Every year, an increasing number of people around the world view content through the internet in video format. Video content holds a great deal of promise and value, but the approach to capturing an audience will be distinct from the usual search engine optimization plan.
Including SEO in your video marketing plan is still essential. You can use certain strategies for optimizing Youtube videos so that they get a higher ranking on Google.
What is Video SEO?
Video SEO is different from SEO for search engines. Youtube is the next most popular search engine after Google, and has its own distinct set of keywords, search functionality, and aims for users to go off of.
The fact that Google owns YouTube is advantageous in terms of SEO because it allows for your videos to be linked with the other content you have created.
Investigations conducted via Youtube have a separate goal, which will be expressed in the keyword analysis you undertake. For this situation, the goal of the search would not be to make a purchase, but rather to gain knowledge on a topic.
Some people will prefer not to find out where to purchase a stir fry; instead, they would like to watch a video demonstrating how to make the simplest and fastest stir fry.
Youtube will provide them with a list of closely related videos to watch after they have chosen a video to view. Youtube produces video content that is based on what the user is actively searching for as well as past records of what they have watched.
If your keyword research is targeted towards a specific audience, it is possible for your videos to maintain and sustain a high ranking in suggested videos.
You cannot simply switch between search words used on Google and the ones used on YouTube when dealing with video optimization for search engine purposes. Although some overlap may occur, you must deal with each purpose of searching in its own way.
Best Practices for Video SEO
1. Video Thumbnails must be Eye-catching.
Similar to how someone selects what website to visit when using a search engine based on the meta description and their objective, people mainly use the thumbnail image when deciding what video to watch.
If you do not deliberately create thumbnails for your video, then Youtube will randomly select an image from it for you. Beware, the image of your thumbnail may not turn out to be as you expected, it could be a person making a funny expression or a pointless capture.
These thumbnails give an inaccurate representation of the video’s content, and by extension, are detrimental to your brand’s image in terms of professionalism.
Make your thumbnails relevant to the topic and eye-catching. By glancing at the photograph, it is immediately evident what the video is concerning, and the distinct pops of yellow against the violet background draw attention quickly.
2. Your Title Tag Must Relate to the Video
People will select a video that is relevant to their query when attempting to locate something through a search. If someone clicks on their video and it doesn’t meet their expectations based on their search query, they will quickly leave and look for an alternative. Google and YouTube might detect this, and it could result in a decrease in your search engine rankings.
Google will also punish you if you attempt to fool people into watching your video by labeling it with irrelevant keywords.
Investigate some search terms and create effective headings for your HTML tags.
3. Contextual Video Description
Your video description works much like a meta description. They ought to be brief and succinct, with a few relevant words incorporated.
Do not cram your keywords into the explanation, and do not deceive people with a false representation. Penalties will apply if you do.
Search engines like Google scan your video description, so ensure that it contains the information that viewers are looking for when trying to find your content.
4. Tag your Video Appropriately
Video tags help categorize your video. When your video title, description and tags are in sync, it can boost your video’s ranking in search engine results.
Video tags assist Google in locating videos that meet the purpose of what is being searched and can aid users in discovering other comparable videos by selecting the tags to search with.
To add a tag to your Video:
- Sign in to your Youtube Studio. (You should have one if you have a Gmail account.)
- On the side menu on the right, select CONTENT and select the video you would like to add tags to.
- Add your tags.
You can also do this via mobile.
5. Upload your Video’s Transcript
Creating a written version of your video recording is likely the most effective suggestion we can give you to help your video’s search engine optimization. The words that show up in the closed captions of a video make up its transcript. They can also be found in the remarks beneath the video.
The conversation should focus on the primary subject of the research and contain any relevant keywords, so these will be visible in the transcript. But there are more benefits to uploading your transcript, including:
- Google crawls the text for SEO ranking.
- It allows people who have hearing difficulties to follow along with your video content as well.
If you put the transcript in the details or remarks part, you can include time markers for essential points, that way those who are looking for answers straight away can go to the accurate time and get the material that they need.
6. Make longer videos
The Briggsby study—which we mentioned earlier—also came to two findings about the relationship between the ranking and the length of the videos:
- videos with less than 2 minutes tend to be poorly positioned;
- the average duration of the first 5 positions is 11min 44s.
It would be beneficial to begin investing in videos that have a longer duration, which would be roughly 10 minutes long.
They likely satisfy the desires of those looking for content that is more comprehensive and thorough. Videos that are shorter than 2 minutes are often not as detailed.
We don’t suggest you have to stay within those figures, understand? These findings serve only to provide guidance.
It is important to note: the quality of the video is more important than how long it is. Don’t stress out too much about buying the most extended video if you make an investment in content that is of high quality.
7. Increase CTR in search results
The percentage of users clicking on your video out of the whole list of search results is referred to as the Click-Through Rate (CTR).
For YouTube, having a high click-through rate denotes that the video was related to the search term the user typed in. Therefore, click-through rate (CTR) is a vital component of rankings.
But of course, you cannot directly influence that rate. You can boost the likelihood that users will select your video.
