Rank Your Videos on YouTube and Google

If you want to rank your videos on YouTube and Google, then you need to apply video SEO strategies.

According to a recent study by Cisco, video will account for an overwhelming majority of internet traffic by 2021.

In 2016, video represented 73% of global IP traffic. By 2021 – less than 3 years from now – that number will grow to over 80%.

With that amount of web traffic and hundreds of hours of video content being posted every day, how can your own videos stand out? With video SEO strategies.

Here are some of the topics we’ll discuss in this article:

Why you need video SEO strategies
What are video SEO strategies
Video SEO keywords
Video SEO optimization
Video SEO promotion

Why You Need Video SEO Strategies

There’s a reason why you’re looking for help with your video SEO strategies. And that reason is you realize that regular SEO and video SEO are not the same. In fact, they are quite different.

When you think of SEO, you probably think of repeating keywords through blog posts to attract visitors. How do you apply that to your videos?

If blogs and infographics are being replaced by vlogs and webinars, you’ll need to learn the video SEO strategies that will help you rank your videos on YouTube and Google.

Basic Video SEO Strategies to Rank Your Videos on YouTube and Google

Let’s have a look at these video SEO strategies that will rank your videos on YouTube and Google.

You’ll notice some of these techniques and methods are equivalent to other similar techniques and methods from written-content SEO, while some are completely new.

Video SEO Keywords

The very first item on our list of video SEO strategies is video SEO keywords. Of course, keywords are present and extremely important in written SEO as well. But there are a few differences.

You probably have a list of keywords for your written content. How do you find keywords for your videos?

First, you can go to YouTube and search for those keywords you already have. Are those searches popular? What types of videos appear in the results?

Find related keywords

Once you understand the basic ground for these keywords, you can check for similar, related keywords. How? Using YouTube’s suggested searches.

YouTube suggested searches, a great source for video SEO keywords.

These suggested terms come from frequent searches by other users. Your keywords might not be as popular as these other terms since written and video content are different.

Action: Use Ubersuggest to find other related keywords.

Since the suggested terms are actual terms that users type when looking for videos on YouTube, you’ll notice certain patterns. There are 3 types of keywords you should look for:

How to videos: “how to …”
Reviews: “… review”
Tutorials: “… for beginners”

Look for suggested search terms with these types of keywords and you’ll be sure to get great traffic and rank your videos higher.

Action: Create a list of at least 50 suggested keywords related to your niche

Discover your competitors’ keywords

After you have created a long list of keywords you can work with, you should have a look at what your competitors are doing.

To do so, check their most popular videos and find which keywords they are targeting.

We recommend vidIQ for YouTube, a Google Chrome extension that lets you see the most repeated tags for any YouTube video.

Action: Download vidIQ Vision for YouTube on Google Chrome and create a list of your competitor’s most used keywords

Select low-competition keywords

By now, you should have a list of nearly 100 different keywords. How do you choose the best ones?

You should once again do YouTube — and Google — searches for all your keywords. Then select the ones with low competition. Start there and you’ll be able to rank your videos on YouTube and Google.

Action: Use SEMrush to find video keywords with 1k to 3k monthly searches

Video SEO Optimization

Once you decide on which keywords you want to target with your video SEO strategies, how do you optimize your content?

Say your keywords out loud

First of all, you need to repeat your keyword… in your videos. That’s right, you need to say your keywords out loud.

Did you know there’s a closed-caption option for YouTube videos? YouTube automatically creates subtitles for every video. If there are subtitles, there’s is a written transcription. And in that transcription. you should try to include your keywords.

Action: Use BuzzSumo to find out what people are talking about in your niche and get ideas for your videos

By saying your target keyword at least a couple of times per minute of video, YouTube will “know” what your video is about, and it will suggest it to its users.

Add your keywords in titles, descriptions and tags

However, saying your keywords out loud won’t be enough. You need to write them down. Where?

A YouTube video has 3 places for you to write: its title, its description and its tags.

Titles should be short yet informative. Include the keywords as close to the beginning as possible, and complete the title to let viewers know what your video is about. However, don’t spoil the content. You want them to be intrigued enough to watch your video.

The description is the best place for you to add as many details as you want. Since YouTube initially hides the description, it won’t annoy viewers or interfere with the video itself.

You should include the keyword at least once in the first paragraph of the description, and 4 or 5 times total.

A good video description is similar to a good blog post: go for well-distributed text into short paragraphs and grammatically correct sentences.

Action: Read this guide on how to write better content

With tags, on the other hand, you shouldn’t care about grammatical correctness at all. Just make sure to add your target keywords, beginning with the main keyword of each video.

You can also add the discarded keywords — those with too much traffic you weren’t considering using. Why? Because you might end up in the suggested videos or playlists, gaining viewers who come from your competitors’ videos.

Video SEO Promotion

Last on our list of video SEO strategies is promoting your video.

You need views on your video if you want YouTube to recommend it. And you need to promote your content to get the first few views.

So how do you promote your video?

Promote your videos with email marketing

There are 3 places where you can share your video and get people to watch. First of all: email marketing.

Regardless of the number of people who have subscribed to your newsletter, adding a link to your video might be enough to create an initial traction towards it.

If your newsletter subscribers find value in these videos, they will also subscribe to your YouTube channel and watch all of your videos.

Action: Use GetResponse to manage your email marketing

Promote your videos on your blog

You can also embed your video on your blog posts, as long as your videos are related to your articles.

Content marketing isn’t only about creating content: it’s also about reformating content.

Transforming your written blog posts into videos, and vice versa, is a great way to reach different audiences: those who like to read and those who like to watch videos.

Action: Use Proof to display real-time engagement and activity on your blog

Promote your videos on social media

Finally, you should also promote your videos on social media. Do it smartly, using hashtags and interacting with people who might be interested in your content.

Remember that your video’s success will depend on how well people respond to it, so your goal shouldn’t exclusively be to get more views. You need better views.

Try to attract people who will find value in your content, and then YouTube and Google will make sure to recommend your videos over your competitors’.

Action: Use Hootsuite to manage your social media accounts and share your video across different platforms

Apply these Video SEO Strategies to Your Content

So there you have our basic video SEO strategies. If you use them correctly, you can and will rank your videos on YouTube and Google.

Now it’s your turn. Find out the best keywords, optimize your videos, and promote them to attract new viewers. If you have any questions or comments, leave them down below and we’ll get back to you! We’ll see you on YouTube!

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Kaizen Sigma, LLC

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