Don’t Opt-Out, Optimize Your YouTube Video Instead!

By Nancy Avalos-Medina

Information in this blog post was obtained from Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today, and Content Marketing Institute.

Courtesy of Unsplash

Do you ever sit and think of ways to improve your content and get more exposure? Many people don’t know this but having a YouTube channel is actually very beneficial to many companies and online websites. However, there is an underlying fear that your YouTube channel will not receive enough views. In this blog we will provide 3 helpful tips on optimizing your YouTube videos, to make them search engine optimization (SEO) friendly ultimately helping you get more views.

First, it is important to point out that just like any other content it is important to make sure that your video is valuable and shareable. In order to draw in your target audience, you need to ensure that your video is providing some type of valuable information to them. All three of our sources agree that this will not only draw in your audience but also influence them to share your content. Now that we've cleared that up, time for our tips!

Tip #1: Have a Good Title

Having a good title is one of the most important aspects of your video. This is ultimately how viewers will identify your video. As talked about on the Social Media Examiner, it is important to choose a title that will trigger a personal reaction from viewers. This will ultimately lead them to click on your video. Sometimes creators like to include descriptions with their titles, and this helps a lot with optimization. There are also many free tools to help give you a visual of what your content will show up as when searched through a browser. These are helpful when you want or need to adjust your title. According to the Content Marketing Institute, these titles should be Google friendly, meaning they should include How to…, Guide to…, What is…, etc. These are also referred to as keywords, which will bring us to our next tip!

Tip #2: Have the Right Keywords

Although key words are very important when it comes to optimizing your video, it is not something that you can solely rely on. You need to make sure that these keywords are relevant to your content and can even be included in your title and or description as talked about on Social Media Today. These keywords should be identified as words that would be used by your target audience. Social Media Examiner talks about how these words can include the following:

• single words

• series of words

• sentences or statements

• questions

• phrases

• city or zip codes

By including these keywords your video will be pushed up when your target audience searches up related terms.

Tip #3: Make a Good Video

Last, but definitely not least is our most obvious tip. You must also make sure that you have a GOOD video. This, according to Social Media Examiner, includes something that you plan ahead of recording, use gear you already have, make time to film, and has minimal rambling. With this being said, another good idea would be to include a call to action at the end of your video. This can be asking your audience to like and subscribe or even asking them to check out your website/business. If your video is missing these important aspects not only will it cause your target audience to click out, but it will cut their motivation to share your video with friends or followers. Your title, description, and keywords could be spot on but without a good video it will be hard to drive traffic to your video.

Ultimately, starting a YouTube channel isn’t hard at all. If you are able to make good content and optimize it well in order for it to be SEO friendly it can benefit you tremendously. Of course there are other factors such as earned media, internal and external links that would also be beneficial. However, following the important tips listed above will allow you to see increasing numbers of viewers through SEO. No more underlying fear of no views. It is never too late to start your YouTube channel, you got this!

For more information on how to increase engagement on all your social media platforms check out Morgans blog post here!

Sources

Martinez, D. (2021, June 1). YouTube Seo: How to rank in YouTube Search : Social Media Examiner. Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/youtube-seo-how-to-rank-in-youtube-search/

Sharma, L. (2016, February 8). Useful YouTube optimization tips that will help give your video high ranking. Social Media Today. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/useful-youtube-optimization-tips-that-will-help-give-your-video-high-rankin/452364/

Wong Kai In, V. (2021, March 3). SEO Is Important for YouTube Too. Content Marketing Institute. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2021/03/videos-youtube-optimization/