You recently leveled up from SEO terms noob to SEO wizard, and now it’s time to level up again with video SEO. YouTube optimization is blazing the path on the magical journey of video optimization.
What is video optimization? And how can it be used to improve your video marketing strategy? Here’s how you can use YouTube optimization in your video marketing.
Optimizing Your YouTube Channel for SEO
The popularity of videos is valuable for marketers and consumers alike, because videos provide customers with a visual experience. YouTube has over one billion users, making it the home of one-third of the Internet. The video-sharing website has become the second largest search engine, after Google. (Take that Bing and Yahoo!)
What is YouTube optimization?
Video optimization is the process of maximizing the number of viewers to a particular video by ensuring that the video appears first on the list of results returned by a search engine. As the second largest search engine, YouTube should be your primary focus for video optimization.
You can achieve successful YouTube optimization through:
- An optimized title: a few words focused around keywords
- Relevant tags and keywords
- A full description with a few sentences, using keywords to signal value to bots and viewers
- Closed captions and transcripts
How to optimize YouTube videos for SEO
You may have noticed, YouTube has become the video version of Google. You enter a query into the search engine bar, receive suggestions as you type, and receive a list of relevant results. Similar to Google, YouTube displays paid ads at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), followed by the organic results.
For YouTube optimization, start with a vanity URL—an SEO-friendly URL. You can customize the vanity URL under the following conditions:
- Channel is at least 30 days old
- Channel has at least 100 subscribers
- Channel icon and art have been uploaded
Watch time is the engagement metric that measures video bounce rate (how long viewers stayed on your video). Understanding watch time can help your video production and strategy. If viewers are clicking on your video, but not watching until the end, you need to make your videos more engaging.
Adding keywords to YouTube videos is the best way to ensure the viewers searching for your content find and watch your videos. Keywords should appear naturally in the title and descriptions of your videos. Keywords let the bots categorize your videos, so avoid keyword stuffing.
“What is my audience searching for?” Keep this in mind when optimizing your videos and channel.
How to optimize your YouTube Channel for SEO
Channel keywords are used to manage and promote YouTube videos. Keywords help in the discovery of your YouTube videos by users on Google. The inclusion of branded and keyword-targeted content in the description of your YouTube channel is essential for optimization.
The best YouTube optimization practice is to always include relevant keywords in your channel. For example, if your videos are related to business, select keywords related to business as opposed to science or entertainment. Find search volume for relevant keywords by using Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner.
YouTube optimization improves the ranking of your channel and videos across YouTube and the Internet.
Level Up with YouTube Optimization
Congratulations! You’ve leveled up to a Video SEO Wizard! Whether your content is video blogging or funny cat videos, video optimization can help increase your views and ensure your audience finds your content with its magic. Contact us to see how YouTube optimization can help improve your video marketing!
