---
title: 'How to Rank in YouTube Search (SEO Beginners Guide)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=3NPieJutT9I'
video_id: '3NPieJutT9I'
date: 2026-06-20
duration_sec: 0
---

# How to Rank in YouTube Search (SEO Beginners Guide)

> Source: [How to Rank in YouTube Search (SEO Beginners Guide)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3NPieJutT9I)

## Summary

This video is a comprehensive masterclass on YouTube SEO for 2025, covering the latest strategies to rank higher and grow a channel. It explains the difference between keywords and tags, outlines five effective SEO strategies, and lists outdated tactics to avoid. The video also provides a step-by-step optimization checklist and the top 10 ranking factors that matter today.

### Key Points

- **What is YouTube SEO?** [1:22] — SEO stands for search engine optimization; YouTube SEO aims to get videos discovered through smart optimization of titles, descriptions, tags, and content.
- **Keywords vs Tags** [2:25] — Keywords are words/phrases in titles, descriptions, and scripts; tags are backend metadata with minimal SEO impact.
- **Research Before Recording** [4:05] — Research before filming to find what people search for, craft relevant content, and use the right phrases.
- **YouTube Autocomplete for Keywords** [5:33] — Use YouTube's autocomplete to discover real search queries and inspire video ideas.
- **Using VidIQ for Keyword Analysis** [7:58] — Use tools like VidIQ to analyze search volume, competition, and related keywords.
- **Answer Specific Questions** [11:51] — Create videos that answer specific questions people are asking, using tools like VidIQ's questions feature.
- **Niche Down with Long-Tail Keywords** [14:15] — Long-tail keywords (3+ words) have less competition and attract a more targeted audience.
- **Outdated: Over-Reliance on Tags** [18:50] — Tags have minimal impact; focus on content quality, retention, and keyword use in titles/descriptions.
- **Outdated: Naming Video Files with Keywords** [19:52] — YouTube does not use file names for SEO; it scans video content using AI.
- **Outdated: Exact Match Keyword Titles** [22:22] — Avoid keyword stuffing; use natural, clickable titles that blend keywords smoothly.
- **Outdated: Keyword Stuffing in Descriptions** [24:28] — Keyword stuffing in descriptions looks spammy and hurts performance; use natural language.
- **Outdated: Embedding for Rankings** [26:45] — Embedding videos on external sites does not directly boost rankings; on-platform engagement matters.
- **Outdated: Buying Fake Likes/Views** [28:57] — Buying fake engagement is dangerous and can lead to demonetization or bans.
- **Top Ranking Factor: Watch Time** [30:46] — Watch time and audience retention are the top ranking factors.
- **Top Ranking Factor: CTR** [31:02] — CTR (click-through rate) is critical; titles and thumbnails must be compelling.

