YouTube SEO: How I Rank #1 on YouTube in 2026

[00:00] anyone can rank number one on YouTube

[00:01] you just have to know about the what I

[00:03] like to call KVs strategy a freestep

[00:05] blueprint that I've used the last 4

[00:07] years to rank over 1,000 videos on

[00:09] YouTube resulting in over 140 million

[00:11] views Decay stands for keyword before

[00:14] you make your video you need to know

[00:15] which keyword you want to rank four the

[00:17] biggest mistake you can make is

[00:19] recording your video and then deciding

[00:21] your video keywords at the moment of

[00:23] uploading instead you want to research

[00:25] keywords to analyze if you can rank

[00:27] number one and then make your video now

[00:29] here is what a 10 out of 10 keyword

[00:31] would look like first of all low

[00:33] competition there shouldn't be big

[00:34] channels ranking everywhere for this

[00:36] keyword number two good search volume

[00:38] you don't want to rank for a keyword

[00:40] that no one searches for because that's

[00:41] not going to get you views anyway number

[00:43] three no matching keyword this is the

[00:46] key to ranking number one quickly even

[00:48] with a small Channel what this means is

[00:50] that there's no other video that has the

[00:52] exact keyword that you search for as

[00:54] their title here's how I find keywords

[00:56] like that for this I use vid IQ I go to

[00:58] research and then I start off by

[01:00] searching for a main broad keyword in my

[01:03] Niche let's say I make videos about

[01:04] editing I can search for editing as that

[01:07] main broad keyword then hit search you

[01:09] want to ignore all of this and click on

[01:10] matching terms what this will do is that

[01:12] VI Q will now show you more keywords

[01:15] that include the initial keyword that

[01:17] you search for so I have an entire list

[01:20] of keywords that include editing scroll

[01:23] through and find something that looks

[01:24] interesting to you to me right now that

[01:26] is reals video editing click on this and

[01:29] then once again click on matching terms

[01:31] this is now going to show you even more

[01:33] specific detailed keywords that we can

[01:35] potentially make a video about and rank

[01:37] for 3D reals video editing once again

[01:39] matching terms and there we go right now

[01:41] we're very specific 3D after effect

[01:44] video reals editing once you found a

[01:46] keyword that looks interesting copy it

[01:48] Go to YouTube and search for it then to

[01:50] do research properly you want to make

[01:51] sure that you've got the vid IQ

[01:53] extension installed we're now looking at

[01:55] competition search volume and the

[01:56] matching keyword number one ranking

[01:58] videos from a Channel with 10 ,000

[02:00] subscribers that is pretty decent but

[02:02] it's not insanely big then we've got

[02:04] 16,000 subscribers in number two 20,000

[02:07] subscribers 27,000 so overall the

[02:09] competition for this keyword is not

[02:11] extremely big then you want to open up

[02:13] all the videos that are ranking in the

[02:15] top four or five spots in a brand new

[02:17] tab once you've done that with VI IQ

[02:19] you're able to see how many views per

[02:21] hour this video is getting as of right

[02:23] now you want to confirm that for the

[02:24] ranking videos the number of views per

[02:26] hour is pretty significant which is an

[02:28] indication of people are still actively

[02:30] searching for this keyword which for

[02:32] this keyword is definitely the case this

[02:34] video is at 50 views per hour this one

[02:36] close to 100 the third video is also

[02:38] around 50 views per hour and the lowest

[02:40] ranking one is at 16 views per hour

[02:42] we've now confirmed the competition is

[02:43] not crazy the search volume is good as

[02:45] well these videos are getting good

[02:47] traffic which means all there's left is

[02:48] to see whether someone is actually using

[02:51] our keyword as their title so you want

[02:53] to copy the keyword then crl F paste the

[02:56] keyword in there and then you'll see how

[02:57] many results there are which in this

[02:59] case is is just one which is our search

[03:01] phrase right here which means there's no

[03:04] one that is using this exact keyword

[03:06] phrase as their title which means we

[03:08] have just found a keyword that we can

[03:10] easily rank number one for simply

[03:12] because there is traffic the competition

