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16 Updated SEO Tips To Rank YouTube Videos

How to do Video SEO for YouTube

Do you know YouTube is the second largest and popular search engine in the world? YouTube gets 30+ million visitors per day. It’s a great source of traffic nowadays. On the other hand, YouTube is the unrivaled search engine for free video sharing.

YouTube was founded on 14 February 2005 by three former PayPal employees named Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Google owned this video sharing site in 2006, and from then they are providing free services. Now it’s the most popular and largest video search engine after Google.

Do you want to earn money from this untapped video sharing site? Yes! you can earn huge, but you have to know the ranking factor of YouTube videos. Important to realize, you can rank your YouTube video on YouTube as well as on Google.

I’ll cover all the things for YouTube video SEO. If you are a serious video marketer or YouTuber, you will get A to Z guideline by this post. Yes! It’s so possible to rank your video in the first position right now, but you have to follow the right tactics. To know the secrets and effective methods to rank your YouTube videos keep reading the guideline.

I’ve divided the total guideline into two parts: 16 secrets reasons to rank YouTube videos and 6 must need tips for YouTube SEO. It will be certainly the complete guideline for YouTube SEO and how to do video SEO?

16 Updated SEO Tips To Rank YouTube Videos: 

We have researched in thousands of YouTube videos to discover the secrets reasons of ranking the YouTube videos and how to do video SEO. YouTube follows some strict rules to rank a video and thus they justify it for ranking. Without justifying, a search engine can’t rank any content. If you look at Google or other searches engine, you will find the same thing. With this in mind, here we will try to express our research on ranking factors of YouTube.

1. Comments on the Video or Engagement:

Comments that a video gets is one of the most ranking factors on YouTube. YouTube likes engaging video and it proves the popularity and valuable content. Comments are a great indicator of engaging content. Does YouTube strictly follow the comments as the ranking factors? From our research, we have got that the more comments a video get, it ranks more quickly in 35% of the places. If I tell it differently, YouTube likes user engagement, no matter how you are getting it, but it can surely the chances for the ranking of the videos.

2. The length of the Videos:

Are you making shorter videos all the time? Then it’s a bad news for you. Research shows that longer videos can easily outrank a shorter one. A longer video indicates the depth on the topics you cover. Our research finds that a video with proper optimization and longer than 14 minutes and 50 seconds gets the higher rank than a shorter one. Though it’s an indicator only, not mandatory. That means you have to create the videos with proper research and you have to express your topics in details.

3. Video Views effects in ranking:

If your videos have more view, then it will surely rank higher on that keywords. We have researched on the first position’s video in thousands of keywords and we have seen that views are an indicator for ranking in the YouTube. It’s not the indicator a new video will not rank, but views will be a factor when ranking a video.

4. Watch Time of a Video:

Google gives priority of watch time. You can bring views by promoting or sharing in many places. But is it getting more engagement? That means are the users watching the full video? YouTube counts the watch time of the video. It indicates the amazing content of a video. You have made the video with proper information. With this in mind, watch time is a great signal for ranking the videos. That means it’s necessary to catch the viewers with attractive data and information.

Suppose, you have a video of 5 minutes and viewers are watching the videos in average 4.50 minutes. On the other hand, you have a video of 20 minutes and all the viewers are leaving you after 4 or 5 minutes. Here, in an average calculation first video will get ranked more than the second one, because in average watch time and engagement of the first video are higher than the second one. Though 2nd video will get the facilities of the longer video, but it very much needs to increase the average watch time for ranking in YouTube.

5. Video Sharing is a great indicator for ranking:

Google gives more priority on the social signal. Though they try to deny this reasons as the ranking factor. But YouTube ranks well for social share. As Google has made a different algorithm for YouTube and here video sharing in different social media are one of the best indicators for video ranking. When a video is shared by the visitors that means he has got the videos as essential or educative or funnier and it is very important to engage one with your channel. YouTube always encourage to create sharing content. It indicates the value of the content and the quality of the video.

6. The quality of the videos:

The quality of the videos is one of the best indicators for ranking in the SERP. Research shows that HD video gets the higher rank than a low-quality video. Even we have seen that 68.2% of the videos on the first page are HD videos. You can check the maximum numbers of the YouTube video from the first page are HD in quality and it’s showing an HD option on it. That means, it is very important to publish HD or high-quality videos to get ranked it on the first page of YouTube.

