YouTube SEO 2024: 11 tips to get your videos noticed

YouTube SEO: Have you heard of it? Do you want to know what it is about? So keep reading this article.

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.

More than a billion unique users visit YouTube every month. That's a lot of people, isn't it? If you are not yet focusing on the SEO from YouTube, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to build and grow your online business.

Do you want to get better rankings for your YouTube videos in 2024? I will reveal to you some of the best tips of SEO YouTube in this guide so you can rank your YouTube videos quickly. So, what are you waiting for? We'll get to it.

YouTube SEO 2024: How to Rank YouTube Videos Quickly?

Increase the watch time of your videos

Whether you know it or not, video watch time is one of the most important ranking factors on YouTube.

What is video watch time?

Video watch time simply refers to the amount of time people spend watching your videos. This is a concept similar to the display duration of a website. The more time your audience spends consuming your content, the better for it. SEO of your video on YouTube.

According to the YouTube Creator Playbook, "YouTube optimizes search and discovery of videos that increase watch time on the site."

In other words, if you increase the watch time of your videos, YouTube will be more likely to promote your channel through search and recommended videos, which will ultimately result in more views. leads, traffic, views and sales.

A study conducted by Justin Briggs revealed a strong correlation between watch time and YouTube search rankings. Here is the illustration.

That being said, here are 5 ways to increase the watch time of your videos.

Make your intro very attractive

The first 10-15 seconds of your videos should be really engaging to your audience. It's best if you can convince your audience and viewers to learn what it's all about in those 10-15 seconds.

If your video's intro is engaging, most viewers will watch it to the end. This is how you can increase the watch time of your videos.

Describe your videos intelligently

One of the reasons why a few videos always get great reach on YouTube is that they are structured very cleverly. Be sure to find a proven format to present the content of your videos to keep them engaging until the end.

Not only does this increase engagement, but your viewers will spend more time watching your videos.

Create longer videos

A study of YouTube ranking factors found that longer videos (more than 15 minutes) performed better than shorter videos in YouTube searches. Take a look there ;

As you can see in the illustration above, if your video length is more than 15 minutes, your YouTube video rankings will improve. It's as simple as that.

Create playlists intelligently

Did you know you can drastically improve your video watch time by creating your playlists the smart way?

For example, if someone searches for something on YouTube and then watches a series of videos of which yours is the first. Every video watched in this series (whether it's your video or someone else's) will count towards the YouTube session watch time for that content.

I hope you understand the importance of creating playlists more efficiently.

Find out what works well for you, then repeat.

First, go to your YouTube Studio and click on “Interest Viewers” ​​and then “Top Videos” to see all your top performing and most viewed videos on YouTube.

Once you know what works well for you on your Youtube channel, you can easily create videos of the same type to create more buzz, attract more visitors and increase the reach of your videos.

Your channel branding is extremely important

If there's only one thing you need to remember when doing YouTube video SEO, it's this: don't create another Youtube channel, create a brand!

Define the orientation of your content

Have you ever subscribed to a Youtube channel of fitness and finding videos there without any interest? There's very little chance, right? It is very important to focus on the video creation very relevant to your YouTube channel, especially if you want to take your branding to the next level.

And don't forget to ask yourself what makes a video go viral online.

Here is a list of things to check to ensure your videos are of the best possible quality.

• Create high quality audio and video
• Include the benefits of video from the start (users have a shorter attention span).
• Go straight to the point in your videos

Create enthusiastic fans

One of the fastest ways to grow your YouTube channel is to build fans and subscribers who like, leave comments, and share your videos with their friends.

Here are some ways to drive engagement around your videos and build die-hard fans around your YouTube video channel.

• Increase comments on videos: Always encourage viewers to leave comments on your videos. One of the ways to generate feedback is to ask your audience some really interesting questions about the topic covered in the video.
• Subscriptions : Ask Internet users to subscribe to your channel at the end of your videos (if possible between two videos).
• shares : Encourage your viewers to share your videos to increase views on your YouTube channel and increase subscribers, which is great for marketing your YouTube videos.

First and foremost, be sure to get as many likes and dislikes as possible, as these are considered a measure of engagement: the more, the better the engagement, which results in better rankings.

