[0:00] today i'm going to teach you the basics
[0:02] of youtube seo and exactly how to rank
[0:05] your videos in youtube search i've used
[0:07] these exact strategies to rank my videos
[0:10] in the top three on youtube for
[0:13] competitive keywords like how to
[0:15] self-publish a book how to write a
[0:17] business plan and how to start your own
[0:20] business
[0:21] now right now if you're making videos on
[0:23] youtube but you're not getting as many
[0:24] views and your channel isn't growing as
[0:26] quickly as you would like i want to grow
[0:29] quite possibly youtube seo mistakes are
[0:33] the culprit so in this video i'm going
[0:35] to teach you everything you need to know
[0:36] about youtube seo and how to rank your
[0:39] videos on youtube including very
[0:42] specific tactics that you can start
[0:43] implementing today on your videos small
[0:46] changes you can make that make a big
[0:48] difference and the most important three
[0:50] factors that the youtube algorithm truly
[0:53] cares about
[0:58] so what exactly is youtube seo well seo
[1:02] just stands for search engine
[1:04] optimization and basically it is the
[1:07] science of how you can work with an
[1:09] algorithm to get your videos to rank
[1:11] well in that search algorithm so here on
[1:14] youtube when someone types in a search
[1:17] term is your video going to show up in
[1:20] the top results if your video is search
[1:22] engine optimized then it will so let's
[1:26] start out with a bit of a truth bomb the
[1:28] truth youtube is a business and they
[1:30] exist for one main purpose and that
[1:32] purpose is to make money and like most
[1:35] businesses they invest in their business
[1:37] so that their business can become more
[1:39] and more profitable and one of the main
[1:41] ways youtube does this is by investing
[1:44] into their algorithm by improving the
[1:47] process by which they promote videos to
[1:50] viewers so that they can keep their
[1:52] viewers or their users on the platform
[1:55] for longer and keep them happy because
[1:57] the longer they can keep people on
[1:59] youtube the more money they can make and
[2:01] what that looks like in a practical
[2:02] sense is youtube has spent millions of
[2:04] dollars perfecting their algorithm so
[2:07] that it can match viewers with the exact
[2:09] videos they want to watch and why that
[2:11] matters to you is because if you're
[2:13] making videos that someone out there
[2:15] wants to watch then you need to make
[2:16] sure that you are working with the
[2:18] algorithm so that the algorithm truly
[2:21] knows what your videos are about and who
[2:22] would want to watch them and can promote
[2:25] your videos to those people when you
[2:27] make videos on youtube your audience or
[2:29] your viewers are going to engage with
[2:31] them in different ways they will first
[2:33] of all potentially click on them they'll
[2:36] watch them for a certain amount of time
[2:37] they might hit the like button and they
[2:39] might leave comments but you might be
[2:40] wondering which of these factors is
[2:42] really the most important well youtube
[2:44] has said time and time again that the
[2:46] most important factor for whether or not
[2:48] a video is going to rank and the most
[2:49] important factor of audience engagement
[2:52] is simply whether or not someone clicks
[2:55] on the video the percent of people that
[2:57] click on your video when it's suggested
[2:59] to them is called click through ratio or
[3:02] ctr now youtube does also give some
[3:04] weight to other factors including your
[3:07] viewer retention how long people keep
[3:09] watching your videos we'll talk more
[3:11] about that in just a couple minutes and
[3:13] also likes and dislikes and as far as
[3:15] that goes what that means is that it is
[3:18] worth asking people to like your videos
[3:21] but let's talk a little bit more about
[3:23] ctr since youtube has said time and time
[3:25] again that click-through ratio is one of
[3:28] the most important factors for ranking
[3:30] on youtube one specific
[3:32] easy tip that i can give you about how
[3:34] to improve your ctr is to simply add a
[3:37] bracket or parentheses to the end of
[3:40] your title now multiple studies have
[3:43] shown that when you add a bracket or
[3:45] parenthesis to the end of a title it
[3:47] increases the percentage of people who
