---
title: 'How I rank higher on YouTube With These SEO Hacks (Step By Step)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ojyV3XD17zQ'
video_id: 'ojyV3XD17zQ'
date: 2026-06-16
duration_sec: 0
---

# How I rank higher on YouTube With These SEO Hacks (Step By Step)

> Source: [How I rank higher on YouTube With These SEO Hacks (Step By Step)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ojyV3XD17zQ)

## Summary

A seasoned YouTube automation expert shares his proven SEO strategies for ranking higher on YouTube, especially for beginners and small creators. He emphasizes that SEO is crucial due to YouTube's new AI (Gemini), which scans videos to determine content and recommendations. The video covers tags, descriptions, titles, thumbnails, and metrics like AVD and CTR.

### Key Points

- **Tags are Critical** [00:36] — Disagrees with coaches who say tags don't matter; recommends filling all tags using VidIQ or TubeBuddy.
- **Use ChatGPT for Descriptions** [02:05] — Feed full transcript to ChatGPT with a prompt to generate an SEO-optimized description for both YouTube and Google.
- **Titles and Thumbnails** [03:01] — Base titles on successful competitors in your niche; keep thumbnails simple with yellow text, black drop shadow, and max 4 words on bottom left.
- **Video Length and Metrics** [04:23] — Aim for 13-14 minutes video length, with at least 5-minute AVD for 14-min videos, 6-minute AVD for 20+ min videos. High CTR (13%+) can compensate for lower AVD.
- **Prioritize Algorithm Over Audience Initially** [05:41] — Focus on SEO and CTR first to get views; after reaching 2,000-3,000 views per video, use AVD data to refine content.

