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YouTube Ranking Factors
CHECKLIST
I probably don’t need to tell you that YouTube
is a MASSIVE untapped traffic source for most
online businesses.
Unless you plan on your video going viral
Justin Bieber-style, you’ll need to focus on
ranking your videos in YouTube and Google
to get views.
Like with “regular” SEO, keyword research is THE most important part of YouTube SEO.
Before you shoot a second of video, you need to find keywords that have YouTube results in Google.
In other words, Video Keywords.
Video Keywords tend to be:
How-to keywords (“how to shave a cat”)
Reviews (“Bluehost review”)
Tutorials (“Setting up WordPress”)
Once you’ve found a video keyword, use the Google Keyword Planner to make sure that keyword
gets at least 300 searches per month.
Find Video Keywords STEP1
Anything fitness or sports related (“Cardio kickboxing”)
Funny videos (“Cute animals”)
Fortunately, YouTube SEO isn’t rocket science.
Just follow the steps in this checklist and
you’ll notice your videos ranking higher in
YouTube and in Google – meaning more
traffic for you.
VIDEO KEY WORDS
Unlike Google – which largely uses backlinks to
measure content quality – YouTube has no such
luxury.
What do they use instead?
User experience signals.
The better your user YouTube experience
signals, the higher you’ll rank.
In fact, you can outrank competitors with
10x more views if your video has better user
experience signals:
As you script and film your video, keep these
critical YouTube user experience signals in mind:
Audience retention: The percentage of
your video people tend to watch (the more,
the better).
Comments: If people comment, they
probably enjoyed the video (or at least
watched it).
Subscribes after watching: If someone
subscribes to your channel after watching
your video that sends a HUGE signal that
you have an amazing video.
Social shares: How many people share
your video on social media sites like Twitter
and Google+.
Favorites: The number of people that
favorite your video or add it to their
“Watch Later” playlist:
Thumbs up/Thumbs down:
Self explanatory
One more tip: Make sure your video is at
least 5-minutes long. I’ve done extensive
testing and found that 5+ minute videos
perform MUCH better than shorter videos.
Plan Your Video With YouTube User
Experience In Mind
STEP2
STEP3
STEP4
Now that you’ve found a Video Keyword and created
a compelling, 5+ minute video around, it’s time to
upload your video... with YouTube SEO in mind.
Here’s how:
Video Filename: Should include your target
keyword. But also include a word before or
after so it doesn’t look like keyword-stuffing.
For example, YouTube_SEO_Video.mp4.
Video Title: Make sure your keyword is at the
beginning of your title. If possible start your video
title off with your target keyword. For example,
if your keyword was “weight loss”, your video
title should be something like: Weight Loss Tips:
5 Ways to Drop Extra Pounds.
Description: When most people upload a video
to YouTube, they mindlessly toss a few words
into the description box. That’s a HUGE mistake.
Remember that Google can’t watch or listen to
your video content.
Instead, they rely on your video’s text-based title
and description to determine what your video
is about. So give them enough information by
writing a 200+-word description that includes
your keyword 3-4 times.
Tags: Just include your keyword as your first tag
and a few related keywords as tags. Simple.
When it comes to YouTube views, quality and
quantity are both important.
Here’s how to get lots of views that actually stick
around and watch your video:
Mention Your Video on Quora and Other Q&A
Sites: Just search for a question on your video’s
topic. And add a link to your video. Or better yet,
embed it into your answer.
Link To Your Video In Your Email Signature:
People that email you (like your mom) generally
like you. So when you add a link to your latest
video in your email signature, that means you get
high-retention views like they’re going out of style.
Embed Your Videos in Blog Posts: Whenever
you write a blog post (on your site or as a guest
post for another site), think to yourself: “Where
can I embed a YouTube video into this post?”
Social Media: Share your video to your followers
on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ (seems
straightforward but I’m surprised how many
people don’t do this!).
Upload and Optimize Your Video
Get High-Retention Views
INCLUDE YOUR TARGET KEYWORD
If you notice the same channel showing up in
YouTube search again and again, you’re probably
wondering: “how can I get a piece of that?”.
Well there’s a sneaky way to get listed as
a “related video” for their videos.
Just use their channel name as a tag in one
of your videos. For example, if you noticed
this channel dominating your niche:
You’d want to add a tag to your video called
WatchMojo.com.
This trick will cause your video to you show up
more often in the “related videos” sidebar when
people watch videos from that channel. That
means more views for you.
Use Competitor’s Channel Name
as a Tag
BONUS1
COMPETITOR
TAGS
I don’t see ANYONE utilizing this feature. That’s probably because YouTube buries it.
Here’s how to set it up.
First, head over to your
YouTube Dashboard.
Click on Channel Settings
In-Video Programming From
The Left hand Sidebar:
Under “Featured Video,”
choose a video, the start
time and hit “update”
BONUS2
YouTube has a powerful feature
called “Featured Video”. And it’s
a dead-simple ways to get more
views to your high-priority videos.
What is it?
It’s a simple little graphic that shows
up when people watch one of your
videos. The graphic encourages
people to watch a different video:
Use Suggested Video to Get More Views
HERE’S WHAT TO DO NEX T
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personal email address
brian@backlinko.com
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you think of this guide.
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