Film, edit, upload, right? Wrong!
There’s a little more to YouTube than uploading to your channel and hoping for the best. It doesn’t matter whether you have a million subscribers or one hundred, implementing the correct Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies on a YouTube video are one of the most important ways in which a video ranks and becomes visible in search results.
I am often asked by fellow video content creators on YouTube and aspiring YouTubers how to get more visible on the platform. While providing regular and consistent content is one of the best ways to gain subscribers and build an audience (something I have totally failed at in 2017), there are a few other strategies you can apply to your video so that a specific audience is more likely to find you.
Over the past year, I have been using TubeBuddy, the self proclaimed ‘Premier Youtube Management Toolkit‘ thanks to a weekend binge session of Roberto Blake’s very informative videos on how to grow a YouTube Channel. YouTube is a very difficult platform to break into considering over 400 hours of video are uploaded a minute so getting noticed isn’t that simple, however getting demonetised is- Go figure!
SEO & KEYWORDS
This is the formula for winning YouTube rankings- Keywords in the video title that match the description and also tags. Title, description and tags. These are the 3 areas that all need to connect in SEO. This is why you’ll see in all my videos a short description that relates back to my title and keywords in tags, it usually means nothing and is regurgitated wording but I’m just giving my videos a little more incentive to rank better on Google and in search. I also connect all of my blog posts with the full title and link. It’s extra work yes, but as you’ll see in my personal examples provided below, it’s important and worth the troubles.
Who owns Youtube? Google. What do I always say? Make Google happy. As a content creator you need to learn how to be good friends with Google. As opposed to blog posts and in terms of video content, Google has absolutely no idea what your video is about unless you inform it in all the necessary fields above.
MY PERSONAL EXAMPLES
When I first started YouTube last summer, I hit a jackpot with my Yoga Challenge and Topless at Plitvice videos, combined they have over 250,000 views. One video is a typical Youtube “trend” and the other is pure clickbait. These two videos showed me quite quickly how fast I could grow if I maintained this type of content and strategy. I’m bringing these two videos up because I was very intrigued the information a plugin like TubeBuddy provided me with when I looked into the digital-behaviour of my audience. TubeBuddy was able to provide me with the exact words people were typing into search in relation to the videos. I had people searching for my videos in Spanish, Arabic even Chinese, which meant that in my tags, I knew exactly which keywords to put, also in these languages.
TubeBuddy also enabled me to see which keywords and tags other content creators have put in their videos. This is useful because if I have a video that is similar to theirs, I am more likely to rank better by placing the same keywords. I am also more likely to rank above them because through these insights, I can exploit anything they are not doing and use it to my advantage or implement a stronger strategy.
Through TubeBuddy, I am also able to see exactly where I and others rank on YouTube with the keywords (the green provided in the examples below) in the video.
Under the keyword “One Year Sober,” my video ranks #4 in search in results of over 900k. Sometimes variations in the word such as using a number instead of spelling it out are beneficial. For example, “1 Year Sober” ranks at #5 and out of over 3.4million other videos in search. “What to expect in alcohol addiction recovery” is ranked #6 out of 500k.
You’ll also notice I ranked #1 in “Adriana Kupresak sober video.” I know that this is a no-brainer because there is only one video in regards to my sobriety out there, this has nothing to do with the point I’m about to make. The fact that these keywords are showing up with a green box indicate that people are searching for my sober story online with those exact 4 key words. Analytics are freaky, but they show everything.
Keep in mind that just because my tags are strong now, doesn’t mean they’ll be strong forever. Google rankings are always changing. I may move up or down, depending on what other content is produced in the future. There may be stronger videos that people respond to well that end up out-ranking some of my keywords which is why it’s important to always go back to double check and tighten your content.
This also shows you why some videos rank on the first page of search results on YouTube, despite not having millions of views. You don’t need millions of views to rank on the first page of YouTube search, you just need to make sure you have the correct tags that connect to your title and description.
Here’s another example from my videos this year. I went to Sea Star Festival in Umag, Croatia. You can see that out of “Umag Croatia Vlog” I ranked #7. This is good. Then you’ll notice I become a little psychotic with the keyword “Fatboy Slim,” who was also the headliner for the festival. As a world class DJ, I am aware his live sets are searched into YouTube so I have exploited this to my full advantage. Sea Star Festival is also an annual Festival run by the same team who look at EXIT in Serbia. When they begin promoting Sea Star Festival 2018, I am confident that my video will begin to trend again as people type the words “Sea Star Festival Umag Croatia” to decide whether they should attend or not.
Back to my psychotic keyword variations. Notice how even though it’s often the same words but only a space difference or rewording? They still rank and I am accommodating for whichever spelling and/or wording the user is typing into search. Another keyword I used here and rarely use, is my first name with the letter “j” in it. It showed up on my analytics, I don’t why because it’s not the correct spelling of my name but regardless, my video shows up in those search results when you enter “Adrijana Kupresak Umag.“
Have you noticed how I always put my own name as a keyword in these examples? This ensures that the next video that will play after the one you’re currently watching, is also another one of my videos, keeping you on my channel. Every single video on your channel should have your name and your channel’s name as one of the tags.
You have up to 500 characters to use in Youtube tagging so, tag wisely and strategically.