[3:49] click on that and this goes for videos
[3:51] as well now the reason why this is is
[3:54] because it gives people a little bit of
[3:56] an insight or at least it makes them
[3:58] feel like they're getting an insight
[4:00] into what the video is actually about
[4:02] intriguing and since they feel more
[4:05] confident about what the video is about
[4:06] they feel more confident that the video
[4:08] will be what they're looking for and
[4:10] that the video will be interesting to
[4:12] them and so they are more likely to
[4:14] click on it obviously this is one of the
[4:16] easiest things you can do to improve
[4:19] your videos click-through rate and
[4:20] therefore rank higher on youtube another
[4:23] bonus tip is to add your target keywords
[4:26] again we'll talk more about keywords
[4:28] what those are and how to find your
[4:30] target keyword in just a minute but
[4:32] whatever your target keywords are make
[4:34] sure that you include them in the first
[4:36] 20 to 25 words of your video's
[4:39] description that's because this is the
[4:41] only part of your video's description
[4:43] that viewers or potential viewers can
[4:45] see before they click on your video and
[4:48] so it's the only part of your video's
[4:50] description that can affect whether or
[4:52] not they choose to click on your video
[4:54] meaning the part that can affect your
[4:56] ctr and therefore affect your ranking so
[4:59] let's move on now and talk about
[5:00] keywords as i promised so what exactly
[5:02] are keywords well they are simply words
[5:05] or phrases that people use to search for
[5:09] content and they're words or phrases
[5:11] that you can use to identify your
[5:13] content so for example someone might go
[5:16] to youtube and search youtube seo basics
[5:19] and find a video like this one or they
[5:21] might search for a term like how to
[5:24] start an online business to find videos
[5:26] like this
[5:27] keywords are extremely important because
[5:30] they are the heart of how any sort of
[5:32] search algorithm works users are typing
[5:35] in keywords to tell the algorithm
[5:38] what type of content that they're
[5:39] looking for and then the algorithm is
[5:42] using keywords at least in part to tell
[5:44] which pieces of content are the right
[5:46] fit for that search inquiry so it is
[5:49] extremely important that you know what
[5:52] keywords you are trying to rank your
[5:53] content for that you choose good
[5:56] keywords to rank your videos for and
[5:59] that you correctly optimize your videos
[6:01] to in fact rank for those keywords so
[6:03] let's talk about how to do that to find
[6:05] the right keywords for your video you'll
[6:07] want to start with some good
[6:08] old-fashioned common sense duh just
[6:11] think about literally what your video is
[6:13] about brainstorm a whole bunch of
[6:15] different ways that you can explain what
[6:17] your video is about in just a few words
[6:20] or less then it's time to take to
[6:22] youtube itself and start searching for
[6:24] each of those terms now you're looking
[6:26] for two things here first of all of the
[6:28] videos that youtube returns for your
[6:31] search inquiry are these videos very
[6:34] similar to the video that you were
[6:35] thinking about creating because you're
[6:37] getting some very valuable insight here
[6:40] you're learning what the algorithm has
[6:42] decided people want when they search for
[6:44] those words so you want to make sure
[6:47] that your video your content is in
[6:48] alignment with that if you're making a
[6:50] video that you think is a great fit for
[6:53] that term but the algorithm doesn't
[6:55] think so then when your video
[6:57] potentially ranks for that term people
[6:59] are most likely not going to click on it
[7:01] if you make a video about a certain
[7:03] topic and associate it with a certain
[7:06] keyword that you think is a good fit for
[7:08] it but the algorithm doesn't think so
[7:11] then it's simply not going to rank for
[7:13] that keyword better luck next time so
[7:15] like i said that is the first thing
[7:17] you're looking for are the videos that
[7:19] match those keywords you're looking for
[7:22] similar to the video you're trying to
[7:23] create the second thing you want to pay
[7:25] attention to here is how many views are
[7:28] those videos getting you want to make
