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Have a look at how we impacted businesses, youtube seo case study: 53% increase in views within 1 month without any new video uploads.

YouTube is the second biggest social networking site after Facebook, with over 2.9 billion active users and 694,000 hours streamed every minute. However, even with so many users on the platform, getting interaction on your videos is a task in itself. The YouTube algorithm is twisted and takes months to master. Most people say posting on YouTube consistently is the only way to get more views on your channel.

But what if you are out of content and still want to increase your YouTube channel views? It might seem an impossible task, but that’s what Blusteak was able to crack. Our team recently helped our client’s channel go from 2.29 million views to 3.5 million without any new uploads. The following case study can help you increase views for your old YouTube videos

Let’s see how we did that. 

About the client 

Our client has a YouTube channel in the entertainment niche with over 250k subscribers. The channel is an ultimate collection of top Bollywood songs. You can also find some fine artists singing some of our favourite songs. Staying relevant in such niches is extremely difficult, but our client has pulled it off gracefully. We have only seen the channel grow in numbers alongside providing the best quality videos to the audience. 

Brand Concerns 

Since our client is from the entertainment niche, which is amongst the most competitive niche on YouTube, getting more views was already quite challenging. Also, we didn’t have any no new content to upload that would have increased the view content. At this point, we knew that the only thing that would work was optimizing videos that were already present on the channel and repurposing our content through YouTube shorts. 

Ultimate solution 

Despite these challenges, our team was able to bring up the YouTube view count for our client; let’s see how we did that.

1. In-depth competitor analysis 

First, we did a 360-degree competitor analysis for each video uploaded on the channel to evaluate elements like titles, video descriptions, tags, thumbnails, transcripts, and more. This helped us identify parts that needed improvement and optimization, leading to more view counts. While posting on Youtube should also focus on understanding user intent and SEO that will help you rank better. Failing at this will not even allow your video to rank, no matter how nicely they are made. 

2. Optimizing the tags 

Video tags are keywords that help YouTube determine what your video is about. So, when anyone searches for terms similar to your video tag, Youtube ranks your video over others. Our team analysed the video tags of all the videos present on our client’s channel and found that most of them were inappropriate. So we optimized the tags according to each video by knowing what users are searching on the site.

3. End card optimization

Remember, the video suggestion that you get at the last 5-20 seconds of a video called Youtube End Screen or End Cart. You can use these end carts to refer to videos you think your audience would be interested in. This way, you get more views, subscribers, and traffic from every video. So we created more personalized end cards according to the mood of the video and artist type. It helped offer an interactive and comprehensive experience to our viewers.

4. Inter-Linking Strategy in description

For more recommendations, we created an inter-linking strategy in the description part of the video. At first, our team created playlists according to various artists and different moods of people and interlinked them to appropriate videos so that users could easily find all of the songs of that category. It helps to hook users to our client’s YouTube channel, and the more they engage with our content, the more likely our videos will come at the top of their feed. 

5. A/B testing of thumbnails

The thumbnail of our YouTube video is the first impression viewers get of our channel when they see it on the search page. So we tried out various thumbnails for different time periods to measure which one was more liked by the audience, and the best performing one was used further. 

6. Trying YouTube Shorts 

YouTube has recently launched YouTube Shorts where creators can post short-60 second videos on their channel. Since it’s pretty new, the algorithm is favouring it a lot. So, we tried creating YouTube shorts for our client as well.

We found key moments of each video and made them into shorts so the audience could engage with the channel. Almost 1-2 shorts were uploaded daily after going through some filtering processes where we analyzed which type of shorts were performing well. We created more and more Youtube Shorts to attract viewers to our channel and added a subscribe button at the end of each video to encourage them to take action. 

The Final Result 

Even without posting any new content, we increased the total view count from 2.29 million to 3.5 million, that’s approximately 53% of the increase in just a month. Our team always wondered what if we had posted content and also worked hard optimizing the previous ones; the result would have been mind-blowing. 

This case study is a real example of how you can still earn subscribers for your Youtube channel, even without posting any long-form content for a month. You just need to optimize elements at the backend, and you are good to go. 

