Many aspiring YouTubers ask, “How can I rank my videos on YouTube?” Well, there is no definite answer. You must follow many things to rank your videos; quality is one of the most important. However, quality video also makes no sense if it has not reached a broad audience. With the power of YouTube SEO, you can rank your video at the top of search results and increase its visibility.
Video optimization includes various steps that prepare a video to rank. However, merely following any steps can’t help because many are irrelevant or don’t resonate with the trends and market demand. We have researched and gathered useful and trendy video optimization ways for you.
In this blog, you will learn about video optimization and why it’s crucial, along with effective and trendy ways of video optimization that actually help with YouTube SEO.
What Is Video Optimization?
Video optimization is the process of adjusting a video to rank easily on a video-streaming platform. Optimization is done according to the specific platform. If you want to rank on YouTube, consider YouTube ranking algorithms, and ranking on TikTok requires focusing on TikTok algorithms.
In this blog, we will focus on ranking on the YouTube platform, as nearly half of all internet users worldwide visit YouTube at least once a month.
Why Is YouTube Video Optimization Crucial?
Around 2.5 billion active YouTube users create and watch videos every month. 66.5% of B2C marketers use YouTube for content marketing. The list of surprising facts about YouTube is long, making YouTube a popular platform and suitable for marketers.
Let’s understand why you should optimize YouTube videos.
- Better User Experience:
People can spend an entire day just scrolling through YouTube. The platform is engaging and provides a variety of videos from all the streams. YouTube’s intuitive interface allows easy navigation. Viewers get the most relevant information and suitable recommendations on the platform, improving their experience.
- Enhanced Visibility:
Do you want millions of people to know what you offer through your business? YouTube is an effective platform for increasing the business’s visibility as billions of people hang out here. Visual content attracts people more than other forms of content. Since many people enjoy watching shorts, you can easily grab their attention.
- Higher Engagement:
People interact with the videos they like via comments, sharing, liking, and subscribing. By creating engaging content for YouTube, marketers or individuals can provide valuable insights and drive sales. Additionally, personalized recommendations lead to a higher engagement rate on YouTube.
- Monetization Opportunities:
If you are a consistent quality video creator on YouTube, you can earn on every 1000 views. YouTube has become a lucrative space for marketers and individuals to make money. Many big brands sponsor video creators who have millions of subscribers and views on their videos. You can learn more about how to monetize YouTube.
- Increased ROI:
Marketers can reach their target audience precisely on YouTube. Many YouTube analysis tools provide insights about which types of videos perform best, have high engagement rates, and are effective for driving site traffic. Companies can use YouTube ads to increase ROI by running ads on the platform.
10 Ways to Optimize Your YouTube Video for Search
As we read in the previous section, optimizing YouTube for SEO offers many benefits. Now, move ahead and understand how to optimize your videos effectively so that they appear first when searching for relevant keywords.
- Understand How Does YouTube Work:
Understand the latest YouTube updates and algorithms regarding video ranking factors. These are not codes; they are small, easy instructions in sentences. YouTube algorithms are the secret sauce of ranking videos. They include information about the length and quality of the video. Ask yourself the questions below. It will help you understand who your audience is.
- Who is my target audience?
- What does my target audience watch?
- What they search for online
- How long do they spend on YouTube?
- Conduct Keyword Research:
What terms do people use to search on YouTube? Do they use long-tail keywords? What are the queries when they search using voice search and keypad? Conducting thorough keyword research helps to create an SEO-friendly video. People can find your video at first when you use the terms they use. Leverage the power of tools for keyword research. Look at the image below.
You can use exact keywords (e.g., “how to make pancakes”) or add more suitable keywords (e.g., “how to make pancakes at home”). People staying home would like to know more about the recipe than others.
- Write SEO-friendly Description:
Include keywords in the description of your video. It helps YouTube Bot find and index your videos easily. Include the main keyword in the title, but ensure the title is only 50-60 characters long. Use the exact keyword once in the description, and finely mix the relevant keywords.