## Transcript

YouTube has changed if you're still
relying on outdated tips and keyword
hacks then you're leaving views and
subscribers on the table this year
YouTube's algorithm is smarter than ever
so what actually works now to get views
and grow your channel in this video
we're going to be covering the newest
SEO strategies to help your videos rank
higher get discovered faster and grow
your channel without wasting time on
things that no longer matter we're going
to be covering the number one ranking
factor that YouTube cares about the
difference between keywords and tags on
YouTube and what really matters the
biggest SEO mistakes that might be
killing your channel and a step-by-step
strategy for helping you get more views
and subscribers fast you know I've been
studying YouTube for over a decade I've
got three silver play buttons a gold
play button and I've helped thousands of
creators rank videos through our program
video ranking Academy so you can be
confident that what you're about to
learn is not a waste of your time this
is an indepth Master Class and your
complete guide to getting results let's
begin you got to just press record now
before we cover the five YouTube SEO and
keyword strategies that are working this
year and the list of outdated tactics
that you want to avoid let's get on the
same page by defining what is YouTube
SEO and what is the difference between
keywords and tags SEO stands for search
engine optimization so YouTube SEO has
the goal of getting your videos
discovered by the right people on
YouTube and Beyond through smart
optimization of your videos this
includes picking the right keywords so
that YouTube knows what your video is
about optimizing titles descriptions and
tags so that viewers click and stay
creating engaging thumbnails to boost
click-through rates encouraging
watchtime and engagement so that YouTube
keeps recommending your content and
leveraging captions chapters and
metadata for accessibility and
discoverability and then you also want
to study your analytics so that you can
tweak and improve your future videos
because data will tell you what's
working in your content and what's not
working so at its core YouTube SEO is
about helping the YouTube algorithm help
you by making your content easy to find
engaging to watch and irresistible to
recommend now the next question that we
must answer is what is the difference
between keywords on YouTube and YouTube
tags while there are some similarities
they're actually kind of two different
things so YouTube keywords are the words
and phrases that let YouTube know what
your video is about these are primarily
going to show up in your titles in your
descriptions and in your actual video
script meaning the things you're saying
in your video and these words and
phrases are very important because they
are going to help with search and
recommendations so for example on this
channel think media we talk a lot about
the best cameras for Content creators
and we'll make a video that could be
titled best budget cameras for YouTube
that's a phrase that people would
naturally search for and could be placed
in the title in the description and I
would be verbally saying it in the video
as well YouTube tags on the other hand
are more about the backend metadata they
are extra keywords that you add in the
tags section of your video and they have
minimal impact today as far as SEO goes
they don't carry very much weight but
YouTube has said they can help with
misspellings or alternative spellings
and so you still want to use them
properly so some of the tags I would use
for a video on the best budget camera
for YouTube could be tags like cheap
cameras comma YouTube cameras comma best
camera for YouTube comma and variations
reinforcing the big idea of the video
I'm creating so now that we understand
what YouTube SEO is and the difference
between keywords and tags let's dive
into the five YouTube SEO and keyword
strategies that are working right now
number one research before you press
record one of the biggest myths on
YouTube is that keyword research is dead
but it's actually still very important
but maybe for a different reason than
many people think the reason why you
want to do keyword research and really
topic and video idea research before you
film your video is so that you can
actually find out what people are
searching for so that your video has a
higher likelihood of getting discovered
this also helps you craft your videos
intentionally and purposefully so your
content is relevant and not random
another reason is you want to use the
right phrases and words in your titles
and in your description so that YouTube
knows exactly who to show your videos to
and keyword research can also help you
stay ahead of Trends so you're making
videos that people actually want to
watch well how exactly do you do keyword
research effectively well in this video
we're going to cover a couple different
ways you can use YouTube search Google
search Google Trends and also cool
YouTube software tools like vid IQ and
the key thing that you're looking for in
this research phase is you're verifying
that people are actually interested in
this topic so you don't waste your time
filming a video that nobody wants to
watch you're actually studying to see
demand because a great video that nobody
is searching for won't get views so
number one is research before you press