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YouTube SEO: A Simple Step-by-step Guide to Videos That Rank

The science of optimizing your videos for search on YouTube, plus some YouTube SEO tips from seasoned experts to help your videos rank #1.

Content Writer @ Buffer

You could be making the most attention-grabbing, helpful, entertaining videos — if you’re not leveraging the power of YouTube SEO, you’re leaving views on the table. 

YouTube is effectively the video version of its parent company, Google, so the way users discover videos on the social media platform is a lot like how they search for something on the search engine. They type whatever they’re looking for into the search bar and rely on YouTube’s search algorithm to deliver the most accurate results for their search query.

Optimizing your YouTube videos for search is one of the best ways to ensure they get in front of your target audience.

The best part? YouTube video SEO (or search engine optimization) is much easier than it sounds. If you’ve ever Googled something, you probably know more about SEO than you think! 

The only caveat I’ll add right upfront is that optimizing your videos and YouTube Shorts for search starts before you even write your script or hit ‘record.’ In fact, kicking off the YouTube SEO process first will help you decide the best way to approach a content idea or whether to go ahead with it in the first place. 

In this article, I’ll walk you through the simple process of optimizing your videos for search on YouTube, plus give some YouTube SEO tips from seasoned experts to help your videos rank #1. Whether you’re new to YouTube and looking to grow your subscribers from scratch or have an established channel with content you think can rank higher, this guide is for you.

How YouTube’s search algorithm works

Wait, what is YouTube SEO? As I’ve mentioned above, SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is precisely what you need to do to ensure your videos rank high up in YouTube’s search results. 

The process is pretty straightforward and very similar to the kind of SEO you’d apply to a web page or blog post to get in to appear in Google search results. 

“YouTube search strives to surface the most relevant results according to keyword searches,” the platform says . Two YouTube ranking factors impact whether (and how high up) your video appears on the search engine results page (SERPs).

• How well the title, description, and video content match the viewer’s search.
• What videos drive the most engagement for a search.

Since search engine optimization primarily deals with the process in point #1 above, I’ll zero in on that in this article. For guidance on #2, I’d suggest checking out our guides to getting more subscribers on YouTube and creating YouTube thumbnails .

YouTube notes that search results “are not a list of the most-viewed videos for a given search.” So, a well-optimized video is still in with a chance, no matter how new you are to YouTube.

SEO and Marketing Consultant  Jo Juliana Turnbull  has experienced this first-hand in both her work as a marketer and the YouTube series she's worked on — Tea Time SEO, Turn Digi , and more recently,  SEO Office Hours , which she co-hosts and is run by Mike Chidzey. Thanks to the power of optimization, SEO Office Hours is already earning thousands of views per video. “We have not done any paid media to promote the shows, and SEO Office Hours has some videos with up to 5,500 views.” Not bad for a five-month-old show.

Kelly Ayres , Director of SEO at Jordan Digital Marketing, agrees. “Unlike Google Search, where historical traffic and authority are somewhat necessary for ranking highly, engagement and early traffic can establish a YouTube channel fairly quickly,” she told us. 

“If videos are audience-focused, branded appropriately, and optimized effectively, and creators are consistent with their video marketing strategy , a new channel can appear at the top of the YouTube search results.”

There are several steps to optimizing your videos for search, all of which fall into two main categories. I’m going to break this process down into:

• Keyword research
• Optimizing your YouTube videos 

YouTube keyword research

Keywords are words or phrases that people use to search for content. Their importance on YouTube can’t be overstated — these are some of the primary signals the YouTube search algorithm looks at to figure out how to give users exactly what they want. 

If your video metadata (title, description, and more) doesn’t contain relevant keywords, it won’t appear in the search results. 

A word to the wise (again): don’t leave your keyword research until after you’ve scripted, filmed, or edited your video. It’s best to do your keyword research for any YouTube content ideas you have before you make the video . It’ll help you cover all the areas YouTube users want to learn about on any given topic. Bonus: it might even help spark new video ideas for your channel!

1. Brainstorm your keywords

Think like your target audience to find the best keywords for your video. Ask yourself:

• “What problems does my video solve?” or “What questions does my video answer?”
• “If I had this problem or question, what would I type into the search bar to help me find the answer?” 

People search for different things in different ways, so jot down any related keywords that accurately describe your content. 

