As the second largest internet search engine in the world, YouTube boasts an enormous 6 billion hours of video viewed by visitors to the site each month. With so much content, it comes as no surprise that rising from the masses and getting your videos seen can be difficult. Lack of views on a well-made short film or promotional video can certainly be discouraging, but there are ways to effectively improve the search engine ranking of your videos and receive countless more targeted views from those searching for businesses or video topic like yours! In order to achieve this ranking, there are several tips and strategies you can follow:
The longer you can keep viewers interested, the better.
One way that YouTube presently measures the value of its content is by taking into account the number of seconds a video is viewed. It is preferable, therefore, to produce and post videos that are both rich in content and longer in length. A well-made and interesting video will keep viewers engaged and lead to longer viewing time. That being said, having longer videos will add more seconds to your count and lead to higher rankings.
Take the time to name, tag, and describe your video.
As YouTube cannot see what your video is about, it looks at the file’s title, tags, and description to determine its content. It is thus extremely important that you choose an appropriate title for your video based on its main keywords and message. You must also be sure to tag your video with all related keywords and synonyms. Don’t forget to also add a description of your video with further detail. Aim for at least 200 words and be sure that you are not recycling content from your other uploaded videos. YouTube can see any repetition among video descriptions and will hold it against you when it comes to ranking.
Enable sharing and sending options.
Allowing viewers to share and send your videos allows groups or individual stakeholders who are directly affected or interested in your content to easily pass it along, leveraging the content sharing of your channel.
Optimise your channel page.
Though it may seem daunting, take the time to fill out every aspect of your YouTube channel page. Optimising your page will help separate your videos from those of the countless spammers on YouTube, putting them ahead in search engine rankings. Channel art, in particular, including a profile picture and background image can help YouTube users understand your channel quickly, making it preferable to Google and YouTube alike. Writing a thorough description of your channel can further enhance the understanding of your videos, as can subscriptions to other likewise and powerful companies and channels.
Include links to your social media pages and websites.
Finally, it is essential that you include links to your various other web pages in both your video and channel descriptions! This allows search engines to associate your YouTube channel with your business and website, meaning that a Google search for your brand will result in pages populated by your sites and content.