Looking for ways to get the most out of your YouTube videos? Then you’ve come to the right place. The trick is searchable videos.
We’re going to tell you about the power of searchable videos and what you can do to optimize your content to get better results from search. Using our tips, you’ll have an edge over the competition.
Why Searchable Videos Are a Powerful Tool for Marketing
It’s simple: if no one can find your videos, how will they watch them? Poor video SEO (search engine optimization) can result in fewer subscribers and lower revenue overall.
YouTube is Google’s second most powerful search engine. There are 100s of hours of videos uploaded every minute, and to top it off, over a billion hours are watched every day by YouTube’s many users.
Imagine harnessing the power and benefits of the organic traffic you can take advantage of here. With careful planning, you can have the right video rise to the top of the search engine results and gain a ton of publicity.
However, the stiff competition can’t be minimized. SEO success can be difficult to achieve, but using the right tactics and tricks can increase your odds.
Now that you understand the importance of making your videos searchable, let’s cover five tips to give your videos a better chance of showing up towards the top of the search page.
5 Tips to Optimize Searchable Videos for YouTube
Using the following tips will help you get better SEO results.
1. Pick the Right Keywords
The most important step is picking your keywords. Simply put, “keywords” are the words people type into the search bar to find whatever it is they’re looking for.
For example, if you found this article, you probably typed in something similar to “how to make YouTube videos searchable.” The words in quotes are the keywords. That’s how people get to your content.
It used to be that you would have to open up a Word document and brainstorm different variations for finding the perfect keyword selection. Then you’d manually type them into Google or YouTube and see what hits were returned.
However, there are plenty of paid and free tools you can use to find and examine the power of your keywords, calculate how much competition there is, and determine how many people are searching for your content descriptions.
But that’s only part of the battle; you also have to use the keywords in the right way, which brings us to our next tip.
2. Use the Keywords You Find in the Title
The title tells the viewer what they should expect from the video. However, it’s also a great place to use keywords to help with your SEO. Use main keywords to help YouTube’s algorithm determine the best way to show off your video.
A good rule is to use one or two primary keywords at the start of your title. You should also try to keep your title length to somewhere between 120 and 130 characters to not put too little or too much info in the title.
Making accurate titles is important as well. If you’re making a how-to video about your product, that should be clear from the title.
3. Use Keywords in the Description, Too
Another area where you can improve your YouTube video SEO is by using both primary and secondary keywords in your descriptions. You have far more room to explain what your video is about because descriptions have around a 900-word limit (4,000 characters, to be exact).
However, you have to make the keywords sound naturally used because YouTube and Google’s AI can pick up on keyword stuffing, which is a no-no nowadays.
The description is also great for adding links to your business site and social media too, which helps with ranking your video.
4. Use Transcription to Boost SEO
If you have an accompanying article or transcript for your video, then this could be used in the description as well. Not many videos make use of the description feature (or they use it wrong), and this is an easy way to take care of that, giving you a leg up over the competition.
5. Custom Video Thumbnails Are Essential
Another area you shouldn’t neglect is your thumbnail. By default, YouTube will pick a random spot in the video and use that. However, we recommend creating your own thumbnails.
Videos with custom thumbnails do better than those with random screenshots by a longshot, and the design of the thumbnails gives you the opportunity to show off your brand’s personality. It’s the first thing people see when your video pops up, so make sure it sends the message you want.
With these five tips and tricks to help boost your YouTube search results, you’re already on the path to a successful video.
Searching for a professional team to help bring your YouTube content to the world? Then reach out to our team at The Corporate Film Guys. We’re excited to help!