YouTube is an internet portal that allows users to create content and view videos. In it, you will find a wide variety of topics: Gaming, videoblogs, music, cinema … Without a doubt, it has become one of the best online search engines, surpassed only by Google.
With over 1 billion views per month, and some 400 hours of video uploaded every minute, how can I make my videos stand out and my views grow in 2021? Through SEO!
Therefore, it is very important to acquire the necessary knowledge to help us grow in a solid and consistent way. Here we will teach you a series of strategies with which you will see very effective results in a short time, and thus you will be able to position your videos among the first search results.
What is SEO on YouTube?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) They are a set of techniques used to get your videos to achieve a good position on the search results page.
To do this, we use tools that, through metrics and statistics, provide us with information about the terms used by our competition and the words most searched by the user.
How does YouTube search work?
YouTube search engines cannot themselves interpret the information in the images or videos that we upload. So YouTube relies on SEO to understand the information in our content, and in all the data found in the title: the tag, description, file name, among others.
For this reason, SEO is very important as it gives us the opportunity to grow fast, and even if we have few followers we can climb to the top positions. But how do we start to position our videos?
Here are the 4 essential steps for you to grow on YouTube!
4 simple steps to improve the positioning of your videos on YouTube
Step # 1: Video Title
Keep in mind that the title is one of the most important factors. This allows direct interaction between your content and viewers. The more exact it is and the more it fits the user’s search, the better your video will be positioned on YouTube.
A good example could be the following:
If you put the word Diets as a title for your video, it will be very difficult to position yourself, since there are many videos that talk about “diets”. On the contrary, if you place your title The best diet for 2021 in a more specific way, you would be sectorized your search. In this way, YouTube will reward you for putting a longer and more exact title, and the chances that your video will be positioned and a user will find it among the first positions when they look for what diet they can do this year, are greater. It will improve, then, the CTR (Click Through Rate).
Step # 2: Tags
These are words or phrases that can be included in the description of your videos to YouTube, allowing both spectators and the platform to know what they are about. This way, it will appear earlier in search lists and will associate it with similar content, which can amplify your reach with related videos.
If you enter a YouTube video, you will not find the tags, since they are not visible to the public. However, with the Tags for YouTube extension, available in search engines such as Google Chrome or Firefox, you will have easy access. Later, we will explain what these tools are about and some tricks to get the most out of them.
Step # 3: Hashtags
YES, they continue to set trends! This 2021 and for many years to come, hashtags are essential to the position. These, like labels, are made up of words or phrases; however, hashtags are distinguished by being accompanied by a sign (#) before each phrase. They help significantly since they allow you to directly search for videos on popular topics and will be more effective during certain events or seasons since they work according to the trend.
Step # 4: Thumbnails
As a complement to the title, the thumbnail for your YouTube videos is also an important pillar within each video, because we can attract the attention of the viewer through its design. We will leave you some of the most important tricks to improve your thumbnails for YouTube videos.
- Put yourself in the place of the spectator: They have too much to see on the Internet and little time. So they want to know what your video is about without having to click on it or read it a lot. Our YouTube thumbnail has to be able to tell a story. Or at least be representative of the first 30 seconds of the video.
- Add text to your thumbnails: This way you will clarify at a glance what the video content is about. But try not to overdo it, 5 words will be enough. And don’t forget that the color of your text must contrast a lot with the background. If not, it will be difficult to read.
- YouTube thumbnails showing a person works best: Close-ups of people always have good results. It has been proven that if a person appears in the image looking directly into the viewer’s eyes, or looking at the text on the thumbnail, it works even better.
- Use bright and contrasting colors: Do not use light colors. Did you know that according to YouTube the color yellow, when used as a background color for the thumbnail, gets more visits?
- Use high definition images: Never upload a blurry image. The idea is that your thumbnail is a JPG, GIF, or PNG. Measuring 1280 x 720 pixels or 1920 x 1080 pixels (ie 16: 9), and weighing less than 2MB.
- Add your logo to your video thumbnails: This way people can quickly recognize that the video is yours. Even when the video is outside of YouTube.
- Always work with the same style of thumbnails: Let it be repeated in all your videos so that viewers can easily identify them. Obviously, each header must be different, but surely you can define colors or design standards that unify the style.
- If you make different types of videos, another very good option is to define a different style for each type of video: All your videos will have a thumbnail with a black and white background, but on that background, the video clips will have a green text and the video lyrics a blue background. So that when browsing the channel the viewer knows at all times what type of content each video has.
- Do not use images that are not related to the content of the video: Trying to deceive the viewer will only bring you bad comments, and you will lose credibility among viewers, although you can sort it out after and buy youTube comments to improve the position
- It is very important that you make sure that your YouTube headers look good: both on large screen devices and on mobile devices. That when viewed on a small screen the colors continue to contrast with each other and that the texts remain legible.
You want one more step, huh?
Well, for having come this far, we show you one more Tip that you will surely love!
Step # 5: Numbers
POSITION! Putting a number in the title of your video or in the text of the thumbnail will help you improve the CTR. If, for example, you want to make a guide on how to find trends to create interesting videos on YouTube, transform this title as follows: «5 TRENDS for your YouTube videos» or «2021 guide to find TRENDS on YouTube. Oh, and by the way … capital letters are important too.
Important tips to improve SEO in your YouTube videos:
- Create the main page of your YouTube channel as if it were the beginning of a website, with complete and well-organized content.
- Optimize the header of your YouTube channel. Do not forget to place your name, brand, and logo that attracts the attention of your visitors.
- Playlists work. Feel free to create your own as you can multiply the average duration of each user’s session and YouTube likes that.
- Select your best videos and pin them to the top of your channel as featured videos.
- Create chain interlinking of your videos using the cards, just as if you were doing it with your website.
- Use the keywords for which you want to position in the description of your channel and the title.
- If you are fluent in Adobe Premiere or After Effects, create an intro of your channel to complement its description. Take advantage of this section to attract visitors.
- The first 15 seconds of your videos are the most important. Take advantage of them to get your visitors to see the full video.
- Create links to your social networks and web pages.
- Use YouTube video suggestions to create your own Long Tails in titles.
- Spy on your competition with the tools we offered you previously.
Remember that Likes (I like it) or Dislikes (I don’t like it) do position so you can always buy YouTube likes initially if you are not able to generate enough.
