How To Optimize Youtube Videos For SEO?
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I started experimenting with YouTube videos to get more exposure on Google’s search results.
So far I have created 3 videos on Youtube targeting Amazon Affiliate program related keywords.
I followed our keyword research process and used our Keyword Difficulty Checker to make sure these Amazon Affiliate related keywords have low competition.
I haven’t seen much traffic from YouTube yet but based on the view count data that YouTube provides for each video, the videos do seem to appear on the search results and people are watching them.
I know the numbers seem very small and insignificant, but mind you the only substantial things I did were keyword research and YouTube video optimization. No social media marketing or any other marketing for the videos.
So, in order to get most out of this experiment, here is a list of YouTube optimization that I am implementing.
How to Optimize Youtube Videos for SEO?
Video Title
The video title will show up on the Google Search Result Pages (SERP). The target keyword should be included in the title and ideally close to the beginning rather than at the end.
I like to make it more engaging and descriptive so for this particular example, “Amazon Affiliate Program Rules” is the target keyword and I added “Don’t get banned” to spice it up.
Video Description
It gets truncated around 157 characters. Since this is close to the 155 characters limit that Google displays on its SERP, we can optimize this just like what we do usual web pages.
One thing different is to add the URL link because it will appear as a clickable link on YouTube. So placing a URL early in the description is better than placing the URL link later.
If you want to go one step further, you can also add a tagging to track how many people actually click on these links to get to your site.
Here is a URL builder tool by Google to help you build a trackable URL in case you are interested. You can also use one of the URL shortener service out there as well.
Video Tags
Tags are one of the most important keyword ranking signals. A well tagged video will more likely to appear under search queries that are relevant to the tags.
Use brand name in the tag
Tag is one of the ranking factors in YouTube so including variations of the brand name will increase the likelihood of your videos to show up together. For example, “Digital Ready Marketing“, “Digitalreadymarketing“, “Digitalreadymarekting.com“ etc.
Create Playlists
Playlists shows up on the YouTube search results just like any other videos. You can name the playlist to target a keyword that your videos haven’t targeted to get one bonus position on the search results.
You don’t have to only use your own videos when creating a playlist so if you want to make it super useful, put useful videos from other creators in the playlists. Like what Gary Vaynerchuk says – “provide great value to your audience”.
What do you think?
I plan to use this strategy on some of my Amazon affiliate sites to see how much traffic this tactic can bring in.
It’s also a great way to establish a brand so if you are building an authority site, definitely a great marketing activity to do.
Ff you have tried this marketing strategy, would love to hear your story.
I build websites and use them for testing various SEO strategies and tactics.
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You can optimize your videos for search both within and outside of YouTube. A key component to YouTube SEO is harnessing the power of your video’s text in the form of transcripts, closed captions, and subtitles.