What is Youtube SEO?

When we talk about SEO, Google is probably the first thing that comes to our head. And why won't it be? Google is the top most search engines in the world. Well, do you know which is the second largest search engine in the world? If you are here reading this article, you probably know that it's none other than YouTube! With over 2 billion logged in users and 500 hours of content uploaded every minute, YouTube has turned out to be the second largest search engine after Google. And that's why, a YouTube marketing strategy becomes an inevitable part of your business needs. The question is how? How to do YouTube marketing? How do I promote YouTube videos with a great if not the best YouTube SEO strategy. For a quickstart guide to all of these questions, let us start with a few Youtube SEO tips for a robust Youtube seo strategy.

● Make use of the connection:

Since Google is the owner for YouTube, videos hosted on YouTube platform rank high on Google. One of the best ways is to make use of this and create content around the topics that are getting more engagement.

● Keyword density:

Like Google, YouTube's mechanism gives quite some significance to keywords. So use the right keywords but don't stuff them in. Youtube hates keyword stuffing and will reduce your rank drastically considering you as a spammer. Also, you'll notice that keywords on YouTube are different than those on Google. This is because they're usually query based. Eg: "How to make a salad" or "step by step salad recipe" Unlike "Salad Recipe" for Google. The easiest way to find keywords relating to your domain is to use YouTube's search bar for the most searched terms.

● Optimise your content:

This is by far the most significant reason to look into, before starting off with your Youtube SEO strategy.

If you're someone from the digital landscape, you must've heard how "Content is the king". It goes without saying that your users will stop watching your videos, the second they feel uninterested or face quality issues. Make sure that your content is engaging enough. At times you can also create videos that your audience isn't expecting but will like to watch, for arising quick interest.

● Watch the time length:

The time length of your video majorly affects your YouTube SEO strategy. This is because YouTube mostly considers short videos as spam, which you probably don't want yours to be marked as. A good video is at least a minute long and can be extended upto as much as you wish to, without making the viewer bored.

● Optimise the title and description:

One of the important YouTube SEO tips is optimising your video's title for character limit, relevance and the right keywords. More importantly, DO NOT spam your users. This means avoiding usage of words such as free cash and so on. Use short yet descriptive titles which are easy to understand.

The YouTube character limit for descriptions is 5000, so ensure that you use it for your right keywords and tags. Use synonymous keywords and avoid duplicated content as your YouTube SEO rank will be penalised heavily for the same. Lastly do remember your audience wants to watch videos and not read essays so don't overdo your description.

● Customise your thumbnails:

This is a great tactic when it comes to planning your Youtube marketing strategy. The first thing that a user notices on your video is nothing but the thumbnail. It's a quick overview of your content. Avoid clickbait thumbnails as it'll lead to a high number of people marking your videos as spam or not interested but do spend your time creating customized thumbnails as they make your videos stand out. Also Optimise it for size (2MB) and format being JPG, .PNG, .BMP or .GIF (1280 x 720).

● Tag it right:

Tagging is one of the best ways in which you can add your relevant keywords without making your content look stuffed. Well yes, it exists. Tags are keywords that you can add to your videos to help your audience find your content. Though tags can have your keywords, yet your description and title shouldn't eliminate their use.

● Engage your audience:

Ask your audience to comment on your posts. Read their comments. A lot of YouTubers read their comments and answer them in videos. This makes your audience feel important and interests them into commenting more. Like any other search engine, YouTube ranks popular content high and comments are one way to analyse a video's popularity.

● Ask people to subscribe:

Subscriptions add up to your revenue. Look at it like this. A viewer might watch your video once, now even though they liked your video and would like to watch more of such content, they did not subscribe due to a lack of intimation in your videos. Your competitor on the other hand ensured the "Subscribe to my channel" CTA to be present across the video and the description. The viewer might choose your competitor above you due to the right communication even though he liked both the videos equally.

● Link them up:

Building links for your videos gives YouTube an idea that you're doing good and are popular in your niche. Link your YouTube channel as well as videos to your blog, website, social media and so on.

So now that you understand the basics of "How to do YouTube marketing", go and try these tricks out on your YouTube channel. In case you're a business looking out to promote YouTube videos and need an expert to help you with a robust Youtube marketing strategy, get in touch with us at Rida Marketing. We'll not only help you with some great YouTube SEO tips, but also make it easy for you to reach out to your audience in no time. Till then, don't forget to be creative!