Learn how to rank YouTube videos fast using our 7-step YouTube SEO process. These EXACT tips have increased our views by nearly 400% in 7.5 months.
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Video Marketing Resources
YouTube Keyword Research: How to Get More Views Consistently ►
How to Edit YouTube Videos for High Engagement ►
Full YouTube SEO Blog Post ►
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In a short period of time, we were able to rank our videos for some of the most popular keywords in our industry:
#1 – Local SEO
#1 – Ecommerce SEO
#2 – SEO
#2 – search engine optimization
And the list goes on.
The best part about video SEO is that you don’t need to have a massive channel to rank #1. You just need to entertain and engage your audience better than your competitors.
Follow everything from the basics and move to the advanced tips, which should help you rank your videos higher and faster.
First, what is YouTube SEO?
It’s the process of optimizing your videos, playlists, and channel to rank high in YouTube’s organic search results for a given search query.
Our data-driven strategy begins with YouTube Keyword Research.
A couple of free tools you can use are YouTube suggest, paired with Google trends.
This is a great way to gauge a keywords popularity against other keywords. However, since Google trends shows relative popularity, it may not be the best way to find true search volumes.
Another tool you can use is Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer, which shows you search volume and clicks data for any keyword on YouTube.
This tool works perfectly when paired with Tubebuddy (most tagged videos section) or vidIQ (related keywords feature).
While YouTube is the second largest search engine, you can also use other tools like Google search and Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to rank your YouTube videos on the first page of Google search.
In fact, Google is our second largest source of external referral traffic.
This video covers all of the tactics, tips, and strategies to rank videos on Google.
The second step is to identify search intent.
Search intent represents the reason behind a searcher’s query. To analyze search intent, just type your keyword into the YouTube search bar and see which videos are ranking in the top 3 positions.
Take note of the format and angles other creators are taking and follow suit with your own video.
Step 3 is the most important. And that’s to create a high-retention video.
Engagement is arguably the most important ranking factor in YouTube’s algorithm. If you can’t engage your audience, then you probably won’t rank.
This can be measured in YouTube Studio analytics by looking at the audience retention graph. You’ll learn EXACTLY how we consistently create high-retention videos from our planning to editing processes.
Step 4 is to do on-page video optimizations.
This boils down to the title, description, thumbnail, and meta data like YouTube tags. You’ll learn how to optimize your videos following YouTube’s best practices.
Step 5 are in-video optimizations.
YouTube allows you to add subtitles or closed captions (CC) to your videos. This helps bring context to your videos which can be helpful when trying to rank your videos.
You’ll also learn a couple engagement hacks using YouTube cards and end-screens.
Step 6 is to publish and promote your video
Whether you have a massive audience or tiny one, you’ll learn how to promote your videos to get more views fast.
Step 7 is to optimize your videos (and channel) for session watch time.
Session watch time is the total time a viewer watches videos on YouTube without leaving the platform.
YouTube said on their creator blog that they use this metric as a ranking factor in their search and discovery algorithm.
Our channel playlist hack will help you do just that.
Timestamps:
1:04 What is YouTube SEO
1:52 YouTube keyword research
5:52 Identify user’s search intent
6:34 Create high-retention videos
9:26 On-page optimization for videos
13:01 In-video optimizations
14:24 Publish and promote your video
15:39 Optimize your video for session watch time
17:24 Sam’s channel page hack
#youtubeseo #videoseo #seo
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Amazing SAM for breaking down the whole roadmap of Ranking. Valuable Insights ❤Thankyou so much!
Thanks for watching!
-Helen
Great video! Thank you 🙂 I have two questions. 1) What is your experience in using hashtags for Youtube SEO?, and 2) What is your advice regarding using questions in titles, versus, for example, those more creative approaches to titles you mentioned?
1. Hashtags have had little to no impact for us.
2. Both titles work. Depends on the topic.
– SQ
Thank you for this detailed and simplified process. 🙂
You’re welcome!
Hi, I have a question. Does it make a difference for YouTube SEO if I insert links shortened (for example with bitly) or “raw”? Will the algorithm reward both? Would appreciate an answer. Regards.
@Ahrefs In the description. Does it make a difference I put shorted links in it?
Where are you inserting those links?
– SQ
Your contents are definitely time effective, great videos even in 2021, thanks
You’re welcome!
First Seo related video I’ve watched that actually gives valuable examples and vast knowledge of the topic. I love how this video isn’t vague and gives really usefully specifics on what to do. Thx, this rly helped!
I agree, and actually there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good videos on YouTube SEO for beginners except this one. I want to make one soon to help people.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video Sam, I would also be looking to expand on the subject with how to optimize the description and also use the description to add value to my company –> bringing visitors, leads, offering downloadables and more. I see you are doing some great work with the Ahrefs video there, I would be interested in getting your thoughts on that and how to structure it.
