Maybe you’ve been creating YouTube content for a while, and you’ve put in the work to build your brand and establish a video presence, researching all the tips about keywords and metadata. Maybe you’ve done all this–and you’ve hit a wall. Slow growth, few new subscribers, and you’re feeling burnt out.
So, you’ve decided it’s time to hand off this vital role to an expert who knows how to make the most of SEO and get your videos the engagement you know they deserve. To choose a video SEO agency, look for a team that has technical expertise, video production capability, and a proven track record of growing diverse brands through video platforms.
There are numerous YouTube SEO agencies out there, so how do you know which one is right for you?
What to Look For
The best agencies won’t just optimize your videos. To really get the most out of professional services, it’s important to find a company that can offer expertise from the beginning to the end of the process and teach you skills you can apply to your future videos. The benefits of hiring video SEO experts should be as varied as the services they offer.
Full Service
Video SEO is ongoing and complex. Here are some of the tasks any quality video SEO agency should be able to handle:
- Keyword research and optimization
- Script refinement
- Optimize video hooks
- Metadata optimization, including title, description, tags, and chapters
- Custom thumbnail creation
- Caption and multilingual subtitle generation
- Analytics and performance tracking
This list is basic in many ways and should be the bare minimum of what quality SEO agencies should offer.
YouTube-First
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, so any video SEO agency promising to get your videos more engagement should have it as their first priority.
Many platforms are important when growing a brand or establishing yourself as a content creator, but when it comes to video SEO, YouTube is the foundation. YouTube has its own algorithm, ranking factors, and ways of understanding user behavior, and to make the most of this massively important resource, you need an agency that understands these things.
Real Results
Quality video SEO agencies should be able to demonstrate success across multiple fields and with channels at diverse stages of development. If you find an agency that has grown engagement in fintech, wellness, e-commerce, and personality-driven content, you have a winner.
Customization
If you’ve spent any time trying to manage your own SEO, you know that you can’t just copy and paste keywords from one video to another and expect results. Some agencies might try to do exactly that with your SEO strategy.
Make sure you bring on experts who care about your brand and your approach–an agency that engages your work on its own terms. Anyone you hire needs to see what makes you special in order to amplify that specialness to the world…and meet your target audience where and when they are searching.
Full Production
Part of understanding the video industry is knowing the process from beginning to end. The best agencies are ones that are capable of full video production, regardless of where you are in the world. Whether or not you require those services when you hire them, only agencies that have a history of making videos themselves (SEO optimization writing, shooting, editing, and posting) can truly understand the ins and outs.
Now and Future
Brands and channels change over time and, hopefully, grow. A quality agency will be able to scale with you, pinpointing what you need now and how they can help you when you’re ready to expand again in six months. Choosing an agency capable of growth will also save you the trouble of starting your search all over again when you outgrow the small team that was helpful when your channel was small but now can’t provide what you need.
Questions to Ask
Like any good interview, it’s important to start your agency search prepared with questions. Here are some to get you started:
- How do you get to know your clients and their needs?
- How do you know what keywords to target for my target audience?
- How do you build content strategies for your client?
- What does the pre-production and post-production video process look like?
- How do you measure success?
- What does support look like before and after a video is published?
As you talk with agencies, keep track of questions that come up and add them to your list.
Why grouphugs?
grouphugs is a YouTube-first agency focused on growth and scale. We’ve worked across numerous industries, and we’ve helped new channels find their audiences and more established brands explode their viewership. We are experts in optimization and offer full video pre-production, production, post-production, and optimization. Reach out today to discover how we can elevate your videos, regardless of their current stage, to the next level. To see what we can do for you, watch this video!