[03:14] is not big but mainly there's no one

[03:16] that has this exact keyword as their

[03:18] title which means that if we make that

[03:19] video with that title we're going to

[03:21] show up when people search for this

[03:23] which brings us to the second letter of

[03:25] KVs the v stands for video and this is

[03:27] where 99% go wrong having a good keyword

[03:30] is only the beginning your video needs

[03:32] to be good you have to make exactly what

[03:34] the viewer wants to see so here's what I

[03:36] recommend you do to increase your

[03:37] chances of ranking your video first of

[03:39] all research the currently ranking

[03:41] videos watch all of them for the entire

[03:43] video to see what they're doing and what

[03:45] you can improve then you want to read

[03:47] the comments for feedback that you can

[03:49] Implement on all of those videos you can

[03:51] learn a lot from the comments under a

[03:53] video yet no one is doing this someone

[03:55] has already made a video there's

[03:57] feedback given on that video in the

[03:58] comments which if you apply that to your

[04:00] new video yours is going to be better

[04:02] than the currently ranking ones which

[04:04] brings us to the final letter which is

[04:05] the S stands for SEO first of all we

[04:08] must make sure that the exact keyword

[04:10] that people are searching for makes up

[04:12] the majority of our title which means

[04:14] that if I want to rank for 3D after

[04:16] effect video reals editing I'm going to

[04:18] make my title look like this this

[04:20] includes the entire keyword that people

[04:22] search for and I've just inserted

[04:23] tutorial at the end so that the title is

[04:25] still natural and easy to read you can

[04:28] also add brackets to make it more

[04:29] enticing to click that might include the

[04:31] year or something like stepbystep to

[04:33] help them understand that this is going

[04:34] to be a full step-by-step tutorial all

[04:36] right title done now we need to do the

[04:38] description first of all what I always

[04:40] do is I simply copy the keyword in my

[04:42] title and then I put it at the top of

[04:44] the description next up I want to

[04:45] include a few related keywords to our

[04:47] main keyword in the description how we

[04:49] do that is I go back to vid IQ I click

[04:51] related keywords and I'll get to see a

[04:53] list of other slightly related keywords

[04:56] that people search for and I want to

[04:57] include the relevant ones in my

[04:59] description we do this to tell YouTube

[05:01] what our video is about but also to

[05:03] potentially rank for these other

[05:04] keywords so I've selected these four

[05:06] keywords which I'm going to use in my

[05:08] description so here's what I've got in

[05:10] this after effects tutorial I will show

[05:12] you how to do 3D after effects video

[05:15] reals editing even if you're a beginner

[05:17] this will help you make Motion Graphics

[05:20] and overall be better at video editing

[05:22] so I've just included these four related

[05:24] keywords naturally in my description

[05:27] next up is our thumbnail all this needs

[05:29] to be is better than the competition

[05:31] make sure it's clickable and easy to

[05:33] understand once again go back to the

[05:35] keyword see which videos are currently

[05:37] ranking and make sure that yours is

[05:38] better what you'll see here is that all

[05:40] of them are very similar 3D viral reels

[05:42] 3D viral reels 3D viral reels 3D viral

[05:46] reels no I'm not bugging they're just

[05:48] saying that on every thumbnail which

[05:50] means it's proven to work but you should

[05:51] probably slightly switch it up all

[05:53] that's left now is the tags now this

[05:55] doesn't really matter at all so what I

[05:57] always do I take the keyword that I want

[05:58] to rank for I copy it I go to a website

[06:01] called rapid tags.io I paste in my

[06:04] keyword I search these are the results

[06:06] that show up I copy this and then I

[06:08] paste it directly into my video I've

[06:10] actually made a step-by-step Word

[06:11] document describing how you can rank

[06:13] number one following all the steps I

[06:15] just gave you I'll leave a link down

[06:16] below for you to download it and also if

[06:18] you want my full 1hour breakdown of how

[06:20] this works and see me do it live on

[06:22] camera click the video on the screen

[06:24] right here it's probably the best video

[06:25] I've ever made so I'll see you there