SEO For YouTube: How To Increase The Search Engine Visibility Of Your Videos

Imagine you've slaved away making a superb video on one of your keywords to help your business generate new leads. You've uploaded it to YouTube and yet it doesn't appear in the search engine results. You feel annoyed and confused right? What do you do?

Before we begin with top tips on how to increase your visibility, you should know that video content is ranked in terms of:

• Watch time: How long a user watches your video (aka how long they stay on the page as the video plays)
• Video length: Quality content often means longer content. Videos that surpass 10 minutes in length tend to rank higher because they provide topical relevancy and satisfy user intent
• Number of subscribers: YouTube channels with more subscribers send stronger authority signals to search engines
• User interaction: Sharing, commenting, liking, subscribing, linking

Optimise Your YouTube Channel

Best practices when optimising your YouTube channel include:

• Choose an appropriate name (ensure the name matches your website / product / service)
• Try and include your business' keyword in your YouTube channel name or description
• Fill out the 'About Us' section on your bio. Your bio should explain who you are and what you specialise in. You should also include your website address and your contact information (location, email and phone) as this will help Google index and map the content to the author, as well as increase traffic to your website homepage
• Upload crisp images to your profile (both a profile image and a banner image)
• Upload videos with full titles, descriptions and keywords / tags
• Create individual thumbnails (the thumbnail should indicate / explain what the video is about to improve click-through-rate)
• Upload videos regularly throughout the year
• Organise videos into separate playlists so viewers can find what they are looking for more easily

YouTube Videos Should Be VIDEOS

Avoid uploading slide-shows or a series of images with snippets of text on screen as this type of content is outdated and frankly boring. Instead your videos should be rendered in HD, have real live footage and voice overlay. We also recommend practising your video camera technique because shaky hands and fingers over the lens is a massive no no! The local market is currently oversaturated with various businesses fighting for the same clients; for this reason your videos need to pack-a-punch and be entertaining or your customers won't give you the time of day.

It's also important that your video is branded in a flattering way. The font style, colour scheme and logo should align with your existing website, blog and paid advertising otherwise your customers won't be able to build an accurate picture of your business in their head, leading to disassociation.

Upload Different Styles Of Video

Search engines like YouTube actively seek out new, refreshing content. It therefore makes sense that in order to rank highly you must upload a variety of videos. Different types of video you can try out include:

• Vlogs (Video Diaries About Your Day-To-Day Life)
• Interviews
• Event Videos
• Presentation Videos
• Tutorials
• Product Reviews
• Testimonials

Avoid Clickbait Titles

It sounds obvious but customers hate being tricked. Customers will click the 'thumbs down' button if the content in the video doesn't match their expectation, therefore the wording, thumbnail and description of the video must be line with your industry.

Identify Trends & Gaps In The Market

Is there a topic or question that people are asking online but no one is answering? For example, let’s say you're an insolvency practitioner who helps companies with debt. According to Google Analytics roughly 300 people are searching for 'ways to cope with company debt'. After performing a quick YouTube search you realise there are no videos covering this topic. Your team should immediately begin creating content to fill this gap. YouTube's algorithms will crawl through your content (including the title and the description) and flag it in the search engines to match this search term.

Video Length

How long should your videos be? Honestly, that's like asking how long is a piece of string. There is no right or wrong answer, for example, an interview with an MD might be 20 minutes long, whereas a product review might be 3 minutes long.

One thing is for certain though – you must cut out the waffle and get straight to the point. Your viewer should be hooked from the minute they click play, to the minute they exit the video.

Final Thoughts

For more information and advice on video marketing, check out some of our related articles:

• How To Do Online Video Marketing: The Digital Prosperity Podcast Season 2, Episode 5
• 5 Of The Best Benefits Of Video Marketing
• Why Use Video Marketing

Contact the JDR Group today to book a FREE 20 minute online meeting with our marketing expert Andy Gibbins. Andy will take a look at your current marketing efforts and help you pinpoint areas for improvement.