How To Do SEO For YouTube In 2024

Unquestionably, YouTube is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. In fact, it is also the 2nd largest search engine. Many brands and individuals use YouTube videos for marketing, vlogging, etc. You would want more people to reach your videos and watch them. That means investing money and time into YouTube SEO is vital if you wish to maximize your web reach. The number of YouTube videos created and uploaded by 61.4 million creators is 3.86 billion in 2023. Similarly, being a content creator or a brand’s YouTube channel owner, you would need to ensure your videos are watched by more people more often.

 1. What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is the procedure of optimizing your channel on YouTube along with videos to rank higher in the search results. This is how you can attract more subscribers, views, and engagement to your YouTube channel. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Search engines (like Google) use SEO for web pages that need to be ranked. There are other social media platforms such as YouTube, which have their conditions for maximizing the online content reach. YouTube SEO relies on strategies such as script optimization, keyword research, link building, and many more.

 2. Understand the working criteria of YouTube SEO

YouTube has its own search algorithm similar to Google’s one. There are many factors it takes into account to decide on the rank of YouTube videos such as video tags, video title and description, watch time, video metadata, and engagement. Let’s discuss in brief:

• Video title and description: The title and description of YouTube videos should be clear and concise so that they may reflect the content accurately. So, the titles and descriptions must include relevant keywords.

• Video tags: Using tags can help categorize your videos and let users find you easily while looking for specific topics. Ensure you include a combination of general and mixed tags to enhance the audience’s reach.

• Video metadata: It includes information like the video’s length, upload date, and view count. YouTube’s search algorithm uses this data to understand the videos and give them rankings accordingly.

• Watch time: The amount of time people invest in your videos by watching them. It is a major factor considered by YouTube’s search algorithm. The higher the watch time, the more the videos rank in YouTube’s search results.

• Engagement: When you get likes, shares, and comments on your videos, they directly impact the rankings of YouTube videos in the search results.

 3. Importance of YouTube SEO

Next, ensure you know why YouTube SEO is important these days. There are many reasons behind it, such as:

• When your videos turn up in search results, more people can click on and watch your videos. It means that using YouTube SEO can help you get more views.
  
  
• With YouTube SEO, there is a higher chance of conversion. More eyes mean more shares, views, and engagement. Even, it will also attract more revenue and subscriptions.
  
  
• There is no need to invest huge amounts of money in YouTube SEO. It needs your time and may need a little bit of money to buy the right tools and software.
  
  
• When your videos start showing up in online searches, this will help boost click-through rates to your website, develop brand loyalty and awareness, and attract organic traffic from YouTube.
  
  
• Having your YouTube videos show up in the search results means your valuable content is perceived before your competitors. It will give you a competitive advantage that can let you strengthen your place and become an industry leader.
  

 4. 10 Tips to do SEO for YouTube in 2024

With more than 2.7 billion YouTube users as of 2024, it is a powerful tool to reach your target audience. You can use it to drive more traffic. So, investing in creating video content is the best thing you can do in 2024. The co-founder of Beanstalk Internet Marketing, Dave Davies says that “Content is what the search engines use to fulfill user intent.’’ No matter what type of content you create for a YouTube video must be unique and compelling. Once you realize the importance and need for YouTube SEO, next, you have to be aware of the strategies or tips used to get higher rankings in YouTube’s search results. Let’s go through some interesting tips that you can consider for YouTube SEO:

1. Conducting Keyword Research
   After deciding on a video topic, finding the keywords is the next step. You can research keywords to determine the best keywords for enhancing the target audience’s reach. Make sure you choose keywords with high search volume and low competition. It is not easy to rank higher with high-competition keywords for new channels because of extreme competitiveness and particularity.
   
   
2. Using the chosen keyword in the video file and title
   After choosing the keywords, you need to add them to your video title and file. It will tell users what your video is about. The title should contain less than 70 characters, have keywords as close to the starting as possible, and have elements such as capitals and emojis cautiously to capture the attention of readers. Apart from that, you can also add keywords into tags, video chapters, descriptions, and in the video script. Try mixing synonyms, long-tail keywords, etc., while writing descriptions and inserting tags.
   
   
3. Selecting an engaging thumbnail
   Make sure your video has the right thumbnail to grab the user’s attention while browsing through YouTube search. Based on Google, 90 percent of videos with higher performance are equipped with custom thumbnails. Develop a thumbnail with a simple and colorful style that not only helps you capture the target audience’s attention but also reflects the video content accurately. Check out the thumbnails your competitors are using so that you can develop thumbnails accordingly.
   
