YouTube - SEO
Full stack-videomarketeer
If you and your company are looking for an audiovisual product that combines video production activities with marketing activities, then you're looking for a full stack video marketeer. We at The Dare Company think strategically about the distribution of your video to the right target group. The video strategy, the video content, the video SEO and the video distribution platform play a role in this.
Based on your goals and wishes, we produce a video and we respond creatively to devising video concepts. Thanks to our marketing background, we are strategic and we know how to ensure that your message reaches the right target group.
What is especially important in video marketing is making your video findable to the right target group. Therefore, below is a list of our activities that ensure that this is done as optimally as possible.
Video SEO tips
Video SEO activities
There can be several forms of SEO performed for a video. These SEO work are as follows:
- Keywords research
- Creating a company YouTube channel
- Optimise video metadata
- Improve retention and engagement
- Promote videos
- Make use of YouTube SEO tools
- Create landing page video for website (optional)
- Writing an SEO optimised text for the landing page
The activities are explained below.
Keywords research
Search related keywords (keywords)
As usual with SEO, video optimisation starts with a thorough keyword research. Relevant keywords are mapped in this step.
Search trends analysis
Another way is to search for long tail keywords. The autocomplete function of YouTube is used for this. This will find the keywords within YouTube.
Collect keywords
You have probably come across it: YouTube videos that appear in a normal Google search. This form of traffic is called organic traffic. That's why collecting and optimising your videos for these keywords significantly increases your chances of ranking high in Google's organic search results.
Create your own thumbnail
The thumbnail is the first thing that reaches a seeker's brain, because visual information is perceived more quickly than textual information. In other words, your thumbnail largely determines whether viewers watch your video or not. That's why I wouldn't advise choosing from the thumbnails that YouTube automatically generates. Instead, try to create your own thumbnail. First of all, make sure the thumbnail looks the same on all devices. To do this, use the technical requirements listed below:
- 1280 × 720 pixels
- 16: 9 ratio
- Less than 2MB
- jpg, .gif, .bmp, or .png format
In addition, you also want your thumbnail to stand out so that users click on your video. It's also a good idea to add some text to your thumbnail to make it more informative.
Adding a video tag
You can help searchers find your videos by optimizing your video tags - they even appear as "keywords" in your source code. You'd better start with longer, more specific tags (such as "how to train a labrador puppy") and then move to more general phrases (such as "dog training"). In addition, it is important to tag the people who appear in your videos and to name the brand names.
Improve user retention and engagement
Optimise for viewing time
Within YouTube you have the option to view the Watch-Time reports. These reports provide valuable information, such as average viewing time, viewer retention and average percentage of videos viewed. By analysing this data you can better respond to the wishes of the viewer. If you see that viewers are already dropping out at the intro, this may be a sign that it is too long. If so, try cutting out all unnecessary context and get straight to the point. If you want viewers to watch other videos from your channel, consider referring to your other videos. You can do this directly in the video or in the description. It is also a good idea to combine videos with similar topics within a playlist. These will then be played automatically when someone watches a video from this series.
Encourage commitment
Like viewing time, the number of likes, subscribers and comments also has a strong correlation with rankings. The first step to increase your viewers' engagement with your content is to identify areas for improvement. And there is no better way to do this than YouTube Analytics - it allows you to see exactly which videos are causing subscribers and which videos are scaring users off. YouTube Analytics also shows you which video content is most popular.
To encourage viewers to comment, you can ask them a direct question at the end of your video. Do not forget to answer the question as well to stimulate further discussions and to give your audience the feeling that you are listening to them.
Another strategy that is gaining popularity, especially among bloggers, is to run contests where your viewers have to like you, join your channel or post a comment below your video. Many will likely opt out after the match, but a large group of new subscribers will give your videos a significant boost in the rankings.
Improve your channel
One of the best ways to improve your channel and increase the interactivity of your videos is to use Cards. Cards are interactive parts that you can add to your video. There are 6 different types, depending on what you want to promote: channel, link, poll, video or playlist, and donations.
End screens can also be of great help if you want to send viewers to one of your other videos or if you are in need of extra viewing time. Add end screens to the last 5-20 seconds of your video and promote a playlist / video or other channel, encourage viewers to subscribe and link to other websites.
Since 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, adding subtitles has become a necessity. In addition, it is an excellent opportunity to make your videos understandable to viewers with hearing impairments or people who speak a different language. Therefore, consider adding subtitles to your videos.
Finally, we would also like to emphasise that the image quality of your videos is also extremely important. The truth is that videos in HD format are an advantage with viewers as well as YouTube - 68.2% of the videos on the first page are HD. So make sure to switch to HD format if you haven't already.
Promote videos
While keyword research, metadata optimisation, and improving viewer retention are all hugely important, if your video is nowhere to be seen, they are of little use. So here are some tips to promote your videos and get extra views.
The first thing that comes to mind when you think of content promotion is social media. Indeed, it is a very good place to start promoting your videos. In 2018, an average of 500 million people a day watched videos on Facebook. And if we look at Twitter, it is striking that video tweets are retweeted 6 times more often than tweets with photos.
So social networks are still a very fertile platform in terms of video promotion.
Another effective video promotion strategy is to embed videos in blog posts. This can give you links, but will also increase your organic search results. Videos + content is a win-win situation.
Another way to increase the views of your videos is to add them to your newsletter.