8. Increase audience engagement
We can draw parallels between SEO for Google and the advice we provided previously; this is pertaining to on-site SEO, which means anything that the publisher can modify.
Off-page SEO consists of elements that cannot be manipulated by the site itself. When it comes to Google, it’s mostly about link creation, or the connections with other websites and obtaining backlinks from them.
For YouTube, the process of creating backlinks is not a part of the ranking criteria. No matter how often a video is linked on other websites, the algorithm does not take this into account when determining its ranking, though it does help attract more viewers.
In contrast, on the video platform, it can be said that off-page SEO involves connecting with the viewers.
In the end, it isn’t up to the channel how much feedback it gets or how many views a video has; the channel can just encourage users to engage more. And that has great weight for the algorithm!
So always encourage your viewers to interact in some way with your video:
- like (the famous line “give us a thumbs up!”);
- comment;
- subscribe to the channel;
- share the video.
The impact of these factors on YouTube rankings demonstrates if the video lived up to or surpassed the viewers’ preferences.
It is noteworthy to mention that one of the most effective strategies for generating comments is to respond to them! Therefore, users experience a sense of being appreciated and tend to return regularly to participate in the conversation.
It is likewise crucial to incorporate techniques to keep the viewer focused on the video until its conclusion. Google evaluates if what you are providing is of real interest to the audience, which is critical.
If not, the viewers would quickly stop watching the video, resulting in a negative influence on its position in the ratings. You could, for example, give a reward to anyone who watches the video to completion.
9. Aim to create high-retention videos
Any marketer who is well-versed in their profession will explain that the amount of time spent on a website is extremely relevant for search engine optimization.
The more time an individual takes to look through a page or website, the more appealing it will appear to search engines, resulting in a higher ranking.
This same principle can be found on YouTube.
The measurement of audience retention looks at how much of a video a person actually views before choosing to view something else, and this is very significant for YouTube search engine optimization.
That’s not just a theory, either. YouTube has explicitly stated that good retention rates (being close to 100%) is a major factor which is taken into account when ranking videos. Therefore, you should do your best to ensure your videos keep the viewer’s attention throughout.
You don’t have to possess costly camera equipment or be a technical expert to create good quality videos that people will stay engaged with.
Concentrate on creating exceptional videos that are brief, captivating, and offer a lot of worth.
Divide your videos into smaller parts that make consuming your content simpler for viewers.
Don’t take up too much time with your introduction and start talking about the most important parts of your subject quickly to captivate your viewers.
10. Keep a close eye on your analytics
The only accurate measure of the effectiveness of an SEO plan for YouTube is to keep track of your analytics information.
This is the most effective method for determining what is effective with your videos and what needs to be improved.
Gratefully, YouTube includes an extremely useful analytics function that is already programmed in. Here are some essential metrics to know.
Watch Time
The aggregate amount of time users interact with your content.
Impressions CTR
The speed at which people choose to watch your video after first seeing it on their main page.
Card CTR
Like what was mentioned before, this also applies to YouTube cards that are incorporated into your content.
Traffic Sources
Where did users come from and how did they locate your content?
Unique Viewers
The estimated amount of people who see your content within a certain amount of time.
Subscriber Growth
Examine the shifts in the number of subscribers in relation to places, individual videos, and intervals of time.
Observing these measures in unison should provide a great insight as to what your public is responding to.
If a given video performance is significantly better or worse than average, think about what makes it unique and modify your plan accordingly.
Should You Host a Video on Your Website or on Youtube?
The location where your video is hosted is essential for its search engine optimization. Should you put it on your website or post it on YouTube?
Hosting the Video on Your Site:
PROS
- You maintain control of your intellectual property. Your website is your online real estate and you don’t have to agree to pages of terms and conditions for the use of your video.
- You can put your videos behind a paywall or subscription wall.
CONS
- You might need more server space than usual to host your video, especially if it’s long or a large file. You could spend extra money for more server space if you have a lot of your video content hosted on your site.
- Youtube has a lot of traffic, probably a lot more than your website does. You can miss out on that incidental reach, and ‘suggested next’ traffic.
Uploading your Video to Youtube
PROS
- Youtube is the second largest search engine (next to Google) and is tailored for video.
- Youtube might suggest your video with their “Suggested Video” feature if your video is properly optimized, leading to more potential views..
- Youtube can use your transcript to feed to Google Bots. It can also make an approximation of your transcript from the video you upload. You’ll be able to edit the transcript draft once available.
CONS
- You have to agree to Youtube’s terms and conditions before you upload content.
- Because it is Youtube, if they disagree with your content, they can pull it down.
Key Takeaways
Mobile networks that offer superfast speeds and phones that are more powerful let people view video while they are out and about, but you should optimize your videos using SEO techniques in order to target this audience.
Your research requirements for video SEO are fundamentally similar to, but distinct from, traditional SEO study. Take the same amount of effort you would in researching other keywords and put it into investigating video SEO. Begin your journey with our guide on doing keyword research on Youtube.
It is important to include title tags, descriptions, and transcripts, all of which should contain keywords, in order to boost your video SEO rankings.