2. See what’s already ranking on YouTube

From there, head over to YouTube, type your keyword into the search box, and assess the results. 

Are the videos in the list in line with what you want to create? If yes, you’re on the right track! “You’re getting some very valuable insight here,” says Gillian Perkins , a YouTuber with over 700k subscribers and millions of views. 

“You’re learning what the algorithm has decided people want when they search for those words. So you want to make sure your content is in alignment with that.”

Are the results not quite in line with what you hoped to create? Try some variations on the theme until you find videos like yours. 

3. Refine your keyword list with SEO tools

There are a host of keyword research tools that can help you (we have a comprehensive list of 20+ free SEO tools to explore), but here are some good YouTube SEO tools to try, both free and paid. 

YouTube Search (free)

Yes, your first port of call should be heading back to YouTube SERPs. “Do not underestimate the power of doing your own manual research within YouTube,” Jo says. It can be one of the most powerful tools in this process.” 

Once you’ve found a keyword that’s a good fit for the kind of content you have planned, plug it back into YouTube. This time, you’re looking at the terms that autocomplete in the search bar rather than the search results.  

YouTube will automatically recommend more specific searches related to this term. Here’s an example of the term “make-up tutorial”:

This process will also help you identify longtail keywords to target. Longtail keywords are (you guessed it) longer, more specific versions of a specific search term. While the search volume (the number of searches it gets) might be lower, the keyword difficulty (how many videos are currently competing for that keyword) will be lower, too. 

As a result, it’s usually easier to rank for these keywords, and you’re in with a chance of hitting the broader keyword, too. 

“I would suggest going with the longer tail version of that keyword so that you have a better chance of ranking for that term,” Jo says. “So, instead of focusing on trying to rank for the term ‘content audits’ or getting the search volume for this term only, I would suggest you try and rank for the longer tail terms. For example, ‘How to perform a content audit.’ Then, your video would explain to customers how to carry out a content audit. You are including the main topic but are also showing customers how to execute the content audit.”

Google Trends (free)

Google Trends is a powerful free tool that will give you insights into what searchers were looking for over specific periods, as recently as the last 24 hours. Head to trends.google.com , then click on the Explore tab.

Type your keywords into the search bar, and set your region, time period, and (optionally) category. Most importantly, be sure to click the dropdown menu under Web Search and change it to YouTube Search . Here’s a look at the results for “make-up tutorial”. Check out the Related queries box to help you find more keywords to target.

You can also use the Trending Now tab to check out all the trending searches in real-time or over the past 24 hours, so you can strike while the iron is hot on a particular topic.  

YouTube Studio

YouTube Studio , the platform YouTubers use to upload their content, also has some pretty nifty keyword research tools baked in. To find them, head over to YouTube Studio > Analytics > Research.

Here, you’ll be able to see top searches that have led users to your existing content (more on this below), along with other videos currently performing well in your niche. 

Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer (paid)

Ahrefs is an SEO tool primarily built for web pages, but its Keywords Explorer will help you gather data specific to YouTube. The search volume metric is particularly helpful in that it will give you a number for search volume, allowing you to compare terms. While it doesn’t deliver the depth of data you’ll find via Semrush’s YouTube-specific tool (below), it’s a great option if you’re a marketer with a website to manage, too. 

Ahrefs prices start at $99 per month. 

Semrush Keyword Analytics for YouTube (paid)

Semrush is an SEO research tool with its own handy YouTube keyword research product, a great standalone option for creators not interested in web page keyword research. It will help you pinpoint top keywords from specific time periods, fast-growing keywords, and most viewed videos. 

You can also search for specific keywords to see the competitive rate, search volume, and related keywords.

Semrush Keyword Analytics for YouTube prices start at $10 per month.

4. Choose your primary keyword

Your primary or target keyword is the number one term you’d like your video to rank for and the one you’ll focus on in the second part of this process, optimizing your video for search. 

“I typically aim for one to three primary keywords per video,” Sai Deshmukh , Director of Organic Growth (SEO, YouTube & Content Marketing) at Amber, told us. “I find that focusing on a few targeted keywords per video ensures that my content remains highly relevant to the audience's search queries.” 