   
4. Adding subtitles and closed captions
   Ensure your videos are packed with subtitles and closed captions. For that, you need to upload an SRT file. This way, it will help you enhance your SEO ranking and also boost the content’s accessibility. Once you add subtitles and captions, you will get a transcript for your video to help those users who are unable to listen and those who don’t speak the local language used in the video can translate it. Interestingly, it will help search engines to rank your content.
   
   
5. Using Calls to Action
   CTAs seem to be the most useful tool to grow your channel and prompt your targeted audience to engage with your brand. A well-developed Call to Action can inspire your audience to subscribe to your channel, share or like your video, or even go to your site. Adding CTAs in the video description and in the video itself is of greater help.
   
   
6. Optimizing the video description
   YouTube SEO demands the optimization of the video description along with the keyword or other related keywords. Mainly focus on adding the keyword in the initial 25 words and 2 to 4 times in total.
   
   The video description contains a 5k character limit. It must include the content’s summary included within the video and must be engaging to read. You should avoid keyword stuffing. Make key messages and points using bold and italics to make your video stand out in writing. Adding timestamps to your videos can also aid users navigate to specific segments. Another tip here is to sum up your description with a CTA such as asking users to comment/like/subscribe, visit your site for more info, or follow your brand on social media. Adding links to promote other videos on your YouTube channel might also help you.
   
   
7. Promoting videos on social media
   When you promote your videos on social media, it will enhance your SEO ranking. Video promotions on channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok will allow your videos to get exposure to your social media followers. Moreover, it also increases the level of sharing.
   
   
8. Responding to user comments
   Having the right engagement is the key to receiving the outcomes of your YouTube channel. Interacting actively with your audience in the comment section will help you engage your users greatly. Just invest your time responding to user feedback and comments with likes or written replies. You can also utilize pinned comments, encouraging them to subscribe, like, and share your video. This way, you will show your audience that you value their contribution or participation.
   
   
9. Selecting a video category
   It is users’ tendency to search for videos by category. So, all you need to do is to categorize your video so that it can reach your users. While uploading the videos, you can choose one category out of 15 including How-To and Style, Autos and Vehicles, Animation and Film, Education, People and Blogs, Travel and Events, Entertainment, Music Videos, Sports, Pets and Animals, Gaming, News and Politics, Science and Technology, Comedy, and Non-Profit and Activism.
   
   
10. Building playlists
    If you group content together in playlists, it lets your users discover content on your YouTube channel in a compelling way. Using a playlist can make your content more visible in the search results. This way, you can also enhance the user experience. When you create a playlist, start with the most popular videos first and then add them in a logical sequence.

 5. 8 Free Tools for YouTube SEO

Check out the latest free SEO tools you can use for YouTube. These are:

1. Ahrefs
   It is a YouTube keyword tool that is free of cost. This tool lets users view the search volume of a particular keyword in a specific destination.
   
   
2. Semrush
   It is a keyword analytics tool for YouTube, with which you can research keywords. This tool includes data on the search volume of keywords and how competitive the keywords are.
   
   
3. YouTube Search Bar
   It is a free tool that can give you a chance to find the titles and content with higher rankings. All you need to do is type phrases and words in the search bar, which will give you the higher-ranking content and titles. Those are the content of your competitors and it will give you a great chance to emphasize outranking.
   
   
4. TubeBuddy
   It is another must-have tool for YouTube SEO. It is a browser extension that integrates with your YouTube account. Using this tool will help you with video optimization and keyword research. It will give you complete YouTube SEO data such as YouTube keyword data, detailed analytics, usage statistics, etc.
   
   
5. YouTube Analytics
   It is an analytics tool for monitoring your YouTube channel performance. When you use this tool, it can help you observe subscribers, impressions, views, audience retention, traffic sources, and revenue.
   
   
6. vidIQ
   This analytics tool will analyze your YouTube videos. It will recommend the best keywords to find and reach your target audience. This tool also gives you an idea about the search volume and keyword competition.
   
   
7. Google Search Console
   It is the best tool for YouTube SEO. It lets you understand how videos are embedded in web pages or blog posts performing in the video tab on Google Search. Using this tool will allow you to find clicks data and impressions on YouTube. Apart from that, it also gives you information such as average rank position, total search queries, updates about video titles or descriptions, and many more.
   
   
8. YouTube description generator
   With this tool, you can generate SEO-friendly video descriptions according to your video topic, call-to-action, category, and many more. It is a free YouTube description generator tool by Hootsuite.
   

 6. Conclusion

YouTube SEO plays a crucial role in enhancing the rankings of your videos in the search results. Try to invest your valuable time in understanding the role of SEO for your YouTube videos and implement effective strategies to boost your video rankings. There are simple, yet effective tools and strategies you can use for YouTube SEO.