Motion Design
How to optimize a video?
YouTube SEO is a relatively new term that is becoming more and more popular. Visual content is definitely the content that attracts the most attention of Internet users. Among this content, video materials stand out as the most convincing and effective.
Of course, YouTube is the most famous and popular video platform and being on it is simply a matter of necessity when we talk about any serious strategy of appearing on the Internet.
Video optimization, or YouTube SEO as it is increasingly called, allows good video content to have better visibility in search compared to the competition. Not only in YouTube search, but also in Google and other search engines like Bing.
The user’s intention and understanding of it is a crucial question. The user wants to find specific information, and search engines, through a complex algorithm and analyzing a large amount of traffic, decide which results are the most authoritative, in their opinion, for a particular keyword. Your SEO strategy needs to take these circumstances into account.
Video content is an undisputed tool when it comes to conveying a story to the masses.With the continuous improvement of technology, its popularity is constantly growing.
Therefore, video content is becoming more and more common and better, both in terms of content and production. Today, your video material is available in seconds to almost everyone in the world.
This has understandably led to a huge increase in competition, given the large number of videos that are uploaded to the Internet every day. The question arises as to how to make our video stand out from the rest.
Here are some tips you need to take advantage of and gain an advantage over competitors who don’t use video optimization tactics, i.e . YouTube SEO.
YouTube SEO – The Basics
Obviously, there is a reason why YouTube allows users to enter their own title, description, and tags related to the video, as well as to choose the best video thumbnail when uploading. That’s why YouTube SEO is very important.
All this for the sake of making it easier for your audience to find. All these options should be used from the very beginning of adding videos to YouTube.
Title
Use keywords to focus on the intent of the web user and how your video content correlates with those keywords. The title is the first thing that catches the eye, and therefore it should be given enough attention.
Research the keywords when designing your headline and use the ones that will have the greatest impact on the relevance of your video.
You have 65-70 characters available, including spaces, so make sure you monetize this segment well. YouTube actually allows 100 characters, but since the title can be shortened depending on the platform or device on which it is displayed, the optimal number of characters is the number of characters just mentioned.
Take advantage of the opportunity to drive as much traffic to your site as possible, while building credibility and trust, which will be crucial in the later stages of the sales funnel. Most people won’t be ready to buy your product right away, and that’s OK. Make sure you build your brand so that you are the first thing on their mind when they decide to convert.
Description
Like the title, your description should be based on relevant keywords. A good description contains more detail than a title, but it shouldn’t be too extensive.
Always keep in mind to write a description of your video material, not an advertisement or promotion.
The description should entice people to watch the video, because it makes them think that the video contains exactly what they were looking for.
The link is another indispensable segment of the description. It is common for the link to lead to a brand’s websiteor to a specific page directly linked to the video. The recommended practice is a description containing two links, one at the end of the opening sentence and one at the end of the final sentence. Links provide users with more information.
YouTube allows up to 500 characters for a description, but we recommend a description of up to 300 characters. Two to three effective sentences, with at least one link, framed in length of 300 characters.
Tags
Tags are equally important and helpful to YouTube in classifying content. Only use keywords that are relevant to your video. Don’t add keywords just to attract visibility, as this will only lead to a counter effect.
Tags help Google( and other search engines) to better understand what your video is about.
Thumbnail
This part is quite intuitive. Choose an enticing photo. A photo that will be easy to understand and that can potentially generate a lot of clicks.
Again, do not try to do something that would mislead the users of the Network, in order to collect clicks. The price you will pay for such a thing is high.
Playlist
Creating a playlist and adding a video to it is another step that can contribute to the visibility and greater reach of your video.
However, this part is not something that is necessary at the very beginning and that should be rushed.
Advanced settings
YouTube’s advanced settings offer a variety of options for video optimization. Some of them make sense, while others do not seem so at first glance.
Here are some useful options in the advanced settings and how to take advantage of them.
Comments
Although at first glance it may seem like an ideal solution to disable comments on a video, do not do this at any cost.
Comments are one of the signals that YouTube uses to determine the relevance, quality, and popularity of a video. Be sure to check in the options to allow comments.
Distribution rights
Allowing your video to be embed is likely to increase the rate at which it is shared and embedded, as it gives users the best on-siteexperience.
Anyone could add a video to their website, including a news station or blog.
Posting video content to subscription services (Subscription feed) and notifying subscribers is also a good practice that helps to find and follow the video.
Age restrictions
The video should not have any restrictions, unless it contains some explicit content (scenes of violence, disturbing photos, content of sexual context…)
The best way to make sure if your video complies with the norms is to consult YouTube’s official policies.
Gallery
YouTube offers 15 different categories into which you can classify your video. This feature helps YouTube recommend videos based on content criteria as well as other user habits.
If for some reason you can’t categorize a video in the categories provided, it’s best to leave a default “Entertainmnet” tag.
Additional optimization that every video should have
Let’s take a look at some of the things that a good YouTube SEO should have.
Insert Clear Call-To-Action
Many great video materials, unfortunately, reduce their effect only to the duration of the video itself. Don’t let that be the case with you.
Make sure to offer some options to the viewers even after the video is over. Give them clear options to choose from. Whether it’s to find out a little more about the video itself, going to your website and getting to know your brand, or something else, it’s important to keep them interested even after the video is over. And the best way to do this is with a clear call to action.
Transcribe Video
This part is often overlooked because it is a bit of a demanding job. But don’t neglect that this way you allow search engines to search for your content more easily.
Like the content on your website, search engines will also crawl the text of your video.
Distribute your content
Video bi trebalo da šerujete putem svih društvenih mreža i ostalih kanala koji mogu povećati reachistog.
Nije na odmet i uložiti koji dinar u promovisanje videa putem reklame, jer video koji je dobro optimizovan, svakako će dati rezultate i bolje od očekivanih.
Ukoliko vam treba pomoć u osmišljavanju YouTube strategije ili bilo kog drugog aspekta vašeg Internet nastupa, Digitizer je tu za vas!
Made by Nebojša Radovanović – SEO Expert @Digitizer