How to Optimize Videos for YouTube

November 23rd, 2023 Posted by Local SEO 0 comments on “How to Optimize Videos for YouTube”
  • Research keyword phrases for topics using free tools like:
  • Include your main keyword phrase or question at the beginning of your video title.
    • Probably don’t include dates in titles unless you plan to update them later (but you cannot update YouTube videos themselves much once uploaded)
    • Have the person say the title of the video in the first sentence or two, if possible.
  • Plan out your video content around the topics you plan to cover in the video
    • Try to include free tips alongside product recommendations)
    • Consider making longer educational videos in the 5-14 minute range, too.
  • Include a Call to Action (CTA) in the video for people to click the link in the description to check out X product on our site
  • Create a custom thumbnail that jumps out, ideally using
    • someone’s face
    • simple words recapping the title and topic (clickbait style is not necessarily a bad thing to intrigue people to click)
    • nice, bright colors (like green) that stand out on YouTube (see Brian Dean from Backlinko, Neil Patel and Ahrefs for examples)
  • Add (or update the auto-generated) caption files
    • This gives Google a transcript to index for search
  • Add links and recaps in the description.
    • I also recommend adding timestamps starting with 0:00 because Google is going to start jumping people directly to relevant parts of YouTube videos in their search results.
  • Add related keywords in your tags for the video
    • BONUS: Use TubeBuddy or VidIQ to find tag ideas (from competitors) that can help you appear in video recommendations
  • Periodically check your YouTube analytics to see which videos are doing well, how people are finding them, when they’re dropping off, etc.
    • You may also need to clean up or engage with comments you receive.