9 Effective Ways to Use YouTube for SEO

Are you aiming for higher website visibility? Do you wonder how other webmasters do it? Well for starters, they do not just stick to on-site SEO (search engine optimization) because they make use of off-site techniques as well. The former includes direct tweaks and edits on your website while the latter involves blogging, social networking, and bookmarking that aim to increase your site’s visibility and traffic. If you want large figures on your quality traffic analytics, take advantage of the exposure that YouTube offers. And soon, you will notice a significant increase of traffic in your site, provided of course that you use YouTube wisely and effectively. How? Take a look at 9 effective ways to use YouTube for SEO.

How to Use YouTube for SEO

1. Watch other videos

Log on to the website and scroll through the “Most Watched” list. View some of these and get your feel of what viral videos are like. Are they funny? Touching? Scary? Informative? Lengthy?

Take note of the prominent features you notice in such videos and compare what they all have in common. Do they have multiple tags? Are they subtitled? How long the videos usually last—5 minutes tops?

By familiarizing yourself with viral videos, you will learn how to effectively create your own.

2. Upload a video (s)

There is no established formula on how a video rapidly gains viewership overnight. In fact, that is the mystery that shrouds YouTube: how can a video be noticed and gain instant fame?

Well, there is no definite answer because no one really knows.

However, there are secret techniques to maximize the potential of your video and gain more than 500,000 views.

• Keep it brief, with your pointers not lasting more than 10 seconds.
• Include useful annotations in your video, with either links or suggestions.
• Avoid making upfront advertisements; otherwise your viewers will not share your video to social media sites.
• Provide thought-provoking and intriguing ideas in your videos.

3. Optimize your personal channel

The moment you sign up for an account with YouTube, you immediately have your own channel that, of course, you can customize and turn into a creative profile.

To get started, you must first upgrade your channel. The new design is better, easier, and more viewer-friendly. Plus, it immediately applies your settings from your old channel.

Once in, you will notice that there are tons of useful editing options. Use these to tweak the settings to your preferences. This way, you can better manage all information displayed about you or your firm, your activities and subscriptions, and videos.

4. Create tempting titles

The title is one of the first things that an Internet surfer sees on Youtube’s search results pages, next to thumbnails and number of views.

As such, it is crucial for the title to be concise yet catchy.

You should also avoid taking a short-cut by adding words like “official video”, or “extraordinary footage”, or “amazing” on the title. They may work for some videos but NOT all of them.

5. Aim for many subscribers

First, let me define what a subscriber is in YouTube context. This is someone who has willingly chosen to follow your channel and content so he can be updated of your latest uploads.

In a sense, this is your fan. And the higher your number of subscribers, the higher the chance that your video will be watched and shared.

Here are some neat tricks that will gain you more subscribers:

• Ask your viewers to “Subscribe” via call to action on your videos
• Provide creative annotations
• Include a widget or social media button in your website
• Feature other channels, preferably those in line with your niche and those who already have a horde of subscribers.

6. Target the “More Videos” or “Most Viewed” list

How do you get your video to stand out from the cornucopia of 10,000 videos uploaded each day on YouTube?

First, consider that more than 80 million videos are watched on YouTube each day, and a considerable portion of these are ‘clicked on’ by users from the Featured videos on the upper right section of the page.

If you get yours listed in there, you will not have to worry about promoting your video or your channel. The gist is: the higher it is on the list, the higher the chances it will gain more than a million views.

7. Embed videos to your website

Embed videos into your website to further increase its chances of being noticed and watched by more people. Yes, it is as simple as that.

8. Use tags and descriptions properly to your advantage

Unless you are a known user in YouTube, the only way for people to find your video is by searching. This entails that you should be careful of the words you used in your tags and descriptions. See to it that they match the content of your video.

9. Use it as a social network

Remember that YouTube, aside from being a video search engine and sharing platform, is a social networking giant that you can use to interact with friends and followers.

You can send or receive messages, post updates on the Bulletin Board, create lists or groups of your friends, and make playlists of your videos.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There are many more ways for you to use YouTube for your SEO goals. The ones I listed above are some of the most effective, judging by their traffic contributions to my website.

If you have your own ideas or techniques, feel free to share them in the comments section. Happy browsing!

About the Author :Emma Tomlinson is the Head of Retail at Smart Traffic, a top company in the UK offering SEO reseller packages to many countries across the globe.