YouTube SEO – How To Rank YouTube Videos In 2021

YouTube is the second biggest search engine on earth after Google. Plus, the power of video content is growing each day. These two factors alone should convince you to start a YouTube channel.

If you have already started a YouTube channel, congratulations. You are ahead of the game.

But you might have noticed one thing. It’s quite difficult to rank YouTube videos.

Maybe it’s not as difficult as ranking a blog post, but it’s still a lot of work. The competition on YouTube is growing with time and you have to make sure that your videos stand out.

How? That’s exactly what I’m going to discuss in this blog post. So if you want more views, subscribers, and likes, keep reading.

YouTube SEO

YouTube Keyword Research

As you already know, the process of making any SEO strategy mostly starts with keyword research. YouTube SEO is no exception.

Keyword research is kind of obvious. As a beginner, someone might not realize its importance, but after a while, you realize that it’s inevitable.

The idea is simple. People use certain terms, also called keywords by SEOs, to search any query on a search engine. You want to find out those keywords. And the process involved in it is called keyword research.

Without having a proper, relevant set of keywords, you are setting yourself up for failure. Think about it: if you don’t know the terms people use to find stuff online, how can you expect them to find your content?

So first, you want to compile a list of keyword ideas. You can use YouTube’s Search Suggest feature for that. All you have to do is type a related term in the YouTube search bar, and it will give you keyword ideas that people are already searching for.

The second strategy you can use is to find a popular video in your niche and gather keywords around which the video is optimized.

You can also go to a big channel in your niche and check out their popular videos. Just check out the keywords that those videos use in their title, description, and video tags. Use the VidIQ Chrome extension to see a video’s tags.

After compiling a list of keywords, check out the competition for that keyword. You can do this by using the “site” operator. Let’s see how will it look like if you want to find the competition for the keyword “Local SEO.” You would type the following in the Google search bar and hit enter:

YouTube ranking factors site:youtube.com

It gives you 14,400 results. In the SEO industry, this number is quite low. You want to decide what’s low according to your industry.

Capture Your Audience

In the previous section, you have selected the relevant keywords. Now it’s time to create a high-retention video.

The amount of your video people watch is called Audience Retention, and it’s one of YouTube ranking factors. It’s more like a win-win situation for both you and YouTube. If people stay on YouTube longer because of your videos, you’ll get higher rankings.

So how do you increase Audience Retention? Start the video with the summary of your video. You want to let people know that they are in the right place. The idea is to capture their attention in the beginning.

Then get right into your content. Long introductions tend to be boring, so get to the content that the user wants to see.

The third technique is to use open loops. You can do this by adding a preview of the things you want to discuss later in the video. This makes people curious which increases Audience Retention. ​

Focus On Other YouTube Ranking Factors As Well

We have seen that YouTube is very passionate about Audience Retention. In addition to that, you should focus on the following ranking factors:

Video Comments: Comments are important in YouTube rankings because they let the platform know that you are creating engagement. So you should ask people to leave a comment. And don’t forget to reply to those comments.

“Subscribes” After A Video: If someone subscribes to your channel after watching a video, it’s a signal of an engaging video. You don’t have to do much for it. Create an awesome video and remind people to subscribe to your channel at the end of the video.

Video Shares: Again, remind people to share your video on their favorite social media platforms.

Click-Through-Rate (CTR): When it comes to CTRs, you just have two options: Title and thumbnails. So pay attention to these factors and take your time to decide what can increase clicks on your videos.

Video Length: Longer videos win over shorter videos.​

Optimize Your Video

Now it’s time to optimize the video.

First, you want to say the keyword in your video. That’s because YouTube transcribes your videos. This lets the platform know that the video is about a certain keyword.

Mention your keyword at the beginning of your video title. This way, you get a slight video SEO boost. Like I did in this blog post’s title: YouTube SEO – How To Rank YouTube Videos In 2021

Write a mini blog post of 250 words for description. Mention your keywords 2-4 times. Make sure not to stuff your description with keywords. Prioritize readers over bots.

Promote Your Video

Now you need to spread the word. For that, you can utilize Q&A websites. Quora is a good starting point. It can get you high-quality traffic.

After that, embed your videos in the related blog posts. You also want to share it on your social media accounts. And finally, add them to your emails when relevant.​

​Final Words on YouTube SEO

As you have seen in this blog post, YouTube SEO is not that difficult. You just have to follow the strategies I discussed and create value for viewers.

What is your secret to getting a high number of views on YouTube? Let me know in the comments below.