of potential keyword ideas. Then you can use some tools to research those keywords, such as: Ahrefs, keywordtool.io, VidIQ or you can also take advantage of Youtube’s Search Suggest feature.
The next step is to search for keywords that are being optimized for the video. To do this, go to a YouTube channel in the same field as yours. Then through the Video section select Most Popular and select a video from the list. Finally, find out which keywords have been optimized in this video by checking the keywords in the title, description and video tag.
2. Use the main keyword in the video title
When you have keywords that need SEO, they will appear right in the title and tag of the video. A standard title will help viewers easily identify and learn about your channel. Besides, it also helps YouTube analyze your channel more easily.
The structure of a standard video title is:
- Video Name | Main Keywords | Channel Name | Video quality
- Series Name | What part | Video Name | Main Keywords | Channel Name | Video quality
- Video Name | Series Name | Main Keywords | Channel Name | Video quality
3. Build the content of video description
The description is always written below each video when it is posted. Video description will help YouTube and Google understand the context of the video more clearly. From there, your video will often appear in the bar Suggested Video.
- How to insert the main keyword in the description
- The keyword must appear in the first 25 words of the description and repeat 2-4 times throughout the content.
- The description must be at least 250 words
4. Use hashtags to boost YouTube search results
On social media, hashtags are used to help users find content that answers their questions across multiple platforms. You can use them in your video description to help viewers find your video when they search for a hashtag.
When you add a hashtag to the video description, it will be displayed on the title of the video and become a hyperlink.
5. Add video to category (Playlist)
If users are looking for a specific video with advanced options, they can choose to search from categories. When you upload videos, you must choose a category for them to have a greater chance of being found by users.
6. Customize Thumbnail images
Do not take the suggested Thumbnail image after uploading a video on YouTube. Design your own Thumbnail with the following criteria:
- Put the title for the Youtube Thumbnail in the center
- It is advisable to put an expressive image that attracts the viewer
- Use contrasting colors to highlight text in Thumbnail
- Thumbnail must conform to YouTube’s community guidelines
7. Increase high-retention to develop a strong YouTube channel and increase monetization
Here are the factors to increase high-retention:
- Subscribe: Viewers subscribe to your channel after watching a video
- Share Video: The number of shares of a video reflects the quality of the video.
- Click-Through-Rate (CTR): The percentage of viewers who clicked on your video when they saw a search result.
- Thumbs up/Thumbs down: Thumbs up/Thumbs down will show users’ reactions when watching videos including Like and Unlike.
- Video length: The longer the video, the better it will rank on Youtube.
8. Share videos on major social networking sites
Once you have done the above steps, you need to share that video on social networking sites that are highly appreciated by Google such as Facebook, Twitter …. You should share it with very attractive content to attract customers to watch your video.
9. Build backlinks pointing to the video channel
You need to create quality articles, then insert the link of the video into it. Next is to proceed to share the article content on forums or social networking sites such as Linkedin, Slideshare.
Create a blog to embed video links that need SEO, you can embed in the homepage or video-related articles. Build backlinks from newspaper websites to get quality backlink sources.
The bottom line
To build a growing YouTube channel, YouTube SEO will be a must-do, especially for those who want to make money from this platform. The above article of Ola City shared with you the most effective and simple ways to optimize YouTube SEO in 2021. Hope you will do it successfully. Good luck!
Best regards,
Ola City Global
