According to estimates, there are over 2.7 billion active YouTube users worldwide. That audience consumes over 1 billion hours of content on the platform every day. YouTube offers creators seemingly limitless opportunities for growth and outreach thanks to its broad spectrum of features, user-friendly interface and ever-growing popularity. However, trying to carve out a niche on the expansive platform can prove challenging and even confusing.
Fortunately, there are tried and true methods creators can employ to expand their reach on YouTube’s platform. One of the most important factors to consider when developing your YouTube strategy is search engine optimization (SEO). Let’s discuss strategies for improving YouTube SEO and explore how taking advantage of these methods can help creators maximize views, engagement and conversions on their YouTube channels.
What is YouTube SEO?
Search engines like YouTube rely on advanced algorithms to determine which creators, content and channels to show audience members when they search for a particular keyword. SEO refers to the process of optimizing your YouTube presence so that your content appears high in the search results. The goal is to maximize your channel’s visibility.
YouTube’s search algorithm uses various factors to determine which videos to push to different viewers. It’s important to understand, however, that the YouTube search algorithm is text-based, so the audio or visual elements of videos themselves don’t factor into the equation. That’s why it’s important to optimize the textual components of your YouTube content to maximize your SEO ranking.
Key Elements of YouTube SEO
YouTube’s SEO algorithm takes many different variables into account when ranking users’ search results. Thankfully, creators have many different resources at their disposal when it comes to optimizing their content for SEO purposes. Here are a few of the key factors that affect YouTube SEO rankings and some quick tips for optimizing each element for maximum impact:
- Video Title: Include your target keyword naturally in an attractive, compelling title no longer than 60 characters.
- Description: Your description should be at least 250 words long. Aim to include your target keywords in the first 1-2 sentences of the description.
- Tags: Include 5-10 highly relevant tags when uploading your video. Try to incorporate both standard keywords and their long-tail variations into your tags. Long-tail variations of keywords are longer and more specific, which is why they tend to have higher conversion rates.
- Thumbnails: Eye-catching, custom thumbnails can help your content stand out in users’ search results and drive traffic to your channel.
- Closed Captions: Adding accurate captions to your YouTube videos can make your content more accessible to diverse audience members while boosting your SEO ranking.
- File Name: Remember to rename your video file to include your target keyword rather than leaving a raw file name like Movie1.mov.
- Playlist Titles/Descriptions: Incorporate SEO keywords into the titles and descriptions of your channel’s playlists.
- Watch Time: The longer your average video watch time, the higher you’re likely to appear in a user’s search results. Creating engaging content and employing tools like closed captions can extend your average watch time and improve your SEO ranking.
YouTube SEO Best Practices
In addition to the go-to strategies outlined above, there are some other best practices to keep in mind when working to improve your YouTube SEO ranking. Each of these approaches begins with comprehensive keyword research to target your audience. YouTube offers an auto-suggest feature that can help creators find effective SEO keywords for their content. However, by doing your own independent research, you can discover high-demand, low-competition keywords for your content.
Creators should optimize their YouTube content with one or two specific keywords and two to three secondary keywords. Over-optimization can actually negatively impact your SEO ranking and user experience. If you plan on offering captioning or transcription of your YouTube content, incorporate your keywords into your video’s dialogue so these keywords appear in your captions and transcripts.
It is also important to take steps to increase audience engagement to further enhance your search ranking. Some great strategies for boosting engagement and watch time include:
- Using chapters, cards, screens and interactive video features
- Promoting your content on multiple social media platforms and other digital channels
- Analyzing your user data and video statistics to identify potential areas of improvement
- Publishing new content at least once a week
- Replying to comments and engaging with visitors to your channel
- Adding accurate captions to your video content
Each of these approaches can help boost audience engagement and enhance your channel’s popularity across multiple demographics.
Understanding Captions and YouTube SEO
We’ve discussed the fact that adding captions to your YouTube videos can help to boost your SEO ranking. But how does it work? “Captioning” refers to the process of converting audio to text. This means that when you add captions to a YouTube video, you are essentially creating a readable version of your video’s audio track. Since YouTube’s search algorithm doesn’t take audio and video into account, converting your video’s audio to a caption track can make the text or your video discoverable by YouTube’s algorithm. YouTube can then use the text of your video to determine the appropriate SEO ranking for your channel.
Additionally, captions can help creators expand their reach in a few different ways. First and foremost, captions make video content more accessible to viewers with disabilities. Individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing benefit significantly from the presence of accurate captions. Similarly, some audience members with ADHD, auditory processing disorders and specific learning needs are able to engage more fully with video content when captions are present.
Even viewers without disabilities benefit from the presence of accurate captions. In fact, research suggests that videos that include captions enjoy a 12% higher average watch time than videos without captions. Remember, today’s viewers often consume content on mobile devices and in public places. If a video contains captions, it’s easy for an audience member to watch and engage with the video – even if they have the audio muted. Videos without captions or videos that feature inaccurate captions may fail to get their message across in situations where an audience member needs or prefers to tune in with the sound off.
YouTube Captions and Transcripts with Verbit
YouTube is a remarkably versatile platform for sharing media content, and users have many tools at their disposal for making the most of this popular search engine. If you’re looking to enhance your YouTube SEO ranking but aren’t sure exactly where to start, consider investing in a high-quality closed captioning solution. Captions can make your content more accessible and engaging to all while optimizing your videos for YouTube’s search algorithm.
Verbit is a leading provider of captioning solutions for YouTube and other popular media hosting platforms. Verbit’s process combines the speed and efficiency of artificial intelligence with professional-trained human captioners to deliver highly accurate final caption files with reliably fast turnaround times. Verbit’s captioning software integrates seamlessly with YouTube’s platform, which makes it easy for users to request captioning of both pre-recorded and live YouTube content. To learn more about the relationship between closed captions and SEO or for more information about Verbit’s advanced captioning solutions, reach out to speak to a member of our team.