Use These Tips to Rank High on the YouTube Search Results

Did you know, by 2022 more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be through online videos? That’s a gigantic chunk! But, it’s not hard to believe since on average, people watch 16 hours of online videos weekly. These numbers are only going to multiply as we move forward. It indicates one thing very clearly – video content is the future. YouTube is the second-largest search engine platform that offers your business different ways of leveraging video content.

85% of the businesses already use videos as a marketing tool. If you want to stand above the rest in today’s business world, you have to rank higher in YouTube search. In this article, we have rounded up some useful tips to help you improve your search ranking on YouTube.

Use the Right Keywords

If you want to drive traffic to your YouTube posts, you must target specific keywords with a good search volume. YouTube’s ‘search suggest feature’ does a good job of informing you about the trending keywords. Or, you could look at your competitor’s videos and study the keywords that have worked for them. Selecting the right keywords can give you high visibility and grow your viewership.

Publish A High-Retention Video

If you want your videos to feature among the top search rankings, you need to keep people watching. The longer a user watches your video, the better it is for your ranking. The goal is to make them stay on the platform for as long as possible. To achieve this, plan your videos in advance, start with a strong opening point that delivers value and make the video relatable. 

Optimize the Video Title

YouTube on its own has no way of telling the audience what a particular video is about. Your title informs the viewers what they can expect from the video. If it’s too long, people may ignore it. If it’s too short, it may not be enough to tell the audience about the video. Ideally, having 120 characters in your title is a good length. Add your focus keyword in the beginning so it encourages people to click and watch.

Optimize the Description

Similar to your video title, the description is just as important. It helps the YouTube algorithm to understand the context of your video, making it rank higher. Consider making the description a minimum of 250 words and include the focus keyword 2 to 4 times. Incorporating a keyword in the first 25 words makes it easier for YouTube to crawl it.

Include Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags are another way to give context to your video which can improve your search engine ranking. YouTube has made it simple by recommending adding phrases and keywords that match the best with your video. Around 10 to 12 tags per video are enough. You don’t want to confuse your audience or take away from the video with too many hashtags.

Create Interesting Thumbnails

When you upload a video, YouTube recommends 3 random screenshots from the video to choose as thumbnails. Instead of this, if you create a custom thumbnail you get to control the first impression users have of your video. An interesting thumbnail can draw the audience and compel them to click on your video resulting in a surge in your Click Through Rates (CTR).

Closing Thoughts

We hope these tips were useful for improving your YouTube SEO. Remember, choosing the right keywords and incorporating them in your title, tags and video description makes a huge difference to your social media ranking. Additionally, consider promoting your YouTube channel on your other social media platforms as well to attract more audience to your posts.