As you have probably noticed, the most queries entered into Google web search make primarily YouTube videos appear in the top of the list. Why it is so and how to make your video to be among the first when the relevant query is entered? If you have a high-quality video and want more people to know about it, this article is what you need. Following are the main rules of YouTube video optimization.
How to Optimize Videos for YouTube Search
1. Video file name
If you have a video about how to fix a bike, and you name it with a meaningless set of letters, you should not expect it to become popular. You’d better name it according to the video’s topic. As a result, we will get the following file name: how-to-fix-a-bike. After that, upload the video on YouTube and follow the rules described below.
2. Title
Before watching the video, users read its title first. YouTube search engines (SE) also use titles. So before giving the title to your clip, think twice how to do it better. Here are some tips:
- It is very important to use a keyword in the video title;
- These keywords should be placed at the beginning of the clip title;
- Create a title up to 70 characters (in the search result, only 60 characters are displayed);
- Do not use more than 2 keywords in the title;
- Make the title as concise as possible;
- Come up with a unique title for your video (to differ from your competitors);
- Put the numbers of the series and parts of the video to the end of the title.
3. Description
Video description should contain information about its content (both for users and for YouTube search!). Making a description, one should consider the following things:
- Describe your video as accurately as possible, use 3-4 sentences;
- Place the most relevant words among the first 120 characters (approximately 140 characters are displayed in the search result);
- Use some keywords in description;
- Add useful links to description (to the site itself, to the blog, to the forum, to other useful videos or materials).
4. Tags
Tags play keywords role. They help search engines to understand whether to show your video to the audience or not. How to make a list of tags:
- Add keywords to the tags;
- Dilute tags with more general but relevant keywords (e.g. a more broad topic that includes the things your video goes about);
- Try to put more important words among the first 160 characters;
5. Image of video
These are the images that will be displayed before the video begins to play. After you upload the video, three variants for such images (which YouTube considers the most interesting) are available in its settings. But you can upload your own image. Of course, it is better to choose such images individually. They will serve as a small advertising for your clip - seeing an interesting image, the user will certainly want to click on the video and watch it.
Here are some tips how to choose images properly:
- Use an image of good quality, brightness and contrast;
- If there is a face of the person, it should be shown close-up;
- The image should convey the content of the video;
- The image should look great in a large and small size. Therefore, we recommend to check out how the result looks like.
6. Annotations
Annotations is an important tool on YouTube. With its help you can call the user to a specific action ('like', subscribe to the feed, leave a comment, go to another video). Key recommendations for placing descriptions:
- Create annotations that are interesting for users;
- Do not distract the user’s attention from the video, create short annotations for the viewers to have time to read it quickly (5-8 seconds is enough);
- The size of the annotation should not be too large (not to obstruct the video itself);
- Choose muted colors annotation background not to distract the users (shades of gray, black, white, translucent);
- Place the annotations closer to the edge of the video;
- Do not use more than 2 annotations simultaneously;
- Do not make too long annotations (i.e. do not use a lot of characters);
- It is better not to use CAPITAL LETTERS in annotations;
- Put calls to actions in the annotations (Like, Subscribe to the channel, Leave a comment), but do not put too much of them;
- Try to place the annotation at the end of the clip. In this case, the user will watch the video quietly and will perform the action more willingly;
- Add links to your annotations (links to related videos, to social networks, to the site itself).
If you have responsible approach to the annotations, they will bring you a lot of positive results.
This is perhaps the most important things that should be taken into account if you add a video on YouTube. You can also view more extensive advice from the very video search engine.
Best regards from web-developers' team!