We all are well aware of the famous and massive online video-sharing platform YouTube. This platform is ready to grow even massively in the coming future. It has already gained enormous outreach than other video-sharing platforms. Be it the influencers, digital marketers, or corporates; YouTube serves as the number one video marketing platform for everyone. For some time, the YouTube viewership and reach were a mystery to the public.
Approximately 600,000 hours of videos are uploaded every day. Hence, if you wonder how one video with a similar subject reaches a million views, the other struggles to meet a hundred. The answer to your question is YouTube SEO.
It is important to note that every video on YouTube begins with a 0 view and subscriber count. Every single successful channel on the platform started with nothing. But the real question is how they can achieve massive viewership within days. The SEO strategies can assist you to rank your videos for higher viewership. SEO is the process of optimizing your content for your targeted audience. With that said, let’s discuss how you can rank your YouTube videos in 2021.
Additional Resources: How to learn SEO, How To Start A Blog In 2020, Promote Your Music Video With YouTube Ads, Improve Your SEO with Explainer Videos, Check this sound library for your video marketing needs: SYNTHONIA, A YOUTUBE Beginner’s Guide 2021
- BACKLINK VIDEO STRATEGY
Backlinks will remain as a prominent SEO strategy for 2020-2021. The technique involves an inbound link that directs the visitor to another website. But how does that work? The backlinks act as the value of content. They add confidence and vouches for your content for more significance. Since search engines like Google use spider bots to crawl through links. When your channel link stays on an authoritative website, the search engine crawler will consider it valuable and rank it higher.
For that instance, you can add your YouTube channel and videos backlinks to the blogs on high authority websites to crunch worthy traffic to your channel. You can also employ backlink checker tools to identify new and deleted backlinks. This way, you can rank on higher SERPS to reach maximum viewership.
- PERFORM KEYWORD RESEARCH
Keyword research is still going to be a practical approach to rank your videos on YouTube in 2021. The process involves researching different search keywords where you can rank your videos. It would help if you found low-competitive-keywords with high search volumes to increase higher results on the platform. You can easily research these keywords and use them in your content to rank in top results.
All you need to do is to type the few subject words on the search bar. While you type, YouTube will start to give suggested searches. These are the related keywords according to your targeted subject. Simply note down these keywords and use them in your title, description, and video content. There will indeed be words that do not make any sense. But, these words are what other videos are ranking for. You can use them as a competitive edge to optimize your videos for search.
- OPTIMIZING DESCRIPTION AND TITLE
Apart from link building and keyword research, you will also be required to pay attention to optimizing description and video title. Your video title is everything you have to grab the attention of the viewer. For that instance, you must combine keywords and creativity into your title to rank in higher results.
Simply think of the audience and what they would search for on YouTube. Moreover, you can also use the search queries in the video description to target the audience. The video description is where you will explain the details about your video subject. The key is to optimize the content for search results. This way, you can rank in higher SERPS and bring visitors to your channel.
- OPTIMIZING THE TAGS
Tags are another prominent feature introduced by YouTube to assist the content creators. While publishing your YouTube videos, the platform will ask you to add relevant tags to your video. You will have to choose the tags wisely to rank them for keywords. It is the part where you have the freedom to add as many variations of the keywords as possible. However, you do not have to fill the section with hundreds of tags. Ten to twelve ‘tags’ are enough to give reference to YouTube about your content. You can also incorporate LSI keywords to make your videos more SEO friendly. These are the semantic keywords that are easily perceivable by the search engine for a specific subject.
- MAKE LONGER VIDEOS
Another top factor to consider to optimize your videos in 2021 is by making longer videos. There is a common belief that shorter videos tend to rank higher as compared to longer videos. But the reality is contrary to this belief, and longer videos always rank higher than shorter videos. It means longer videos retain the viewers and add value to your content.
For those who do not know, YouTube uses the view duration for ranking the videos for a channel. The longer is your view duration, the higher the chance of ranking your videos. It means creating longer videos will give you the edge to gather watch time of your channel. You can also monitor the watch time in the YouTube analytics panel. Just because YouTube favors longer videos does not mean you should start dragging them necessarily. However, YouTube only elevates videos with quality and engaging content.
- CREATING INTERESTING THUMBNAILS
Your viewers will use two things before deciding to click your video. First is the title and the second is the thumbnails. A creative and exciting thumbnail is essential to attract viewers and bring in traffic to your channel. YouTube indeed adds an automatically generated thumbnail from the video content if the author provides none. But as per the professional’s recommendation, you must design a thumbnail separately and upload it to the YouTube studio.
Designing the thumbnail gives the edge to grab the visitor’s attention and draw them towards watching your video. Never create clickbait content through the thumbnail, as it can hurt your rankings and channel reputation.
- ADD SUBTITLES OR SRT FILES FOR YOUR VIDEOS
Adding the smallest details like subtitles for your videos will benefit your content to rank in top results. As discussed earlier, you can use the keywords anywhere possible for your content. In that case, subtitles and closed captions also allow you to incorporate keywords with high search volumes.
- ADDING END SCREENS
As said earlier, the trick is to retain the viewer on your channel to leverage the watch time for ranking. You can use this trick by using the end screens on your YouTube videos. These screens must include channel and video link to the related topic. This way, you can engage the viewer to watch more content on your channel, thus adding the views and duration.
See also: How to Embed a YouTube Video in PowerPoint
FINAL WORDS
YouTube is undoubtedly a competitive platform with a massive amount of content creators competing for an audience. Ranking your YouTube videos might sound challenging and complex. But incorporating the tricks into your content can assist you in improving your YouTube SEO. Everyone starts small with little audience and views. The right motivation and practices can help you to achieve your goals for reaching your audience.
