How to Make Videos More Visible in YouTube Search

How does SEO for YouTube work? How do you prepare your YouTube videos for search? These questions have a more straightforward solution than you might imagine.

Even while it could seem challenging to gain any exposure on YouTube, you can use specific tactics to make sure that the search engine algorithm gives you preference.

Regardless of the size of your channel, we’ll cover tested YouTube SEO tactics in this post that have helped HubSpot’s channel and will help you as well. Let’s get going.

Like any search engine, YouTube aims to provide results that specifically address the user’s query. For instance, YouTube won’t show a video on “how to tie your shoelaces” if someone searches for “how to tie a tie.” Instead, it will present search outcomes that address that particular query.

Consider how you might add words and phrases your target audience uses as you experiment with YouTube SEO.

You should also consider YouTube metrics and engagement. YouTube views “watch time,” or the number of times people spends watching your video when ranking videos. A long watch time indicates that your material is worthwhile; a short watch time indicates that your content is probably not going to rank.

Try to generate material that is optimized for longer watch periods if you want your videos to rank. For example, by promising a surprise or prize, you might entice viewers to stick around until the very end of the film.

Does YouTube video optimization make sense?

It might seem pointless to try and rank videos on YouTube. The platform only seems to work for the most well-known influencers and content producers.

That’s not the case, though. As long as you identify the correct audience for your content, your company can benefit from views, comments, and likes on its videos. Finding and focusing on the right audience is actually more crucial than making a “beautiful” video. 90% of the work involved in YouTube optimization has already been completed if you actively address the issues that your potential customers have in your YouTube videos.

Even though it might not seem like it, rating YouTube videos are an important part of your inbound marketing plan. Inbound video marketing novel concept just a decade ago. Marketers began to realize that in addition to publishing a lot of material,

they also need to ensure that high quality and optimized for search engines.

The written word is used as the main source of that content. That’s not the situation anymore. A complete content strategy now encompasses both written content (such as blogs and ebooks) and visual content (such as podcasts, visual assets, and videos). The necessity to optimize them for search has also increased with the popularity of alternative content forms. YouTube is one of the most significant places to do that.

Don’t worry if you’re feeling lost. In order to successfully optimize your content for YouTube search, we include the most crucial YouTube SEO guidelines below.

Tips for YouTube SEO

• Use a target keyword in the renaming of your video file.
• In the video title, organically incorporate your keyword.
• Improve the description of your video.
• Add well-known keywords to your video that are relevant to your subject.
• Classify your video.
• Add a unique thumbnail image to the result link for your video.
• To add closed captions and subtitles, use an SRT file.
• To grow the number of people who watch your YouTube channel, add Cards and End Screens.
• To expand your audience, use hashtags.
• Make a playlist that addresses the broad subject of your film.
• Post a pinned comment on your own video if you choose.

Use a target keyword in the renaming of your video file.

Similar to how you would when optimizing written material, you would first choose the keywords your video should concentrate on using an SEO tool (you can browse popular YouTube SEO tools below these tips, or just click that link earlier in this sentence).

Before you even publish your video to YouTube, you should add the keyword in your video file as the first place to use it. Why? There are only so many places you can safely enter this keyword on your video’s watching page once it has been released, as you’ll discover in the instructions below, and YouTube can’t actually “see” your video to determine how relevant it is to your target keyword. However, YouTube can read the file name of your video as well as all the accompanying code.

In light of this, change the file name “business ad 003FINAL.mov” to your chosen keyword. Don’t be embarrassed; it happened to all of us during post-production. For instance, if your keyword is “house painting tips,” the file name of your video should be “house-painting-tips” followed by the video file format you like (MOV, MP4, and WMV are some of the most common that are compatible with YouTube).

Organically incorporate your keyword into the video title.

One of the first things our eyes pull to when searching for videos is the title. The title should be not only intriguing but also succinct and clear because that is frequently what prompts the user to click to watch your movie.

Although your video’s title heavily utilizes your keyword, it also helps if it closely corresponds to what the audience is looking for. According to Backlinko’s research, videos with an exact keyword match in the title only slightly outperform those without one. Here is a linear illustration of those conclusions:

Brian Dean, the report’s author, says that although “adding your target keyword in your title may help you rank for that term,” “the association between keyword-rich video titles and rankings” isn’t necessarily a significant one. However, as long as it flows organically into a title that informs readers exactly what they’re about to see, it’s a smart idea to optimize your title for this term.

Last but not least, make sure your title isn’t too long. HubSpot campaigns manager Alicia Collins suggests keeping it to 60 characters or less to avoid having it cut off in results pages.

Improve the description of your video.

Videos YouTube: Priorities first The official character restriction for YouTube video descriptions is 1,000 characters, according to Google. Although it’s acceptable to occupy all of that space, keep in mind that your audience most likely came to this page to watch a video rather than read an essay.

Remember that YouTube only shows the top two or three lines of text, or roughly 100 characters, if you decide to create a longer description. Viewers must then click “show more” to view the entire description after that. We advise front-loading the description with the most relevant details, such as CTAs or important links.