record number two is use YouTube
autocomplete for free keyword ideas
here's how it works you want to start
typing a topic into YouTube search bar
then YouTube autocomplete will suggest
real searches that people are typing and
the cool thing is these predictions are
based on actual demand so let's say you
wanted to make a video about a walking
pad that you just purchased for your
home office that's something I just got
and I actually love the one that I'm
using and so when we type in Walking pad
we could see see that this does show up
which this is the test you want there to
actually be predictions here which is
telling you okay people around the world
are looking for these things and the
terms that are towards the top have the
most interest so people are searching
for a walking pad treadmill or a walking
pad review or a walking pad workout but
we can go all the way down to a walking
pad versus a treadmill before and after
and so there's a lot of key word phrases
here that can influence our video ideas
and our video titles and a pro tip is to
try different variations and see what
pops up we might put best walking pad in
front of it we could have videos pop up
with the year after 2024 2025 2026 you
might have best walking pad treadmill on
Amazon and so the Nuance of the
different angles of these video topics
is where the opportunity is and all this
information can be used in your titles
in your tags and in your description and
here's some cool tricks you could do
with the YouTube search bar that not a
lot of people know about one of the
things you can do in front of your topic
is you could put a letter and an
underscore space and this will actually
then put words in front of your key term
in our case walking pad and oiling a
walking pad using a walking pad while
working and again it's giving us some
more nuances and you could go through
the entire alphabet bet with that and
then what you also can try is
experimenting with words after your core
topic so if we're talking about walking
pads we might type in for and so now
we're getting more ideas walking pad for
heavy person for weight loss desk for
tall person and so you can get very
specific with the insights that are
coming from the YouTube search bar and
so this is the power of researching
before you press record and using
YouTube autocomplete to inspire video
ideas and content for your title
description and your tags and if you're
already finding some value out of this
video it would mean the world to me if
you hit the like button and subscribe to
the channel for more videos that will
help you grow your YouTube channel but
let's dive into number three number
three is use software like vid IQ to
analyze keyword competition keyword
opportunities and Trends and get
additional creative ideas so here we are
in the back end of vid IQ and the cool
thing about this software is it connects
to your YouTube channel and so you can
get powerful insights and we're going to
be clicking on the keyword tool and what
we find here is the ability to Search
keywords kind of like we just did on
YouTube but now we can do it with some
additional data so if we type in Walking
pad like we were doing in the previous
tip we can now see a score on this topic
we can see how much search volume there
is for walking pads 63,000 people plus
search for it on any given month and the
competition is relatively low and so vid
IQ assigns this topic with an overall
score if it's closer to green and closer
to 100 this particular score is 74 then
that's great it tells you that there's
less competition around this topic if
it's in yellow or red then it might be
harder to break through and rank and get
views for this topic because of how much
saturation there is now we also have the
ability to see some search data so
people looking for a walking pad review
around 13,000 a month the best walking
pad 10,000 a month and then we can go
down to much lower numbers like walking
pad treadmill results at 944 a month but
still great however it would say that
this is a not great search volume with
quite a bit of competition of people
sharing their walking pad results so in
our researching before we press record
that might not be the next video that we
want to make now there's some really
cool things that vid IQ does that I want
to show you but if you've never tried it
before you can actually get 30 days for
just $1 if you want to check that out
there's a link in the description down
below or just go to vid iq.com
slink I am an affiliate for vid IQ which
simply means that I may get a commission
if you use my link but I really think
you're going to love the software in
fact let's dive in and check out more of
what it does and so on the left side of
the page here you can see there's a lot
of different tools that are included
with fit IQ but we're just focusing on
keywords for this video and so if you
type in number one a keyword into the
Search tool it's going to give you the
score the related keywords it's going to
give you matching keywords and some
questions and it's going to give you top
trending videos for walking pad which is
really cool because you can look what
other people are doing a lot of shorts
content and what we can study here is
how many views are these videos getting
is there any angles or content ideas
that might Inspire our content you can
also organize the data in different ways
