Title
The title of the video is your first chance to communicate to both YouTube and potential viewers what your video is about. Make sure you use descriptive keywords that accurately describe the content of your video. You can use the Google Keyword Planner to help you find priority terms to use. To make these terms more “video search centric,” you can append different video terms like tutorial, walkthrough, reviews, etc. This is how people often search on YouTube so you want to optimize for how someone would search within YouTube itself.
In addition to providing contextual keywords in your title, you’ll want to create a compelling title that will entice click-throughs to watch your video. Not only will this encourage people to click on your video when searching, but it will also help them chose your video among other “related videos” that display at the end of other videos they may have viewed.
Descriptions
Since the video description box is collapsed by default, you want to include the most important parts of your description at the beginning, this is often a link that points to your website. By including a link first, it will ensure that it displays without the user having to expand the description box.
The description text should also contain keywords (both your main targeted term and related terms). YouTube uses descriptions and titles to get an idea of what your video is about so feel free to include a paragraph or two of text in your description.
It’s also a great idea to include more links to other ways a user can find you including social channels, your website, etc. at the end of your description so that if they do expand the box and are seeking more information, they can find it without having to click through to your profile.
Tags
Tags are one more way to include keywords that relate to your video content. A great way to find relevant tags is to look at the top videos for your main keyword. By using a plugin like Vid IQ you can see the tags they use on their videos. Feel free to be generous with tags. Start with the most important keywords, but feel free to add anywhere from 12-15 tags.
Transcribe your video
YouTube provides transcription services by default but it is often pretty inaccurate especially if your video contains a lot of industry jargon or the audio quality is poor. Using a transcription service like Speechpad is a cheap way to get transcription text that you can provide to YouTube for even more textual relevancy. This will also provide closed captions for anyone watching the video.
Annotations
Annotations can be a great way to encourage click through to related videos or to provide assistance to related resources & videos. These can be helpful to users and encourage more engagement.
Respond to comments
On videos and on your channel. YouTube is a social network and Google wants you to treat it as such. Part of the ranking algorithm includes video engagement and channel authority. Make sure you are responding to comments on your videos and channel and actively participating in discussions with other users on other videos.
Post often and regularly
Have a set schedule for your YouTube videos and post often. YouTube calls them channels for a reason – think tv and regularly scheduled programming. The more valuable content you provide to the YouTube community, the more YouTube will reward you.
Bonus tip – Video Ideas
Not sure what to create videos about? Start typing into YouTube search and see what they suggest, this is a great way to see what people are searching for. From there you can head over to Google Trends and run a search from YouTube to see the popularity of different topics over time.