Give your YouTube channel an identity

Here are some tips to give your YouTube channel an instant identity

• Create a logo that's both unique and attractive (so your fans and followers can easily recognize videos from your channel).
• Be sure to use a profile picture. Do not use random images. It's best to use your own images or make them into something remarkable.
• Be sure to link your channel to your social media accounts.
• If you have a blog related to your YouTube channel (if you don't already have one, start one), be sure to link to it as often as possible.

Find a main keyword

Google and YouTube search engines work almost the same way. They focus on different factors to place content (article or video) in their search engines. Keywords play a vital role in this regard.

Most people who do video marketing on YouTube don't focus much on keywords. This is why they fail to get more views on their videos.

Just as bloggers do keyword research before writing an article, you should do the same before making a video.

Just take a look at the following screenshot to understand what I'm talking about.

Recommended article: 10 Best YouTube Keyword Research Tools to Get More Views

What did you notice in the image above?

If you type in the keyword (in our case, it's SEO), you'll see that the top-ranking results use it in their title, meta description, and even in their thumbnails.

This is how YouTube determines the "concept of a video" (through keywords). This is the reason why you need to do some primary keyword research before you start creating videos for your YouTube channel.

Here are some YouTube SEO best practices that will help you improve your videos.

• Be sure to find a main keyword, preferably a long-tail keyword, as it drives the majority of traffic. Instead of trying to rank for a broad term like “SEO,” you can rank higher on YouTube by using a keyword like “SEO tips for New York agencies.”
• Use tools like Semrush to find keyword ideas. Yes, you can use free keyword research tools like Google's Keyword Planner, but it doesn't actually show you potential keywords. This is where premium SEO tools like Semrush can help you find the most profitable keywords that drive more traffic to your YouTube videos.
• When researching keywords for YouTube videos, be sure to analyze your competitors. Figure out who is already on the first page of Google results for your targeted keyword, and why. Find out the average length of their videos. This simple analysis can be of great help to you when creating videos to boost your online growth.

Learn how to optimize YouTube videos

If you want to rank higher for your YouTube videos, make sure to focus on the following 3 things.

• Title
• The meta description of your video and
• Tags

Let's talk about it briefly so that you can easily optimize your videos for organic search on YouTube.

Video title:

Be sure to optimize your YouTube video title, as it carries more weight for crawlers. Include your main keyword (see step 1) in your title. If possible, use your keyword at the beginning of your video title so that viewers and crawlers can easily figure out what it's about.

Youtube video meta description:

Just like the title, the meta description (the description of your video) plays a HUGE role in organic ranking on YouTube. So make sure you spend enough time writing the right description for your videos.

Use links to specific pages (to your own websites or products) in your meta description and add them to the beginning of your description so people can quickly decide where to go after watching your videos on YouTube.

Video tags:

Most people ignore keywords in their videos. If you want your videos to rank higher on YouTube, you shouldn't ignore your video tags.

Instead of using random tags, use relevant tags that suit your videos perfectly. For example, if you talk about SEO tips in your videos, you can use tags such as SEO tips, search engine optimization, how to rank higher on YouTube, etc.

There is no rule of thumb regarding the number of tags to use in a video, but you can use tags between 5 and 10 for better optimization on YouTube.

Check out your competitors' channels

One of the easiest YouTube SEO best practices to get better rankings and find proven video ideas that go viral online is to do a competitor analysis.

Be sure to list at least 10-20 channels from your competitors so you can easily analyze how you can come up with better content ideas for your YouTube channel.

That being said, here are two good reasons to take a look at your competitors' channels on YouTube.

• You can see what keywords they are targeting
• You can easily find out what kind of videos they produce.

Let's briefly discuss the above points so that you understand the value of competitor analysis and use it as one of the best video marketing tips to grow online in 2024 and beyond.

You can examine the keywords they are targeting

By spying on your competitors' channels, you'll instantly get keyword insights into how many hits they're getting and how they're ranking on YouTube and Google searches.

You can also use tools like Semrush, where you just enter the keyword and it automatically suggests long-tail and short-tail keywords for you. Once you find these keywords, add them in the “tag” section of your videos.

You can easily find out what kind of videos they produce

Not all content is the same. There are few content ideas that go viral in your industry. So you can easily determine what kind of videos are getting real engagement by looking at your competitors' video channels.

Improve your YouTube video metrics

Here are some of the best YouTube video metrics that play a VITAL role in optimizing YouTube videos.

