How to SEO your YouTube Channel

It should be noted that in every minute, almost 250 hours of videos are updated on YouTube. Viewers can find any video depending on what they are searching for. This means, the competition is extremely tough.

How will you survive and thrive in such terrain? How will people find you leave alone choosing you? If you ask yourself these questions, you are some miles ahead of your competitors.

Many YouTube videos have few views, but if you do your homework well in terms of promoting your YouTube videos, you will get traffic that is similar to that of huge brands and celebrities.

SEO your channel

Like in the website, your videos should be at the top. But how? First, you should know that this is not complicated like regular SEO. This is because YouTube has an inbuilt search algorithm. The algorithm is free of charge, and it ranks videos automatically. The good thing is that it identifies the type of videos that should be shown to people when they search or sign in.

SEO matters when it comes to YouTube videos. Most people update videos on YouTube and wait for the magic to happen. SEO enables YouTube videos to reach the targeted audience.

But how can you SEO your channel?

For effective SEO branding, you need to incorporate the following:

• Do enough research on your keyword

 

YouTube videos appear in two main searches, at the screen’s bottom or on the side. And also appear in Google search results. When it comes to researching your keyword, you can do it through a free route or paid tools. With the free route, you can use the below methods:

• YouTube’s recommendations’ function. Here, all you need to do is to type a keyword in the YouTube search box. Be keen on the suggestions that show up in the dropdown. It should be noted that frequent searches determine the suggestions.

 

• Utilize Google’s Keyword Planner. Just add the word ‘video’ in front of the keyword phrase and review the results.

 

• Google search your keyword phrase with the word ‘video.’

 

• Use Moz Keyword Tool and Keyword Tool

After you have used the above free methods, if your keyword appears on Google’s first page, people are searching for those videos. Meaning, you are in the right direction, but if not, it’s not the right keyword to use in your videos.

• Create a script

The search engine of YouTube understands one’s video through the script; therefore, it’s essential to speak the video’s keywords. The keywords should be natural. Meaning, the script should be engaging and authentic than stuffing the keywords.

• The descriptions

Your description should be a bit bigger than the multiple descriptions you come across in many videos. The sweetest spot should appear at around 130 words. Apply short paragraphs. Effectively use space to excite the viewers. Don’t be quick to give details of the video in your description; instead, be clear on what the visitors will learn. After describing your video, use 20-40 words to invite the viewers to related content on either your website or social media profiles.

Rule of the thump, avoid selling anything in your description; your channel will look spammy. And also, use your main keywords 2-3 times. Finally, add hashtags. Regarding Google, hashtags make it easier for people to find YouTube videos.

• The title

Your title should be interesting. It should be around 12 words or less and no more than 75 characters spaces included; for greater audacity, put your keyword phrases in the first words. Besides, use parentheses to add the years for viewers that are after the current content.

For instance, if the keyword is “Best CBD flavors.”

• Title: Best CBD flavors: Everything You Supposed to know (2020)

 

• Title: Best CBD flavors: 10 Flavors that Surprised the Market (2020)

But if the topics are not limited with time, dates are unnecessary.

• The tags

When it comes to tags, apply primary keywords. Avoid misleading tags; this can make your video invisible. Hence, making it difficult for the searchers to find them. Always ensure your tags are relevant.

• Let people take action

 

What you are looking for in your YouTube channel is either like, comments, shares, links, and subscribers. To measure the success of videos, you should say something like this at the end of your videos.

“If you have liked the video, kindly like, comment, and subscribe.”

• Length

Don’t do a lot in one video. The research found that 74% of people will watch all the content of a 3-minute video. This means as the length expands, the video becomes boring. Meaning, you lose your people and YouTube ranking.

If a topic needs 10 minutes to be covered, do it. However, if you break it into 3-5 minutes of video, your SEO will improve. On the other hand, avoid making videos that are less than 1 minute. Such videos frustrate the viewers.

• Clickable video annotations

If your video is longer, you should put a video annotation with a link at the beginning of the video. This is another form of a call to action mechanism. If the viewer clicks it, it tells YouTube that the visitor had all they wanted even if he didn’t finish watching the video.

Final thoughts

At the moment, there are myriad videos on YouTube, but how many are attracting enough traffic? The answer is straightforward; only a few of them. The insights provided above, if applied rightly, they help you in your YouTube video promotions and YouTube channel services.