Optimizing your video for SEO is a great way to get it indexed on Google and YouTube and increase its visibility. There are many different optimization strategies to get your video ranked, but here are five tips for optimizing your videos for SEO:
First and foremost, when optimizing your video for SEO, ensure that the video loads before any other content on your page. This will give the video crawler an easier time indexing your content, which is essential for getting a strong ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Optimize the Title
The title of your video is one of the most important things you can do for search engine optimization. This is because the title will be displayed in the YouTube search results and will help viewers find your content if they have a specific search query.
Optimize the title by including keywords relevant to the video’s content. However, use only a few keywords as it can look spammy, and Google will lower your search ranking.
Ideally, your title should summarize the video and contain at least six to eight words. This will make it easier for search engines to understand what the video is about and rank it higher in searches.
In addition, be sure to include a keyword in the file name of your video, as well as a title, description, and thumbnail. This can be done before uploading the video to YouTube, or once it’s life.
Optimize the Description
The description of your video is an essential part of your SEO strategy. It’s like your site’s “about” page – it needs to tell people what the video is about and why they should click on it.
Aim to write a descriptive text of around 107 – 250 words, including keywords (2-4 times) and a timestamp if the video is longer than 1 minute. Include a call-to-action (CTA) if there’s one.
If you have a lot of videos, group them in keyword-optimized playlists to give YouTube more context about your topic and increase your search visibility.
When describing your video, make sure it is natural and readable. Google algorithms can read the human language, so it’s best to use your target keyword as early in your description as possible and not make your text sound like a robotic voice.
Finally, use hashtags to help viewers find your video when they search for a specific term. However, don’t overdo it – YouTube ignores any tags that contain more than 15 hashtags.
Optimize the Thumbnail
The thumbnail of your video is the first thing people see when searching for your content. It’s also an important ranking factor since it signals searchers that your video is relevant to their query.
For this reason, it’s important to choose a compelling and relevant thumbnail that is both on-brand and on-message. You can use images, colors, and contrasting elements to help your thumbnail stand out in a sea of videos on your topic.
In addition, it’s a good idea to add a photo or logo of yourself or your team to your thumbnail. This helps viewers know you’re someone they can talk to if they have any questions.
Including your focus video SEO keyword in your thumbnail image is also a good idea, as it will help you rank for it. But don’t overload your image with keywords, as this may seem unnatural or confusing to web crawlers.
Optimize the URL
The URL is one of the most important aspects of a website. It gives users their first impression of your site and can be used to influence search engine algorithms.
A well-optimized URL is short, meaningful, and easy to read. It should also contain a keyword that will help you rank in search engines.
It’s also a good idea to avoid using stop words like a, an, or the in your URL, as search engines can easily ignore them.
Rather, use hyphens (-) to separate words in your URL phrases. Hyphens are treated as spaces between words, and search engines recognize this as a more significant signal than underscores, which they treat as single words.
While the URL is the smallest part of a web page, it still plays an important role in on-site SEO. Optimizing it correctly can boost your site’s search engine ranking and entice more visitors to view your content.
Optimize the Title Tag
One of the most important elements of SEO is your title tag. People see this when they search for your video on Google and other search engines. It’s also where you want to include your target keywords.
The right use of keywords in your title tag can help your rankings. In addition, it can look spammy and annoying to users.
In the context-based era of search, Google and other search engines are looking for words relevant to the topic being searched on and the searcher’s intent. Finding the balance between using keywords naturally and writing in a way that reads well to both searchers and Google’s search engine bots is key to good optimization.