• Total number of seconds users spent watching your video (average duration, also known as watch time)
• Number of comments received by your video
• Number of likes on your video
• Number of times your video is shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Number of times your video is embedded on other websites (which use the tag to embed your videos)
• Number of people who subscribed to a particular video

So how do you increase your YouTube video performance metrics?

To increase watch time and average length on YouTube (i.e. time spent on your videos), make your videos as engaging as possible and ensure they are long enough for you to improve. the average time spent on your videos considerably.

To get more comments, ask questions at the end of your videos and ask your subscribers and viewers to leave comments.

If you want to get more likes for your videos, you really need to do one thing well and that is to create engaging videos. If the content of your videos is interesting, almost everyone will start liking your videos while you watch them. You can also use calls to action and annotations like "give a thumbs up" to increase the number of likes on your videos.

Pro tip : Synchronize your YouTube account with your social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. So every time you post a new video to your YouTube channel, it's automatically posted to all of your accounts.

Optimize around YouTube video keywords

One of the advanced video marketing tricks most used by YouTube experts is: optimization around video keywords. Ranking on YouTube is great, but ranking your video on both YouTube and Google is even better.

Finding good keywords for YouTube videos can literally be a game-changer and easily drive a ton of visitors to your sites (because you'll get traffic from two of the biggest search engines in the world, namely YouTube and Google) .

How to find such video keywords?

Here are some quick SEO tips for you if you want to find video keywords that rank on both Google and YouTube.

• Find topics that are suitable for beginners. For example, beginner topics such as "yoga for back pain", "how to lose weight", etc. will work like a charm to get visitors from both Google and YouTube because it's mostly video keywords.
• Before choosing a topic or keyword to create your YouTube video, check that there are no video results on the first page of Google search. If you find video search results (like the example above), you should definitely consider these topics because you can easily rank your video in both Google and YouTube search engines.
• Finally, use tools like Semrush to easily find video keywords, as you can also find out how many of your target keywords are getting featured snippets, backlinks, and more. in one place.

Ask people to embed your videos on their sites

One of the lesser-known ways to increase the organic reach of your YouTube videos is to get links from other sites. The best way to do this is to get more people to embed your YouTube videos on their sites.

Here's a simple step-by-step tutorial on how to do it.

Step 1: Make a list of all relevant sites

The first step is to find a list of all the sites that cover topics related to your videos. The key is to have a list of sites with their URLs in a spreadsheet so you can contact blog owners as soon as you post videos to your YouTube channel.

Step 2: Start interacting with them

Never forget one thing when it comes to the Internet: “Don't ask for favors before offering help”. You don't get help from strangers. So you need to hang out with other bloggers and vloggers in your industry and start interacting with them. Be sure to promote them, leave reviews, and do whatever you can to offer your help.

Step 3: Send them an introductory email

Here's a sample introductory email you can send to other bloggers who have posted the same type of content on their site.

Hello [Author Name],

How are you my friend ? I just read your article [Title of article].

The content is really great but I think there should be a bit more to make it exceptional and valuable to your audience.

What's better than a YouTube video?

Well, I just want to share that I made a video on the same topic and I would be happy if you could incorporate it into your article.

Here is the link: [Video link]

Do not hesitate to ask questions. I look forward to knowing more.

Please accept, Madam, Sir, the expression of my best regards,

[Your name]

If you see the sample email message above, it's short and to the point. Typically, you can expect to get at least 5 links out of every 100 emails you send to other bloggers asking them to embed your videos on their site.

That's it, you're done. Once they start embedding your videos (most will if your videos are relevant to their content and helpful to their audience), you'll start to see organic growth in your search results both on Google and on Youtube.

Lire: How to Promote a Blog: 12 Methods for More Traffic

Create a buzz around your videos

Want to practice the best SEO strategy to get your videos ranked higher on YouTube? So create buzz around your videos.

For what ? The first reason is that the more people talking about your videos (or sharing them with others), the better you can rank.

If you're wondering how to create a buzz around your videos, here are some examples.

Promote videos from your own blogs:

Even if you are a YouTube marketer and only use YouTube to create videos, be sure to start a blog. For what ? Blogging is very helpful in getting good rankings.

You can use your blog to build an email list, to build buzz around your videos, to link to your YouTube videos, and to drive traffic to your YouTube channel.

If you already have a blog, be sure to direct as many visitors as possible from your site to your YouTube channel. You can create specific blog posts around your YouTube videos or just use your sidebar or footer to let your audience know your channel exists.