[7:30] sure that you're choosing keywords that
[7:32] are popular enough so that if your video
[7:35] ranks for that keyword it actually ends
[7:37] up getting a significant number of views
[7:40] i always recommend starting with youtube
[7:43] and your common sense for this but you
[7:44] can also use a tool such as tubebuddy to
[7:47] see how popular different keywords are
[7:50] and how competitive they are which
[7:52] basically means how many other videos
[7:54] are trying to rank for this keyword as
[7:56] well by the way tubebuddy is a free
[7:59] browser extension that you can install
[8:01] on your browser and then sign into with
[8:03] your youtube account to be able to get a
[8:05] lot of valuable search data so as you
[8:08] look at the numbers that tubebuddy shows
[8:10] you about each different keywords
[8:13] popularity and competitiveness and then
[8:15] the score that tubebuddy gives it you
[8:17] might be wondering which of these
[8:18] numbers is really the most important and
[8:20] what makes for a good keyword common
[8:22] advice is often that you should go for
[8:25] keywords that are as popular as possible
[8:28] but not competitive at all because if
[8:30] the keyword is too competitive then you
[8:32] won't be able to rank for it but this is
[8:34] simply bad advice because the truth is
[8:37] that you can rank for any keyword
[8:39] regardless of how competitive it is if
[8:41] you correctly optimize your video for
[8:44] that keyword and you make sure that your
[8:47] video is a good fit for that keyword
[8:50] meaning that people will be satisfied
[8:52] with your video as a result to their
[8:55] search that's what i was looking for
[8:57] so for example if you searched on
[8:59] youtube youtube seo basics and you found
[9:01] this video would this video be what
[9:03] you're looking for if it is then it
[9:06] stands a great chance of ranking high
[9:08] for that keyword even though that's a
[9:10] very competitive keyword now earlier on
[9:12] i mentioned that it's very important
[9:14] that you are ranking for keywords that
[9:16] are popular enough so that when you do
[9:20] rank for those keywords you can actually
[9:22] get a significant number of views from
[9:24] that high ranking so because of that the
[9:26] keyword's popularity is of primary
[9:30] importance you'll want to make sure that
[9:32] that keyword is getting at least a few
[9:34] thousand searches every month and you
[9:36] can see that listed as the search volume
[9:39] for that keyword in order for it to
[9:41] truly be worth your time to make a video
[9:44] about it as far as the keywords
[9:45] competition yes it can make it a little
[9:48] easier for you if you steer clear of the
[9:50] most competitive keywords but you want
[9:53] to give a lot more weight to the
[9:54] popularity of the keyword than the
[9:57] competition level another really
[9:59] important note when it comes to choosing
[10:01] keywords is that you want to choose them
[10:02] before you make your video ideally
[10:05] before you even plan your video so that
[10:07] you can first of all ensure that the
[10:09] keyword is popular enough and the second
[10:12] that you can design your video around
[10:13] that keyword to make sure that it will
[10:15] really give the viewers what they're
[10:17] looking for on the other hand if you try
[10:19] to optimize your video for keywords or
[10:22] choose the right keywords for it after
[10:23] you've made it you might find that
[10:25] you've made your video around keywords
[10:28] that aren't very popular or that you're
[10:30] trying to fit your video into a keyword
[10:33] that is more popular but it's not really
[10:34] the right fit for
[10:36] and it's tough to ever rank a video for
[10:38] a keyword that it's not the right fit
[10:40] for so now let's talk about how to
[10:42] actually rank your video for your
[10:44] keywords once you have selected them now
[10:47] of course as i'm sure you know you can
[10:49] and should include your keyword in your
[10:51] videos title description and tags
[10:54] however what matters more than any of
[10:57] those things is that you include your
[10:59] keywords in your video's actual content
[11:01] because youtube is automatically
[11:04] captioning every single video meaning
[11:06] it's listening to it and it's
[11:08] transcribing it and it is basing your
[11:11] search ranking more than almost anything