you could look at related keywords and
you could organize them by their related
score the amount of search volume how
much competition there is the overall
score or even the number of words
because the big idea with words could be
long tail keywords are easier to rank
for so how walking makes you shed fat or
the revvo 2in1 under desk treadmill a
very specific product that might not get
a ton of views but the intent of the
viewer looking for that information can
be much higher when again there are more
words in the topic or in the title you
could look at matching terms but one of
my favorites is questions which brings
us to our fourth tip which is answer
specific questions that meet viewer
needs many people turn to YouTube to
solve problems and learn new skills in
fact in 2020 77% of respondents reported
using YouTube to learn a new skill and
so one of our favorite strategies here
at think media is what we call asq or
answering specific questions and you
could use a tool like YouTube
autocomplete or vid IQ to search out and
identify the questions people are asking
and then create YouTube videos based off
those questions and so that's what I
love about this section of the vid IQ
tool when you click on questions you're
now looking at specific questions that
people want answers to how good is the
walking pad treadmill spur ax versus the
walking pad that's two different brands
and maybe you can get your hands on each
one to review those do I need to
lubricate a walking pad treadmill it's
actually a question that I have I've had
mine for a couple of weeks and I'm
wondering that same question actually
now that I think about it and so here's
a few thoughts for implementing this
strategy and identifying common
questions first use tools like vid IQ to
discover related keywords and top
questions in your Niche second create
content that provides clear answers what
you want to do is develop videos that
directly address these questions
offering concise and actionable
solutions and in some cases you might be
thinking like these are very specific
questions these aren't going to be viral
videos and you'd be right but a lot of
creators when you're trying to get your
first 100 subscribers your first a th000
subscribers you're under estimating the
power of getting one view you're
underestimating the power of getting 10
views of people looking for very
specific things and what you'll notice
is there's a lot of golden opportunities
because a lot of people haven't seen a
video like this like this information
applied can really help you grow your
YouTube channel but then thirdly you
want to make sure your video is
optimized correctly I mean that's the
power of YouTube SEO how exactly are you
going to title your video what are you
going to write in your YouTube
description and actually in a bit I'm
going to share with you a complete
checklist of how to optimize your video
when you upload it on YouTube so you
don't miss anything now in just a second
we're going to be covering the outdated
tactics that do not work and are a total
waste of your time but we still need to
hit point number five number five is
Niche down with longtail keywords for
better results now we touched on this a
little bit earlier but let's get clear
on our definition so a longtail keyword
is a specific phrase that people search
for usually three plus words long and if
you really want the opportunities it
might be 5 6 7 8 nine words long and the
reason why this works is less
competition so they're easier to rank
more targeted audience you're attracting
a very specific audience but essentially
getting the right viewers which means
ultimately you'll get higher conversion
rates now that's a conversation for
another day but essentially means that
you can make more money with things like
affiliate marketing or even your own
products and services because you have a
much more specialized higher intent
viewer that are finding this type of
video so what is the difference between
a keyword and a longtail keyword well an
example would be a video titled podcast
kind of ridiculous but if you think
about it that would be too broad there's
like way too much competition also
doesn't even really make sense but if
you made a video titled how to start a
podcast for beginners and you could even
include the year as well well it's much
more specific and therefore easier to
rank so how exactly do you find longtail
keyword ideas I've got a really sneaky
tactic to share with you in just a
second but if we recap using YouTube
autocomplete you're building out typing
in things before your core term or
building out the words after looking for
very specific ideas and you can use that
for free you can also check vid IQ
looking for phrases with good search
volume and also low competition and
again if you want to try out vid IQ hit
the link in the show notes and the
description but but another cool place
is to look at the people also asked
section on Google so most people don't
know about this cool way to come up with
smart YouTube video ideas so if you just
go to Google Search and type in
walkingpad you then can look at the
results you're going to get some
sponsored results you're going to get
some ranked web pages but then you're
going to get the people also asked
section now let's see what we can find
here can you lose weight by walking 30
minutes a day on a treadmill are walking