7. Channel with growing subscribers:

The subscriber is not a major factor, but growing subscribers is one of the best indicators to rank on the first page of YouTube. In general sense, you will realize that a video which is generating subscribers is an indicator of popular content and informative videos. On the other hand, it expresses as engagement. So, it’s not a factor if you are new with Zero subscribes, but uploading new content which is generating new subscribers daily will help you to rank the videos from your channel.

8. Videos with lots of likes:

YouTube cares the number of likes in a video. A video which is getting more like is an indicator of high-quality videos with great content. On the other hand, a video with more like indicates the better engagement by the viewers. They have got the video helpful and it’s beneficial for them. Similarly, a more liked video get other important signals too. For this reason, video with more likes surely indicates the popularity and quality. It is one of the best indicators for ranking of the videos.

9. KeyWord Rich Video Tags:

When you are going to publish a video, you have to use tags related to your videos and it’s a ranking factors for your YouTube video. Though YouTube is giving less priority on tags, even now they take care of tags. When a video is ranked, YouTube considers a lot of factors. Even they can hear your words from the video. Now YouTube is more matured than previous days. You have to take all the factors with more priority. For this reason, tags help YouTube to understand the categories or correlation of videos. With this in mind, I will suggest you not to keep it blank. Give effective and similar tags with your videos. It will help to give some juice for ranking of your videos.

10. Exact Match Keyword:

When viewers are searching a word and if you have the exact match keyword, it helps to rank your video in the first position of the YouTube. That means the title is important for ranking of your video. You should keep keywords of your video in the title. There has no problem to give a stunning title with the keyword. On the other hand, it helps to increase the view of your video.

You have to realize, YouTube shows the related videos from the exit one. For this reason, using exact match or stunning keyword is very necessary for YouTube video SEO. You should remember, you have to choose a title with the eye catching title or with proper “call to actions”. It will surely help you to attract the special attraction of the searchers.

11. Keyword Optimized Video Descriptions:

Adding video descriptions is very much need to optimize the video for SEO. It tells about the video. Keeping the keywords in the first line of the video is very necessary, as it shows in the search results. It helps to attract the searcher and to tell the YouTube also. Try to keep the YouTube video descriptions 200+ words and give an overview of the video. If you can tell the total overview of the video, it will certainly help to rank the video. You can add the social links or your blog’s links in the video, it increases the authority of the video. So, it’s the duty of you to give a video description and adding the keywords in the first line of the video, but never keep it blank.

12. Channels subscriptions size:

The subscribers can help you a lot for engaging with the video. As your subscriber gets an email after publishing the video. It helps to get some instant view, like and comment. On the other hand, it helps to get some social shares too. Though it’s not the main factor of the amount of subscriber, in the sense of some engagement, it will surely help you. That means, if you don’t have a lot of subscribers or if you are new, it’s not the problem if you can engage more views, but the number of the subscriber can help you also for primary marketing which not gets a new channel. With this in mind, try to engage and increase subscriber by providing valuable content.

13. Age of the Video:

Age is not a mandatory factor to rank a video, but you can’t believe it helps. Are you thinking an older video gets the priority for ranking? Not actually. It happens the opposite. A new video gets priority when it comes to rank. Yes! YouTube wants to provide updated information to the viewers, that means a newer is more updated and it can get the higher rank if it is highly optimized and follows all the rules of YouTube SEO. On the other hand, you have to increase the engagement of the video, then it surely helps you to rank.

14. Transcription of the video:

Transcription or the subtitles tell about the video. YouTube can read it now. As your voice can’t express the actual pronunciation on the video or it may not quality sound. For this reason, adding transcription with the video will help you to rank the video. On the other hand, it helps to show automatic subtitles by the YouTube. Automatic subtitles can’t provide all the words correctly. For this reason, adding a custom transcription on the video helps the viewers to understand your word specifically. So, it increases the engagement and it can surely help you to rank the video.

15. Backlinks of the video:

Backlinks tell what the link is describing. Ranking video in the Google will need to get backlinks from other sources. Though YouTube is also counting it as an important ranking factor and it helps to rank the video on Google too. Getting high-quality backlinks from the authority places will surely help you to rank the video. It is very effective for YouTube SEO. It will help you to outrank your competitor.

