YouTube SEO | Best YouTube SEO Strategy to Rank YouTube Videos on Top in 2024

YouTube SEO is the most important factor in ranking videos on top. In starting, new creators have no idea how to apply the best SEO strategy and increase their video impressions, clicks, and watch time.

In my freelance journey, I worked with multiple people and brands as a YouTube SEO and video marketing manager. The common mistake that I noticed most new creators upload videos without any SEO strategy or try to buy fake views and watch time. This can significantly impact the visibility and reach of their content.

The Importance Of YouTube SEO

YouTube videos come in the search engine on a variety of factors such as focus keywords, SEO-friendly titles, descriptions, tags, and clickable thumbnails. As a beginner first, you need to understand YouTube algorithms and the knowledge of how YouTube SEO works. After that, you will be able to find the exact reason why your videos are not getting impressions and views.

What is YouTube SEO?

Before proceeding, Let’s first talk about what is youtube SEO. SEO means search engine optimization. YouTube SEO helps to increase visibility, ranking, and organic search traffic. This involves using focus keywords, descriptions, tags, and titles. All of the elements help to improve the chances of a video appearing higher in YouTube’s search results and search engines like Google.

Is YouTube SEO Difficult?

In the beginning, YouTube SEO looks pretty difficult. It takes a lot of time to figure out how to stand out videos in search engines. But when you understand all of the processes becomes easier.

How Does YouTube SEO Work?

To do that let’s assume you create a video and want to tell someone about your video content. You have to explain all of the details in a certain way. The same process works on YouTube SEO.

For example, we upload a motivational video. YouTube has no idea which type of content is included in this video. Therefore we need to tell all details through SEO. For this purpose, we need to write a title, description, hashtags, and keywords in a certain way.

When we send clear instructions through SEO, the YouTube algorithm understands which type of content is included in this video. He embeds our videos in motivational categories and suggests those people who are already searching or interested watch relevant content.

A Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your videos for YouTube searches:

1. Create Valuable and Engaging Content
2. Keyword Research
3. Optimize Video Title Description
4. Video Tags
5. Custom Thumbnail
6. Hashtags
7. Add End Screen & Cards
8. Transcription
9. Video Engagement

Create Valuable and Engaging Content

valuable and engaging content is the main key to channel growth. Because all of the other SEO strategies work if your content is engaging. As a YouTube manager, I worked with multiple people but 90% have failed to grow their YouTube channel.

Why???

Because they have no idea how to attract the audience. Most of the time their content not providing value.

If your content is valuable and your watch time is good then automatically you get more impressions and clicks from YouTube. But in starting people don’t show interest and they immediately skip your video, then your video ranking will go down and all of the good SEO and other strategies never work.

Therefore valuable content is the first and most important key to channel growth.

Also Read:

• How To Get YouTube Views Fast

Keyword Research

Keywords are phrases or words entered by the audience into a search engine to find specific content. First, we need to know which phrase or query people are using to find motivational videos or other categories. These phrases are called keywords. If you add these keywords related to the video content they help to suggest your videos to the audience who is already searching or interested in watching such type of content.

I hope the basic concept of keywords would be clear and you get an idea of how to use them in SEO. In starting try to find low-difficulty keywords.

Pro Tip!

If you don’t know how to find Low-difficulty keywords I have written and covered all the details in this article

How to do Keyword Research in just 5 Minutes

2 Best Tools For Keywords

• Ahrefs
• Google Keyword Planner

Optimize Video Title Description

Optimizing the title and description of a YouTube video can help improve its visibility and attract more viewers. Here are some tips to help you optimize your YouTube video’s title and description:

Title:

• Keep it short and add a focus keyword in the video title
• Make it attention-grabbing and descriptive of the video content

Description:

• Provide a summary of the video’s content (2-3 sentences)
• Use keywords, but don’t stuff the description with them
• Include any relevant information such as links or timestamps
• Encourage viewers to like, comment, and subscribe

By following these tips, you can help make your YouTube video more discoverable and increase its chances of being viewed by your target audience.

Video Tags

Using tags in YouTube videos can help improve their discoverability by making them more relevant to specific search queries. Here are some tips for using tags in your videos.

• Choose tags that are relevant to the content of your video and the topic you want to rank for.
• Long-tail keywords are more specific and less competitive, so consider using them in your tags.
• You can add up to 500 characters of tags to your video, but it’s recommended to use only a few relevant tags to make your video more focused.

Custom Thumbnail

A custom thumbnail can help your YouTube video stand out and attract more clicks, and making it SEO-friendly can help improve its visibility in search results.

Here are some tips for uploading an SEO-friendly custom thumbnail:

Use High-Quality Images:

Use an image that is clear, well-lit, and visually appealing to attract more clicks.

Make It Relevant:

Make sure the thumbnail image is relevant to the content of the video and represents what the video is about.

Use Clear Readable Text:

If you do use text in your thumbnail, keep it short, simple, and easily readable.

Opt For A 1280×720 Resolution:

This is the recommended resolution for YouTube thumbnails, and it ensures that your thumbnail will look sharp on all devices.

Hashtags

Hashtags on YouTube can help increase the discoverability of your videos by making them more relevant to specific searches. Use a limited number of hashtags (3-5) to keep your video from appearing spammy. you can add hashtags in the video description. Hashtags should be relevant to your video content.

By using hashtags in your YouTube videos, you can make your videos more discoverable and increase the chances of attracting more viewers.

Add End Screen & Cards

An end screen card is a visual element that can be added to the end of a video to promote other related content or channels. It typically appears for the last 20-30 seconds of a video and can include elements such as links to other videos, a subscribe button, and social media handles. End screen cards are an effective way to keep viewers engaged and encourage them to explore more of your videos. They can also help to increase subscribers and drive traffic to other platforms.

Transcription

Transcription subtitles on YouTube refer to a text representation of the audio content in a video. They are displayed as captions on the video player and provide a written version of the audio for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, or for those who prefer to read rather than listen. They can also help non-native speakers understand the content more easily. You can add or upload transcription subtitles to a YouTube video using YouTube’s built-in editor or by using a third-party transcription service. It is important to ensure that the transcription is accurate and synchronized with the audio to provide a positive viewing experience for all users.

Upload Videos Constantly

YouTube demands constantly. if your content is fresh and engaging but you are not uploading videos regularly sorry to say you never grow. Some people create great content but do not upload videos constantly and never succeed in their YouTube journey.

For example, I saw some celebrity channels that are famous in public but their YouTube channel does not grow. And the other hand an unknown person starts a channel he works constantly and becomes a successful YouTuber. Because due to constant he will be successful in engaging people with its content.

Upload Short Videos

The short video feature is also great it helps to grow the channel fast without any promotions. Short videos help to increase impressions and clicks. By using this feature you can get more subscribers and views within a short duration.

Final Thought!

Always Try to engage with your Audience. If you become successful in engaging with the audience. Believe me, your audience will be a game-changer for your channel growth. Likes, shares, comments, and subscribers help to rank videos and get more views.

if you notice sometimes we don’t want to click on any random video but YouTube suggests again and again to watch this particular video. because he knows its content is valuable and when someone clicks he likes its content. Therefore YouTube forces us to click on it. Final thought YouTube always promotes good content. Focus on making valuable videos constantly and apply these best SEO strategies.