The first thing that comes to mind when talking about search engine optimization is Google, and it isn’t hard to understand why. With over 70% of the total market share for online searches and nearly 85% of all mobile traffic, it’s the most popular search engine in the World Wide Web. And this alongside the best Des Moines SEO companies makes the platform an excellent option for both paid and organic searches. The only downside to this is the competition. Since so many are vying to enhance their online visibility through the same digital channel, it can be more than a little challenging to attain the coveted leads and conversions by sticking solely to this medium.
Fortunately, by tapping into other search engines like the hosting service, YouTube, not only is it possible to improve exposure over the internet. But with the help of reputable and trustworthy SEO companies, it’ll inbound traffic too. And in this article, we’ll discuss how the experts handle search engine optimization for this video-sharing platform. Continue to read below to find out more.
The process begins with researching keywords
The search engine optimization process might not be the same for all digital platforms, but they do have similarities. And one of the things that they have in common is that they make use of keywords to create awareness for the created content. Why are these targeted words essential? It’s because they’re the phrases viewers usually use to search for the desired content. If content creators want to reel in more users to their respective channels, they’ll need to find out what the most used keywords are relevant to their videos. Luckily, it’s relatively easy to do. All it takes is to type in terms associated with the content in the YouTube’s search box and it should immediately give out a list of recommended keywords.
Optimize the title of the video
Like the creation of headlines of written content such as articles and blog posts, it’s essential to optimize titles for videos too. After all, they’re one of the first things that catches the attention of viewers and determines whether users will click on the content or pass it up for something else. So it must always be as compelling and engaging as it is relevant to the content of the video. Additionally, it’s a good idea to integrate keywords into the videos’ titles if possible because it’ll make the content a lot more visible to users interested in its topic or subject matter than it would’ve been otherwise.
Upload personalized thumbnails for the videos
Thumbnails are the images that users see when browsing through the list of searched videos. And not unlike titles, it gives viewers an impression of what to expect from the content. And as a result, can have a significant impact on the number of views that it receives. While it’s possible to stick with the auto-generated thumbnails of YouTube, it’s highly recommended to go for a personalized one instead. There are reports that show that at least 90% of the highest performing content on the platform make use of custom thumbnails, after all. And having a captivating thumbnail for the video will entice viewers to click it more than those that don’t.
Work on the description of the content
The description of the video is a lot more important to the SEO of the content than many realize. It’s a mistake to overlook this aspect because it’ll help the content to appear in the list of recommended videos which is where the views for the majority of channels often come from. And by optimizing the content’s description with the help of experts from the best Des Moines SEO companies through the addition of essential information like relevant keywords, tagging, and calls-to-action, the video will have a good chance of elevating its position in the search rankings and reach its intended audience.
Add transcriptions and subtitles
More and more content creators are adding subtitles into their videos. And for a very good reason: it makes the content much more easily consumable and widely accessible. And, in turn, boost their SEO efforts. Similar to thumbnails, YouTube offers the option for captions for videos. But it’s usually a much better approach to create and add the transcription instead because it’ll be a lot more accurate and easier to read than the auto-generated content.
Encourage viewers to comment
The more activity that a video gets, the more likely it is to be noticed by YouTube’s algorithm. Not unlike search engines like Google, the video hosting services often prioritizes the most popular content. And one metric that it uses to determine how well-liked a video is are the comments it gets. And it’s for this reason that it’s a good idea to encourage users to post their thoughts on the page either through the description of the content or the end of the video. Not only will this lead to more views, but it’ll improve the channel’s chances to increase its subscribers.
The filename will make a difference
It may sound weird to optimize the filename, especially when considering that it’s invisible to the eyes of the viewers. However, it can have a positive impact on the SEO of the video because the platform will still be able to detect it. And by incorporating relevant keywords and phrases to the name of the file, YouTube will be able to determine what the content is all about. And in doing so, it’ll be able to index the video accordingly.
It’s fairly common for most businesses today to leverage YouTube as a digital marketing platform. After all, it helps brands build recognition to a broader audience. And with the services of the best Des Moines SEO companies and the expert strategies listed above, an organization can use the video hosting service to effectively generate the exposure that it needs to increase its traffic and leads that’ll result in higher conversion rates and more sales.