YouTube ranking hacks for your video SEO



Author: Kristina Ganzha

Categories: Marketing

YouTube ranking hacks for your video SEO

The main goal for creating videos is to reach a target audience or even potential customers. Companies run in a digital world, where your Google ranking position may push or rash your business completely.

Find out what video SEO is and how it works, plus get the proven hacks on how to affect your Google and YouTube ranking position.

Is video good for SEO?

With its increased popularity, video content in your webpage is becoming a key tool for Google and YouTube ranking. Here are some reasons why video is good for search engine optimization:

  1. Video drives much more traffic to your website. Providing your web page with videos can help to increase your Google ranking with organic traffic by over 150%.
  2. Video content is the most engaging communication channel and the easiest way to catch your audience’s attention. The more time people spend on your website, the higher your position in Google ranking will be.
  3. Videos let you establish an emotional connection with your audience and, what is really important, create authority and trust to your brand. With a convenient YouTube ranking position it is a good promotion for your business.
  4. Videos affect Google ranking and let you be at the top of the page for many search terms and reach more people cost-effectively. 
  5. Another important factor for your video SEO is an inbound link. People create inbound links while sharing your video content or linking back to your page. The more inbound links your webpage has, the more advantageous it looks for Google ranking. 

What is video SEO?

In simple terms, that’s the way of video optimization to rank as high as possible on the search engine results, when people are looking for answers to their questions using some relevant keywords. 

SEO ranking has many video optimization strategies, which are different from text-based SEO. Below you will find instructions on how to make a video rank high in two of the most popular search engines – Google and YouTube. 

How does YouTube ranking work?

The video optimization for YouTube ranking starts with the selection of suitable keywords.

For the first step you can use YouTube’s Search Suggest feature. Type your seed word and YouTube will generate a bunch of keywords ideas related to your topic. YouTube knows what viewers usually search for, so all these keywords will be useful for YouTube ranking.

If you want to go to a deeper analysis, check the keywords of popular videos in your niche and optimize your content around them. You can find YouTube ranking keywords in video titles, descriptions and tags. 

(To see video tags, you will need an extension for your browser, for example VidIQ Chrome).

For a high YouTube ranking position you should use low-competition keywords, especially if you don’t have many subscribers. To check how much competitive a keyword is, go to Google, type your keyword with “youtube*” and look at the number of “about results”. This number represents the total amount of YouTube videos on that topic. To be low-competitive for YouTube ranking your selected keyword must basically get 100-1000 searches per month in Google, but this number can vary depending on the industry. 

Once you find a suitable keyword, make sure that you use it in video titles and descriptions. For better video SEO put your target keyword near the beginning of your title. For example: “Video SEO Ranking: common mistakes and how to fix them” or “Youtube ranking strategies”. 

You can check the following video from Ahrefs to get more tips about YouTube ranking and video SEO.

Okay, now your video is optimized for YouTube ranking and people can find it in search results.

But will they stay tuned for your content?

The main goal for getting a high YouTube ranking position is to maximize viewers’ long-term engagement with your videos. Try to interest them with entertainment content, different foreshortening and video formats. Don’t forget that people share emotions and they all are looking for solutions to their problems. 

For YouTube ranking you should keep in mind some video engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares, average watch time, card clicks and other. Direct your viewers to take target actions, if they demonstrated interest in your content. Even something as simple as “to find out more visit here” will have a great impact on your channel’s YouTube ranking. 

Take the time for video SEO of your YouTube channel. Make playlists with a series of videos that could help your viewers to find content of their purpose and interest. During the video editing process pay attention to your end screens. To bring up your YouTube ranking position they should always include the “next video” section and the button “subscribe”. Addicted links to your website, product or other appropriate video content will also affect your Google ranking. 

Another important thing for video SEO ranking is subtitles. Viewers could follow videos without any sound as well as YouTube understands what is your content about and how to rank it. 

First check the auto subtitles that YouTube offers to your video. If some words don’t match the spoken ones, edit them through the “Subtitles/CC” tab.

The last but not least video SEO part is the analysis of your released content.  

Track your video’s progression to find out what works for YouTube ranking and, more importantly, what doesn’t. In YouTube analytics with the audience retention section you can estimate the average view duration and percentage viewed. 

Use audience retention to identify the most engaging parts in your video for YouTube ranking. Try to understand why people prefer these parts and rewatch them. Notice your strong drop-off points. Analyze why people are leaving and bring up your YouTube ranking position by adding YouTube cards in those places.

How to increase Google ranking for your video?

Imagine that 91% of content gets no traffic from Google and people can’t find videos outside YouTube. Here are some easy steps to make your video visible for Google ranking:

  1. The topic must have a “video intent”. This means that most searchers would prefer to watch a video about the subject instead of reading about it. To be attractive for Google ranking videos must deliver exactly what people are searching for.
  2. Ensure that your video and audio content are clear and high quality. It is really important to sound legibly without any background noise. To get a high Google ranking position use simple language and “action verbs”.
  3. Create an enticing thumbnail that people will want to click on. For Google ranking thumbnails must be in the 16:9 format and visually demonstrates that the video solves the user’s query. You can use descriptive text and contrasting colors as well.
  4. Add timestamps to define video key moments. Google will easily scan it and make a video SEO ranking in a relevant section of the content. Place each timestamp on a new line in a chronological order and keep it short, but descriptive (40 characters or less).

All of the aforementioned practices clearly show that video content is an effective tool for marketing and sales. Use the Google and YouTube ranking tips to be on the top of search engine results. With different video SEO strategies you will find the best way to reach your target audience.

Tags: google ranking, video optimization, video search engine optimization, video seo, youtube, youtube ranking, youtube seo