YouTube is the second most popular search engine in terms of monthly users. It is just behind Facebook. It falls in both the category, i.e. search engine and social media. Therefore it is growing continuously. The post briefs you precisely what you need to do to properly optimize your YouTube videos so that you can get the views and visibility that you deserve. The post briefly discusses the algorithm and its relationship with the data to recommend those videos out to different viewers and have them show up in search results. So let’s dig into the post and get started.
To rank and optimize your video for YouTube, it doesn’t matter if YouTube recommends your videos or your videos are showing up in search. It’s all about this. “Optimization is all about humans, and it’s all about the click”. The AI and Algorithm’s pay close attention to people’s viewing behaviour, what video thumbnails and titles people click on, and more importantly, what they don’t click on.
The algorithm’s job is to predict what the viewers want to watch, and so they’re paying very close attention to what people click and what people don’t click.
1. Click-Through Rate:
Suppose you want your videos to be recommended by YouTube and rank higher in search. In that case, you want to pay very close attention to the click-through rate when you have a higher click-through rate that tells YouTube that people are interested in your content, and that’s why it all starts with the click.
2. Custom Thumbnail:
To optimize videos for YouTube, you need to use a custom thumbnail. 90% of all top-performing videos nowadays on YouTube are using the custom thumbnail. So your thumbnail strategy should not be an afterthought, but it should be your first thought. This may help if you used the proper thumbnail so that it pops on the page. Because having the right type of thumbnail is very important to increase real YouTube video views.
When designing your next custom thumbnail, you need to make sure that you put the energy and time needed to go through this. Here is a couple of rule that you need to go through:
Think of Mobile First: Most of the traffic that happens on YouTube happens with a mobile device. And if it looks good on mobile, it will also look good on the desktop.
Use Color with Thumbnails to Standout: You need to use colour in your custom thumbnails to make that thumbnail just pop and stand out from all the other thumbnails you’re competing with.
Keep Text to Minimum: This is hard for some channels, but if you can explain it without words, that’s a lot more powerful, and they will draw you more into the thumbnail. Also, you might want to use emotion in your thumbnails. It depends on the type of content you’re creating. But that type of emotion creates curiosity, and curiosity goes for the click.
Always be honest: It doesn’t necessarily correlate with the video, which is a very bad thing. Yeah, you might have a high click-through rate, but then that video isn’t going anywhere if your average view duration is bad.
Analyze your Channel or Thumbnail: You deeply analyze your channel or thumbnail of which one has a higher click-through rate, why. It will help if you are looking for those patterns. And when you find the patterns, you can see why things happen on your channel, you can make better data-driven decisions, and that’s what the post is all about.
3. Use Catchy Clickable Titles:
If you have a great thumbnail that pops, the first thing you need to do as a human is to glance at that title. That’s when you should earn the click. So, it would help if you didn’t try to optimize your thumbnail for search engines. What you need to do is optimize it for people. Because people are the ones that are searching, and then, it sets the trends when they are interested in a specific topic. Here are a couple of good rules to live by when doing your next title.
Be catchy But Yet Concise: You need to keep it under 60 characters because it can show up, and you can see the full text on mobile and a suggestion.
Keyword in Front: It will help if you put your main and primary keyword closest to the title’s front. That carries a little weight with the algorithm to get you ranked and getting it suggested.
4. Write Searchable Description:
The description is pretty much the most underutilized asset that we have when optimizing our videos. Lots of content creators put a lot of energy and time into that title and that thumbnail. But realistically, if you want the algorithm and the AI to look at your data and that correlation, you have to use the right keywords in your description and write a solid description, which will help you get more views and visibility in search.
To optimize your description, it’s in two-parts; above the fold and below the fold. Now, above the fold are the most important areas. It’s where YouTube looks at what’s going on, plus, that’s what people see.
So you have 200 characters that you’re able to put, that call-to-action to get them to watch the video or to find out more information about the video that will re-engage them from your title.
So, the things that you need to do are:
Reinforce that primary keyword and a primary keyword phrase in the title. You can use complementary keywords in those 200 characters.
It would help if you told the viewer what to expect. People want to watch videos, and when you tell them what to expect, they will be more adapted to click.
You need to write like a human and optimize for that click-through rate. You can use the hashtags; you can even give a bigger description of what’s actually in the video. This is a much-unutilized area of description, and it can lead to more suggestive videos by YouTube. Because, if people click on a video that’s in your library, guess what happens? It starts to create correlation data between the video that they’re watching and another video, even if it’s a small percentage going to that other video.
Warning: You should never use and reuse the same description that turns viewers off, but the algorithm pays attention to that.
5. Use Cards and End screen:
This is a strategy that will help you get more video views. And the reason why is it creates this data relationship between your content. The AI is looking for these patterns. And this is a pattern that they can see and track. So it would help if you thought about this. If there is like 4-6% of the people who watch a video and watch the next video anywhere else, the AI is paying attention and following them.
And so, it will start to recommend, in the next up, that video that you’re recommending through a card or an end screen. You must know that your cards are not at the beginning of your video; that’s a big mistake. Because people are watching it and click off on it, which sends some bad signal to the video you’re trying to promote.
So, it would help if you did it at the end of the video in the last two-thirds.
End screens are super powerful, and they’re underutilized. You need to pull your viewers into your content. The algorithm decides what will be best for the viewer based on their viewing pattern and behaviour. It would also help if you had to look into target videos related to what you used in the card.
And definitely, you want them to subscribe. If you get them to subscribe, turn on the bell notifications, which creates that momentum you’re looking for.
6. Write Relevant Tags:
Tags will be beneficial if the content of your video is misspelt. It would help if you used your first tag, which is your primary keyword in your title. It would help if you used that primary keyword in the description. Also, you need to use the relevant keyword in the description. It would help if you never used over tagging. You don’t want it to look like spam. You only need to use relevant keywords that will help the video succeed.
You can use other keywords in tags, and you need to put the most relevant to the beginning and should only limit it to 300 characters.
Take Away:
It doesn’t matter what SEO tools or tips you use, but it requires really good content to create successful YouTube videos. So it would help if you offered your viewers something relevant and of good quality when they find you.