Ensure, the description is 5000 characters long, not more than that. Moreover, you can draw the viewer’s attention with thumbnails like “pancakes in 10 minutes.” If you want to learn how to add video thumbnails on YouTube, learn here.
- Create an Engaging Video Title:
Potential viewers create a perception of your video without opening it through the title. Only people open the video if they find the title engaging and relevant. You can get more clicks on your video with an engaging title. Don’t use complex words; use words your audience can relate to. Include emotive language because human beings relate to emotions more than stats.
Utilize AI tools to create engaging titles and use the remaining time to refine titles according to need. Use innovative ways to make a title. The time has gone when sentence form titles were popular. There is no fixed format for titles, except they should be engaging and relevant.
- Focus on the Quality of the Video:
Watch time is an important factor in YouTube SEO. If you want to improve it, focus on creating high-quality videos. Well, the standard of quality is increasing every day. Either match the quality or offer something unique that people have yet to see. It is crucial to get views to improve ranking. Use a high-quality camera for better quality.
However, video quality is not only about the camera; how you present the information also determines its quality. Once you understand who your audience is and what they like to watch, it helps you plan the video and its presentation accordingly.
- Create Video on a Unique Topic:
A survey of 4,500 people living in the USA 2018 revealed that 51% of YouTubers use YouTube to learn new things (Pew Research Study). However, many YouTubers are creating educational videos, so how will you stand out? Find a unique topic and check its search queries and relevant keywords so ranking can become easy even if your topic is unique.
If you can’t find a unique topic, direct your energy to create a unique video with the same information. Besides that, pull content ideas from what is trending, find micro niches for that, and get into the depth of the topic. This way, you can bring out the information people rarely see on YouTube.
- Utilize Tools for Accuracy and Time Saving:
Tools automate several tasks that take a lot of time when handled manually. Letting the tools handle repetitive tasks and editing lets you focus on making the video engaging for your audience. Moreover, tools help improve your video’s SEO and provide performance reports. With Social Champ, you can schedule, publish, and manage your YouTube videos.
Canva and Visme help you edit and design your posts. Mentionalytics makes it easy to observe and analyze videos. Sprout Social is a popular tool that provides information about the performance of your YouTube video. Many other tools are available in the market, and most are powered by AI technology.
- Upload Videos Regularly:
You must have heard, “Consistency is the key to success.” This saying applies here as well. More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute because everyone knows how crucial consistency is in this race. Ensure you upload high-quality videos regularly to keep the audience engaged with your content.
Try to go one step ahead in quality with every new video. However, consistency is not uploading videos daily. Consistency is about setting a fixed time or scheduling videos for a particular period. For example, you can upload a new video once a month or once every week. It depends on factors like the type of topic, how much research it requires, who your audience is, and others.
- Make Longer Videos:
Upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes on YouTube. Since people mostly use YouTube to learn something new, long videos work best for this type of audience. YouTube is for gaining in-depth knowledge about any topic; hence, it’s impossible to cover details effectively in short videos.
From an SEO perspective, people watch longer videos than short ones, which helps boost the video’s ranking, views, and reach. People prefer TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts for short videos.
- Consider Trends:
Trends help you offer what people are looking for now and boost your ranking in the search results. Use YouTube search trends to analyze trending videos in your niche. You can compete in a crowded space when you know what is trending, how to present information effectively, and how to increase the engagement rate.
Considering trends makes it easy to create a video that the masses like. Trendy videos help increase your channel’s visibility, views, shares, and likes. Moreover, you can use trendy news as a reference in your video and give your video a fresh look and feel.
Bottom Line
Since most people love to watch videos for every query, you can increase the visibility of your business using this platform. Every little interaction on a YouTube video counts and helps to rank it. Create high-quality videos that people like to share, and create a spark in the trendy topics in your comment section by letting the conversation go on. Start working on the video with thorough keyword research, write SEO-friendly descriptions, ensure the length of the video, consider trends, and use tools to save time and energy to create videos that rank. We know you must follow several things and keep track of your performance. So, focus on creating a quality video; the rest will follow automatically.