Dean is careful not to advocate completely removing an optimizing description. According to him, “the suggested videos sidebar is a big source of views for most channels. An optimized description helps you show up in the sidebar.”

Add well-known keywords to your video that are relevant to your subject.

Videos YouTube: To help people understand what your video is about, YouTube advises utilizing tags. However, you’re not only educating your audience; you’re also educating YouTube. The purpose of tags, according to Dean, is to help the platform “understand the content and context of your video.”

In this manner, YouTube learns how to link your video to other related videos, which can increase the audience for your material. However, pick your tags carefully. Use relevant tags instead of irrelevant ones if you want to increase views; otherwise, Google may penalize you. Similar to your description, start your page’s headline with the most crucial keywords, a decent mix of which are long-tail (that is, those that address questions like “how to do I?”).

Classify your video.

A video can categorize after it has been uploaded under “Advanced options.” On YouTube, selecting a category is another approach to organizing your video with related content so that it appears in various playlists and is seen by more people who fit your target audience.

Add a unique thumbnail image to the result link for your video.

Videos YouTube: The primary image that viewers see while navigating through a list of video results is your video’s thumbnail. This thumbnail, together with the video’s title,

informs viewers about the video’s subject matter, which might affect how many clicks and views your video gets.

Although you can always choose from the auto-generated thumbnail options provided by YouTube, we strongly advise creating a personalized thumbnail. Images with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1280×720 pixels should be used,

according to YouTube. These images should be stored as 2MB or smaller.jpg,.gif,.bmp, or.png files. Following those guidelines can help to guarantee that your thumbnail displays in the same high quality on various viewing platforms.

It’s crucial to remember that in order to upload a custom thumbnail image, your YouTube account must be confirmed. Visit youtube.com/verify and follow the directions there to accomplish that.

To add closed captions and subtitles, use an SRT file.

Videos YouTube: Closed captions and subtitles, like most of the other content we’ve addressed here, can improve YouTube search performance by emphasizing relevant phrases.

Similar steps followed when adding subtitles, however,

you can choose how much text is shown. Go to your video manager and select “Videos” from the list of options there. Click the drop-down arrow next to the edit button after locating the video to which you want to add close captions or subtitles. Next, select “Subtitles/CC.” The method for adding close captions or subtitles is then your choice.

To grow the number of people who watch your YouTube channel, add Cards and End Screens.
Cards

Videos YouTube: Have you ever been viewing a video when a tiny white circle with an I in the center or a transparent bar of text inviting you to subscribe appears in the corner? Cards performance notifications that appear on desktop and mobile devices may be set up to promote your brand and other videos on your channel, according to YouTube.

There are six different sorts of cards, and you can add up to five to a single movie.

• viewers to another channel using channel cards.
• Cards for donations that promote fundraising for American nonprofit groups.
• Asking your audience to contribute to the creation of your video content through fan finance.
• Link cards that point users to external websites, authorized platforms for crowdsourcing, or authorized platforms for selling goods.
• poll cards, which ask viewers a question and let them choose a response.
• cards for videos or playlists that link to similar YouTube material.

screen ends

Similar information is displayed on end screens as it is on cards, but end screens are more graphically detailed and, as you might have guessed, only appear after a video finish playing. An excellent illustration is an overlay with a book image and a visible link to watch the video below in more detail:

Videos YouTube: Depending on the kind of platform you want to design end screens for and the various kinds of content that YouTube permits for them,

there are a variety of specific instructions for adding end screens. Here, Google provides specific instructions on how to optimize for each of those factors.

You should be aware that YouTube frequently tests end screens in an effort to improve the viewing experience, so occasionally “your end screen,

as specified by you, may not show.” When deciding whether to use cards or end screens, keep these things in mind.

These elements might seem a little time-consuming and sophisticated, but keep in mind that the amount of time individuals spend watching YouTube on their TV is increasing significantly in the past year.

To expand your audience, use hashtags.

Like on LinkedIn or Instagram, hashtags are a recent addition to the YouTube user interface that let you add related terms to your material. Hashtags appear directly above the title of your video for quick clicking and discoverability. Use your company name, as HubSpot does in the example below, or add relevant keywords.

Additionally, we advise you to use hashtags in your YouTube description, but keep it in check—the YouTube algorithm is continuously looking for spam.

Make a playlist that addresses the broad subject of your film.

Create keyword-focused playlists for the videos as you continue to add them to your content repository. This will not only provide YouTube with more information on the subject matter of your films,

but it will also encourage people to watch more of them, raising your view count and, thus, ranking.

For instance, the “5-15 min Yoga Classes” playlist on Yoga with Kassandra compiles all of the short yoga sessions. The playlist description also includes words like “10-minute yoga sessions,” “10-minute morning yoga stretches,” and “bedtime yoga classes,” in addition to the playlist’s succinct and precise title.

Post a pinned comment on your own video if you choose.

Although leaving a comment on your video may appear excessive, it’s a wise move. More comments boost your video’s rankability, but they can increase audience engagement if you play your cards well. A pinned comment may receive hundreds of responses, as Matt D’Avelia did below.