16. Thumbnails of the Video:

Thumbnail of a video is not a direct ranking factor for YouTube SEO, but it helps the viewers to understand about the video when watching other’s video or searching on YouTube or Google. As they show it as the video background, You can tell it as a method of the video promotion tactics. Stunning customized video thumbnails can bring a lot of visitors and it can also increase the engagement of your video. With this in mind, it will help you to rank the video on Google.

It’s the methods to consider when ranking a video in YouTube. But you have to remember that any of the single methods of the above is not the only reasons to rank in the YouTube search engine. You will see that a lot of videos from the previous time have ranked without any optimization, but to overcome them surely you have to follow the optimization’s instruction. It will help you to outrank them. If you want to stay for a long time on the YouTube, you should follow the guideline. It will confirm you to rank in the search engine for a long time. Surely, it is the latest and most updated SEO tips to rank video in the YouTube and Google search engine.

6 tips to know how to do YouTube video SEO

At this point, you will learn 6 tips to know how to do video SEO. In the above, I have discussed the probable reasons for ranking YouTube videos. Following the above list, I will discuss now in details what should you do for boosting your YouTube videos. It will help you to take the steps more appropriately and it will show the every procedure to confirm before publishing any videos in your channel. It will help you to remind if you are following all the rules correctly.

If you can do this 6 tips following the above reasons, your video will get the higher rank. Important to realize, it’s the total experience from our researching and we are doing the same procedures for ranking the videos and it’s working fine. So, I can guaranty your success for ranking your YouTube videos. Let’s talk in details how to do video SEO accurately.

1. Video KeyWord Researching:

You should remember that keyword researching for a video is totally different than a text based blog post because YouTube video views come from suggesting videos most of the time. Similarly, we use both the Google and YouTube search engine totally different ways.

You have to remember video viewers come rarely from the search engine and the rate is only 15 to 20%. A keyword is Google and YouTube can be searched in different ways and the search volume may differ hugely. So, how will you research for YouTube? You can follow the below methods for KeyWord researching for YouTube.

  • Follow the YouTube Suggest

    When you will go for typing a keyword in YouTube search area, it will show you some similar suggestions which are people searching. You can easily choose any of them for perfect optimization.

  • TubeBuddy Tags

    This is a free extension for Google Chrome. It helps you to find out the competitors tags from the videos. Similarly, it will show you which tags is ranking for this video. It can help you to get keyword ideas and you can easily use the tags you have found the competitor’s videos. Similarly, the extension will help you to research if the videos are highly optimized or not. That means you will be able to work with it.

  • Tubular Labs Competitor Analysis

    Tubular Labs is very popular for anything researching for YouTube. It’s very easy to use. You can get amazing keywords ideas by using this tools. It’s freemium tool. For starting with it, you have to sign-up in their websites, then you have to provide your channel link. After that, you will be able to see the insights of your video, who is coming and where he/she is going. It will help you to get the profitable keyword ideas.

  • YTCockpit

    YTCockpit is a great tool for researching all about YouTube video. Though in free it has some limits, you can work with it for more optimization and professionalism. You can get seed keywords ideas, competitor analysis and traffic source or optimization from this tool.

  • YouTube Analytics Stats

    It is the best and most reliable for YouTube analyzing and it is provided by the YouTube itself. You can get all the things related to your YouTube channel. YouTube can be used for Analytics and then for discovering traffic sources. You can get all the metrics for your youtube videos and channel. Also, you will find which keywords are ranking for your YouTube video and which one is performing the best. By all means, it can be the best sources for researching the next videos.

If you can follow the above five points, I think you will be able to find profitable keywords all the time and your channel will be fulfilled with many untapped videos and it will surely get a lot of visitors all the time.

Now you should follow the below two rules to implement it after getting the keyword ideas.

  • Optimize the video with this keyword

Now, if you have an existing video that is not ranking very well or ranking already, but not well optimized you can optimize it with the keywords now. If you do it by adding tags or video descriptions and if you can follow all the rules of on-page video optimization, it will surely rank for a long time and it will bring you a lot of visitors.

