DISCOVER VITAL SEO TIPS FOR YOUTUBE VIDEOS
YouTube is a video-sharing platform that allows creators to build, upload and market videos online. YouTube is a powerful advertising option as it allows businesses to connect with their audience on an emotional level.
Many companies in South Africa use YouTube videos to reach and influence a specific target audience to drive sales, leads and calls to their business. Videos appearing in Top positions on YouTube (and Google) for high-traffic keywords will receive the most viewers and conversions. This article will discuss vital SEO tips that will improve the organic placement of your videos on YouTube.
CONTENT
Create interesting and high-quality content to make a name for your videos.
QUALITY CONTENT
Creating high-quality content is vital to the ranking success of your videos. Google examines how each viewer interacts with your video. If viewers are leaving your video quickly, it means your video is not offering value and will not find success on YouTube or Google. Videos must be informative, entertaining and must keep audiences engaged. Without quality content, you will never find success.
CONTENT STRATEGY
It is recommended that you produce one video per week to grow your YouTube Subscribers and Channel. You may upload 2-3 videos per week, depending on the time duration of each video, but the key element here is consistency. Be consistent with the number of videos you post each week but do not forget quality. Rather post high-quality videos less often than post poor-quality videos more often.
KEYWORDS
This includes uncovering valuable keywords to build for your video topic.
KEYWORD RESEARCH
This is the first step in marketing your videos. You must do thorough keyword research and find specific keywords to target for your video marketing campaign. Use Free Google tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner, or Google Trends to understand the traffic figures associated with each keyword. Go to Google’s Keyword Planner and type in a relevant keyword. The Keyword Planner should bring back a list of keywords and stats closely related to the keyword entered. Pick one keyword as your primary keyword.
KEYWORD TARGETING
There are about 720,000 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube every day. The markets are saturated with video content for most topics and niches. Creators should focus on Long-Tail Keywords rather than short-tail keywords to appear in top positions. Short tail keywords are 1-2 words long and have the most traffic searchers, however, they are the most competitive. Long-tail keywords are 4-7 words long and have fewer traffic searchers, but they are the easiest keywords to reach page 1 of Google and YouTube.
OPTIMIZATION
This includes optimizing your video around one or more keywords.
VIDEO TITLES
YouTube titles should be between 60 and 70 characters long. Include the primary keyword in the title of your YouTube Video and not do not exceed 100 characters. Your primary keyword should be a Long-Tail Keyword.
DESCRIPTIONS
YouTube descriptions should be at least 250 words long. Include your primary and secondary keywords in the description of your YouTube video. Descriptions should be written naturally and not spammed with keywords. You may include a website link to drive more traffic to your website too.
TAGS
Tags are keywords that help your video reach the right audience on YouTube. It’s a small SEO factor, however, it still counts towards your SEO YouTube score. Include your primary keyword and multiple variations of it in your Tags.
RIGHT CATEGORY
Providing accurate information is vital to the success of your YouTube campaigns. Be sure to select the right category (Eg Education, Entertainment, Comedy, Tutorials) so the Google algorithm can target the right people.
APPEARANCE
This includes the listing appearance of your video.
CLICKTHROUGH RATE
The listing appearance for YouTube videos is an important part of SEO as videos with higher Clickthrough Rates do much better in the rankings. A clickthrough rate measures how many people saw your video listing on YouTube and clicked on it. A good clickthrough rate is between 2-10%. Anything above 10% means you are doing exceptionally well. A Clickthrough rate of 10% and higher indicates your video is extremely appealing and relevant to the audience.
THUMBNAILS
The video thumbnails are the image and title displayed on your listing video on YouTube. The thumbnails require an eye-catching image with a title that arouses interest and curiosity. Test the appearance of different thumbnails and use Analytics to understand which thumbnail receives the highest clickthrough rates. You can hire 3rd party services to build thumbnails, or you can create them yourself using popular programs such as Canva.
ENGAGEMENT
Several forms of engagement promote your video to the first pages of YouTube.
LIKES
This is the 3rd most important SEO factor with YouTube. If videos are constructed well, they will naturally receive lots of likes. Ask your viewers to like your videos or remind them by using text messages in your videos.
COMMENTS
This is the 2nd most important SEO Factor. The audiences that comment on your videos show Google that they are extremely interested in the topic of discussion and willing to participate. Ask your viewers what they think about the subject to drive more comments.
SHARES
This is the most important SEO Factor, as it extends the reach of your videos to other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp. The more social media networks discuss your video, the higher the organic rankings. Include a Call-To-Action button to share your videos on the different platforms.
SUBSCRIBERS
Videos that receive subscribers are the best vote of confidence as they have opted to view your entire video channel. Subscribers will also be notified if you upload a new video that promote views, likes, comments, and shares. The more engagement your video receives, the higher the SEO placement.
BACKLINKS
Backlinks are like Shares, but instead of appearing on social media networks, they appear on other websites. They count as a vote of confidence and contribute greatly to your SEO rankings. Here are multiple ways to build SEO links to your YouTube video:
BLOG POSTS
Write articles for your site’s blog section and place your YouTube videos in your articles. You could include a Video Section on your website too.
GUEST POSTS
Write guest post articles for other websites and include your YouTube link in the article. Guest Post sites only accept high-quality content with 1000-2000 word articles.
ANSWER QUESTIONS
Join Answer-and-Question platforms such as Quora and include your videos in your answers for relevant questions.
PRESS RELEASE
Write a Press release and discuss the contents of your video in the article. Distribute the article with press release services.
WEB 2.0
Similar to the blog section, the information is written on another website. Popular Web 2.0 sites include Blogger, Weebly, Wix, Tumblr, and Hub Pages.
VIDEO DIRECTORIES
Submit your video to a popular video directory and bookmarking websites like Pinterest or StumbleUpon.
QUICK WAYS TO PUSHSTART YOUR NEWLY CREATED VIDEO
ADVERTISE ON YOUTUBE
Advertising your videos on YouTube is affordable. You only pay for viewers who stayed on your video for longer than 30 seconds, or who interacted with one of your video elements. (Link, Subscription, Like, Comment, Share). The view will cost between 20 Cents and 6 Rand, depending on the industry and competition in South Africa.
SHARE VIDEOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Share your videos on your personal Social Media accounts and kindly ask your close friends and family to do the same. You should join Facebook Groups in your industry and promote your videos there. Please read the guidelines for each Facebook Group you join, as many do accept posting on specific days.