Youtube has been established for years as the leader of video platforms. If everyone knows it, they are still rare brands to know how to master the wheels to improve the visibility of their videos through the platform. And yes, Youtube video can also rhyme with improving your SEO and visibility on the Internet.
Follow us, we explain why.
Youtube videos have a direct impact on the visibility of your brand and your Google ranking
You publish creative videos but the number of views is not up to your investment so how to make them be seen and have the expected impact? Only one solution, improve your SEO!
To do this, let’s turn to YouTube, the largest video host in the world
(2 billion monthly users) but also the 2nd search engine after Google.
Proof of its effectiveness, in 2021, YouTube allowed brands to increase their awareness by 14% (according to Hubspot).
Well referencing your videos on YouTube can allow you to be positioned directly in the first positions during Google searches.
Youtube and Google are the same family and this is one of the reasons for the success of Youtube for years. The videos hosted on Youtube are those that are also prioritized in the “Videos” tab of Google search results.
Betting on its SEO thanks to Youtube becomes essential.
However, you have to think about standing out: 500 hours of content were uploaded every minute in 2020 on Youtube while in 2013, it was (only) 100 hours per minute on the platform. (source: Hubspot). An exponential growth of Youtube that leaves only a few crumbs to its direct competitors like Dailymotion or Vimeo.
On their side, Facebook (with Facebook Watch) or TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat can’t bet on the referencing of videos (outside their own platform) to hope to increase their visibility. Even if some of these social networks offer, like Youtube, to put its video on any HTML page via the embedded feature, Youtube remains the king also on this feature.
Let’s now look at the different levers that can optimize its SEO Youtube, the referencing of its videos on Youtube.
The interest of content
Ask yourself these 3 questions,
– What is the objective of my video?
– What is the main message it should convey?
– Is it relevant and does it bring something to the user?
The key to a successful YouTube video (but this is true for any video content on digital media) is to create an impactful, creative and useful content to be seen among the vast choices offered to YouTube users. Be careful, however, not to fall into the trap of buzz at all costs: many brands have fallen into the trap of looking for the viral video before the coherence, with their sector of activity and the relevance for the audience addressed
If your Youtube video is relevant it will create engagement from your audience.
Encourage users to share it, to subscribe to your channel and to comment.
The more interactions your video generates, the more YouTube will promote it.
The second important element is the viewing time, also called “retention rate”. The longer people stay on your video, the more exposure YouTube will give it.
A retention rate considered correct by YouTube must be above 40%, meaning that your audience views 40% or more of the total time of the video.
This element is obviously related to the interest of the video broadcast, if your audience is interested they will want to know more and will therefore watch your content longer.
Work on the thumbnail
The first element that will be seen by the Internet user on YouTube is obviously the thumbnail, the image that is displayed on your video and used to encourage users to click on it.
It must stand out while respecting the best practices inherited from the most popular videos of the Youtubers, the choice of the thumbnail image will encourage or not the viewer to watch your content, so it is necessary to pay attention to it.
More than an image, add a short text that clearly summarizes the subject of the image, opt for an original and dynamic description but do not fall into the trap of writing a description that is too romanticized in relation to the video.
Here are some examples of miniatures that you can use as inspiration:
Maybelline :
Yves Rocher :
Porsche:
The choice of keywords
For your video to emerge on Youtube, the chosen keywords are also important. They must be relevant to the content you are proposing.
If you don’t know which keywords are relevant, ask yourself what words you would type in a search engine to look for similar content. Also, don’t hesitate to benchmark by looking at the keywords chosen on videos in your industry or addressing a similar theme.
This will allow you to find a place among the videos already online on the issues or advances in your industry.
The title of your Youtube videos must also respect this rule of keyword relevance. The main keyword chosen must necessarily appear.
The description of your content
After defining your keywords, you have to write the YouTube description of your video. Youtube does not set a limit for this description, some do not hesitate to write a real article with the content of the video. Even if it will be viewed by only a handful of potential users, it will be important for the SEO of your YouTube video.
Nevertheless, it is not always easy to do this exercise. We recommend a minimum of 150 to 300 words for an effective description.
Remember to insert links to your website and your social networks.
The natural referencing of your video content requires obtaining inbound links to your site also called “backlinks”. This part can be identical from one video to another.
Here again, do not hesitate to look at the best practices used by the most popular Youtubers
Entering subtitles
Invisible by the Internet users, subtitles are however very useful for the SEO of your Youtube video. The algorithms will take into account the keywords that you will have filled in and will then greatly improve your SEO.
Insert call to action
On Youtube you can insert one (or more) redirection link(s) in your video. These links are displayed at the top of the user’s screen at the time you have chosen in your video. When a passage of your video deals with a specific point, you can thus highlight a link to another video, to a page of your site, …
Whether you decide to integrate them at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of your content, keep in mind that you should not abuse them at the risk of confusing the message of your video and losing the attention and interest of your viewers.
As you publish more and more videos on YouTube, your SEO ranking will improve, but it is important to analyze the results to understand what topics your audience is interested in.
So convinced by the interest of improving your YouTube SEO?
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