  • Create a new video targeting this keyword

If you think you have no quality video by targeting the keyword, you can create a new one. It’s not a bad idea to optimize an existing one, but if you think it’s not good in quality, then you can surely create a new one with by following this keyword and you have to optimize it in the rights way. Then it will surely rank in the SERP of YouTube.

Now it’s the finish point for finding a keyword and optimizing it. So what is the next? Let’s see.

2. Create High-Quality Videos and Environment:

When you are planning to stay as a YouTuber for the life time, you have to create stunning videos all the time. What does stunning means for YouTube? You have to fulfill in a video the things: Resourceful and quality, Session time, Watch time, Viewers reaction, Engagement, and CTR.

  • Resourceful and quality of the video

    It’s one of the best factors to stay on focus among the viewers. Anything resourceful will be evergreen for a long time. You can create the general video for generating the view, but you have to remember if you want to stay alive for a long time, you should make evergreen content all the time.

  • Increasing watch time

    It is one of the best ranking factors on YouTube. To increase your watch time you have to examine which topics are getting most views and passing time the viewers in your channel. It’ll surely help you to get more watch time.

  • Audience reaction

    It’s an another ranking factor for your YouTube videos. The behavior of your viewers takes YouTube as an important signal for ranking of your videos. Are they leaving in a similar video or if they staying to you for perfect solution or entertainment? It’s important to justify the video by YouTube.

  • User’s engagement

    Engagement is all in all of the ranking factors for YouTube. It indicates the popularity of your video as well as it measures the quality of your making of the videos. How many shares, likes or comments are getting the videos are one of the best measurement factors for YouTube ranking. We have to try to interact with viewers too. How can you increase user’s engagement of the video? Yes! It’s a right question. You have to follow 3 rules for increasing engagement.

    #1 is inspiring the viewers to comment. Yes! You have to inform them in the video to express the opinions, it will help to increase engagement. #2 is adding subscriber button on the video and inspiring them to subscribe your channel for getting updated videos from you. On the other hand, it will help you to gain more subscriber on the video. #3 is replying the comments. Yes! Replying to the comments will help you to get return comment again and it will increase the view and engagement more perfectly. On the other hand, if viewers get the reply they will get inspiration to comment for the next time too.

Above all, if you able to create a good environment and providing quality video most of the time, it will surely make your channel evergreen and it will bring a lot of views daily. On the other hand, it will help to grow the brand of your video and channel too.

3. Optimize the video for ranking:

You have created stunning videos with right information and good quality. Now you have to optimize the video for ranking it on YouTube. It’s as like optimizing the content of a blog post, but it has some difference than a blog post. For this reason, follow the below steps to optimize the video with the right ways.

  • Video Title

    You have to add the primary keywords of the video in the title. You have no alternative options for it. Try to add “call to actions” to increase CTR of the video. It will help you to attract the searchers.

  • Video Descriptions

    Always try to add 200+ words in the video descriptions. If you can add unique content in the video descriptions according to your keyword, it will surely rank better. It helps YouTube to understand about the video. It also helps to show your video in the suggested list. Another thing you should follow that you should add the keywords in the first sentence of the video. As YouTube shows it on the SERP of the video.

  • YouTube Video Tags

    Tags is not the main ranking factor for the YouTube video. It would work fine in the previous days. YouTube started to skip it now. But YouTube takes information to make the real category of the video by this tags. Considering this we can’t neglect it. Significantly, it can give you some boost for optimization. With this in mind, I will recommend you to use at least 5 tags according to your keyword.

  • Add the transcript

    YouTube can understand your words now. He can convert each word into the text as subtitles and it helps YouTube to understand about the video. For this reason, it helps to rank about the video and it will work more specifically after time passes. But YouTube shows some misspelling into the subtitles. For this reason, it is very good to add the transcript of the video. At the same time, it will help the YouTube to understand your video more specifically. Similarly, it will be helpful for the audiences too.

  • Optimize the video for CTR

    CTR means Click Through rate and optimizing the video for CTR means adding a “call to action” which will inspire the viewers (Never make it over optimized, just write a word with the keyword that can make you outstanding among the competitor). It will surely help you to rank in the YouTube as you are getting more click with the keywords. On the other hand, you should add a custom thumbnail for increasing CTR also.