[11:13] else on what you actually say in the
[11:16] video because that obviously that makes
[11:18] sense that that would give youtube the
[11:21] best information about what your video
[11:23] is actually about and now going back to
[11:25] what we were talking about earlier how
[11:27] there are three main factors that have
[11:28] the biggest impact on your videos
[11:30] ranking well what you say in your video
[11:33] is going to be that second most
[11:35] important factor and finally before we
[11:37] move on from keywords let's talk about
[11:39] one more bonus tip for getting your
[11:41] video to rank for a keyword and that is
[11:43] to make sure that your video's
[11:44] description is at least about 100 words
[11:48] long the more words you include in your
[11:50] video's description the more you can
[11:52] tell youtube and the algorithm about
[11:55] what your video is actually about so
[11:57] you'll want to make sure that you
[11:58] include each of your main target
[12:01] keywords in your video's description at
[12:04] least about two times this is going to
[12:07] give youtube a strong indication that
[12:09] your video is probably about that and
[12:11] help your video to rank higher for those
[12:14] terms and next up let's talk about tags
[12:17] first of all what's the difference
[12:18] between a keyword and a tag well a
[12:21] keyword we already talked about that is
[12:23] just a term that people are using to
[12:25] search for content and a term you're
[12:27] using to identify your content tags on
[12:29] the other hand are something very
[12:30] specific there is a specific field in
[12:33] your videos description or metadata
[12:36] where you can type in video tags and
[12:38] these are just keywords that you're
[12:39] plugging into your videos metadata so
[12:42] keywords super important can't avoid
[12:44] them tags on the other hand are actually
[12:47] a bit of a relic of the past ancient
[12:49] history now there is a reason to still
[12:52] use tags we'll talk about that in just a
[12:53] minute but first let me give you a very
[12:56] short history of youtube tags when
[12:58] youtube was first created there wasn't
[13:00] really an algorithm at all people were
[13:02] just uploading videos willy nilly very
[13:04] quickly it became a search driven
[13:06] platform where people were searching for
[13:10] certain keywords and then youtube was
[13:12] trying to give them what they were
[13:13] looking for and at first youtube based
[13:15] this primarily off of the videos titles
[13:18] and the videos tags because they added
[13:20] in this tag field so that they could
[13:22] sort and categorize the videos now over
[13:26] time as youtube sought to improve their
[13:28] algorithm so that they could give their
[13:29] users better results that were more
[13:32] aligned with what they were actually
[13:33] looking for and keep them on the
[13:34] platform for longer they updated the
[13:36] algorithm to factor in descriptions and
[13:40] also captions that people added to the
[13:43] video so that they could better
[13:44] understand what the content was actually
[13:46] about as things progress even further
[13:49] youtube developed the capability to do
[13:51] auto captioning where they started
[13:53] actually listening to the videos and
[13:55] transcribing them which gave them a lot
[13:58] more insight into what the videos were
[14:00] truly about now i understand now as i'm
[14:03] sure you can understand as youtube got
[14:05] more and more data about what the videos
[14:07] were actually about and that data was
[14:09] really from the source it was from the
[14:11] actual content of the video instead of
[14:12] just what the creator said the video is
[14:15] about youtube began to rely more and
[14:17] more on that data and eventually stopped
[14:20] relying on tags altogether it's been a
[14:23] couple of years now since youtube came
[14:25] out and blatantly said that they are not
[14:27] using tags as a ranking factor at all
[14:30] and that their only purpose for tags is
[14:32] to correct commonly misspelled words or
[14:35] words that are homonyms words that sound
[14:38] the same sometimes the captioning
[14:40] software can't tell exactly what you're
[14:41] saying in the video and so if there is a
[14:44] question then youtube's algorithm goes
[14:46] to the tag to figure out which of those
