If your SEO and Content Strategy for 2022 solely includes Google, you’re missing out on a significant portion of your target audience. Every year, YouTube, the world’s second-largest search engine, gains in importance.
YouTube is the world’s second-biggest search engine and the world’s largest video search engine. As a result, you must use SEO for YouTube videos in the same way that you would for text-based pages.
Every month, YouTube attracts over 1 billion unique visitors. Isn’t that a lot of people? You’re missing out on a huge potential to build and expand your brand online if you’re not focusing on YouTube SEO currently.
The platform now has 230 million active users and accounts for 25% of all mobile traffic worldwide. YouTube is becoming increasingly popular among users for educational videos, entertainment, and keeping up with current events. However, with increased popularity comes increased competition.
Every YouTube user begins with 0 views and 0 subscribers. Every single one of them. So, how come one video about a specific thing has millions of views but another video about the same topic only has ten views?
The solution is neither enigmatic nor cryptic. YouTube SEO is the answer.
Some Incredible YouTube Stats
YouTube has a monthly active user base of over 2 billion people.
With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is frequented by roughly a quarter of the world’s population. It’s safe to believe that YouTube has a fairly varied user base, and that your company will be able to engage with your target viewers.
YouTube is the world’s second most popular website.
According to Alexa’s top sites, YouTube is the second most visited website on the planet, trailing only Google (which also owns YouTube). As a result, YouTube is regularly used by viewers for everything from entertainment to how-to videos.
The United States accounts for 16.5 percent of YouTube’s web traffic.
The United States has the highest percentage of YouTube online traffic (16.4%), followed by India (9.3%) and Japan (4.9%).
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine.
YouTube is not only the world’s second most popular website after Google, but it is also the world’s second-largest search engine.
Marketers use YouTube in 55% of cases.
YouTube is used by 55 percent of marketers, according to the Social Media Examiner’s 2020 industry analysis, making it the most popular video channel for video marketing.
Every day, nearly 1 billion hours of video content are seen on YouTube.
YouTube not only has a massive user base, but it also has a tremendously active one, with over 1 billion hours of video content being seen every day.
YouTube is available in over 80 languages and in over 100 countries.
Another impressive figure demonstrating the breadth of consumers is that YouTube’s video platform is available in over 100 countries and 80 languages.
Every minute, about 500 hours of video footage is posted to YouTube.
Don’t get caught up in the din. Every minute, over 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, therefore you must do all possible during the upload process to ensure that your video material is seen.
One out of every three baby boomers uses YouTube to research a product or service.
YouTube’s viewership isn’t just comprised of teenagers. In fact, a sizable percentage of baby boomers are also using the video platform. And roughly 33% of that demographic uses YouTube to learn more about a product or service.
More than 70% of YouTube videos are viewed on mobile devices.
Make sure your video material is mobile-friendly while creating it. Over 70% of YouTube videos are seen on mobile devices, so make sure your videos don’t have any difficult-to-read text so that users with smaller displays can receive the entire experience.
What Is YouTube SEO, Exactly?
YouTube SEO is the practice of optimizing your video material so that it appears more prominently on YouTube. Unlike Google SEO, which evaluates link rankings using backlinks and other variables, YouTube SEO entails optimizing your channel, videos, playlists, and descriptions on YouTube.
This article will serve as a comprehensive guide to assisting you in optimizing your YouTube SEO, including why you should upload videos on YouTube in the first place, all of the crucial tips for making your YouTube videos rank higher, and the benefits of optimizing your YouTube SEO.
How YouTube And Google Work Together
Because YouTube is owned by Google, SEO is extremely important. This means that YouTube results are given precedence on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). Almost every search — including the vast majority of educational service searches — includes video results from YouTube at the top of the SERPs.
Similar to the Google SERP, the YouTube SERP places Ads first, followed by Organic results. The goal of YouTube SEO is to have our videos appear at the top of the organic search results. However, in order to learn how to optimize for the YouTube search engine, we must first comprehend the YouTube algorithm.
People begin their product and movie searches on Google, then move on to YouTube to watch reviews, unboxing videos, and other related content. Despite the fact that Google and YouTube are two unique websites with different goals, they are both search-based platforms where users consume information. As a result, the transition between the two platforms has become incredibly natural, and Google has taken notice.
However, getting your video featured on Google is more difficult than simply pushing the Publish button. Google, just like it does with site pages, leverages SEO indications from YouTube, such as the title, description, and tags, to offer the most relevant results to any search query.
Tips for Video Optimization in 2022
Optimize For The Right Keywords
The cornerstone of SEO is keyword research, and YouTube SEO is no exception. Keywords can indicate the level of interest in a particular issue, which can assist you in developing a tailored content strategy. There are several tools available to assist you in determining the ideal keyword mix for your films. You can conduct keyword research specifically for the YouTube search engine using an SEO keyword research tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush.
Optimize Title & Description
Once you’ve determined your keyword, you can utilize it to boost your YouTube ranking by optimizing your video in a variety of ways. Including the keyword in your title and description is one of the simplest methods to do this. However, with 400 hours of video posted to YouTube every minute(! ), a keyword will not be enough to increase your SEO significantly.
Increase Watch Time For Your Videos
Whether you realize it or not, the amount of time you spend watching videos on YouTube is one of the most crucial ranking factors. Simply put, if you increase the amount of time you spend watching videos, YouTube will be more likely to promote your channel through search and recommended videos, resulting in more leads, traffic, views, and sales.
Improve Audience Retention
The amount of time a viewer spends watching your video is known as audience retention. Because YouTube favors long films (the longer a video is, the more adverts YouTube may place on it), your goal is to hold your viewers’ attention and interest for as long as possible.
Customize Your Thumbnails
How can you stand out among the thousands of videos that rank for a specific keyword? Of course, the title is vital, but your thumbnail is far more so. Our eyes are drawn to visual components on a page because we are visual creatures. Most of us look at the thumbnail of a video before reading the title.
Check Out Your Competitors’ Channels
Competitor analysis is a simple YouTube SEO best practice for getting higher ranks and finding PROVEN video ideas that go viral online. Make a list of at least 10 to 20 of your competitors’ channels so you can quickly compare and contrast how you may improve your Youtube channel’s content ideas.
Create An Engaging Script
You may be tempted to skip over this section. After all, scripts are stilted and unnatural, and you want to appear natural and spontaneous, right? A compelling, well-written script, on the other hand, can help you come across as natural and spontaneous while also guaranteeing that you don’t get sidetracked and lose viewers.
Get Social
One last technique to improve your YouTube ranking is to promote your video in as many different locations as possible! Basically, the higher the number of social signals in your film, the better. So spread it throughout all of your social media channels, and encourage others to do the same. Post to the traditional social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, but also think beyond the box.