    Research shows that a video with a custom thumbnail and great design and text can increase the CTR most. In the last session, you have to add amazing video descriptions to increase the CTR. You have to remember that YouTube shows 125 characters with the SERP and if you can write something amazing related to the keyword. It can surely increase the CTR. Actually, it attracts the attention of the searchers.

That’s all about optimizing the video for taking special attention from YouTube and the viewers.

4. Increase Channel Authority and built a strong community:

It’s very important to increase the authority of the channel as well as maintaining a strong community. When you will be able to build authority and you will have more subscribers, it will help you to get some genuine viewers which will help you to get more engagement after publishing the video. Similarly, YouTube will take it as positive attitude on your channel. For this reason, it will rank higher. Let’s see the procedures how you can increase the authority of your channel.

  • Add a Haeder image

    Create an amazing and eye-catching header image for your channel with the logo and slogan. You should make a slogan with perspectives of your videos. A stunning header image proves you as the authority on the community.

  • Create an amazing logo

    For header or profile picture, use a custom logo which can describe your channel. You can add the slogan with its. On the other hand, you should combine the color for more branding. You should also use the branding logo in your videos intros.

  • Add description on About Page

    Add an outstanding overview of the channel in the about page with the slogan and your tag lines. It will help you to understand the viewers about you, your channel and more.

  • Make Playlists

    You should make the playlist for every main keyword. Here will stay the sub-keywords tutorial. It will help to get more visitors for all the videos on a playlist. On the other hand, it will help you to optimize the playlist for ranking. You will find a lot of playlists are being ranked when you are searching on YouTube. Similarly, it creates professionalism.

  • Grow Subscribers

    For growing authority, it’s mandatory for growing the subscribers of your channel. If you have more subscribers, it will get more views instantly from the beginning and after the publishing of a video. It’s not so easy to increase the subscribers. If you can publish more videos with good information and quality, it will help you to grow your channel day by day. You should follow three rules for growing subscribers on your channel.

    First one, create the introduction of your channel and about you by describing the mission of your channel. It will be short and less than 1 minute. This will help the viewers to understand about your channel. It will help them to understand and subscribe. The second one is Ask people to subscribe you to the finishing level of the video. It will remind them to subscribe the channel. The third one is adding subscribe button on your blog and share the videos on your blog. It will get some extra visitors outside of the YouTube. Notably, it will increase the subscribers of your channel.

If you can follow the above rules, it will help you to grow your channel as the authority day by day.

5. Try to rank the video in the Google:

In this section, I will help you to learn how you can rank your video on Google. As you have learned before the ranking process on YouTube. But if you can rank a video on Google, it can bring a lot of viewers for you. For this reason, it’s very effective if you can rank a video for Google. Let’s talk now about the ranking procedures of your videos on Google.

  • Finding video keywords for Google

    When you want to rank a video on Google, you have to find out the right keywords for ranking. Research shows that ranking a video on Google is not so tough, but if you don’t see any videos already on that keywords, try to skip it. It may not possible or so hard to rank. For this reason, when you will find a keyword which is ranking with at least one video, go with this keyword. But how can I find the keywords? Very simple. Just search on Google and see if it is ranking any video already if no then try for another.

  • Ranking procedures to rank YouTube Videos on Google

    There has no rocket science to rank a YouTube video on Google. Firstly, you have to create an awesome video with proper optimization by following the above method. Secondly, you have to promote your video in different ways (Check the next section to know how you can promote the video effectively). Thirdly, you have to get backlinks for the video. By considering the backlinks of every video in the first page of Google, you will get ranked your YouTube videos. But it’s not so easy as well as tough. You have to do the promotion of your video in the right ways.

  • Ranking Procedures to rank Self Hosted Videos on Google

    Ranking the self-hosted video is not so easy. Here, you have to consider more things than YouTube. Suppose you are using Vimeo, Wistia or self-hosted video. Researcher shows that 82% of ranking videos on google are from YouTube. YouTube’s algorithms are Google friendly. Though you can also rank the other videos too. But how? Firstly, you have to use the videos on your blog and you have to try to use the videos on the main piece of the content. On the other hand, you have to provide a text based description on the video description area.

