YouTube SEO for Beginners. Step-by-step Guide
Build a larger audience by optimizing your YouTube videos. Follow our YouTube SEO step-by-step guide for beginners and reach your goals faster.
Awesome!
You are a Video Creator.
Are you getting the results you expected from YouTube’s algorithm? Did you pay any attention to your YouTube SEO?
Let’s see which steps you can take to improve your YouTube SEO in this step-by-step guide for beginners.
What is YouTube SEO
YouTube SEO is using SEO best practices to improve the chances your video ranks well on YouTube and Google.
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. You can optimize your videos and copy around them and rank better.
Step 1. What is your main keyword?
What is the one keyword that you want to rank for on YouTube? Did you do your keyword research? Do you know how competitive the keyword is and how many people search for that keyword every month?
You need to understand this for every video you upload.
If you have your main keyword noted down, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 2. What is the searcher’s intent?
It can happen that you know which keyword you want to rank for but that the searcher’s intent is different from your video content.
Let’s say you want to rank for ‘how to get rid of pimples. You created a video about ‘How going vegan can help you get rid of pimples in 6 months’, but everyone wants to know how to get rid of pimples fast. How do you know? Because all top 10 videos on this topic are about getting rid of them fast. Chances are that you won’t be able to rank in the top 10 position. YouTube has ran a ton of a/b tests and figured out that fast is what people want to know.
Step 3. What are your secondary keywords?
Now that you know your perfect main keyword, search for relevant secondary keywords about the topic. You will need them for your Description and Keyword list.
Step 4. Create great YouTube Titles and include the main keyword
Your YouTube titles serve three purposes:
- Let people know what the video is about;
- Let YouTube know what the video is about;
- Get people to click on your video.
You need to make sure your title:
- Is descriptive
- Is catchy
- Contains your main keyword
Because your title is so important, we advise you to create several titles and then select the best one.
Check out how a YouTube Title Generator can help you do the heavy lifting.
Simply enter what your video is about and get title suggestions.
It’s then up to you to add your unique human touch and perfect your title.
START WITH YOUTUBE TITLE GENERATOR
Step 5. Create great YouTube Descriptions
You can utilize your YouTube descriptions to further optimize your SEO and for getting people to watch additional videos you’ve created.
Be sure to include your main keyword at the start of your description and sprinkle secondary keywords throughout the rest of your description.
If you’re struggling to create great YouTube descriptions, or have a lot of videos published without a description, check out how a YouTube Description Generator can help do the heavy lifting.
Step 6. Add the right keywords
For every video you publish, you have the opportunity to add keywords that are only visible to the search engine, not to users.
Make sure you make good use of that opportunity.
You should already have your list of main and secondary keywords because you needed them for your title and description. Simply add the keywords to the list.
Step 7. Use your main keyword in your video
YouTube actually listens to your video. Are all signals (title, description, etc.) about getting rid of pimples, but you don’t mention it once in the video or only at the end? That’s a red flag for YouTube.
Be sure you actually talk about your primary keyword in your video. Preferably as soon as possible.
Step 8. Linkbuilding and embedding
Links are not just important in traditional SEO. It’s also important for YouTube SEO.
After creating a video, be sure to also embed it where it makes sense on your website and build links to it.
Over to you
These were the most important steps you should take to optimize your YouTube videos to rank better.
We hope our YouTube SEO beginner’s guide and tools provided helps you build a larger audience and reach your goals faster.
Resources
Originally published at https://globalowls.com on June 6, 2022.
