Continuously posting videos on your YouTube channel and yet unable to get a fruitful result? You must be missing something effective, and that is YouTube SEO. YouTube is one of the widely used social media platforms where millions of creators show their creativity in the form of videos. Every niche has high competition; in such situations, how will your channel rank? That’s where YouTube search engine optimisation enters. It is a powerful strategy through which you can rank at the top. Understanding its algorithm is everything you need. Implement the strategy around the algorithm and see the results.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is a process of optimising the YouTube channel to increase its ranking on search results. YouTube and Google both use the same SEO strategies and algorithms. It increases the viewership and engagement of your channel. However, increment depends on many factors, such as keyword research, suitable titles and descriptions, collecting related videos together, and more. Furthermore, optimising your channel is useful for both, you and the viewer, as they are getting the best results, and you will get more subscribers. 

7 YouTube SEO Strategies to Rank Higher 

Running a YouTube channel is a big deal, but what’s more important is ranking higher in searches. So, that your audience can reach you easily. Let’s explore the YouTube SEO strategies:

1. Keyword Research 

To rank on any website, such as Google, YouTube, or Instagram, the first and most important step is keyword research. If you are posting videos with no keywords, the platform will get confused about the video’s topic. So, conducting keyword research is important. With Vidiq, RyRob, Ahref, and other tools, you can search the keyword. Analysing the volume and competition is important. You can also use Google Trends to analyse your keyword’s status or to find the trending keywords. 

2. Improve title and description

After conducting keyword research, make your video. Now, it’s time to optimise the title and description of the video. It is an important part of YouTube search engine optimisation. Make sure your title is under 100 characters; if possible, keep the title character between 60-70 characters. Your title must be short and catchy. Furthermore, the description has a limitation of 5000 characters; you can easily write 800-word descriptions for your videos. Make sure that your focus keyword should appear in the title and description of the video, and these both should align with the video’s topic. 

3. Add tags

Using tags for Google is not that important, but it plays an important role in YouTube search engine optimisation. However, a few users use hashtags to find a video, but it is a good way to gain audiences. Make sure to create high-quality videos for your YouTube channel, so that when a viewer reaches you through hashtags, you can convert them into your audience. If you are using hashtags, you must include your channel’s hashtag to create a brand name. Once you reach a good number of subscribers, other creators can use it in their videos, and you will get more audiences. 

4. Make your thumbnail catchy

If you want to gain views on your videos and audiences on your channel, it is important to make your thumbnail catchy. The thumbnail should explain the intent of the content. It should be customised, and over 90% of the YouTube channels have customised thumbnails. Think of yourself as a user; you will only click on the video whose thumbnail is eye-catching and satisfies your demands. For template customisation, you can choose Canva for free. 

5. Create a playlist

You can create a playlist of your videos on your channel. YouTube prioritises the channels that have collective videos in the form of playlists. Furthermore, users prefer videos that have playlists so that they can get all the information in one place. The playlist can get you free YouTube subscribers effortlessly. To create a playlist, you should bring all the relatable content into one section. With this, the user engages with the content for a longer time. 

6. Promote it on other platforms

The final step is to promote your content and channel on other social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and more. Through these social media platforms, you can gain a large audience if you have enough followers. Furthermore, if you have a website on Google, you can add the link to your video there. You can also post a few clips of your videos in short-form content, such as reels on Instagram and other video-based platforms. It captures the attention of the viewers, which leads to engagement. Sharing content on other platforms to gain audiences is known as cross-platform promotion. 

7. Check analytics for improvement

After putting all the effort, it’s time to check out the results. On the YouTube studio, you can check out the performance of your channel. Moreover, in the analytics section, you can check the watch time, total view, subscribers, best time of video posting, and more. It provides you with detailed information related to the channel. You can also improve the performance of the existing keyword. It helps you better understand your channel. 

The Last Line

YouTube is a leading video-sharing platform used by over 2.49 billion monthly users. With billions of users, ranking on the platform is not easy, and to solve this problem, here comes YouTube SEO. It has the same algorithm and strategy as Google, where creators have to focus on the basics, such as keyword research, title and meta, tags, categories, promotion, and more. The platform prioritises well-optimised content, and YouTube search engine optimization helps here.

Also Read: 10 Effective Strategies to Boost Instagram Followers