YouTube SEO: A 9 Step YouTube Video SEO Guide

With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is one of the major social media platforms in the world. However, many marketers fail to recognise that YouTube is also one of the most popular search engines, being the second most visited site after Google. This means that in order to optimise your content for YouTube SEO, you must know the best practices to adopt in order to increase the visibility of your content and increase your following. 

Due to the fact that YouTube SEO is different to most social media platforms, we have created a list of YouTube SEO tips for you to expand your reach. 

9 YouTube SEO tips 

1. Find keywords to improve YouTube SEO 

Keywords on YouTube differ to those on other search engines such as Google. For example, many YouTube keywords start with ‘how to’ rather than a specific word. In order to improve your YouTube SEO, you can search ‘how to’ followed by keywords within your niche which should then give you video results. You should then take note of the keywords that appear in the videos on Google’s search results pages to use as inspiration for your own YouTube video SEO.

2.  Optimise your video title 

Optimising your video title is an essential part of YouTube SEO. Much like regular SEO, including keywords in your title will attract more visitors to your videos. In order to optimise your video titles, you should include keywords from your research in order to increase your chances of maximising the visibility of your content. If you are unsure of how to optimise your video title, you can opt to hire an agency that specialises in SEO services which will boost your YouTube SEO. 

3. Ask people to leave comments 

One of the key aspects of YouTube SEO optimisation is that YouTube’s algorithm favours videos that receive a lot of comments. This is why you should consider asking your audience to leave comments under your videos, so that you can rank higher on YouTube’s results pages. For example, you can pose a question to your audience which can start discussions in the comments section of your videos. 

4. Ask people to subscribe to your channel 

Subscribing to different channels is a distinctive YouTube feature that shows the number of people that are interested in your content. The more subscribers your YouTube channel receives, the more discoverable your content is. Once a person subscribes to your channel, your videos will appear on their own YouTube feed, which makes them more likely to click on your videos. 

5. Add closed captions 

Another YouTube SEO technique is to include closed captions in all of your videos. Closed captions serve the purpose of providing subtitles for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, however, they also optimise your videos for YouTube SEO. This is because closed captions can be crawled by bots on search engines, so it is worth considering to write a transcript of your videos which can then be transferred to closed captions. 

6. Promote your YouTube videos on social media 

Social media is arguably one of the best ways to share your YouTube content. From Facebook to LinkedIn, the major social channels have options to post shareable YouTube links. This enhances your visibility on other mediums, which makes it more likely for you to attract a wider audience. 

7. Improve your YouTube content 

Whilst there are several existing YouTube SEO hacks that prove to be successful for many businesses and YouTube influencers, your content must be engaging in order to attract a large following. Your YouTube videos should be innovative and authentic, which will make your content stand out from the rest. 

8. Get featured on another channel 

YouTube is swarming with YouTube influencers with massive followings. You should take advantage of the millions of content creators on the platform by becoming featured on their channels. Whether it is an influencer, or a business, getting featured on a different channel can help you to gain exposure on YouTube. However, make sure that the channel that you partner with belongs to a different niche, otherwise you could be at risk of losing your subscribers to the other channel. 

9. Create a captivating thumbnail 

Producing an eye-catching thumbnail is another YouTube SEO tool that will make your content clickable. The more clicks that your videos receive means better SEO for your channel. Your thumbnail is the first image that your audience sees before viewing your videos, so you must ensure that it is captivating. 

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