We just do a brief overview of what is covered in the video. There are no specific strategies that we follow when creating our descriptions =
– Max
*I am a new youtuber and I had to watch this video multiple time. One of the best SEO tips ever I came across and I had to paused and rewind multiple time. So guess what your 18.54 minute video took me almost double minutes to complete.Thank you so much for sharing. Love it.🙏*
Haha pretty much the same thing happened to me, I was rewinding and pausing to take notes. Lol. I want people to do that in my videos.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for fantastic content! I have a question regarding the single playlist that you created at the top of your home page, featuring the part 1 videos of your most important playlists. How did you do so that when these videos open, they lead to playlist where they happen to be the first video? I have tried to do that, but when I create single playlist, youtube offers to add videos there, and when a viewer clicks on them, youtube doesn’t open up the playlist where these videos also belong to. Even though these videos belong to 2 playlists (this single one, and the original one, where I want them to be on the top?)
There is no way you can force next video to be the one from your playlist. If your playlist performed well, then next recommended video will appear from the playlist. There is no way you can influence that directly =(
– Max
Very good explanation I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this right!! I’m so new and raw and well terrible at this lol…. But I’m trying hard to learn how to do this better and I think I’m improving and now I’m ready to start really pumping out videos and now I need to understand this and you did a good job explaining this thank you ♥️
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for an outstanding video. Well done! I also use a Chrome extension called “Keywords Everywhere” to search keywords and search phrases in YouTube. But still, ranking is not quite as easy as is often suggested. Be it blogging or video SEO. Keyword suggest and Google Trends are excellent research tools indeed.
Watch this video for more keyword research tools – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwD5deAqW3Y
– Max
Hey! Although I found your video very helpful, I am still unclear as to whether or not there’s a such thing as having “too many tags”, and if having one or two tags that have commonly searched keywords (but are only somewhat relevant to your video) hurts your ability to be ranked in search results. Would you be able to clarify this for me? I’d really appreciate it!
We don’t pay too much attention to tags. The general purpose we use it for is to bring contextual relevance to the video. For example, if you were to create a video on “The Best Hammers,” you might have tags like best hammers, hammer, hammers, which hammer to buy, tools. But I wouldn’t add in other tools like screwdrivers and wrenches as they’re a bit too far off.
Basically, you don’t want to trick or deceive people into thinking the video is about something that it’s not. I wouldn’t overthink it and focus more of your attention on engaging your viewers and building an audience.
-Sam
Amazing! This is really a great tutorial. That’s why you ranked first when I searched. You did a good job and thanks for helping me and teaching me what to do. I will apply all of these on my videos.
Great to hear! Hope the tips work out for you 🙂
-Sam
Hello Sam, and thank you for this video on Keywords Anywhere. I don’t know if you reply to these comments, but I do have a pretty important question that I feel others who read this may also benefit. I am seeing a little bit of conflict between Keyword Anywhere results vs. what TubeBuddy says about a keyword. For example, let’s say Keyword Anywhere says “500/month” with a competition score of .25….which is a good keyword to launch a new YouTube channel – some traffic and low competition in order to start building authority. However, TubeBuddy says that this keyword is “Poor.” How would you interpret this? Which one, Keyword Anywhere or TubeBuddy, should I trust regarding the keyword? Thanks for your time, and thank you for this video!
Any keyword analysis tool has its own data providers and algorithms to calculate the difficulty. The best way is probably to analyze reports from different sources and make some conclusions if a set of keywords is a good place to start with or not. I also recommend watching a full list of our YouTube marketing videos here – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2tsn8vwEmhFM0McBH4PhEty
– Max
Hey Sam! Thank you for this detailed video. Great info and great video. Really appreciate you making it.
Thank you, Jennie! Glad you enjoyed watching 😉
– Max
Thank you! I’m attempting to create a strategy that is 6 months in the making and we are approaching month 6 in October.
I truly feel that I’m almost there, but SEO seems to be my biggest draw back.
It is never late to improve your knowledge😉 Good luck with achieving your goals!
– Max
Hello, is it true, youtube algorithm now focuses on quantity? the more often we upload our video (let say every 2 days), the more views and subscribers we get?
Overall the algorithm is starting leaning towards quality because so many videos are being uploaded every day. However the advantage of uploading frequently is that subscribers get suggested videos based on what they watched recently. So even if they are subscribed to you but haven’t watched a video of yours in weeks, they won’t see your stuff. Uploading more frequently keeps you in the mind as well. If you upload daily then your uploads can step on each other, because it doesn’t give YouTube enough time with your video to promote it.
Cody Wanner said in an interview with Javier Mercedes that when he stopped daily vlogging and started uploading 2 times a week, his views increased 400 percent. As if the algorithm was set up to not appreciate daily uploads, probably because of expected lower quality.
I did not notice that correlation
– Max
Great video! I hear YouTube ranks on video length also. If you create short videos (e.g. <10 mins) but session time is high (i.e. you keep the viewer moving to your next video) do you think it's a problem? Do you think there is a threshold in minutes any video needs to be above, regardless of session time?
I wouldn’t focus so much on the exact length, but rather keeping your audience engaged for as long as possible 🙂
Love your videos! You have a great presentation and great knowledge! Thank you so much!🌻💛😊
God, beautiful woman who loves to cook is just so attractive
Thank you! 🙂 Appreciate the kind words.
Sam, you’ve done it again! Such a great overview. Tell me, couldn’t you also spot what kws bring up the Google video carousel with a regular keyword search in Ahrefs, click view all and the select the video SERP feature? That said, I have noticed kws show up in that report and upon googling, don’t actually see any. How often do SERPs change to include or remove video features?