How to Rank YouTube Videos
If you want to know how to rank YouTube videos on first page of google and YouTube, then be sure to read this article as I’ll be sharing with you 10 tips on getting your videos ranked and how to optimize your YouTube videos.
By checking the traffic sources section in my channel’s Analytics reports, you will find that 58% of my traffic is coming from YouTube Search. This means that I’m using the right keywords for the topics that people are looking for which helped to improve my YouTube channel’s ranking. So, what are the best practices to rank your YouTube videos on the first page?
YouTube On-page Optimization
1. Good Content
YouTube wants people to visit their platform and stay there so make sure to create good quality videos that people want to watch. If people watch a high percentage of your video, this will help to rank the video on top results cause this gives YouTube a signal that your content is good so it promote your video to more people who may show interest in your content. Additionally, you can increase your videos watch time by using end cards so that viewers will watch your other videos and this will help to keep them longer on the platform. The longer your watch time, the better your channel and videos will perform.
2. Do Keyword Research For YouTube Videos
When you type a keyword in YouTube as well as in Google, you may find videos related to this search term. If Google is displaying video results, then you have a potential to rank your videos for that term too. Use a main keyword and some supplementary or related search terms. The best way to find traffic generating keywords and to identify your target keyword phrase is to use the plugins TubeBuddy or VidIQ, these are the plugins I use for my channels and for my clients to find low competition keywords on YouTube that will rank the videos on both YouTube and Google.
3. Write Video Titles That Get Views
Place your main keyword in the first few words of the video and you can mix it with another sentence to grab the attention of your potential viewers like how to, the secrets of, 7 tips for, 6 easy ways to and the top ten etc. You can add some “high emotion” keywords like hidden, proven, remarkable and stay away. Check out this article to get more information about how to write video titles that get views.
4. Use The Main Keyword In The Thumbnail
How many times while you were browsing YouTube, you clicked on thumbnails that have few words related to what you were searching for? Attractive thumbnails that have few and clear words are going to stand out and help to boost videos’ click through rates. Getting your audience to click on your video is a part of YouTube ranking algorithm as well as getting them to watch the video will help to get your video ranked in YouTube.
5. Use Your Keywords In The Video Description
Use your main keyword in the first sentence when you are writing your description followed by your other supplementary keywords to be able to you provide the search engines with good information of what your videos is all about. You can write few small paragraphs ranging from 200 to 300 words.
6. Mention Your Keywords
YouTube is doing closed captioning for all videos. Be sure that they are doing the right transcription for your video and enable Closed Captions. When you mention your keywords many times in the video with their variations, this will help to have a keyword rich video transcription that will help your video to be ranked on top results. You can download the video transcription and use it in your blog or website as a method of repurposing your content.
7. Use The Right Tags
Use relevant YouTube tags that will help drive more views to your videos and get them ranked for the right search terms. You can check my video “How To Do YouTube SEO To Get More Views” for more details.
8. Promote Your Video
After publishing your video, try your best to drive as much traffic to it as you can in the first 48 hours. Share it on all social media platforms and tell your friends and colleagues about your video. The more people watch and engage with your video, the more YouTube is going to recommend it to more people and rank it higher in search results.
9. Add Hashtags
You can add three hashtags which will show up on your video. They will help to tell YouTube what your content is about.
YouTube Off-page Optimization
10. Create backlinks
These are links that point back to your videos. They can be used to rank your video higher in Google and YouTube search results. The more high authority backlinks your video has, the more it will be more valuable in the eyes of Google. Social media links are good examples of high quality backlinks.
In conclusion, learning how to rank YouTube videos on first page of Google and YouTube will take some time. Don’t rush the process.
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