## Transcript

If you're a complete beginner or a small
YouTuber, one of the things that could
be holding you back is SEO. And listen,
if you're anything like me, SEO, tags,
description, all of that [ __ ] is a
snoozefest. It is the most boring parts
about this entire process. But the worst
part is that it's one of the most
important. So that's why I'm going to
try and make this as painless as
possible for both of us. Now, if you
don't know who I am, my name is Romero.
I've been doing YouTube automation since
2018. I've made over $1.9 million across
all of my faceless YouTube channels. And
that's pretty much it. I don't have much
of a personality. I need to get better
at intros. Anyways, let's go ahead and
get started. So, what's the truth about
tags? Is it actually important? Is it
something you need or are you just
wasting your time? Well, if you've ever
heard a YouTube coach say that you don't
need video tags, I want you to let them
know that I said that they can go [ __ ]
themselves because that's exactly what I
did. I would listen to coaches that say
SEO doesn't matter. video tags don't
don't have any importance with the
algorithm and because of them I wasted
years of my life. Listen, we're at the
end of 2025. We're about to hit 2026.
YouTube has changed a lot. It is not the
same as it used to be and that's because
they soft launched Gemini. Now, if you
don't know what Gemini is, Gemini is
Google's chat GBT. It's their own
version, right? And they implemented
Gemini into YouTube in late 2024. Point
is, they've been training it this whole
time. And what they've been training it
to do is to scan videos. They're
essentially trying to replace their
employees, the the human reviewers. Now,
it is very important that I say that
YouTube did not announce this. This is
not confirmed. This is just a theory
that I have. I think it's a pretty good
[ __ ] theory, right? But it's not
confirmed. Anyways, my point is YouTube
now uses AI to identify what your video
is about and to send it out to the
correct audience, right? So, now it's
even more precise with how it's going to
recommend your videos. So, when it comes
to SEO, you can argue that now it's one
of the most important parts of the
entire process. So, do yourself a favor
in your tags. Fill them up all the way.
Use tools like Vid IQ, TubeBuddy, Next
Lev, whatever it is. There's a bunch of
free [ __ ] out there. Just please make
sure you fill up all of your tags. Okay.
Now, what about video descriptions? Do
video descriptions really matter? Do you
have to make them long? Do you have to
make them short? Do you have to put
hashtags? Do you have to put links?
Easy. Use Chad GBT. So, what you want to
do is give your entire video transcript
to Chad GBT and you want to give it this
prompt. Pretend you're an SEO expert who
specializes in ranking YouTube videos in
Google search results. I'm giving you
the full transcript of my video. Based
on it, write a YouTube description
that's strategically worded to rank high
on both YouTube and Google. Use high
traffic keywords and make it sound
natural and persuasive, not spammy.
Prioritize retention, relevancy, and CTR
keywords, and structure it like a
professional SEO copywriter would. And
that's pretty much it. You don't have to
go too crazy about it. Now, remember,
you have to make your tags and your
description very, very specific and
detailed. And that's because you no
longer want to just rank high on
YouTube. You want to rank high on
Google. Because what I've noticed is
that they're both kind of merging
together. Now, what about video titles?
Should your keywords be in the front of
your title or in the back? That's not
important. Matter of fact, every video
title you create, it needs to be based
off of a successful YouTube video,
right? That's how you should be doing
YouTube to begin with. If you've been
posting original content for the last 2
3 years and you haven't seen any
results, I'm going to give you a word of
advice. Start following the trends, man.
Go to your niche, find your competitors,
and create video titles and get all of
your video ideas based on what they're
posting. Now, what about thumbnails? Do
thumbnails have anything to do with SEO?
Technically, no. But with the whole
Gemini thing going on right now, and
with my little theory, I'm pretty sure
it does. So, I think having text on your
thumbnails is very, very important. And
here's more advice. Don't add more than
four words. Make the text yellow. Add
black drop shadow and put it on the
bottom left of your thumbnail across the
board for any niche you could think of.
That's kind of how it works. Now, what
about what you actually say in your
video? Your actual transcript. Does that
matter? Again, yes. Gemini analyzes the
entire transcript of your video. That's
how it's able to tell if it can monetize
it or not. Like if you say anything, you
know, for example, you know, not
communityfriendly.
I almost just said it for some reason.
But if you were to say anything that was
out of pocket, then obviously YouTube
has to tell somehow. But yeah, I mean,
if you're on topic with your video, then
it kind of automatically happens. Now,
what about audience retention? Like the
actual time that they spend watching the
video. So, let's talk about that. My
advice to you is that you don't post a
single video that is shorter than 8
minutes. The longer you can make your
videos, the better. And the sweet spot
is about 13 to 14 minutes. Anything over
20 minutes is also pretty solid. Now,
for a YouTube video that is 14 minutes
long, you want to have at least a
5minute AVD. For anything that's over 20
minutes, you want to have at least a
six-minute AVD. Now, of course, this is
just based on my experience. This is
just based on my analytics, what I've
seen, and that seems to be kind of the
sauce. But here's the thing. If you have
a high CTR, anything over a 13%, and
your AVD is, let's say, 3 minutes, your
chances of competing in rank is still
relatively high because you got to have
one of the two. It's either going to be
high CTR or high AVD. So, try to get
good at one. Now that we're on topic, I
get a lot of questions from members in
my school community, and they always
tell me, "Hey, um, I'm trying to get the
video tags from competitors, but they
don't use video tags." And then I go
ahead and check out who their competitor
is, and it's some random YouTube channel
with like 2 million views, and they
average 100,000 views per video, and
it's like, no [ __ ] You know, they have
way too many subscribers, and they have
reoccurring viewers. So, tags, I think
they don't really care. They have a fan
base that is going to watch their videos
regardless. So, you have to find those
competitors that kind of have a balance.
You know, they don't have too many
subscribers and not every video they
post is a banger. You want to get tags
from those guys. But anyways, what
should be your focus? Should you focus
on pleasing the audience or pleasing the
algorithm? And again, from experience,
complete honesty, you got to sell out at
first. You have to sell out. You know,
that's what I did. I sold out for the
first 2 3 years. You got to get on the
good side of the algorithm first because
if not, it's not going to push it to an
audience, right? Your content could be
good. whatever structure you have for
your videos could be great, but if
you're not cool with the algorithm,
you're not meeting a certain standard,
which was the AVD and CTR. You know,
you're never going to find that
audience. Again, it doesn't matter what
your content is, how great it is, how
high your quality is, how funny you are.
The algorithm could care less. You got
to focus on the analytics first before,
you know, trying to please the audience.
Now, what about uploading times? What
time should you upload your videos? It
doesn't matter, right? As long as you're
not posting at like 4:00 a.m., you
should be fine. If you live outside of
the US and you're targeting US-based
viewers, try to schedule your videos to
PST time. So, I would say anywhere
between 8 to 9:00 a.m. PST. At least
that's what I do. The latest I've ever
uploaded was 9:00 p.m. PST, but I've had
a lot of students in my school community
get results posting at like midnight.
Now, what about video category? Does the
category of your videos really matter?
Not anymore. Uh, I mean, YouTube kind of
did it at the beginning because they had
specific sections where it'd be like,
"Oh, the top 10 uh videos in the sports
category and people would care, you
know, people would watch that." Yeah,
nobody cares. It's kind of like
subscribers. It's not important anymore.
And if you're not sure what to
categorize your your YouTube channel,
hey, just ask Chad GBT. Now, if I was to
give you one piece of advice, that would
be get good at SEO. I wouldn't go too
crazy with the content as long as it's
not complete dog [ __ ] Get good at SEO,
get good at tags, get good at video
ideas, get good at marketing, and then
you can focus on your video content. If
you're posting every day and you're
getting like 20, 30 views per video and
you're like, "Oh man, I got to make
better content." You're looking at this
wrong. Just focus on SEO and CTR first.
Get people to watch your videos. Make
dog shake content at first if you have
to. Now, with practice, you're going to
get SEO and CTR, right? which means
you're going to get a higher pool of
people that watch your videos and that's
going to lead to a more accurate AVD,
you know, average view duration. You're
going to know how long people watch your
video for. So, from there, you can start
tweaking your content. But do not go
based off of 20, 30, even 100 views. Get
a video that gets like 2,000 3,000
views. See what the AVD is. Then it
would make sense to actually start
tweaking things. Of course, the more
views the better. But you got to get
good at marketing. That's what YouTube
is. Again, I run over six faceless
YouTube channels. I've gotten hundreds
of millions of views. And here's the
crazy part. I haven't watched a single
one of my YouTube videos since like
2021. I have a lot of big creators, a
lot of big YouTubers come to me for for
assistance with their YouTube channels.
And it's kind of like, wo. That's when
it kind of clicked. You know, that's it
goes to show that YouTube just isn't
content. YouTube is marketing. So, try
and look at it that way. Now, for those
of you that want to take YouTube serious
and you want to learn how I do YouTube,
you can go ahead and click the link in
the description of this video or in the
pin comment and that's going to take you
to my school community. And here in my
school community, you get a blueprint
step by step which shows you from A to Z
on how to start a YouTube automation
channel. But where all of the videos are
are in the tutorial vault. And this is
70 videos plus where I go into extreme
detail about SEO, Photoshop tutorials,
editing tutorials, and pretty much
everything that I've learned about
YouTube since 2018. And matter of fact,
there was a 2025 Vault update where, as
you can see, [ __ ] got a little bit more
advanced. But the best part is that I go
live two times every single week. And
this is where I speak with you guys
directly, answer any questions, review
your channels, all of that good stuff.
But for those of you that don't give a
[ __ ] thanks for watching. I would
appreciate if you liked and subscribed
to the channel. But for those of you
that are actually going to go check it
out, I'll see you in one of the live
calls.