How to Reap Rewards with YouTube SEO Best Practice

Why is YouTube important?

So you don’t sell cute cats? What use could you possibly have for YouTube?

Many people are unaware that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. What’s more, approximately 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Not only does this show that marketers need to be engaging with YouTube, but it also means that competition is fierce and you need to be engaging well, paying close attention to the SEO of your videos.  

Top Tips for YouTube SEO

The Basics

·      Give your video a relevant headline, with proper keywords. Using a colon allows you to ‘double name’ it and therefore to double your keywords. Give as much information as possible in the title as this is the first thing looked at.

·      Maximise use of the description box. Write a couple of paragraphs of good descriptive copy. At the very least, fill it with keywords or put the script from the video in. Don’t forget to add links to your website and social networks.

·      Optimise the channel that you’re posting your videos from. Post regular high quality videos on similar topics. Videos that come from a well-regarded channel will rank higher. Create Playlists, fill in the ‘About’ page and start discussions with your users.

·      HD videos will rank higher than SD videos – So make sure you upload your best quality versions.

·      Use the YouTube Keyword Tool to find the areas of high volume. 

Advanced

·      Use the closed captioning as YouTube searches through the content of your captions in order to rank videos. Since the introduction of speech recognition technology, adding your own closed captions is no longer the laborious process it once was.

·      Submit a transcript of your video so that Google know what it’s about.

·      Make sure you grab viewer attention within the first 3-5 seconds of the clip. YouTube ranks videos based on how long they’re watched for on average.

·      Submit a ‘Video Sitemap’  to Google and use mark up to let Google know about videos on your website.

Other ideas to consider when marketing through YouTube…

·      Use Annotations to give a call to action for liking your video or subscribing to your channel. This helps to promote regular engagement.

·      Promote your videos through all your other social media and email marketing channels.

·      Host your videos on your website and make sure they are easy to browse and well presented.

Want to know more, or would like some bespoke advice for your own business? Drop us an email or visit the MoneySpyder site.