There is an inherent urge in human beings to express themselves; to let their unique ideas out there in the world, and to mark their distinctive footsteps in the sands of time. When faced with a blank wall, human beings can’t help but paint it in the colour of their thoughts. Self-expression is a basic human need, and there are various mediums through which it can be done, ranging from words to even cutlery.
Video takes the lead in this self-expressive sphere. Like wonderful little digital chunks extracted from one’s life, video can be completely fascinating. Appealing to all the senses simultaneously, videos are a creative way of letting people know about oneself, and to connect with them on an intellectual/spiritual plane.
The internet is a ground breaking technological innovation which has elevated the video phenomenon to a whole new level. Nowadays, people’s tastes are centered on video content more than anything. They go online to look for answers, to catch up on the latest news, or to refresh themselves with a funny video.
YouTube is one of the greatest video-hosting platforms to ever exist, and the remarkable thing about it is that it gets huge traffic on a regular basis. More traffic means more profit, of course. So if you have a YouTube channel and upload content daily, yet are getting insufficient views, you need to optimize your content with classic search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to hit that traffic benchmark.
Great video content coupled with less visibility leads to a waste of time, energy, and creativity. So make sure people see you atop thousands of other similar videos with the incorporation of the following SEO-oriented tips.
Find a Popular Keyword:
Keywords are like eye-catching bait which lure the large school of search engines towards your content. They are absolutely indispensable SEO assets that, with the right use, can make your content rank higher in the search engine, thus leading to more views for you. If knitting is your niche, then go to Google’s search bar and find out the most-searchable/popular keywords about knitting from there. The ‘video keywords’ that you get from there will optimize your video to a great extent, so much so that it will gain traffic from both YouTube and Google. This is how you hit two targets with just one arrow.
Check Out the Competition:
It’s a good idea to inspect the vlogging giants who hold authority within your niche. This is how you’ll gauge your position and measure your success in relation to them. See how they are tailoring their videos by keeping SEO principles in mind. Then you can learn their moves, recognize the gaps and weaknesses in their strategies, and ultimately come up with better ones.
Carefully Compose the Metadata:
No matter how wonderful your video content is, search engines and other traffic-generating platforms cannot see it. They can only work off of the text-based data that you provide in the explanation of your video. This text-based data is called metadata. Be careful when you write this data, because this can solely determine your popularity in the long run.
Come Up with a Crafty Title:
The title of your YouTube video should be creative and catchy. Not only that, it needs to be optimized for your previously referenced target keywords, so that search engines can recognize it and rank it higher. Begin the title with your target keyword, and then make it slightly longer. For example, if you’re a gamer, a title for one of your videos could be “Play Outlast: Whistleblower in Style and Crush Your Enemies with Pewdiepie.”
Expand the Description:
Do not underestimate the power of long, descriptive texts when it comes to video optimization. A fairly lengthy description, somewhere around 200-300 words long, written beneath your video can help search engines to categorize it, then set it at a higher position in the search results. Including and sandwiching your description between your target-keywords can considerably heighten the video’s chances of visibility.
Tag the Video:
Putting labels on your video can significantly elevate it in a search engine’s eyes. Use keywords as tags whenever you tailor your video. This has the added benefit of being featured in the recommendation bar for other videos with similar tags.
Include Captions:
This may sound like a redundant task, but if your video is transcribed and your captions host the target-keywords in them, then search engines can take your content into notice much faster, positioning you higher in the rankings.
Keep Your Content Original:
The most important tip of all is that the quality of your content should be nothing less than first class. It’s all about user-engagement when it comes to YouTube SEO. Your video should be long and interesting at the same time, to keep the audience hooked. If they lose interest in your content, then no matter which foolproof SEO strategy you apply, you will never be able to expand your channel.
Use Eye-Catching Thumbnails and Cards:
The first things that users notice are your title and your video thumbnail. Even if the title doesn’t work, a fascinating thumbnail could easily pull the viewers right in. It’s all about presentation, after all. Because of their incredibly short attention spans, YouTube viewers could just as well judge your whole video based on your thumbnail. So make it count. In addition to this, you can use YouTube cards, displayed during the video, to link to other content as well.
Directly Promote the Video:
At the end of your video, you can ask the viewers to like, subscribe to, and share your content on different social media platforms. Drive them towards an action. They might do your advertising and promoting for you, and spread the word around. This is a direct promotional strategy.
Indirectly Promote the Video:
You can embed your video in various blogs, and then ask authorities within your niche who get a great amount of traffic to give you backlinks. The more relevant backlinks, the more likely you will be slingshot to fame. Other than this, you can cleverly insert links to your videos in different problem-solving platforms like Quora, which will direct the audience from there to your channel.
These are simple and effective SEO-oriented tips which need nothing more than a good internet connection to work. If you have a lame, overpriced one, then search around the web for a better service with affordable rates, such as the user-friendly Charter internet prices, and get working on your channel expansion right away without the slightest hitch.
