In this article we're going to look at the different factors that play a role when it comes to achieving a higher ranking in YouTube for your videos.
Like webpages, videos have several elements / factors that can impact the ranking in the YouTube search results. The more of these factors that you consider and implement, the higher rankings and the better results you'll see.
Let's dive right in.
It's obvious but the more competitive and saturated a niche or topic is in YouTube, the harder it will be to rank highly, due to the level of competition that you'll be up against.
It's a balancing act. If you publish content that has little competition, you'll rank highly but will get fewer views. If you publish content in a niche that has lots of competition it'll be hard to rank highly, but if you persist it may pay off in the form of lots of video views.
It's worth doing some research to find out how competitive a niche or topic is. Our TubeSerp software has a built-in 'Keyword Analysis' feature that will instantly tell you how easy or hard specific keywords would be to rank in the YouTube search results. It uses several factors to do this. This same feature will reveal a lot about a niche after you have run several different keywords through it to see how difficult they will be.
Every keyword varies with regards to how difficult it would be to rank. It not only depends on the number of videos that are already competing for the keyword. It also depends on how much authority those videos have in terms of channel size and relevancy.
Again, TubeSerps built-in 'Keyword Analysis' module will save you hours of work and wasted energy and resources by letting you know which keywords are worth targeting, and which ones are best to avoid.
Video is optimization is key when it comes to ranking videos for specific keywords. Every video you publish should be optimized and it is always worth taking the time to do so.
So, what do I mean by optimization. What I'm referring to is the semantic optimization of the videos titles, description, and tags. These are three areas that we have control over, and that YouTube uses to determine what our video content is about, and who it is for.
TubeSerp has a powerful and unique set of video optimization features that allow you to optimize the title, description, and tags. It extracts the hidden 'semantic' data from the top performing videos (for any given keyword) and will weight them making it quick and easy to calculate the SEO score.
By using these optimization features you'll see a huge increase in video views. You can learn more about our YouTube keywords extractor here.
Video length can play a role in how well your videos rank in the search results. Creating videos that are too short (i.e. - 1 minute) will result in poor rankings as YouTube knows that it would be hard to deliver value to your viewers inside a 1-minute video.
Video length should vary depending on the niche or topic. It's also good to look at the top 10 ranked videos for your chosen keyword and note the length of those videos. YouTube are ranking those videos for a reason so if for example all the top 10 videos are between 15 - 20 minutes in length, you should ideally aim for that length too with your own video.
Some people opt to create lengthy videos that are 25 - 60 minutes. Personally, I think this is too long as people don't to spend lengthy periods of time digesting content from one video. A sweet spot for me is 8-10 minutes. This is long enough to deliver content, but short enough to entice your audience to click on your video.
This is my own thinking when I am browsing YouTube videos and I believe it is a similar thought process for many people.
Before you write a video, voice-over script or record any kind of video it's wise to have your target keyword already in mind. This is so you can tailor your script or video to include that keyword as well as supporting 'semantic' words.
YouTube is very good at extracting transcripts from videos, so they know what is being talked about in terms of content and topic.
If you're targeting a specific keyword and your video only broadly touches on that topic, not only will it result in poor user-behaviour metrics (low watch time and a lack of engagement), but YouTube will also see that the video isn't 'really' focused on your keyword. The keyword that you're putting emphasis on within your video title and description.
So, always theme your script and video around your target keyword if you're wanting to have solid, long-term search engine rankings and evergreen views.
For the YouTube Community it's no secret that having a larger channel with topical relevance and authority provides you with more 'ranking power' and more reach within YouTube.
Every time you publish a new video not only will your video be pushed in front of your subscribers, it will also be favoured by the YouTube algorithm as the video will have been published on an aged, trusted channel.
Building up a YouTube channel takes time and consistency. I will discuss this further in a future article.
I will discuss video thumbnails in more detail in a future article. However, having an intriguing thumbnail that create curiosity and stands out from your competition is key to getting a higher CTR (click through rate).
The higher the CTR, the higher YouTube will rank your video and the more views your video will attract. Therefore, it's important to spend a little time on this task and create thumbnails that 'pop' and get good results.
If you'd like to know how much CTR is good for YouTube we have an entire article on that topic.
If you've watched a lot of YouTube videos, you'll have seen that many YouTubers or YouTube marketers include call to actions within their video content.
Call to actions that ask people to give their video a 'Thumbs Up', to subscribe to their channel, or to click on the little bell icon so their subscribers will get notified about their future videos.
This not only helps to grow their channel, but it also increases user-engagement which will trigger the YouTube algorithm in a positive way.
Videos with good user-engagement will see higher rankings in the search results as YouTube know that people interact with the video and that it is providing value to their users.
Embedding your YouTube videos on third-party websites along with relevant content will help push your videos higher in the search results. Publishing backlinks that point to your videos on third-party websites also have a similar affect.
Third-party websites are websites that are not owned by you, and having your videos embedded or linked to on other websites is like other website owners 'voting' for your videos as they're sharing them with their audience.
This sends a signal to YouTube that your video is deemed valuable and popular and this results in a higher, organic ranking in their search results.
If you apply the factors that I have outlined above, you'll see lots more success with your videos.
Be sure to check out our TubeSerp software to see how it can help you to get higher rankings and generate more views for your videos. We are offering a full access, 7-day trial for just $1 dollar.
To your success!
Andy Black
TubeSerp
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