Optimizing Videos on Youtube

Did you know that you could get to number 1 on Google by optimizing videos for high ranking in YouTube? Read on to find out more and to learn how to achieve this yourself.

As a video file sharing website, YouTube has become the primary source of video distribution for people all over the world. The volume of searches for videos that occur in YouTube rival that of popular search engines that we use for every other search. Considering these facts, it would be a good idea to start producing and optimizing videos for SEO results. Certainly you already optimize web page content and vigorously market it for improved rankings on Google and other search engines, but you may not have considered doing so with videos. The written web already poses massive competition in SEO, while video optimizing remains a relatively new concept, thus making it an easier task to achieve higher rankings. Also, achieving top spots in YouTube often results in equally high rank positions in Google’s universal search results.

When you begin to optimize videos for SEO within YouTube, keep in mind how its algorithm works in ranking videos within its search results. The key signals that YouTube relies on when ranking videos within its search results are:

• The text provided in the title and description of the video;
• The number of views the video has;
• The recent trending of the video (essentially the recent increase in popularity);
• Its overall ratings.

Garry Przyklenk at Search Engine Watch does a great job of analyzing the influence of these factors on videos and their relative YouTube search results rankings. It goes to show that videos in YouTube that are not even optimized at all can gain top ranking in search results, even in Google. Realizing this to be the case begs one to imagine the results a video can achieve if it was optimized in YouTube for specific keywords.

Follow these tips and techniques to achieve similarly high search result rankings in YouTube for your own videos:

Video Title: YouTube allows 99 characters for your video’s title text. Be sure to optimize your title text with the keywords you want to target and rank for, but do not ignore branding and descriptive text. If what you are optimizing for is already secured at the top spot by another agent, continue to optimize it for second or third placement since search results on YouTube suggest other related videos which also get plenty views.

Video Description: YouTube allows 5,000 characters for your video’s description text. This gives you plenty of space to write as much about your video as you would like. Be sure to include the keywords you are targeting and also use the space to request people to rank your video, since video ratings and views are factors in your search rankings within YouTube and consequently Google. Sharing and embedding your video will also be beneficial.

Video Tags: Using tags is useful for the search terms you use in your title text and description. Including names and branding will also help your video get recognized by relevant searches.

Broadcasting and sharing options:

Privacy: Make sure that your video’s setting is set to public so it is available for searches.

Comments: It is advisable that you enable comments on your YouTube videos as this will allow users to talk about your video, your brand or your message, thus generating optimum discussion and allowing word about your video to spread.

Video Responses: Allowing video responses may help boost views since they automatically link to your original.

Ratings: Allowing ratings is a must since they have a direct impact on your rankings as a key part of the YouTube search results algorithm.

Embedding: Enabling embedding allows people to share your video on blogs and social media websites. These help boost views and extend your video to new audiences outside of YouTube so it is advisable to enable it.

Syndication: This is yet another way to boost your views and help your videos rank higher on YouTube and Google. Enable syndication as well.

Following the above mentioned tips and strategies is sure to help you gain increased rankings on YouTube for your video and consequently on Google. Increased viewership is important, and since YouTube considers a video “viewed” after eight seconds of runtime, be sure to produce a video that will draw viewers in past that threshold. Embedding and social media sharing is a great way to achieve maximum views, so don’t be shy to ask others to do so, whether you do so personally, in the video or in your video description. There are many strategies to get your videos viewed by all. These are just a few thoughts to help you get started. Just think of optimizing your video for SEO on YouTube as you would optimize your typical web content. Seeding your videos, distributing links, promoting viewership through Google AdWords and even creating a series of interrelated videos are all methods that can help. With viewership, ratings will come as well, but be sure to encourage others to rank your video by asking for it.

Hopefully this article has helped you realize the benefits awaiting you in optimizing videos for SEO on YouTube. If web content optimization was getting too competitive to gain from, be sure to try optimizing for video. Marketing with video will surely earn you a top spot on YouTube and it may lead to a top spot on Google as well.