If you’re creating content, you know that it takes more than just quality content to make it. In order to grow a YouTube channel with SEO, you need to optimize your videos for the YouTube algorithms, Google search, AI Overviews, and ChatGPT. Be intentional about keyword use, take advantage of metadata, and have a consistent content structure.
This is obviously a lot to think about on top of making the best videos you can, which is why some creators hire YouTube SEO agencies. With the right team you can focus on doing what you do best and leave the secrets of growing your channel to the experts. That said, it can help to understand the ins and outs, even if you end up bringing in an expert.
Why SEO Matters for YouTube
Google SEO is common knowledge as something companies have to do to survive. Video SEO, however, is often overlooked, but it works similarly.
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, and it’s one of the few platforms where content can live forever and still engage audiences weeks, months, and years after you publish. Videos on YouTube can drive traffic, leads, and subscribers more than ten years after they are uploaded, which makes YouTube videosunique among a lot of online content.
Of course, this longevity is dependent on your videos being optimized for search on YouTube, Google, and AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and more. To do this, your video SEO strategy needs to align with audiences and their long-term interests, and with the right SEO, YouTube videos can attract your target audience for years to come.
What SEO Means for YouTube
First, let’s look at how YouTube SEO works. When looking to optimize your video content, it’s important to understand two things YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes:
- Performance: Are viewers clicking to watch the video? Are they leaving comments and sharing? Are they watching the entire video or leaving after a couple of seconds? Does the video leave the viewer feeling satisfied?
- Relevance: Is the video important to the subject it tackles (aka the keywords and topics that it focuses on)? Does the video provide quality content important to the audience who care about the topic?
Remember that no matter how much structure you use or how carefully you employ metadata and keywords, if the quality of your videos isn’t up to snuff, they’ll never break through and have the longevity you want.
The Building Blocks of YouTube SEO
As with all content, there is no magic recipe that will get you high-impact videos to engage both new and established audiences. However, one of the ways to find success as a content creator is to establish a framework you apply to each and every one of your videos. Raising your floor is the only way to increase the chance of raising your ceiling.
Keywords
Keywords are one of the simplest parts of any SEO, and this includes both short-tail and long-tail keywords and phrases. This is similar to your SEO keyword strategy for blogs. People are searching more with longer phrases vs single words, so do your keyword research to see what they’re actually typing in. There are a number of tools you can use to dial in your keywords. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, YouTube’s automatically suggested ‘people also watched,’ and numerous third-party tools like VidIQ and TubeBuddy can help you optimize high opportunity keywords for your videos.
It can also be helpful to think about your target’s intent. Consider using long-tail keyword phrases like ‘best ways to [industry-specific goal],’ ‘how to use [product],’ and ‘what is [topic].’ Don’t chase vague terms that seem to have high volume.
Metadata
Similar to keywords, when it comes to metadata, be specific.
- Descriptions: The first part of your description will be displayed on search pages, so it’s important that it’s both thorough and concise. Don’t expect users to click ‘show more.’ The first 2-3 sentences should be packed with keywords!
- Tags: Use tags specific to your industry and the video topic. Don’t use generic keywords with the hope that they’ll cast a wider net. Make sure to include long-tail and short-tail keywords.
- Thumbnails: Especially when it comes to video content, audiences judge a book by its cover, so make sure you have a cover that’s compelling. Thumbnails that have clear text related to your keywords and video topic, show a human face or reiterate the topic of the video are strong basics with which to start.
- Video file metadata: Did you optimize and rename your video file for SEO? Add in tags and a keyword-optimized description into your video file?
- We cover how to do all of this in our video “How to Rank YouTube Videos on Google & YouTube”
Captions
Captions matter to YouTube’s algorithm, but YouTube doesn’t count auto-generated captions. Upload an SRT file from your video to get more out of your content. You can even upload captions in multiple languages for broader engagement.
Structure
When you’re trying to raise the bar for your videos, it’s important to ensure they all have the basics. It can be helpful to have a checklist to make sure nothing gets published without the necessary parts. Make sure every video has:
- A strong title with target keywords
- A brief and thorough description with target keywords
- Relevant and specific tags with target keyword
- An accurate caption file
- Video and thumbnail metadata includes target keywords
Video
Are the target keywords and phrases used in graphics and text in the video? YouTube just announced that Google now uses AI to scan the frames in each video for relevant keywords and phrases.
This is what also helps your video land on AI chatbot answers.
Growing Together
Now that you know the basics, you can understand why it can be helpful to have an expert in charge of using YouTube SEO to grow your channel. With this information, you can also assess which companies have what it takes. grouphugs has optimized thousands of videos and launched dozens of successful channels across a wide variety of industries!
