Suppose you‘ve got a YouTube channel and you‘re paying a lot of attention to your content. You‘re making interesting videos and you‘re trying pretty hard. There is just one problem. Your videos are not attracting enough viewers. By doing good YouTube SEO, your videos will get the appreciation they deserve. We have already put together 5 tips to improve the position of your videos on YouTube in the coming year (but you can also already apply them right now, of course).
Good YouTube SEO starts with good keyword research. The first step is to think about what kind of video you‘d like to create. It is best to create new videos that follow up on your previous popular videos, because you know that there is a lot of demand for this topic. You can then find interesting keywords for this by looking in the search bar to see what kind of suggestions YouTube does.
When you have found an interesting keyword, you should check if there is a lot of competition on the keyword. If there is a lot of competition, this keyword is not interesting for your YouTube SEO. You can check this by typing the keyword into Google and putting ‘site:youtube*’ behind it. This way Google only looks for results in YouTube, and you can see how many videos have been made about this topic.
If you have found a keyword with little competition that is nevertheless widely searched for, you have an ideal start for your video that will rank high in the search results on YouTube. Apart from this start, there are a number of other important things that can boost your YouTube SEO.
With an interesting thumbnail, you can increase the odds of people clicking on your YouTube video. This is also called increasing your Click Through Ratio (CTR). A higher CTR means a higher position in the results. So how do you create an interesting thumbnail? You can make it as crazy as you want, but there are a few things you should keep in mind for better YouTube SEO.
First of all, it is important that you create a thumbnail at all. There are still many videos that do not use thumbnails. Thumbnails provide a first clear impression that can make the viewer curious about the video. They can therefore increase your CTR. In addition, it is important that you do not use too much text in your thumbnail. Too much text means that you have to make the font smaller, which causes the message to come across more slowly. Therefore, always choose a catchy and brief text of maximum 30 characters. Finally, take into account the colours in your thumbnail. You’ll want your video to always stand out in the search results. Therefore, never use YouTube’s company colours! If you use red, white or black in your thumbnail, your video is less likely to be noticed by the viewer, which ultimately leads to fewer clicks.
By creating playlists, you can get more views for your YouTube video. It is best to choose 3-4 videos per playlist. Choose videos that match perfectly and represent a single topic. This will encourage viewers to keep watching, and thus view your entire playlist.
Many YouTube creators often forget to add tags to their YouTube video. Some do, but then it is often the wrong kind of tags that are added. Tags can help YouTube to ‘read’ what your video is about. This allows them to better understand that your video is a good match for certain keywords and will automatically rank you higher in search results.
Whenever you see a video that uses tags, you’ll often see that there are an infinite number of tags. This can cause a lot of confusion for YouTube, because they do not know what your video is about. That is why it is always recommended to use 4-6 tags. Make sure that 1 tag is your keyword, 2-3 tags are alternative variations of your keyword and 1-2 tags are related to your keyword. Alternative versions of your keyword can be found by entering your keyword in the YouTube search bar.
Interaction with your target audience is very important for your YouTube SEO. The more reactions you get under your video, the better your position in the search results will be. Make sure that you always respond to the comments under your video. If you respond to someone below your video, make sure they have a reason to respond back to you. Ask them a question and thank them for their response. It is also important that you encourage viewers to respond to your video. You can’t do this by simply saying: ‘Leave a like and a comment’. This is too standard and they will not respond very often. Instead, ask your viewers to leave their opinion on a certain subject of your video, so that they‘ll have a reason to respond.
Don’t know much about YouTube SEO, or haven’t got the time? No problem! At Ictoria we‘ve got enough knowledge to improve your position in YouTube. Contact us or request a quote if you are curious about the possibilities of YouTube SEO. We are also happy to help you with any other questions you might have. Not sure whether you want to do your YouTube SEO yourself, or rather outsource it? Read our blog about outsourcing online marketing and find out what is interesting for you.
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