pads any good is a walking PAD as good
as a treadmill what is the best walking
pad on the market remember our previous
tip we want to answer specific questions
and what we're seeing in this section of
Google is very specific questions that
the world wants to know but let's take
this thing even deeper if you scroll to
the bottom of a Google page you can also
find the section people also searched
for and this is going to give you some
keyword phrases not in a question in
this case but you're going to see
walking pad UK walking Pad de cathlon
what is that walking pad with incline
and now you're getting more insights
during your research phase so we've
covered five specific YouTube SEO tips
you can apply for finding keywords and
applying them to your videos at the end
of this video I'm going to be breaking
down the 10 ranking factors that matter
but as promised we got to talk about the
outdated SEO things that do not work
anymore and you should absolutely avoid
because they will waste your time so
I've got six outdated YouTube tactics to
share with you but one of the things I
want you to see is when we head over to
YouTube and type in Walking pad again
I've got vid IQ installed here you have
a really cool feature on the right side
of the page called the search panel and
it gives us a score of that keyword
right on the page it gives us some data
about it it some top channels for the
search term and some top related
opportunities all of that stuff is good
but one of the outdated features which
vid IQ still offers you but you can
pretty much ignore it is enable inline
keywords when we click that what it's
actually going to do is show us other
people's tags on their videos and you
actually can copy them if you want but
here's the thing this is one of the
outdated tactics and so our philosophy
here at think media is that if YouTube
gives us a place to put information like
the area called tags on your YouTube
video optimization page you might as
well use it but you don't want to take
too much time there which brings us to
our first outdated tactic which is over
Reliance on tags and researching
competitor's tags here's the facts tags
have minimal impact on YouTube SEO today
back in the day people would copy
competitor tags in an attempt to rank
higher but now YouTube prioritizes
audience Behavior over tags so the
bottom line is tags are nearly
irrelevant what actually matters is the
content quality the retention of the
video and smart keyword use in your
title and your description and so while
it's a waste of time to copy your
competitor's tags it's not a waste of
time to study your competitor's content
what titles are they using what topics
are they covering in their videos which
videos are performing best on their
Channel and how are they structuring
their videos what kind of Engagement are
they getting the content itself can be
very insightful for your next video now
another myth in an outdated YouTube SEO
tactic that I actually see a lot of
YouTube gurus talking about still this
year which really kind of blows my mind
but it is naming your video file with
keywords and so the theory here was that
after you shot your video and edited it
and exported the actual file you rename
the file to be like best- walking
dad- review and that's just a waste of
time now to be fair it's not a waste of
time for your own file management and
organization on your computer or hard
drive or external hard drive but it's
not going to help your video perform
better here's the truth YouTube does not
use file names for SEO anymore what
YouTube does now is it actually scans
the content of the video and it's pretty
wild what YouTube and the parent company
alphabet and Google actually can see
when you upload a video file YouTube
uses Ai and machine learning to scan
exactly what is inside of your YouTube
videos Beyond just the metadata in fact
they could see these five things spoken
words YouTube
autogenerator for keywords onscreen text
if you edit text into your videos or if
you share a presentation of some kind
with PowerPoint slides or keynote slides
AI can read the words in your video also
visual elements Google can recognize
objects faces locations logos and even
emotions music and audio YouTube can
detect copyrighted music in fact that is
a challenge for some people background
sounds and even your tone of voice and
the fifth thing is engagement data how
viewers react to a video once it's
public it's looking at the likes the
comments the watch time which is going
to affect how YouTube recommends the
video and so the reason this matters for
creators is you just can't fake YouTube
SEO anymore changing your file name is a
waste of time at least in terms of
influencing how your video ranks and
performs and what's actually more
powerful than changing the video file
name that you're uploading is actually
using the keywords that you want to ring
for in the video itself or even showing
products on screen that you're going to
be talking about if you can edit in
b-roll and you can make a rich content
experience for the viewer that Google is
scanning and seeing like wow this video
is thorough it's educational there's a
lot of good information in it that's
going to be better optimization in
today's world now the third outdated SEO
tactic is using exact match keyword
phrases in your titles instead instead
of natural highly clickable titles so
