Today we want to start by asking how many of you consume YouTube on a daily basis. Well, on second thought, maybe it would be better to ask: How often do you use this platform on a daily basis? And it is a fact that YouTube has become one of the most trafficked platforms on the Internet, becoming your favorite player, your favorite music player. webinar and the fastest and most concise answer to how to solve that problem you have in mind.
Cisco is already forecasting that, by 2022, the video format be the king of the Internet, concentrating more than 80 % of traffic. So if you too think it's time to get your act together and want to find out how to be more visible on YouTube, read on 😉 .
SEO on YouTube, make it easy
The first thing to consider is the raw material: the video. No matter how good an idea we have and how much SEO work is done on YouTube, we will be playing on hard mode if the video does not meet the minimum requirements:
- mp4 and HD format to be able to offer different video resolutions for playback.
- Good acoustics and lightingNo matter how fascinating you are telling something, if you have psychophones in your mike or the light is so dim that you can barely be seen, you will need a miracle to hold your audience.
- Size and time limits: If you are just starting out on YouTube and do not have a verified account, please note that your videos should not exceed 15 minutes recording, nor the 128 GB weight.
So easy and simple, and without resorting to a super audiovisual production. Fulfilling these minimums you already get a better predisposition on the part of the audience to stay watching your fantastic videos. Which, as we will see later, is VITAL.
How to position a video on Youtube
1. Use keywords wisely
First of all, you must identify the problem you are solving with your video and then find out how users search for it. To do this, you can use tools such as KeywordTool.io, Google Trends, Answer the public or the autocomplete option of the Youtube search engine.
Once you have the keywords selected, you must include them in the title, description and tags. For the latter, we recommend that you take a look at the tags of related and competitor videos with the help of the VidIQ tool, and use synonyms, as YouTube takes semantic similarity into account.
2. Activate transcripts and plan your Elevator Pitch.
In some countries, such as the U.S., it is obvious (and obligatory), but in Spain we are still not aware of the fact that Youtube reads us. Yes, yes, just as you read it. Youtube reads us and also listens to us.
Search engines detect subtitle textTherefore, it is essential that you activate automatic transcriptions and take special care of the first 15 seconds of your speech. Not only because of the impact it may have on the audience, but also because Youtube also analyzes audio for key words.
SEO Tip: Take a few minutes to do the manual transcription. It is possible that the automatisms include some spelling mistakes in the subtitles that we prefer to avoid.
Video thumbnails and CTR
Thumbnails matter, because they can make the difference between your video being the love at first sight of many or going completely unnoticed. If you want to get a high CTR, in addition to taking care of the title and description, you must create your own personalized thumbnail. Or you can let YouTube do the choosing for you 😉 .
4. Timestamps
If your video exceeds 30 seconds in length, you can consider adding timestamps. Timestamps are widely used in music albums to separate the different songs that make up the work, and they basically function as if they were video index. To create timestamps you only have to take into account two elements and include them in the video description:
- The second in which you change the subject
- The actual subject you are talking about
Et voilá, this would be the visualization of the timestamps in the Google SERP:
SEO Tip: For the timestamps to be displayed correctly, the first timestamp must start at the 0:00 second.
5. Improve your retention on Youtube
To increase the viewing time and retention of your videos, you can include cards that link with other videos or playlists from your channel (or related channels), conduct surveys or even link to your website.
We also recommend adding some transition elements to your videos. Try adding a logo, card or some text in your videos, and you will see how your times will improve.
SEO Tip: If you don't have much time, tools like Envato, Rederforest or Panzeroid will help you create a simple and original intro for your videos 😉.
Metrics of engagement Everything under control?
We already know that Youtube is interested in that users spend as much time as possible consuming videos on your platform. The more videos viewed, the more ads that bring you revenue, right? Therefore, the user interaction, precisely what we can control the least, is super important to increase organic visibility. Let's take a look at the most important ones:
Video viewing and CTR
As we all know, the CTR is the click-through rate, i.e., how many times the user clicks on my video. But why do we highlight it? Because Youtube distinguishes two types of CTR based on retention they have ever had:
- Simple CTRWe can achieve it with a good positioning and optimization of the video. With a simple click, we would have it, even if the user abandons the video after two seconds of viewing.
- Long CTRIt takes retention into account, and it is the CTR that we all pursue. Long CTRs result in a long display time of the video and the platform. Let's not forget that Youtube wants you to stay watching video the longer the better, so weight your videos better when you get clicks of this type.
Retention and viewing time on YouTube
Very much hand in hand with the Long CTR This metric is broken down into individual retention and joint retention, depending on the time spent viewing the video and on the platform.
- Individual retentionThe time you spend visualizing the video. Keep in mind that the retention begins to be weighted from a percentage of video viewing, and that this varies depending on the duration of the video, as you can see in the slide.
- Joint withholding: The time you stay within YouTube itself. In turn, we distinguish between internal or external joint retention, depending on whether the user stays on your channel or goes to look for videos elsewhere.
- Internal joint retentionYour channel is the best. The optimal and most pursued retention. What SEO doesn't want a user to stay for hours and hours on his channel? What a utopia!
- External joint retentionI'm more interested in this other one. But if this other one convinces me to stay, at least you get something.
Social interaction in your videos and channel
Other interactions that weight beyond clicks and viewing time include the following:
- Commentson video and channel. Comments make the video dynamic and keep it updated with new information, so it is more difficult for the algorithm to consider a video obsolete if it has recurring comments.
- I like it (or not)Some people do not agree that this is a factor to be included in the ranking. What is clear is that if you like a video, it will appear more times in recommended videos, and that, at least at a psychological level, the "likes" do have an influence on us, so in the entry on Marketing Biases we called Dragging effect.
- Video sharing: When you are going to share your video don't forget to do it through the button. If you copy and paste the link it will not be taken into account for this metric.
- Channel subscriptions
- Videos added/removed from others playlists
SEO Tip: If you have your own channel and broadcast live, don't forget to activate the chat 😉.
Other metrics for Youtube
In addition to the special care you have to put into your videos and the importance of the engagementIf you are going to use the platform, you will have to take care of other factors, since the channel and the "linkbuilding" you do on the platform are also weighted. Let's see how:
Take care of your channel
The aesthetics and quality of your channel matter, and we're not just talking about the frequency with which you upload videos or log in, the comments of users on the channel or the appropriateness of your keywords to the subject matter of the videos. No. You should also pay particular attention to your home pagethe playlists and the channel information that you publish, since it is also valued that the channel includes keywords important of the main theme you are going to work on.
After all, it wouldn't make any sense for you to have a butcher shop and post music videos, would it?
Linking and playlists
Link. Link as much as you can. Link to your social networks in "More info", link to other channels to increase external joint retention, link to channels or videos with cards, mention your previous videos in the new posts you make, but above all, link to your social networks in "More info", link to other channels to increase external joint retention, link to channels or videos with cards, mention your previous videos in the new posts you make, but above all, link your videos in well-kept lists.
We need to focus on increasing the overall retention of your videos, and the more you link them, the more options to continue consuming videos there will be. However, of all the things you can link to, what you're most interested in are playlists, for to encourage internal joint retention.
If you organize your videos well by theme, work on a title and description with keywords and upload related videos on a recurring basis, you will not only get a tidy and clean channel, but you will also increase the retention of the list, which will appear more often by having new posts every x amount of time.
