YouTube is one of the most subscribed social media channels in the world. With endless scope for posting creative video content and campaigns for specific audiences, YouTube is an essential part of any brand’s content marketing strategy. However, to grow a YouTube channel, it is essential to optimize your video content so that users can find it in search results. As one of the largest search engines in the world, knowing how to navigate YouTube SEO will ensure your content ranks and is seen by your audience. Here are helpful YouTube SEO guidelines to help you stand out in your niche and make sure your target audience finds your great social video content on the platform.

How do you rank for keywords on YouTube?

When considering how to rank videos on YouTube, you should start by putting yourself in the shoes of your viewers. You should also know where to place your potential keywords.

What are YouTube keyword ranking tips?

Here are the main areas where you should add your target keywords (as naturally as possible) to your YouTube videos:
Title: The main descriptive title for your YouTube video.Description: Below the header, you’ll see a line of content with the key term for vacation rentals seamlessly added to the content. This is the part where you can build your headline and tell your viewers why they should see your content.
Tags: When you upload a YouTube video, you can add relevant tags that represent the topic or content of the video. Here you should always add your target phrase as well as similar variations (as long as they are relevant to what you are offering).

How do you find keywords that rank on YouTube?

Once you’ve considered the main type of term you’ll hit the search bar to find your video content on, you can start experimenting. You can check out 5 Steps to Keyword Research if you need help finding the right keywords.
When you start typing a query into YouTube’s search bar, a series of suggested popular searches will appear (very similar to Google). From here, you can find inspiration for your content’s target keyword. Another savvy way to discover keywords that rank well for your videos is to explore YouTube’s latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords. LSI keywords will help your video rank on Google as well as YouTube, maximizing your reach in the process. You can find potential LSI keywords at the bottom of relevant Google searches, and again, use these phrases or terms to inspire YouTube SEO.

How do you do YouTube SEO optimization and YouTube audits?

Successful YouTube SEO optimization requires checking your existing content. Doing so will give you the insights you need to update the relevancy factors for your existing videos so they rank better for relevant platform searches. Here’s how to do a YouTube SEO check.

Create an inventory

Create a list of all your current YouTube videos and include all the necessary stats, including title, description, tags, keywords, views, and watch duration. Once you’ve created your inventory, you can analyze your YouTube content to see what’s performing well and which isn’t. From there, you can decide which videos are worth optimizing and which you might want to hide or remove.

Explore your title and description

Armed with a bird’s-eye view of your YouTube video content and a solid idea of ​​what needs improvement, you can test your videos to apply your keyword research skills.
After conducting your YouTube keyword research, you can start thinking about optimizing your video’s title and description tags, optimizing them with relevant terms or phrases as needed.

Implement a mix of YouTube optimization tactics

During your YouTube SEO audit, you can check for any major opportunities to link certain videos to other content, such as blog posts. At this point, you should also check for any problematic duplicates or code to eliminate any issues that might be hindering your rankings. Once you’ve completed the process, you can implement a combination of optimization tactics, which we’ll discuss now.

Some useful YouTube SEO tips

Now that you know the essential elements of YouTube SEO, let’s see how you can further optimize your content with these helpful tips.

Use target keywords in your video file, title, and description

First of all, to optimize your YouTube content for better ranking, you should rename your video file and add your target keyword (this will help YouTube SEO crawlers rank your content). friend). As mentioned above, it is essential to include the target keyword or term in your video title (as close to the top of the page as possible) as well as the description. This will give your video the best possible chance to rank well for the right key terms.

Categorize your YouTube videos correctly

When you upload your video to the platform, there is an option to categorize it in the ‘advanced settings section of YouTube.
When you enter advanced settings and go to classification options, consider these factors to make sure your video is in the most relevant sections for a better chance of being shown by being added to curated playlists:

• Who are the most popular creators in this category and what are their strengths?
• Is my content directly relevant to this category and does it provide any value to these viewers?
• Do other videos in this category share many of the same characteristics as my content in terms of duration, production value, tone, or theme?

Upload a custom YouTube thumbnail image

Another notable YouTube content optimization tip is to add a custom thumbnail image to your video.

While YouTube will automatically select thumbnails for your videos as they appear in the search rankings, 90% of the best-ranking videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails.

So spend some time sourcing and editing compelling images that represent your video content, and you’re likely to drive more engagement while boosting your YouTube SEO authority.

Increase engagement with Add Cards & End Screens

One surefire way to increase engagement and viewership is to use Add Cards and End Screens. When you’re watching a video on YouTube, you’ll see an ‘i’ in the top right corner of the screen. They appear when you use the Add tag option. After the user clicks on the ‘i’, they will see options like subscribe, share, or respond to a poll.
By using Add tags and deciding how you want to encourage viewers to engage with your content, you’ll increase your video’s engagement and reach, and ultimately boost your YouTube SEO rankings.
The end screen shows additional information or interactive content options at the end of the video. Adding these has the potential to encourage viewers to continue engaging with your content and brand.

Stay up to date with emerging trends

Last but certainly not least, heart rate capture will ensure that you can keep moving with the changes. Regularly subscribe to relevant industry forums from influential creators on YouTube and other video-based platforms like TikTok to stay abreast of changes and continue to optimize your videos for success and maximum success.