stuffing the exact match keywords in
your title feels robotic and It
ultimately hurts clickability so in the
past people would write a title like for
a video like this best SEO tips YouTube
SEO strategy for ranking videos and that
just doesn't work very well anymore the
reason for this is YouTube's Ai and
algorithm has continued to evolve so it
can understand things like natural
language as well as synonyms so if the
key Concepts are included in your title
and related phrases really you don't
need to force exact matches even more
importantly titles need to be engaging
and not just optimized so a keyword
stuffed title might rank but if no one
clicks it won't matter you're talking to
humans and so you want the metadata like
a keyword phrase to be in your title but
then around the title you want it to be
an experience that's interesting and
highly clickable by real humans that
would click on the video and CTR which
means clickthrough rate is King YouTube
prioritizes videos that people actually
click on and actually watch so what you
can do instead is make sure your title
is compelling and curiosity driven use
natural conversational language and you
could still include keywords in fact you
should but you want to blend them in
smoothly so an example if we're still
talking about walking pads is best
walking pad review walking pad treadmill
review pretty boring right keyword
stuffed as opposed to something like I
tried this viral walking pad is it worth
it question mark curiosity driven you
put a good thumbnail around that idea
and you have a video that can be
anchored in what people are searching
for walking pad or viral walking PAD as
well as something that could be
suggested by the YouTube algorithm
number four is keyword stuffing in
descriptions and so the big idea here
was that people would do their research
and they would get as many phrases best
camera for YouTube cheap cameras for
YouTube and they would just stuff as
many keywords as possible in the
description and the truth is this just
does not fool YouTube and it can
actually hurt your video performance so
in today's world YouTube actually
prioritizes natural language even that's
written in your YouTube description the
algorithm understands context and
synonyms so repeating the same keyword
over and over looks spammy furthermore
it's a bad user experience let's
remember that the point of building a
YouTube channel is to connect and help
real people to build real community and
every piece of content you put out there
is an experience with you in your brand
so if your description is just packed
with a bunch of meaningless information
and huge blocks of text then it's really
not giving an individual a good
experience and low engagement on your
video will Le lead to low rankings and
ultimately we already learned that
YouTube's AI scans your content it
listens to your video it analyzes your
captions it checks for your behavior so
stuffing keywords won't help now one
cool thing that will help is including
the best keywords in your description in
a nice easyto read block of text in fact
here's a cool way to do it so what we're
going to do here is quickly optimize our
video and description with keywords in a
natural way of flowing language using
vid IQ and so this is a YouTube short
but I'm just going to use it as an
example it's about something else but
let's say I wanted to do a video on the
best budget walking pad on Amazon and so
what I can do is use their title tool
which is going to give me really
well-written highly clickable titles
that also includes the keyword I found
the best budget walking pad on Amazon
you won't believe the amazing features
of this budget walking pad I tried the
cheapest walking pad on Amazon and
here's what happened great video ideas
so let's just say I found the best
budget walking pad on Amazon and maybe I
put something in there like walking pad
C2 which by the way is the walking pad
that I purchased it literally is
changing my life it's pretty amazing if
you're interested in it I will link it
up in the show notes it's my favorite
purchase in the last five to 10 years
yeah this is the one walking pad C2 it's
foldable I think I got the white one in
fact why would I not know that I would
totally understand what color I got and
so it yeah it's a whole vibe it's really
been awesome and so anyways now that
we've quickly decided our title in like
10 seconds we can actually go down and
use this description feature here that
says AI description generator and what I
did was I copy pasted the title and I
clicked generate description and it says
looking for the best walking pad on
Amazon check out my review the walking
pad C2 the perfect option for walking
and staying active at home and it gives
you a couple VAR variations and you
could either insert it or copy it and
now you're good to go with some very
short but interesting description text
the fifth outdated SEO tactic is
embedding videos on external websites
for higher rankings embedding videos on
other websites does not directly boost
YouTube rankings in the past some
believed and I think it was true that
getting your video embedded on multiple
sites would trick the YouTube algorithm
into ranking your videos higher it was
the SEO concept of backlinks but today
YouTube prioritizes user engagement on
its own platform things like watch time
people actually clicking on your videos