[14:48] two meanings you really meant but the
[14:50] big takeaway here is that tags don't
[14:53] really affect your videos ranking at all
[14:55] at this point so you might be wondering
[14:58] should you even bother with tags should
[15:00] you type anything into that tag field
[15:02] well first of all if there is one of
[15:04] those commonly misunderstood words in
[15:06] your video something that the algorithm
[15:07] might be confused about you might as
[15:09] well put it in the tag section just to
[15:12] clarify but beyond that i actually still
[15:14] would recommend that you do include your
[15:18] target keywords in the tag section now
[15:20] it's not going to help you rank for them
[15:22] but it will give you some valuable
[15:24] insight especially if you're using a
[15:26] tool such as tubebuddy if you have typed
[15:29] your target keywords into that tag
[15:31] section then when you view that video
[15:34] tubebuddy will give you data on how
[15:37] you're ranking for each of those
[15:38] keywords and that way you can easily see
[15:41] how your video is performing so far and
[15:43] you can work on optimizing from there so
[15:45] far we've covered two of those three
[15:48] most important factors for ranking well
[15:50] on youtube and now we come to the third
[15:52] and that is audience retention so
[15:55] audience retention is the percentage of
[15:58] time that your viewers watch your video
[16:00] and channel wide the percentage of time
[16:03] that your viewers on average watch your
[16:05] videos and something that's very similar
[16:06] to audience retention is average view
[16:08] duration which is the number of minutes
[16:11] that viewers watch each of your videos
[16:14] now doesn't it make so much sense that
[16:15] of course youtube would rank videos
[16:18] higher if viewers keep watching them for
[16:20] longer obviously that's a really strong
[16:22] indicator that they are enjoying the
[16:24] video and that the video is what they
[16:26] were looking for especially if they
[16:28] searched for a certain term then they
[16:30] chose to click on it and then as they
[16:33] watched it they kept on watching it it
[16:35] shows that it was really what they were
[16:36] looking for so how can you improve your
[16:39] audience retention how can you keep
[16:41] people watching for longer well there
[16:43] are three things you can do first of all
[16:45] make sure that your video is a good fit
[16:48] for the search intent so this goes back
[16:50] to what we talked about earlier you need
[16:52] to have the keyword in mind when you
[16:54] plan and film the video you need to make
[16:56] sure that you are designing the video
[16:58] around the keyword so that it is a good
[17:00] fit for what your viewer will be looking
[17:02] for second don't waste your viewers time
[17:05] avoid rambling and make sure that your
[17:07] video keeps moving forward with new
[17:10] valuable information or new events that
[17:12] keep unfolding and third make sure that
[17:14] you keep your viewers focused by using
[17:17] an easy to follow outline the only way
[17:19] you can do that is by planning your
[17:21] video ahead of time and having a clear
[17:23] outline viewers are more likely to keep
[17:26] watching a video for longer if they
[17:27] understand the information that they're
[17:30] consuming you can also keep viewers
[17:32] attention by keep changing things up
[17:34] with different camera angles graphics
[17:36] and music so that your viewers don't get
[17:39] bored this is interesting so let's wrap
[17:41] things up with a bonus tip for getting
[17:43] people to keep watching your videos for
[17:45] longer so here's the thing people keep
[17:47] watching videos for longer when they see
[17:50] social proof that others also enjoyed
[17:53] the video they think other people said
[17:55] this video is good so it must be good or
[17:57] it's going to get good so i'll keep on
[17:59] watching it to get to the good part or
[18:01] to get whatever else is coming later so
[18:03] here are a few different ways that you
[18:05] can increase the social proof on your
[18:07] video first of all how can you get
[18:08] people to comment more well just asking
[18:11] people to comment is too vague and
[18:13] people don't have a good idea of what to
[18:15] say you can make it way easier for
[18:17] people to comment and make it much more
