Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an important aspect of digital marketing. It helps businesses to rank higher in search engine results pages, create brand awareness, increase visibility in the online world, and invite more traffic and conversions to their website.

That is why this marketing strategy is often used by many worldwide. As such, SEO today is not limited to websites anymore. Lately, SEO has been used in various social platforms, including YouTube. Likewise, this article is focused on helping you understand the importance of YouTube SEO and some best practices for optimizing your channel to maximize your brand and viewers.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is an important part of digital marketing and content creation. It involves optimizing your YouTube videos and channel to help them rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERP). This can be done by using keywords, creating metadata, and optimizing video titles, descriptions, and tags.

With SEO, you can get more views on your videos and increase your reach on the platform.

Why is SEO important for your YouTube videos?

We are familiar with using SEO strategies in Google and other search engines. But does SEO work on YouTube? The short answer is Yes. YouTube is considered both a social media platform and a search engine. Like Google, YouTube generates results based on keyword queries and algorithms.

As such, with proper YouTube SEO best practices, you can ensure that your videos are seen by more viewers and get more engagement. SEO can also help you reach a wider audience and increase brand visibility. By optimizing your YouTube videos with relevant keywords and tags, you can ensure they are indexed by search engines and appear in relevant searches. In addition, optimizing your YouTube videos can help you get more views, increase engagement, and generate more leads.

10 SEO Best Practices for Your YouTube Videos

Optimizing your YouTube videos involves optimizing titles, descriptions, and tags; creating compelling thumbnails; and using analytics to track performance. All these steps can help ensure that the right people see your videos and that they engage with them in the right ways.

As such, here are 10 SEO best practices for your YouTube channel.

1.   Identify Keyword Focus

Keywords are important in helping YouTube videos rank higher in search results. Using keywords can help YouTube algorithms better understand your video and how it should be indexed. This can be especially helpful for new channels just starting, as it allows them to get discovered by the right audience quickly.

Likewise, using the right keywords can be crucial for any YouTube SEO. Knowing how to identify keyword focus is important to ensure your content is optimised for search engine rankings. Keyword focus involves finding the most relevant and popular words that people use when searching for information related to your topic.

2.   Understand YouTube SEO Ranking

Understanding how search engine algorithms and ranking work is essential for any business or individual who wants to be successful online. With the right knowledge, you can use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve your website's visibility in search results, thereby increasing traffic and sales.

Additionally, understanding the factors that go into ranking and algorithm can help you identify areas where you need to improve your websites. Knowing how ranking and algorithm works is essential for anyone who wants to have a successful online presence.

When it comes to YouTube, the platform considers numerous factors such as watch time, engagement, and relevance to determine which videos are most likely to be watched by users. YouTube ranking also considers user behaviour, including how often they watch videos, what type of content they watch, and how long they watch them for. With regards to SEO ranking, YouTube-based this on factors like video titles, tags, descriptions, thumbnail images, management time, likes/dislikes ratio, user engagement, and more.

3.   Use keywords in your video title.

Video titles are one of the most essential elements of YouTube SEO. They help viewers find your video, and they also help search engines understand what your video is all about. A good title should be concise yet descriptive and contain relevant keywords to help your video appear higher in search engine results.

Additionally, a well-crafted title can increase the click-through rate on your videos. Viewers are likelier to click on videos with titles that accurately reflect their content.

4.   Include keywords in your file name

Video file names are a principal factor for SEO YouTube's success. It plays a leading role in getting your videos discovered by potential viewers. By incorporating relevant keywords into your video file names, you can increase the chances of being found on YouTube and other search engines.

Additionally, keyword-rich file names can help improve your videos' ranking in search results, thus increasing the visibility of your content. By understanding how to use keywords in your video file names, you can maximise the reach of your videos and gain more viewers on YouTube.

5.   Select video categories

YouTube categories are important for several reasons. Firstly, it helps viewers easily find the content they want to watch. Secondly, it allows creators to target specific audiences by organizing their content into relevant categories. Thirdly, it enables creators to track the performance of their videos better and analyse which ones are performing better than others. Finally, it makes it easier for advertisers to target specific audiences based on their ads' chosen categories.

So, how do YouTube categories work?

YouTube uses a variety of criteria when categorizing videos, such as keywords, tags, and thumbnail images. This helps it identify which videos should be classified and sub-categories. Likewise, the platform considers user feedback when determining category placement for certain videos. It is important to provide accurate information when uploading your video to categorise it correctly and reach the right audience.

6.   Add video hashtags to drive search results

Hashtags are an important tool to help creators get the most out of their content. It can help viewers find related content and be used to promote a video or channel. Likewise, engaging with your audience and ensuring your videos reach the right people is great.

When it comes to YouTube, Hashtags are an essential part of SEO. It can be used to help viewers discover your videos. Hashtags allow viewers to search for related content quickly and can be used to categorise videos into different topics. It also plays a role in helping YouTube determine the relevance of your video and how it should be ranked in search results.

7.   Add subtitles and closed captions

Closed captions and subtitles are becoming increasingly important for SEO purposes. With the rise of video content, search engines can now index and rank videos based on the closed captions or subtitles they contain. In addition, it allows search engine crawlers to understand the content of YouTube videos and help to improve rankings in search engine results.

Aside from that, closed captions make your YouTube videos accessible for people with hearing impairments and those who don't speak the language of the video. As such, they can help to increase engagement on YouTube, as users can watch videos without sound and still understand the content.

8.   Customise thumbnail image

Thumbnails are a crucial part of any YouTube video content. It is small images that are used to represent videos on YouTube. They serve as a visual representation of the video, allowing viewers to identify what the content of the video is about quickly. A good thumbnail should be eye-catching and informative, conveying the video's main message interestingly.

When it comes to SEO, creating a custom thumbnail can tremendously impact your click-through rates, views, performances, and other video SEO metrics. In addition, YouTube thumbnails can also appear on the Image Result page on google.

Likewise, it should also be optimised for different devices, as people view YouTube videos on different screen sizes and resolutions. By understanding why YouTube SEO thumbnails are important and how to optimise them for maximum visibility, you can increase your viewership and grow your channel.

9.   Optimise your video description

Video description on YouTube is an important element of SEO. It helps search engines understand the video's content and index it correctly. It also allows viewers to find your video faster when searching for related topics, providing them with more information about it. Furthermore, it can help you increase click-through rates and boost your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

When writing your video descriptions, it is important to include a keyword, tags, links, and context of your video. Here are some other tips on how to write a compelling YouTube description that is perfect for SEO:

•         Be specific in your keyword choice.
•         Do your keyword research.
•         Offer value to your videos.
•         Avoid clickbait.
•         Include a call to action (CTA).

10.        Create high retention videos

High-retention videos keep viewers engaged and interested throughout the entire video. This is an important factor for YouTube content creators. As mentioned earlier, YouTube ranks its videos based on various elements, including views.

As such, high-retention videos can help increase their viewership, resulting in higher platform ranks. In addition, it can also help to increase revenue through ad placements, as advertisers pay more for views that last longer.

Rank Your Videos on YouTube Today!

SEO is a crucial part of any YouTube that should not be overlooked. You can use all the tips in this article to improve and optimise your videos and channel. In addition, make sure that when you are enhancing your channel, you are also aiming for user experience.

And if you need further help in optimising your account, make sure to consult an expert. Flexi Digital Marketing can help you with that. Consult now with us!