YouTube SEO Basics
- Viktoriia Vlasenko (Unlicensed)
Analytics
YouTube Keyword Research
Step #1: Map out a hierarchy of topics
The problem is that if you create videos on topics that are too broad, then you’ll attract an irrelevant audience. By the same notion, if you create videos on super-niche topics, then you won’t attract enough people.
Solve this by first mapping out a hierarchy of topics to cover.
E.g.:
Step #2. Generate keyword ideas and find search volumes
With that in mind, here are two tools for finding YouTube keyword ideas and search volumes that actually work.
1. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
Use Ahrefs to find keywords with traffic potential.
The problem is that this topic is way too broad. Instead, head to the “Phrase match” report which shows you keyword ideas containing your seed keywords.
Using various filter options like Volume, you can narrow your search. Also, most keyword research tools like Keywords Explorer use rounded annual averages for search volume estimations. For that reason, it’s worth checking for declining or seasonal trends before pursuing a keyword.
E.g. [cyberpunk 2077 keanu reeves] was more of breaking/hot news. This makes sense as the spike occurs around the time the trailer was released.
You can check if it's trending right now using Google Trends (change the dropdown to “YouTube search”).
2. YouTube Autosuggest + Google Trends
If you’re struggling to do this process manually, one trick is to use the wildcard (*) operator with YouTube autosuggest. Start typing a seed keyword into the YouTube search bar and you’ll see a list of related queries pop up. These are ‘autosuggest’ results, and they’re a great source of keyword ideas.
If you see any interesting suggestions, throw them into Google Trends, then change the dropdown to “YouTube search” to see their relative popularity.
E.g. [keanu reeves interview] is more popular than [keanu reeves cyberpunk]. Unfortunately, combining autosuggest results with Google Trends won’t show you absolute search volumes. If you happen to know the rough search volume of just one keyword, then you can “guesstimate” the volume of others by comparing their relative popularities in Google Trends.
Step #3. Check search intent
Understanding search intent is a critical part of the keyword research process, and the easiest way to start is to ask yourself a simple question:
“What would someone searching for this keyword want to see?”
The easiest way to figure this out is to head to YouTube, search for the keyword, then look at the top few search results.
E.g., top results are the game trailer and Keanu's presentation.
E.g. [keanu reeves puppies]. You might immediately think about video with pics of Keanu with puppies, but, unfortunately, users look for a particular video from a Buzzfeed show.
For best results, check the top search results on YouTube in an incognito tab. YouTube often personalizes search results based on factors like search history.
Step #4. Get video traffic from Google
No matter whether they show up as video carousels, dedicated results, featured videos, or a mixture of them all, their presence tells you something important: people searching for this topic in Google want to see videos.
If you can create videos around topics that are likely to rank in Google, then you can effectively “double dip” and pull in traffic from two search engines instead of one.
1. Look for keywords with video results
Look at the search results. Is there a video carousel in the results?
If so, then there may be an opportunity to “double dip” and get traffic from both YouTube and Google.
To see how much traffic the current video results are getting from Google, copy and paste the URLs into Ahrefs Site Explorer one by one.
Dig into the “Organic keywords” report in Site Explorer to see which keywords they rank for, and where they’re getting most of their traffic from.
It’s also worth checking the organic traffic graph in the “Overview” report to make sure the video is consistently getting traffic from Google.
2. Search for videos by topic in Content Explorer
Content Explorer is a searchable database of over a billion web pages, complete with SEO and social metrics.
Best of all, it supports many advanced search operators. Which means you can search for things like this:
site:youtube.com inurl:watch title:topic (E.g., site:youtube.com inurl:watch title:ryan reynolds)
To see if the video has been getting consistent traffic over time, hit the “Details” button, and check the Organic traffic graph.
What you want to see is this:
Not this:
Check the “Organic keywords” tab to see a snapshot of keywords that the video ranks for in Google, and how much traffic those keywords send.
3. Find high traffic videos with YouTube and Site Explorer (outdated info, better to use VidIQ VPH)
Find a competing channel on YouTube, then hit the “Videos” tab to see all their uploads.
Copy and paste the video URLs into Ahrefs Site Explorer one by one.
You’re looking for a video with traffic.
Keywords Explorer is most useful when you search for a bulk list of keyword ideas. You can use either vidIQ’s or TubeBuddy’s chrome extension.
On-Page video optimization
YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your videos, playlists, and channel to rank high in YouTube’s organic search results for a given search query.
On-page optimizations for YouTube videos boils down to 4 things:
Title
Description
Tags
Thumbnail
Each of these help provide context to your video and will influence those all-important click-through-rates (CTR).
After all, no clicks = no views.
1. Use your keyword in the title
While it seems important to include at least partial matches of your target keyword in your title, you don’t want to sacrifice the “click-worthiness” of it.
2. Keep your titles under 60 characters
YouTube recommends keeping your titles concise with the most important information up front.
From a search perspective, that will often mean using your target keyword near the beginning of your title. Here’s an example:
Keeping your titles short will prevent losing clicks from truncation in search, suggested, and browse features.
3. Write searchable descriptions
YouTube says using the “right” keywords can boost views and watch time because they help your videos show up in search results.
You should include the target keyword in both the title and description. And also you should include related keywords. These are all you find while doing keyword research. Moreover, click through to a few of the top-ranking videos for your target keyword and read through their descriptions. Look for common keywords they use throughout their description texts.
In most cases, longer descriptions work better as it gives more context to YouTube on the content of your video. But keep the descriptions as long as they need to be rather than trying to shoehorn keywords.
Red - the main keywords, green ones - related or LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.
4. Tags
Tags are another way to give context to your video, which can help you rank in YouTube search and suggested.
YouTube simplifies this by recommending to add keywords and phrases that are most descriptive of your video.
You can also use tools like VidIQ or TubeBuddy to see the tags for competing videos.
YouTube Keyword Tools
Not the best for YouTube keywords analysis, but you can use this browser extension for Chrome for:
Stats. Check the “Videolytics” overlay that shows a bunch of stats about the video and publisher (e.g., social shares across major social networks, the number of videos on the channel, etc.).
Tags. It also tells you if the uploader has followed “best optimization practices,” and pulls the full list of video tags. You can copy and save tags to a list with a couple of clicks.
Rank tracker tool. You can track YouTube search rankings for yours and your competitors’ videos. You can even schedule downloadable weekly or monthly reports.
Morning Fame (invite-only, first month free).
Enter a search term that fits your topic or paste in the URL of a video that inspired you. The tool pulls a list of keyword ideas from similar and related videos, then divides them into two lists: good keywords for larger channels, and good keywords for smaller channels. Then it you’ll see a “Ranking Opportunity Rating,” but experts believe it doesn't tell much.
Also, it guides you through writing a title, description, and adding relevant tags to your video.
Google Trends (do not forget to choose YouTube search)
YouTube (Autosuggest)
KeywordTool.io (free, has premium features)
Keyword Suggestions: All autosuggest keywords (excluding those formatted as questions).
Questions: Autosuggest keywords formatted as questions.
Prepositions: Autosuggest keywords containing propositions (from, for, after, etc.). Note that you can also see these in the Keyword Suggestions tab.
Hashtags: Autosuggest keywords with hashtags. (This is usually a rather pointless tab from what I can see).