[18:19] likely that they do so by asking them a
[18:21] specific and easy to answer question
[18:24] ideally this is a multiple choice
[18:26] question where they can choose between
[18:28] two options that makes it easy for them
[18:30] to answer and a lot of the time they'll
[18:32] want to share their opinion so for
[18:34] example here's a question for you right
[18:36] now how do you choose your keywords or
[18:40] your video topics do you make videos
[18:42] just about what you feel like making
[18:43] videos about or are you more the
[18:45] analytical type that likes to do a lot
[18:47] of keyword research and choose your
[18:49] keywords and your video topics based on
[18:51] data data data data i cannot make bricks
[18:54] without clear tell me in the comments
[18:55] down below
[18:56] are you more of the intuitive type or
[18:58] more of the research type and one more
[19:01] way to increase your video social proof
[19:03] and keep people watching your videos for
[19:05] longer especially if your channel is
[19:07] still really small
[19:09] is to add some social proof by actually
[19:12] engaging with your video yourself so
[19:14] when you first publish a video don't be
[19:16] shy about clicking on your video and
[19:18] watching it all the way through a few
[19:21] times not only is this going to start to
[19:23] rack up the first few views which adds
[19:26] some social proof but it also is going
[19:28] to set your audience retention on a good
[19:32] path from the start so that means your
[19:34] first few views are going to be 100
[19:36] audience retention which can help to
[19:38] increase your search ranking you can
[19:40] also of course give your video a like
[19:43] and leave a comment and you can pin your
[19:45] comment to the top which again adds more
[19:47] social proof and if you have multiple
[19:49] google accounts maybe you have yours
[19:51] maybe you have access to your
[19:54] significant others or to a friends or to
[19:57] your businesses or to your dogs well you
[19:59] can log into each of those different
[20:00] google accounts and do the same things
[20:03] with those accounts again adding more
[20:04] social proof and helping your video to
[20:06] rank higher from the start a lot of
[20:08] people don't talk about this tactic
[20:10] because it can feel a little silly but
[20:12] when you're first starting out every
[20:13] single view counts and so this tactic
[20:16] can really help there is tons more about
[20:18] youtube seo that i would love to share
[20:20] with you but i don't have time in this
[20:22] video it's already getting way too long
[20:25] so i recorded an hour-long masterclass
[20:28] in which i share with you more about how
[20:31] the algorithm works more about how to
[20:32] work with it and especially how to grow
[20:35] your channel to a thousand subscribers
[20:37] as quickly as possible in fact i've had
[20:39] several people reach out to me and share
[20:41] that they use the strategies in that
[20:44] free workshop to get their first
[20:46] thousand subscribers after posting just
[20:48] five or ten videos and i even share one
[20:51] of the stories like that in the workshop
[20:54] itself and i break down exactly how that
[20:56] new creator did that so if you want to
[20:59] check out that workshop and get access
[21:01] to that hour-long youtube algorithm
[21:03] masterclass and be sure to check the
[21:05] description below you can sign up and
[21:07] choose a time to watch it that works for
[21:09] you because it is an on-demand workshop
[21:12] which means that we've got multiple
[21:13] showing times every day that you can
[21:16] watch it and it is completely free all
[21:18] right well that is everything for this
[21:20] video thank you so much for joining me
[21:22] today give this video a like if you
[21:24] learned something new if you have
[21:25] something valuable out of it if you have
[21:27] tips now that you are going to start
[21:29] implementing on your next video and of
[21:32] course consider subscribing if you want
[21:34] to learn even more about how to grow
[21:36] here on youtube or you're interested in
[21:38] starting your own online business which
[21:41] is one of the main things i talk about
[21:42] here on my channel my name is gillian
[21:44] perkins thanks so much for joining me
[21:46] today i love you and i'll see you next
[21:48] week with another video