YouTube is one of the biggest marketing platforms in the modern business industry. With the continuous rise of this social media, it has now been a video search engine. Ever since its rise in popularity, many companies make sure that they also have a face in this network. YouTube is a big pool of customer potentials.
However, with all the million videos on YouTube, it would be easy for a single video to get lost in it. Not to mention, most of them are similar to each other, so getting in the spotlight is a hard task. The solution to this dilemma is to learn SEO YouTube.
YouTube SEO might be closely similar to Google SEO if we categorize YouTube as a search engine for videos. But even with a number of similarities with Google SEO, YouTube is still a different platform that requires different measures of strategy to dominate. If you wanna know how much your videos can earn, you can check out our Youtube revenue calculator tool.
Create Quality Videos
Optimizing a YouTube video is not limited to knowing the appropriate keyword or monitoring the metrics. The optimization of the video begins in creating a quality video. In fact, the core of YouTube SEO is the quality of the editing, resolution, and especially content of the video.
Invest in Equipment
With this matter at hand, it is reasonable for any YouTuber to invest in equipment to create a video of value. The investment doesn’t have to be anything grandiose or so expensive. However, accurate choices such as choosing to record with a reliable camera instead of just relying on smartphones are still necessary.
While there are smartphones that have good quality cameras, it is much more professional to have a working camera solely for YouTube videos. The Nikon Coolpix S6600BK is a popular choice among YouTubers, read the full review to learn why so many content creators love this camera. Remember that smartphones are distracting items when recording since unsolicited notifications pop out of nowhere. Investing in basic equipment such as tripods and microphones is necessary for stepping up a YouTube career.
Although advanced cameras nowadays already have built-in stabilization set-ups, it is still more helpful and more professional to acquire a tripod. The tripod helps angle the camera while recording without the vigorous shaking of the image. Thus, improving the raw video quality.
Microphones are fundamental necessities. If the viewers are having a hard time understanding a vlogger’s content due to the lack of audio quality, the chance of losing them is very high. As a result, YouTube videos are expected to be at the bottom end of the search results.
Improve Your Content
After investing in equipment, any YouTuber should continuously strive to improve their content. The content is the core of YouTube SEO. If the content is not marketable enough, then the whole YouTube channel might not even reach the bottom of the 3rd page of Google’s Video search result.
Talk About One’s Field of Expertise
Improving one’s content involves knowing one’s field of expertise. It is crucial to know the comfort zone of the speaker so that they can freely talk about anything. A speaker who is an expert in the field they are talking about is someone people would love to listen to and watch. More so, people tend to glow differently when they talk about something they love.
Identify the Optimal Video Length
Another point to improve when improving the content is by identifying the optimal length of the video. This optimal video length is the ample time for a speaker to say his story to the audience.
When considering the video length, the speaker should know how much time it will take him to present his matter fully. This YouTuber should also consider the attention span of the audience. Average human attention is active up to the 10-min mark. While that is an average number, the retention rate of the niche’s target audience might be shorter.
Upgrade the Editing
A lesson or two for video editing is an excellent investment for YouTubers. In fact, YouTubers can expand their creativity by learning how to edit their videos. Furthermore, recorders themselves are better video editors since they are the ones who know how the videos should be presented.
For starters who don’t know which video editors to use, the recommendable applications are Filmora, iMovie for Mac, Windows Moviemaker, YouTube Video Editor, Lightworks. These are good editors for starters and for those who are still exploring their artistic field.
The core of every YouTube channel is the contents of their video. Quality content is content that every audience out there will want to subscribe into. It is one of the initial investments for every YouTube channel.
Know Basic YouTube SEO
YouTube SEO is similar to Google SEO, with all the necessity of identifying the business niche, observing the metrics, and the like. Despite the similarities, YouTube SEO is still a different search engine than other SEO platforms. Thumbnails, Video Descriptions, and Channel Designs are also things to consider in YouTube SEO.
Know the Niche Keyword
The fundamental SEO step is knowing the niche keyword. This keyword should be in the video title and the video description. Most, if not all, popular YouTube videos have optimized YouTube keyword in either the title or the video description.
