How to Increase YouTube Rankings

If you are not using YouTube to generate web traffic to your business, it’s about time that you start because there is some great potential to build publicity for your business and your brand using YouTube. YouTube is world’s second largest search engine so it’s well worth your time learning about how you can use this tool to help generate traffic for your business.

One of the great things about YouTube is that you can optimise your video content so it ranks well in search engines. In this article I’m going to show you how you can use YouTube to generate even more search traffic than what you could get with Yahoo and Bing.

You need to start with a video
It is easier than ever to create a video that you can put on YouTube. You can use the camera on your phone, or a proper video recorder to record your videos. The main thing to remember is that your content is valid.

It is very easy to use and YouTube is such a great source of traffic. Here are some of the key reasons why you should be using this platform:

  • There are over 1 billion people using this service
  • There were over a trillion YouTube views in 2011
  • There are 4 billion views on the service every day
  • There are over 100 hours of video added to YouTube added every minute
  • There are 1 billion average YouTube mobile video views per day
  • 40% of YouTube traffic comes from mobile sources
  • YouTube has experienced growth of traffic of 52.86% since 2013

There are plenty of statistics you could point to as proof as to why you should use YouTube to increase your web traffic. The bottom line is that YouTube is a massive source of traffic you should be using.

How SEO and YouTube Works
There are two specific categories that YouTube ranks content for. These are Video Content and User Engagement and these are the two areas that should be your focus when it comes to using SEO with YouTube. However, it is very important to remember that SEO for YouTube doesn’t work in quite the same way as SEO for Google.

It should be noted that the search query in YouTube does not have the ability to tell if a video is relevant to a users search query. If you know how YouTube ranks content you will know how you can optimise your video for YouTube’s SEO.

YouTube’s SEO
There are some key things to remember with YouTube’s SEO:

  • Title
  • Description
  • Tags used
  • Transcription
  • Your channel authority
  • Delivery of your content

This is the basic way in which YouTube distributes and ranks video content based on its search engine function. One great thing with YouTube’s search engine is that you can control it as a publisher, meaning if you optimise your content properly you’ll have few problems in getting it ranked highly.

Another great thing to note with YouTube and SEO is that you don’t need a high level of User Engagement to rank highly for your videos. Instead, it’s about how well you understand YouTube’s SEO.

The Importance of the Title
The title is one of the most important aspects of YouTube’s SEO. There is going to be a lot of content out there that is similar to yours so you need to stand out and the easiest way you can do this is with a clear and unique title. 

The title is where you optimise your video for SEO and is arguably the most important component. The reason this is so important is because it influences your CTR (click through rate).

Just like with Google you need to make sure your content is high quality and relevant to the audience. You shouldn’t sacrifice the quality of your content just to rank highly. Be sure to include the keywords in the title tag and make sure it relates to the video itself.

The Importance of the Description
The video description box is your one real chance where you can really describe and define your video. This will be most beneficial for users who look for your video content primarily through YouTube rather than Google. 

The point of this information is to increase the CTR and provide users with some basic information about what they are going to get when they access your content. Show users in your description that your video will be beneficial for them.

Summary
YouTube is such a great way to increase publicity for your business and your brand that you’d be crazy not to use it. It is very simple to make a video and they are a great way to sum up a lot of content in a short period of time. It is very easy to rank highly for videos that are relevant to your business and this is something you should be using if you want to generate some extra web traffic outside of the usual channels.

Social Media Marketing, Tips for Success, Social Media, SEO, Online Business ToolsSarah DrysdaleComment