    Similarly, you have to make the keyword friendly title and try to add a transcript also. Secondly, you have to provide a video schema on Google or other search engines. At the same time, make the video file name according to the keywords. At last, I will recommend you following the other methods of YouTube video ranking procedures.

Above all, if you can rank a video on the Google, it will surely rank on YouTube on the first places. That means it’s a good indication to rank and getting more traffic for ranking a video on Google.

6. Promote your videos:

Do you know 400 minutes of video is published in a minute on YouTube? You can’t imagine, what a surprising news it is. But it’s true. For this reason, thousands of videos are published in a day. Every day it is changing the algorithms of ranking the videos. With this in mind, you have to take the appropriate step for the promotion of your videos. Otherwise, you won’t get desired results for your video. In this section, I will discuss the promotion system of your videos. Let’s see the procedures now.

  • Start email marketing

    Make an interesting announcement for your new videos by your email list. Email marketing is very effective to get right engagement on your video. You can also sell different product by your YouTube video using email marketing. If you are not doing that you can only promote your video by email marketing. Don’t forget to describe the videos and what he will get from the videos. A stunning title and description on the email can bring targeted visitors of your video.

  • Promote your video on Social media

    It’s a must need marketing tactics for the promotion of your videos. Social media is a great platform to increase the viewers and bringing new subscribers too. You should promote your video on every popular social media including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Google Plus. You can also use more social media according to the niche of your video.

  • Embed YouTube video on your blog

    Embedding video on the blog can bring loyal visitors of your blog to show the video. On the other hand, it creates a backlink of your video and it’s one of the ranking signals for any video. For this reason, use your blog to embed the popular videos of your channel. Surely, it is helpful for the readers of your blog too. They will be able to learn from you in a video.

  • Promote videos on the last session of the videos

    With YouTube, you can add some call to actions on the YouTube among the video. You should use it for promoting other videos of you. Also, you can add more than one video here with a short intro. With this in mind, try to use it for promoting your video with the existing one.

  • Set a featured videos on Channel

    Set a featured videos in your channel. It will help you to show a video as default. YouTube will take it with consideration of ranking for the channel.

  • Promote videos on the forum and Quora

    For promoting the video, it works so fine and it’s the long time promotion. When you will get the similar topics of Quora or other forums, try to help them by the answers. In the meantime, add your video link among the text. Don’t use a lot of links in a place. It can seem the moderator as spam. Similarly, try to add value in the comment. Don’t place the YouTube video link only. You can use the same tactics on many blogs too for promoting the video.

  • Guest Posting

    Guest posting with the promotion of your channel or video is very effective. If you can spend some money for guest posting or generating content, it can surely help you to get backlinks and promotion of the video. Even getting backlinks for YouTube video is easier than a blog post. You can try this technique if you have big marketing plan and promotion of your channel.

  • Engage with similar types of YouTuber

    It is a great marketing tactics for your channel. When you will engage with the similar types of channel, you will find a lot of viewers that are also interested in getting the channel like yours. You can also get keywords idea from their discussion. On the other hand, it can bring more subscribers for your channel. It will help to promote your channel effectively.

Without promotion, it’s not so easy to get the viewers all the time for your video. So, try to follow the above method to get your desired solution for YouTube marketing. Always remember, if you can prepare yourself in the right ways with the latest knowledge, you have the chances to overcome all the YouTubers who are your competitors.

Now it’s your turn

From the above discussion can I tell it’s a complete guideline for YouTube video SEO? If the answer is YES! Why are you not helping us by sharing this content? I have made this guideline researching in about one week for you. So, you can do all the things for promoting and optimization for your YouTube video by this killer guideline. Even we have used the same procedures to rank our video on YouTube and Google.

Now it’s your turn. I want to hear from you. Have you got the full guideline helpful for you? Which tactics work for you very fine most of the time? If you have any question according to digital marketing and YouTube SEO, you can leave a comment, I and the experts of ByteCode – a leading digital marketing firm will bring the best solution for you.

Have a nice journey in the YouTube world. Thanks in advance. 🙂

 

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1 Comment

  1. Nice articles and very informative facts. No one produces these types of pieces of information. It’s like a professional learning Blog Must be recommended for Beginners.

    Thank You


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