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Last Updated on 3 months by Gülenber Han
Youtube ranking has become a hot topic lately. Now the biggest search engine after Google is Youtube. For this reason, Youtube is also in an important position with Youtube SEO processes. It is a highly developed platform, especially in terms of appealing to very large audiences. Therefore, the right strategic moves are very important in order to achieve great success. Apart from stable video sharing and having the right quality, Youtube video SEO activities are also decisive. There are many points that you need to pay attention to at the point of doing youtube channel work in a qualified way.

It is possible to achieve success on YouTube, which is defined as the second largest search engine in the world after Google, with a strategic plan, stable video content sharing, and Youtube video SEO. With conscious and qualified YouTube channel / video optimization studies, it is possible to increase the interaction and conversion rates by catching a positive graphic in parameters such as the number of views, watch time, likes, comments, and subscriptions, and thus, it is possible to earn a higher income. Some basic optimization techniques that can be applied to video content will get your content more views and reach than other videos, not only in YouTube searches but also in Google searches and even other search engines like Bing.

How do you rank higher on YouTube?

Youtube ranking is a very important issue. Videos that appear on the main page of the site always get much more traffic than videos that appear on the second and subsequent pages. An increase in channel traffic will naturally lead to an increase in the number of your customers and, as a result, a significant increase in sales. To bring them to life, it will help you to familiarize yourself with some of the rules for increasing traffic for videos on Youtube. There are some steps that can be done to increase Youtube ranking. However, the implementation of these steps by an SEO agency produces more successful results.

Have a Focus Keyword

Focus Keyword

Keyword is one of the most important factors in Youtube SEO strategy. This factor is just as important for your Youtube videos. Youtube video SEO keywords will help you organize your content better and give you a more successful approach to your channel. Google autocomplete results are invaluable in keyword analysis for a website. For your videos, the data provided by Youtube Suggest (YouTube’s auto-complete function) will greatly facilitate your work. Youtube SEO work starts with the keyword query and topic research process. When creating keywords and keyword phrases;

  • Correct description of the video
  • Users must correspond with words and phrases when searching.

What should be applied here; is to understand what users are looking for, what kind of information they are looking for, what search terms they are using, and whether the terms are relevant to your video or target audience.

Optimise the Title

It is necessary to optimize the title for Youtube ranking. Do you know how to optimize your titles? You should use your focus keyword in your title and you should take care to create interesting titles. Your video’s title must be at least 5 words long. Just like a blog post, write a long-tail video title with your keyword at the beginning of your title. When users want to reach your video content or you want to reach users, you need to focus on the keywords that are queried in this direction throughout your video content in order to match the searches made by the searchers. In this direction, apart from the fact that your title should be related to the content, your title may also need to contain the searched words in order to match. You can be flexible about using brand names in your titles, in other words, you can use brand names and special names in your titles, which are usually channel names anyway.

In order to match users’ searches, you will need to do keyword research in this direction. Although Youtube allows you to use 100 characters in your title, including spaces, titles can be shortened depending on where they are displayed. Therefore, you have the chance to use only 65-70 characters in your title, including spaces, and therefore you should try to convey what you want to say and your message in capital letters in a very attractive way. Title (Video Meta Title) is one of the first content optimization elements to appear when your video appears on a page, appears in a search, or is shared on social media.

Optimise The Description

For Youtube ranking, the description of your video is crucial. Your video description assists Youtube and Google in understanding the substance of your video. The higher you rank and the more recommended films display in the sidebar, the better they comprehend your video. Consider the following metrics to optimize your keywords:

  • In the first 25 words, include your keyword.
  • Make the description at least 300 words.
  • Use your keyword and its derivatives a few times.

This Youtube SEO optimized description will help tell Google and Youtube what topic your video is about without spam. Your description should include keywords like your content title and should reflect the content in the video. Descriptions are also one of the first content optimization elements that users see when they search. Remember that descriptions are an important part of your video content, not an advertisement or a promotion. A quality description contains more details than a headline, but it shouldn’t be too long for Youtube video SEO. Descriptions need to inform the user about the video and help convince users that the video is the content they are looking for. The description should also include at least one link, usually to the brand’s website, perhaps to a page specific to the content in the video.