Discovering the appropriate keyword for a YouTube video involves substantial video keyword searches. Using YouTube’s search engine is an excellent strategy to know which are the famous keywords in the search engine itself.
The search engine will offer a list of suggested topics that will pop up on the video results. These keywords are probably the most sought topics on the YouTube platform. In this case, it is easier to identify what are the popular search terms in the target audience.
Apart from using YouTube’s search engine itself to generate a list of video keywords, copying keywords from other channels is also a viable source. This action is not stealing but researching.
When at lost of how to do things, it is understandable for the underlings to learn from the more experience channels. Since we are looking for ways to know how to step up a YouTube career, it is essential to learn from those who have already achieved such success.
There are also available keyword tools in the market that can help you come up with the fitting keyword for the video. Apart from YouTube, googling the appropriate keyword is a primary SEO tactic. In determining if the chosen keyword is popular, the niche should have at least 500 searches result with accompanying video results
Make Use of These Keywords Wisely
After knowing what set of keywords to use, this set should be used generously and sensibly in the description section. Long descriptions are vital for YouTube SEO. Texts in the description are equally important with the video title since YouTube also considers them when the searched keyword is found in the description section.
Video tags also function similarly in this manner. However, it is essential to use tags conservatively and not randomly. If a tag is too far-off from the topic of the video, it becomes an irrelevant factor and a nuisance for the audience.
Eye-Catching Thumbnail
Any YouTube video needs 2 things to look appealing to the public – an enticing headline and an eye-catching Thumbnail. When the thumbnail looks fun and informative at the same time, it tends to generate more click from the audience, especially if the video is in the recommended section.
This strategy is one thing that differs YouTube from the other SEO platforms. YouTube also utilizes images to attract a viewer to a video. Most YouTubers don’t pay much attention to this detail, but several YouTube viewers click a video because of an appealing thumbnail.
Be familiar with Basic YouTube metrics
YouTube has its own set of metrics. With this set of systemic parameters, it is easy to track analytics week by week and even video per video.
Knowing what these metrics mean allows YouTubers to know if the tactics they have been doing are actually working. YouTube has 11 metrics that are essential in building up a channel.
Watch Time
Watch time is the summary of all the time viewers spent on videos. It is important to monitor the Watch Time metric of the channel since YouTube elevates those channels with higher watch times. YouTube’s algorithm assumes that this meant the video is more engaging.
Audience Retention
The Audience Retention metric is one of the most critical metrics in this list. This metric reveals how fascinating the channel is and the videos in it. YouTube records the number of viewers that watches the video and the time period of when they leave the video – given that they didn’t finish it.
If the video has a high retention rate, YouTube would automatically suggest the video more often at the top rank. This metric has the same algorithm as that of the former metric. The higher the percentage in these metrics, the higher the recommendation.
The report of this metric is projected into two graphs – the relative retention and absolute retention curve. The relative retention curve indicates the competition of a video’s retention against other videos in the platform with the same video length. Meanwhile, the absolute retention curve reveals the percentage of the channel’s level of audience retention.
Engagement Report
Any particular engagement with the channel or video is recorded by YouTube. And as all the former metrics suggest, the more engagement there is, the better. For this reason, YouTubers should always encourage viewers to like, comment, and subscribe to the channel.
Impressions Click-Through Rate
This metric portrays how appealing a video is to the general public. Click-through rates are recorded upon a click on the video’s thumbnail or title once they appear on a viewer’s screen.
These metrics are the basic ones that every YouTuber should observe and analyze to fully understand how YouTube SEO can work for them. Understanding this aspect of YouTube is similar to understanding how the audience thinks in quantitative data.
Takeaway
YouTube is a functional search engine on its own considering its extensive network. Not many companies consider the opportunity of getting a hallmark on YouTube, which is a big mistake. YouTube is a top-rated platform that is continuously rising. With this, the network of YouTube is an enormous pool of potential customers.
Furthermore, since YouTube is a vast market, the chances of videos being lost in the midst of many other videos are high. For this reason, it is noteworthy for any starting YouTubers or hopeful YouTube vloggers to know the basics of SEO that can be used in this network. YouTube SEO is another story of marketing that can help analyze the next significant steps in an individual’s YouTube career.