YouTube has become a lucrative career option for youngsters and professionals alike. By posting engaging content and videos on YouTube, you can gain fame, money, and followers. So, it goes without saying that more and more people are trying out their luck in this field, which has made millionaires out of teenagers. But in this ever-increasing competition, how will you ensure your videos get maximum views? Don’t worry, we are here to help.
Buying inorganic traffic may increase the numbers on your channel, but they are not really helpful when it comes to organic traffic and engagement. For that, you need to follow some SEO rules. Search Engine Optimization ensures that your videos appear on top of search lists, so that they are visible to more people and get more organic traffic.
Check out these 10 best ways to apply proper SEO and get maximum views on your YouTube videos.
Keep the target keyword in your video name.
It is important to identify the keywords that should be your focus. Once you figure out the target keywords, make sure they appear right in the title of your video. When you upload the file, YouTube will read the file name and its code. If the correct keywords appear there, the video is more likely to appear in search results.
For example, if you are uploading a video about cleaning products, make sure your file name is relevant; something like “best cleaning products for home”, followed by the video file type. This will ensure that even while uploading, YouTube knows what your video is focused on.
Optimize your video title and description.
Your video title is the first thing a user notices while clicking on it. Instead of putting a random, vague title, make sure your video has a major keyword and makes sense. The title should not be too long though. For a food video, titles like “Veg lasagna simple recipe” can be considered.
The video description, on the other hand, can be a bit more elaborate. The character limit is 1000 but make sure you don’t make the description long and boring. SEO will work till some extent, but ultimately the viewer has to find your content interesting. Keep the keywords in the first 3-4 lines of description and strategically place as many keywords as you can while sounding natural.
Take suggested keywords from YouTube.
A smart thing to do is do prior research while uploading a video. If you are unsure which keywords will give your video more prominence, there is a foolproof way to find it out. For example, type in the generic topic in the YouTube search bar and see the suggestions that pop up. If YouTube is suggesting search titles, that means these topics are very common among viewers.
If you are posting an inspirational video, type “inspirational video” and see what suggestions you get. There might be suggestions like inspirational video, followed by: “for students”, “in English”, “for pregnant ladies”, etc. Pick out the most relevant option from the list and use it to describe your video.
Encourage engagement on your content.
The popularity of your video is often determined by the number of likes and comments. While you can add numbers inorganically, only real users can boost your content by subscribing to your channel and interacting on your videos. YouTube uses the number of subscribers as a ranking factor for videos to appear in searches. You can buy YouTube subscribers from many available places.
A good SEO tip is to make the videos interactive and encourage viewers to leave comments and feedback. The more engagement you have, the more your video will get prominence.
Don’t compromise video quality.
Quality is always better than quantity, be it anything on the market. Same in the case of your YouTube videos. In a bid to increase volume on your channel, make sure the videos you put out have good quality. Increase production value; invest time and effort in your creativity, if not money.
Nowadays, you do not need expensive devices to make high quality videos. Use your phones but make sure the content is polished and interesting. People should be interested in your content. They might come for keywords, but they stay for quality. And if they leave after the first few seconds, your SEO value will take a hit.
Thumbnails are very important.
Do not take thumbnails lightly. Even though they do not directly affect traffic, they definitely influence viewers into choosing your video above the million others pertaining to the same topic.
Most people click on a video after looking at the thumbnail picture, so make sure your first impression is interesting. That will surely convert to more views and more revenue in the long run.
Add closed captions or subtitles wherever possible.
YouTube can crawl closed captions and figure out if your video is friendly to people with hearing disabilities. Having subtitles or closed captions gives your video an edge over the others.
Although YouTube has automatic captions, they are flawed more often than not. So, edit those captions or add more of your own. But make sure your video has the option of availing subtitles.
Add relevant links to your channel and videos.
While uploading new content, you can include links to your previous videos. If possible, also include links to your channel in the content associated with your new video. Having backlinks and internal references tells YouTube that you have authority over a particular subject.
This will help the search engine figure out that you have covered similar topics in the past and give your new videos precedence over newbies.
Use effective tags to define your content.
Tagging is another way to ensure better ranking in YouTube search, which obviously means that more people will visit your channel and watch your videos. There are many tools on the internet which help you determine the most effective tags for your video topic.
The main keyword should come first, followed by some general keywords to give it a holistic feel. Amateurs as well as professional YouTubers have found it useful to follow keyword trends and tag their videos accordingly.
Make the first part of your video very interesting.
Most viewers determine whether to watch the video by judging the first few seconds of content. This is also the crucial time to ensure you hook your followers so that they do not stop watching the video immediately. If more users leave your page after watching the first few seconds, that spells SEO disaster.
It tells YouTube that your content is uninformative or uninteresting, which in turn makes it drop your rank in the list. Hence, be sure to put your best foot forward right from the beginning to enjoy ever-increasing viewers in your YouTube career.
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