Include the Right Tags

Tagging is one of the Youtube video SEO features that Youtube provides. Tagging is not essential, but it allows you to enter relevant keywords that will help your videos get more views. Only use tags that are relevant to the topic, add tags to help YouTube and Google know what your video is about. Be careful not to add more than 10 tags. You have a decent probability of getting featured in the suggested videos area if your video’s tags match a video that a user has seen. For this reason, do not forget to optimize your tags for Youtube video SEO.

Create an Engaging Script

It is a technique whose effect on Youtube SEO is discussed, but there is no harm in doing it anyway. This process is to rename your video file to reflect your title or target keyword. For example, your file might have a name like “0210315.mp4 ” by default. But if you rename it and use your target keyword, you’re telling Youtube what topic your video is about.

Start Making Longer Videos

Those with longer video lengths on YouTube are more advantageous than others. But in order to lengthen the video, repetition should be avoided. In this respect, it is difficult to give a clear answer to the question of what is the ideal video length for Youtube ranking. Because this length depends on the content of your video and your audience. For example, if you have a channel related to painting, the duration of a watercolor painting video that you gradually describe in detail may be long. But if you are shooting a simple video with no depth, there is no point in prolonging the conversation and keeping the time too long. It is generally recommended to be in the range of 10-20 minutes.

Keep People Watching

If you want your videos to rank in the Youtube search results list, you need to keep users watching. Your audience retention is a crucial factor for your ranking. If your video attracts users, Youtube ranking will be high. Users are asked to stay on the platform to click on the ads. Watch time is very important for YouTube ranking. If people spend a lot of time watching your videos, it means they like the videos you create. So start by creating a quality video that engages people. Also, if you have videos that are related to each other, create playlists for those videos. When users like your videos, they will also want to watch the follow-up or related video. Autostarting videos in playlists is a good opportunity to keep users on the channel and Youtube SEO.

Encourage Engagement

Subscribing is very important for Youtube ranking. One of the elements used by Youtube’s algorithms to rank videos is the number of subscribers. Liking or commenting on a video is a one-time action, but subscribing means users will see your content regularly. Many Youtubers ask users to like, comment and subscribe to the video at the same time. However, if you’re going to prioritize one of these metrics, focus on encouraging subscriptions for Youtube SEO.

Create An Interesting Thumbnail

Although your thumbnail is not a ranking element used directly by Youtube, it nevertheless has a significant influence on SEO. A good thumbnail means more clicks and that means better Youtube channel optimization. Make sure your thumbnail stands out and viewers explain what your video is about. Many people click videos just by looking at the thumbnails, so don’t skip this step for Youtube video SEO.

Create Playlists

Youtube Playlists

You can add your content to relevant playlists in order to get more Youtube ranking, so you can categorize your videos so that users can view other content, and you take a solid step towards user experience (UX) by making the data understandable.

Create Backlinks

Building links is an important Youtube ranking component for every piece of content, including videos. If you’re acquainted with optimizing written material for Google, such as your blog or website, you’ll know that they count backlinks to assess how important your content is. Given that YouTube is owned by Google, it should come as no surprise that YouTube operates in this manner as well.

Make sure to upload your video in as many locations as possible, such as your website and blog, to enhance your backlinks. You might also request that other websites in your niche run your video or create guest articles for them that contain your video. The better your Youtube SEO, as well as your Google SEO, is, the more backlinks you have.

Get Social

There are many popular social media sites today. To maximize your Youtube ranking and SEO, you need to share your videos on every available social media channel like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram. In particular, one of the first things you should do is share your video on Facebook. You can also get very good traffic with Facebook if you add an interesting description.

When you share socially, you will provide a backlink to your channel thanks to the external link and you will start to grow your social presence. Thus, with the incoming traffic, the number of views of your videos will increase, and you will gain interaction on your social media channel. This is also called win-win management.

Add Closed Captions

Here is a great Youtube SEO feature that will give you a huge edge. You know that youtube videos support subtitles. These are for people who are deaf or hard of hearing but are a great addition to SEO. Since subtitles are crawlable by search engines, enabling this feature means you will get good Youtube video SEO value. Youtube also supports automatic subtitles, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely error-free. Add your own text by editing the subtitles and making sure the subtitles are correct for Youtube video SEO.

Selen Cetin

Selen Cetin graduated from Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Linguistics. She has been working as an SEO Specialist at Cremicro since 2022.

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