I'm Neil Patel, and I'm here with Adam from viewership.com.
In this episode of Q&A Thursday, we're going to answer a question I get asked over and over again:
How will YouTube impact SEO in the online marketing and digital marketing space in the coming years?
Here's the thing about YouTube SEO; YouTube videos don't rank that well or drive a ton of traffic from Google organic.
Videos are ranking because Google is including everything in search results from restaurants, to places to go, to YouTube videos and blog posts.
But here's the thing that most people don't know, if you have a video on YouTube, on a popular topic, it can get a ton of search on YouTube.
YouTube itself is one of the most popular search engines out there. But video creators aren't optimizing for YouTube search.
So don't try to create a video and getting it ranked on Google. Create video and concentrate on YouTube SEO.
I rank high for the term "SEO" on YouTube, thanks to help from Adam and viewership.com.
But the video does not rank on Google page one for the term "SEO."
Of course, ranking the video on Google will generate more views, but that particular video naturally gets like 400-500 just because it ranks on page one on YouTube for "SEO."
Think of YouTube as a separate search engine outside of Google, and create video content to do well on YouTube.
If you want to rank high on YouTube, here are a few YouTube SEO tips.
YouTube SEO Tip #1: Add transcripts.
If you add a transcript, YouTube really knows what the video's about.
Yes, YouTube can detect topics and keywords from your video, but you need to upload a transcript manually to optimize your video.
By the way, notice how we keep saying "YouTube SEO, YouTube SEO."?
By repeating the keyword "YouTube SEO" YouTube knows and will pick up on the fact that the video is about YouTube SEO and we're going to be able to increase our rank on YouTube because of that.
YouTube SEO Tip #2: Make your videos longer.
I used to make two-minute videos because I thought that's what viewers wanted.
But YouTube does not like super short videos.
What we've found is that YouTube favors videos that are minimum five minutes long.
After analyzing the data, anything over five minutes is pretty much good to go.
YouTube SEO Tip #3: Use the right keywords.
If you don't use the right keywords with tags, descriptions, and headlines, you're not going to rank well.
So how do you find the right keywords for YouTube SEO?
First, look at your niche, and see what's working.
In YouTube, you can spy very easily on your competitors.
To do this you can use VidIQ.com, and you can discover all the videos that are doing well for the keyword you're targeting, see what tags they're using, see what's working, and what's not working.
I used to think YouTube SEO was like standard SEO, you go out there, create a video, and over time it increases in rankings.
But with YouTube, the moment a video is published, the first 24 hours usually determine if the video's going to do well over time.
You need the video to do well in the first 24 hours, so do what you can to drive eyeballs to your video.
Email the video out to your lists, tweet it, and share it, and let everyone know about it, the first 24 hours matter more than anything else.
Don't worry too much about your YouTube videos ranking high on Google. If they don't, it's okay. You can still rank high on YouTube, and get a ton of traffic.
Those are our best YouTube SEO tips.
If you need help with YouTube SEO, leave a comment.
We don't care if you're a big business or a solo entrepreneur with no money.
We are here to help you. We love you guys as a community.
Whatever I can do to help you succeed makes me happy, that's my life mission, so feel free to share this video with other people, let them know about it.
And, if you like one of the questions that someone's asking in the comments, vote it up.
The more votes a comment ends up getting, the more likely Adam and I are to answer it during our next Q&A Thursdays.
