YouTube SEO process helps you to rank high in YouTube's organic search results by optimizing your YouTube channel, playlists and videos. Several factors used to rank your videos on YouTube are title, description and content of videos. High engagement is the key factor for effective video SEO. The engagement metrics include comments, click-through rate (CTR), average watch time of videos, clicks and more. Following are the steps for you to rank your videos higher in YouTube search:
A. Renaming of Video File: You will have to use YouTube SEO tools to analyze the focus keyword for your video. Then rename the YouTube file once the keyword is identified. For example, if your focus keyword is 'powerful SEO tools' then you should rename your video file as 'powerful-seo-tools' followed by your preferred file type (WMV, MP4 or MOV).
B. Thumbnail Image for your Video: The main image that viewers observe when browsing through a list of video results is termed as 'Video Thumbnail'. Be sure that your customized thumbnail (saved as file type PNG, BMP, GIF or JPG) is of high quality. Thus, you can expect an increase in the number of views or clicks your video receives.
C. SRT File Usage: Highlighting important keywords through subtitles and closed captions can boost search engine optimization (SEO) of your YouTube channel. Upload an SRT file to add subtitles or closed captioning.
D. Use of End Screens: They cannot be observed until a video is over. Viewers can receive detailed information from end screens and there are several instructions for adding them in your YouTube videos.
E. Optimization of Video Description: The description of a YouTube video should not exceed five thousand characters. It is recommended to add important information in the front-loading description because YouTube displays the first two or three lines of text to the viewers. Your video can easily get listed in the suggested videos sidebar if it has an optimized description.
F. Video Tagging: Using tags (relevant keywords) helps the YouTube search engine algorithm to understand the context and content of your video. Do not use irrelevant keywords or else you might get penalized by Google. Always consider the most important long-tail keywords for your YouTube videos.
G. Addition of Keyword in Video Title: Viewers search for videos on YouTube and the first thing they observe is the title of videos. Thus, the title should be clear, concise and compelling. The video title closely matching with the keyword searched by a viewer also helps to improve the CTR. Digital Marketing Boy suggests you limit the title of your video to 60 characters.
H. Categorization of Video: Choose a category for your video once you upload it on a YouTube channel. This step assists you with exposure to the targeted audience. Digital marketers can easily determine the category of each video through a comprehensive process.
I. Addition of Cards: Promote videos and brand on your channel by adding a maximum of five cards to the small white circular icon (with an 'i' appear in the corner) of a YouTube video. Six types of cards are link cards, fan funding, donation cards, poll cards, playlist cards and channel cards.
J. YouTube SEO Tools: Consider some of the following tools and optimize your videos for YouTube search:
Canva Thumbnail Creator: This tool can create a perfect thumbnail for a YouTube video. Canva can also be used to create logos, photos, cards and more.
Google Analytics: A web analytics platform to track the performance of web pages including YouTube videos. You can also analyze the traffic sources on each web page. Google Analytics is one of the powerful SEO tools.
vidIQ: A chrome extension helps you to analyze the performance of YouTube videos. The metrics include average watch time, keywords used to optimize a video and the traffic. You can refer to a functionality 'SEO Score' to optimize your YouTube video description.
TubeBuddy: The content of your YouTube videos can be managed, optimized and promoted with the help of this powerful tool. Features of TubeBuddy are rank tracker, recommendations of keywords, automatic language translator and more.
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer: One of the powerful SEO tools 'Ahrefs' allows you to research keywords on YouTube platform. Get information such as monthly search volume of keywords, related keywords, ranked videos for that keyword and clicks received by videos.
Learn everything you need to know about the YouTube's algorithm.