watching your videos not just where a
video appears externally which brings up
the question do back links still matter
for YouTube SEO and the answer is yes if
they still drive traffic that includes
real viewers who actually engage with
your video then that can really
indirectly help ranking the point is if
these are individuals that are giving
you watch time audience retention
engaging on your videos it's not just
because your video is linked or embedded
on somebody's site that your rankings
would be boosted but it is the fact that
if that website drives a real individual
to your video that engages and loves
your video then it's the on platform
metrics that matter and the sixth
outdated YouTube SEO tactic that doesn't
just not work but is also dangerous is
buying fake likes fake comments and fake
views and the reason for this is
YouTube's AI is too smart it can tell
where traffic is coming from bot views
fake likes spam comments and fake views
do not equal real watch time and so Bots
or lowquality traffic that don't
actually watch your video then your
watch time will tank which will also
hurt your video you also have low
engagement rates if you buy 100,000
views but you get almost no comments or
real interaction then YouTube will know
something is off and people like me will
know as well because we use tools like
vid IQ and we can sometimes see a spike
of traffic and then at flat flat lines
you're like oh they purchased views up
to that level or you could see the view
to Comet ratio and you're like
something's off here so real ones know
and so there's just no reason to do it
and also you do run the risk of
demonetization or Bans so YouTube can
limit reach or even demonetize or delete
your channel if you're violating their
terms of service and you're caught
manipulating engagement so uh just don't
do it what you should do is focus on
organic growth even though it's harder
it's better over time create valuable
content real people want to watch boost
engagement naturally if you can ask
questions encourage comments and then
promote your videos smartly so share
your video with the Right audience on
social media email list Niche forums so
sharing your video out there is great if
you can attract people that are truly
interested in the content all right I
hope you're staying hydrated during this
indepth master
class because as we land the plane let's
just look at the top 10 ranking factors
that actually matter for YouTube SEO
this year all in one complete and
concise list number one watch time and
audience retention trumps keywords the
longer people watch the better your
ranking engaging content keeps viewers
hooked number two CTR AKA clickthrough
rate topic titles and thumbnails are
critical if people don't click they
don't watch number three study
competitors content don't copy their
tags instead study their content
strategy their video formats their
engagement tactics and the insights that
you can learn and borrow that can
influence your own content all right
number four viewer engagement getting
comments getting likes and getting
shares YouTube boost videos that spark
interaction so encourage comments and
responses in your videos in fact let me
pass a question off to you what is one
of the biggest challenges you're having
on YouTube right now or is there a topic
you would want us to cover in the future
here on this channel let me know in the
comments number five optimize your
videos for search and suggested rank
your videos and search matters but
getting videos into YouTube's suggested
and recommended algorithm is way more
powerful number six realize YouTube's Ai
and contextual understanding know that
YouTube reads your scripts scans the
visuals in your video and detects intent
so keywords still matter but they must
be naturally woven into your content
number seven chapters and detailed
descriptions especially for educational
content YouTube uses timestamps for SEO
making it easier for viewers and search
engines to find relevant parts of your
videos that's that's why a video like
this includes what's called YouTube
chapters it's not just the entire video
that can rank it's individual Parts
number eight personalization in session
watch time YouTube recommends videos
based on individual viewing habits and
rewards creators whose videos keep
people on the platform longer and so the
Creator who understands the viewer best
wins and the Creator who keeps
individuals on the platform longer by
perhaps creating a video series instead
of just a singular video
is going to dominate number nine
external traffic and off-platform
promotion while backlinks do not boost
rankings bringing real viewers from
social media from email lists from Niche
communities like Reddit or Kora can help
push your YouTube content further and
number 10 freshness and consistency
YouTube favors creators who consistently
upload and keep content fresh in search
results especially with trending topics
bottom line YouTube SEO isn't just about
keywords anymore you need great content
engagement and optimization strategies
to win this year and if you want my
complete Youtube upload and optimization
checklist just click or tap the screen
to watch my deep dive video on that
topic if you got value can you hit the
like button my name is Sean canell your
guide to building a profitable YouTube
channel this is think media and I will
catch you in a future video