Promote your channel on discussion forums:

There are a multitude of forums ranging from marketing to SEO to fitness. Just use search strings like “your video topic” + “forums” on Google to find relevant forums in your industry.

You can also create free accounts in popular marketing forums such as;

• Warrior Forum
• DigitalPoint
• Engage Blog
• Blokube

Forums are great places to start if you're just starting out. If you're new to YouTube video marketing, you know how important it is to get an early audience and comments.

Forums allow you to connect with other bloggers and marketers on YouTube. This is how you will learn and implement effective marketing for your YouTube channel to grow your online business.

Answer relevant questions on Quora:

Quora is the premier question and answer platform. You can find the best answer to almost any question on Quora. It is a platform used by millions of people around the world.

This platform also helps you find great topic ideas to create videos.

Just find and follow topics on Quora that are relevant to your YouTube channel and start writing answers to help others. Occasionally, you may use links to your videos from your answers on Quora to generate online buzz.

You can also use other marketing channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. to drive more visitors to your YouTube channel to watch your videos. There are literally thousands of ways to promote your videos if you have enough time.

Read : 25 Most Important SEO Stats You Should Know

Attract more clicks with these YouTube marketing tips

Use attractive thumbnails:

Your video thumbnails play a crucial role in getting more clicks. The more clicks you get, the better your videos rank. So use attractive thumbnails.

Make sure the resolution is 1280 x 720 (with a minimum width of 650 pixels) for users to have the best possible thumbnail experience.

Upload your images in quality formats such as .JPG or .PNG. You can also resize your images before uploading them to YouTube for better SEO.

Titles that hit the mark:

9 out of 10 people read your titles before clicking on your videos. So don't neglect them.

Here are some examples of titles that almost always work.

• How to do
• How I did [something] (case studies)
• Lists (10 ways to reduce belly fat)
• Controversial topic type (How Donald Trump is wasting Americans' money)

Increase the number of your subscribers:

What's the best way to get more views on your YouTube videos? It's simple, increase the number of your subscribers.

Find ways to increase subscribers to your YouTube channel. As discussed above, use forums, Quora, blogs, etc. to promote your channel and attract as many people as possible.

Comment A LOT on the other videos:

If you've just started creating videos, one of the simple YouTube SEO tricks to get attention for your channel is to leave thoughtful comments.

• Find popular videos
• Leave funny/thoughtful comments

This is how you will get the initial pull to your chain.

Ask people to share your videos:

Most people don't know this, but the best way to increase your channel's visibility is to ask others to share your content. At the beginning and end of your videos, ask people to share your content. Also ask your friends and colleagues to share your videos on other social media sites to get more exposure.

Create a long-term video marketing strategy

Finally, be sure to develop a long-term strategy for YouTube videos.

I've been doing SEO for a long time and I know one thing about SEO: you don't get better results or rankings fast. It takes time to improve YouTube video ranking.

So it's best to focus on a one-year strategy and maintain a consistent frequency of posting videos (once a week or twice a month) if you really want to get the best results from YouTube.

Also, be sure to acquire as many subscribers as possible to your YouTube channel, as the number of subscribers plays an important role in what happens next.

Your number of subscribers:

• Allows you to increase the viewing time of videos
• Helps you increase the number of shares of your videos
• Lets you get more likes and comments
• Helps you get your videos ranked higher on YouTube.

So find different ways to attract as many subscribers as possible to your channel. This is how you will succeed in video marketing on YouTube. Focus on long-term goals rather than short-term results.

Similar articles:

• 10 popular types of blogs that make money
• 10 Best Content Marketing Tools to Use When You Don't Have a Team
• How to easily find trending topics for a niche blog 
• How to make money online without paying anything
• How to find a domain name for your blog
• 11 platforms to create a free blog
• 10 common reasons why you're still a struggling blogger

FAQ

Final reflections

YouTube SEO is NOT easy. You need to learn the latest YouTube SEO techniques and keep up to date with trends to get better rankings.

It's also not rocket science to get your YouTube videos to rank higher. All the tips mentioned in this article are very practical to implement and I guarantee you can get a first page ranking on YouTube by following them.

So what are you waiting for? Have you started video marketing on YouTube yet? Do you have any other SEO tips to rank higher on YouTube? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.