Did you know that people upload 300 hours of video every minute? With this amount of new video, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for businesses to make their videos stand out.
But there is a way to push your YouTube videos in front of more people: by optimizing them for search engines. When people are searching for videos that help answer a specific question or provides more information about a certain topic, they will usually type their search query into Google search or YouTube’s search bar. If your video has good search engine optimization (SEO), it will rank higher in the results. The better you get at YouTube SEO, the more likely people will find and watch your videos.
There are three key areas to update your videos so that they begin to rank higher: Title, Thumbnail, and Description.
1. Title
The title is the first thing people look at when reviewing the search results. The screenshot above shows the title in the big blue letters outlined by a red box.
When a person is looking for something on either Google or YouTube, your video’s Title is the primary source these search engines use to rank the relevance of your video to the person’s search query. To rank the highest in search, we recommend that your Title includes relevant phrases and keywords that people would type in to look for your video.
It is essential that you put the most relevant information first. Our rule of thumb is to try to get your point across in the first 3-7 words of your title to avoid getting cut off
2. Thumbnail
The thumbnail is the image preview of your video before the person has started to watch your video. The thumbnail shows up in the search results (see Screenshot 1) and in the Recommended Videos section on YouTube (outlined in red in the screenshot above).
The Thumbnail is the place people look first and is a huge factor when determining which video to watch. The thumbnail should accurately represent the style of your video so that there is a consistency between the two. Another best practice for thumbnails is to re-write the title of your video so that people will immediately know what your video’s topic is.
3. Description
The Description is the information below the video. As you can see in the screenshot, the description is usually cut off by a Show More’ button.
For SEO optimization, the Description is the most effective place to improve your video’s rank. Descriptions that are keyword rich, clearly explain the contents of the video and the channel tend to do best. One critical piece not to overlook is the usage of links in the Descriptions. It gives the person watching your video something to do after they are done and helps improve your website’s SEO, as well!
Need some help?
At KWSM: a digital marketing agency we have a set formula that we use for all of our video Descriptions. Check out our KWSM YouTube channel to discover how we write our Descriptions. If you do not have the time or the internal staff to optimize your YouTube videos, consider working with KWSM: a digital marketing agency. We have a team of content editors who will be able to write strategic titles and descriptions for all your videos, as well as a team of designers and video editors to make sure your content is top quality.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you!
90% of customers say video helps them make buying decisions.
To catch their attention, you need to be creating high-quality branded videos. KWSM has an in-house video team that will help give your brand a human face to help generates the results you’ve been looking for.
CONTACT US for a complimentary brainstorming session on how to add video to your website or digital marketing strategy.