YouTube is a website where people can share videos and watch others' videos. It is one of the most visited websites in the world, and after Google, it is the second biggest search engine. Users can use words or phrases to search for videos on YouTube, and the site will give them a list of videos that match their search.
When you realise that YouTube is also effectively a search engine, it becomes clearer that there are ways to use your channel as a way to promote your brand. Now, if you already have a website and some other social channels up and running, like Facebook and Instagram, optimising YouTube is a lot easier. The goal is to reach more people in the market by having all of these channels work together, and we can do a few things that help YouTube to achieve this.
These are the top ways to get the most out of your YouTube content:
1. Name your video files the right way
To begin, use an SEO tool (like Ahrefs) to identify keywords for your video, just as you would when optimising written content.
When you've decided on a keyword, make sure you put it in your video file before you upload it to YouTube.
As YouTube doesn't go through your content determine its relevance to your target keyword, and there are only a few places you can drop these keywords in once it's published. When you upload a video to YouTube, it does read the file name though.
So don't be lazy and upload a file called "MyVideo - draft final FINAL123"! If your keyword is "best lightweight hiking tents" for example, the file name of your video should be "best lightweight hiking tents".
2. Use keywords naturally in the name of your video
Using keywords in your YouTube video's title, description, and tags is important because it helps YouTube understand what your video is about and makes it more likely to appear in search results when people search for those keywords.
The title of your video is the first thing people notice when they come across it. Make sure it accurately describes your video's content and includes relevant keywords.
Also to note is that on some devices and search results, your title can get cut off if it is too long. Keep to to 60characters maximum if possible.
3. Nail your video description
Another important place to include keywords is in the video description. Use the description to give viewers a reason to watch your video by providing more information about it.
The official character restriction for YouTube video descriptions is 1,000 characters.
Although it's acceptable to fill all of that space, keep in mind that YouTube only shows the top couple of lines of text, or roughly 100 characters. If you go any longer than that, users need to click 'show more' to read it. In this case, make sure you put the important info early in your description so it is visible.
4. Use tags on your video
Because YouTube uses tags to understand a video's content, it's critical to include tags that accurately describe your video. In addition to tags, you can use them to add context to your video and help it appear in search results.
Anyone who is involved in Google SEO understands that it is no longer a good idea to cram a page's code with keywords in the meta tags. But on YouTube, a video's ranking depends on its tags. They are among the elements that YouTube takes into account when determining the topics of a video and properly indexing it as well as when suggesting related videos.
YouTube lets you enter 120 characters in this box. Add your most crucial keywords first, and mix in some popular ones along with some long-tail stuff, answering questions such as"what is the best...?"
By including keywords in these fields, you will help YouTube's algorithm understand the content of your video and increase the likelihood that your video will be visible to potential viewers who are searching for a video similar to the one you've created.
5. Make playlists
Sort your videos into playlists that are all about the same thing. This will help people stay on your channel longer and may also help your channel show up higher in search results.
Create keyword-focused playlists for the videos as you continue to add them to your channel. This will not only provide YouTube more information on the subject matter of your films, but it will also encourage people to watch more of them, raising your view count and, thus, your ranking.
6. Add closed captions and subtitles
Not only will this help people who can't hear to watch your videos, but it can also make people watch your videos for longer and be more interested in them.
Plus, only text and code can be read by YouTube's algorithm, not images and videos.
As a result, one strategy you can use to ensure that it understands what your content is about is to create transcriptions and captions.
7. Use a custom thumbnail
The primary image that viewers see while navigating through a list of video results is your video's thumbnail. This thumbnail, together with the video's title, informs viewers about the video's subject matter, which might affect how many clicks and views your video gets.
Although you can always choose from the auto-generated thumbnail options provided by YouTube, we strongly advise creating a personalised thumbnail. Images with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1280x720 pixels should be used, according to YouTube. These images should be stored as 2MB or smaller .jpg, .gif, .bmp, or. png files. Following those guidelines can help to guarantee that your thumbnail displays in the same high quality on various viewing platforms.
Remember that in order to upload a custom thumbnail image, your YouTube account must be confirmed. Visit youtube.com/verify and follow the directions there to accomplish that.
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