YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Videos for YouTube
Uploading a YouTube video has become a more complicated affair than it used to be. Back in the day, all you had to do was upload a video, and once it was trending, that was it. Now, you need to think of the video files name, social media, keyword optimization and the description, amongst other points.
Rename Your Video File First
One of the biggest mistakes users make when it comes to YouTube comes before they’ve even uploaded a video. YouTube is smart and will read the file name and the code when uploaded to its site, and if it’s a load of gibberish that has nothing to do with the keywords or is a planned, organized name, then it won’t do well.
Consider changing it to something more relevant in order to be optimized. This will help with the SEO functions of YouTube and will see your video showing up more often on a page than you would otherwise. Also, ensure that the file type itself is optimized for the site, such as an MP4 or MOV file.
Understand How Social Media Works
These days, YouTube has integrated into social media very efficiently. This means that videos are optimized to play through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook with ease, at least with transferring the user to their app.
If you’re planning to roll out a YouTube video or YouTube ad, then you should have a grasp on social media is able to roll it out everywhere to boost viewership. Use a marketing service that incorporates social media marketing management to make everything run as seamless as possible.
This way, you’ll be able to run a campaign without the stress of logging into every social media account to post out a notice about the video. A marketing service will identify a house style of content and roll it out at the same time.
Use The Right Amount of Keywords
Keywords should be inserted naturally into a video title. The algorithm itself won’t like repetition and spam, and it’s smarter than you’d think. The keywords are also important for viewers searching for a video. If a viewer isn’t intrigued enough by the title, then it’s unlikely they will click onto the video in the first place.
The keyword needs to be relevant for the video, too and needs to be of decent length, not too short or not too long.
Optimize Your Video Description
In a similar story, the video description itself needs to be optimized. You will have a 1,000-character limit when it comes to filling that white space, but you only need a small amount of that. You see, a viewer will only see the first few lines of text of around 100 characters before a user will have to expand the description to read more.
Most users simply won’t bother to do this unless prompted to go view a link that was suggested in the video that benefits them, such as a reward or unique product. What you can do, if you’re not sure what to do with this space, is to add the transcript of the video, which is useful for those that are either hard of hearing or simply have to watch with no sound.