YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Videos to Outrank Competitors

As you know, YouTube is a search engine. It’s actually the second largest behind parent company, Google. This means you have to pay attention to YouTube SEO (search engine optimization) when uploading your videos to the platform. It’s no different than how you would you optimize a blog post (like this one) before publishing.

The better you optimize your video, the more likely you’ll appear for key search terms when viewers are searching for content like yours on YouTube. Also, YouTube videos are displayed within Google search results. This means properly optimizing your video gives you more opportunity to rank for your most valuable keywords, on both YouTube AND Google!

Today we’ll be going over the ins and outs of YouTube SEO so you can give your videos the best chance for seo success. YouTube video optimization (another phrase for YouTube SEO) works, and it’s worth spending the time to learn this and get it right. These techniques below are exactly what we do to help our clients succeed. So buckle up folks, and let’s jump in.

Need help optimizing your past, present or future YouTube videos? That’s what we do!

Choose Your Keywords Wisely

First things first, keyword research. Just like normal SEO, you’ll need to identify the best keywords that accurately fit your content. These keywords provide context for the algorithm to gather more information and determine who the right audiences are for your video.

Ideally, you want to look for keywords with high search volume, but with low competition! This indicates a gap in the market that your content can fill.

Manual keyword research can be grueling, so we don’t recommend you spend too much time on that for every video. You can use tools like VidIQ, TubeBuddy, Keyword Planner or Google Trends to easily find and validate keywords and topics.

Btw, check out what other YouTube Marketing tools we recommend for upping your game.

Optimize Your Title

Here at Vireo, we optimize YouTube video titles for clickability and searchability. This means creating a balance between a title that contains the keywords your audience is searching for, while also keeping it interesting enough to win the view. Titles are very important for a video’s success, so make sure you spend the time to be intentional with your title.

It helps to understand your audience and their search intent. For example, if they’re looking for educational style content, then “How To” titles could potentially align well with their search intent, etc.

Create titles that closely match what your audience is searching for. One way to research this is by typing terms or phrases into YouTube search and checking the auto-suggestions.

There are a few other tips and tricks to this as well:

Create a Powerful Video Description

Having a well-optimized description is one of the most important factors for YouTube SEO. This is prime real estate to share valuable context with both the YouTube algorithm, and your viewers.

Many users don’t click beyond the “Show More” button, so the first two sentences should be carefully crafted. Briefly describe the main concept of the video and include your targeted keywords. They should be integrated with natural speech since your audience is made up of humans… not robots.

Tip: Make sure you don’t spam your keywords! YouTube could flag you for keyword stuffing, which could ultimately end up negatively affecting your video.

You should also include a link to subscribe, a playlist, or to a website you’re driving traffic to. Try to include one before the “show more” button, if possible, to erase any friction.

What goes into a powerful YouTube description

About section

Describe who you are, what you do, why you do it, etc. Keywords in this section will help the algorithm know more about you and your channel.

Timestamps for chapters

Viewers can use these to skip to the parts they’re most interested in, which creates a better viewer experience. Chapters also creates additional metadata for SEO and ranking. Plus, Google will sometimes include these specific video sections in Google Search when viewers are searching for you video topic.

Hashtags

Include up to 3 relevant hashtags at the end of your description. These show up above the title when watching the video. They reinforce the video topic and help with appearing in searches related to those keywords.

Outbound links

Link to where viewers can find you online. Include social media, websites, and anything you're selling or wanting to drive to traffic to. You can also include links related to what you're talking about in the video to help viewers learn more on the subject.

Use Relevant Tags

Tags help YouTube understand the content and context of your video. Context is an important part of YouTube SEO. Use important terms that are related to the channel and the video itself here. Also, don’t forget to include the keywords from the title and description to ensure that the algorithm categorizes your video properly.

You can think of tagging like a reverse search result. What is your audience looking for? How do they interact with the platform? What tags are your competitors using?

Do keyword research before filming so you can say your chosen keywords in the video itself. This is important because YouTube automatically provides captions, and uses those captions as additional metadata.

Don't overload your tags

Be careful not to overload your tags with keywords, though. As we mentioned in the description section, YouTube can flag your video for keyword stuffing if you add too many tags. As a general guideline, use about 5-8 tags.

It’s really important that tags are relevant to the specific video! If someone finds the video through an irrelevant keyword, they will most likely click off since it’s not what they’re looking for. This negatively impacts your retention rate and will also have an effect on your video’s performance.

Create a Highly Clickable Thumbnail

By default, YouTube will select a few frame options from your video to act as a thumbnail. Don’t use these! You should be shooting and editing a custom thumbnail for each video. This requires thought and design, and an intentional effort.

Thumbnail design is one of the most important factors in getting clicks on your video. It’s the first thing users see when coming across your video, along with your title. And even then, many don’t move on to the title until after seeing your thumbnail.

This is the space to really drive home why someone should click on your video. Don’t just settle for a decent photo with the title text slapped onto it. The two best tactics to use here are storytelling and evoking emotion with a combination of engaging copy and intriguing visual elements.

Creating a brand identify

Make sure it stays in line with your brand guidelines. Keep the theme of your thumbnails the same across your channel, and choose one or two fonts that are coherent with the style of your brand and channel as well. This can help your audience easily pick out your content, which can help you with improving brand loyalty.

Just make sure that your thumbnails don’t look the same. Make it easy for your audience to identify if they’ve seen a specific video before, so they don’t pass over your content in favour of something new.

Tip: Use the “squint test” – by literally squinting your eyes – to make sure your thumbnail is still legible, cohesive, and balanced. Remember that the beautiful thumbnail you’re designing will be shrunk down to a much smaller size across most of the website.

Thumbnail guidelines to keep in mind:

For more learnings on creating successful thumbnails, check out our blog post “10 Tips for Scroll-Stopping YouTube Thumbnails“.

Choose your Video Category

When searching for videos with advanced options, users can choose to show videos from specific categories. This means that selecting a category will provide more context to YouTube, so they can then put your video in front of interested viewers.

Choosing a video category can also help align your content with audiences that prefer certain types of content. There’s many categories you can choose from when uploading your video, so don’t stress and just choose what you feel is a best fit.

Add Closed Captions

YouTube automatically creates captions, but they’re usually full of errors. Adding your own subtitles or closed captions is a step many overlook when it comes to YouTube SEO.

It’s important for accessibility, plus Closed Captions provide additional metadata for the YouTube algorithm to use. You’ll need to upload a supported text transcript or timed subtitles file, which you can manually do directly on YouTube.

Check here for supported file types. There are a variety of ways to create these files yourself, but if you don’t have time, you can use a service like Rev.

Add End Screens and Cards

Adding end screens and cards will help to increase viewership, as they help keep viewers inside of your social ecosystem. Cards are preformatted notifications that appear at the top frame of your video. You can set these up to promote your brand or other videos on your channel. As a best practice, insert the first card within the first minute.

Tips for cards:

End screens always need at least one video/playlist element, and appear during the last 20 seconds of the video. They usually look something like the example above. As a best practice, always add ‘subscribe’, one video/playlist, and a related website link if applicable!

You’re Ready for Action

By now, we hope you are starting to understand the importance of Youtube SEO, and what goes into it! If you’re still looking for more info, you should check out our Optimizing your YouTube Channel blog.

As always, Vireo Video is dedicated to helping channels like yours grow, and a little help never hurt anybody. Get started with Vireo Video today by booking your free consultation!