“For instance, if I'm creating a video about ‘Healthy Smoothie Recipes,’ I might select keywords like ‘easy smoothie recipes,’ ‘nutritious shakes,’ and ‘fruit smoothie ideas.’ 

“Conversational tone keywords also increase the likelihood of my video ranking well in search results,” she adds. 

So, how do you narrow it down? I’d argue the most important factor to consider when choosing your keywords is making sure your video delivers on the keyword promise. 

“Creating a video should be hyper-specific to a need or want, for example, showcasing a product, or a how-to video, or a mini case study,” says Kelly, who has worked on optimizing videos on YouTube across verticals in several roles, from e-commerce to how-to videos. 

“The core driving behavior on YouTube is the desire to find a quick solution or answer or dig into a topic, so trying to target too many keywords or cover too many topics in one video can be hard to rank as well as difficult to engage with as a viewer.”

However, it’s also important to consider how competitive the term is, along with search volume. This is where the tools above come in handy again. 

For example, the term “makeup tutorial” is fairly competitive — there are millions of videos out on YouTube currently competing for this keyword. On the other hand, the more specific “natural makeup tutorial” boasts a lower competitive rate. 

At a glance, it might seem like the latter is the best option. But — and this is where the nuance comes in — according to Semrush, only four people searched for “natural makeup tutorial” in the past month, while 609 people searched for “makeup tutorial.” Natural makeup tutorial will be far easier to rank for, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will get as many views as the broader option, makeup tutorial. 

So, which is the best target keyword? There’s really no hard-and-fast rule — I’d recommend experimenting with both broad and niche terms and seeing which yields the best results for your channel. 

For Gillian, at least, the search volume always outweighs the competition. “Yes, it can make it a little easier for you if you steer clear of the most competitive keywords, but you want to give a lot more weight to the popularity of the keyword,” she says . 

Got your keyword/s at the ready? That’s the tough part done. Now, onto the easy bit: optimization.

Optimizing your YouTube videos for search

With your video and keyword/s ready, it’s time to upload and optimize. The latter will happen 

There are two main places you need to be sure to include your primary keyword, according to YouTube: 

• Video title
• Video description

How to optimize YouTube video titles

Your video title is one of the most important factors that will drive viewers to click on your video, so spend some time on this. Your video title should be simple, contain your target keyword, and the unique value you’re offering viewers. 

Sai suggests using this as a starting point:

[Primary keyword phrase] - [secondary keyword phrase] | [brand name]

E.g.: How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies - Easy Recipe Tutorial | Sweet Delights

“This formula ensures that your primary keyword phrase is upfront, followed by a related secondary keyword phrase, and ending with your brand name for recognition,” Sai told us. 

“Remember, balance is key,” she added. “Don't sacrifice readability and engagement for keyword stuffing! Your title should be clear, concise, and compelling to both viewers and search algorithms.

Here’s a great example from Ale Jay :

Her title is easy to grasp at first glance, emphasizes that the video is for makeup beginners, and comprehensive (“everything you need!”)

You have 100 characters to use for your video title, and the full title will appear in search results. Still, bear in mind that only the first 50 characters will be visible when your video appears in the related videos sidebar. 

How to optimize your YouTube video description

Your video description should offer a simple, easy-to-understand summary of what your video covers, featuring around two natural mentions of your primary keyword. If there’s a way to weave them in without sounding spammy, you can add in two or three related keywords here, too. 

Let’s look at Ale’s again. In just two paragraphs, Ale manages to weave in subtle mentions of her target keyword, “makeup tutorial,” along with two related terms: “basic makeup” and “how to do makeup.” She also links to the specific products she used so viewers can mimic exactly what she does, another helpful step in improving user experience (and a way to monetize her YouTube channel with affiliate links). 

You have 5,000 characters to play with in your video description, but viewers will only see the first 115 - 135 characters in search results, depending on whether you have included video chapters or not.

How to add a video title and description

Adding your video title and description takes place during the upload process in YouTube Studio . 

• Head over to YouTube Studio, click the Create button on the top right, and then Upload videos.
• Drag and drop your video into the window, or choose Select files to open your device folders. 
• From here, click Next and follow the prompts to complete your video upload. 

In the first window, you’ll find the fields to input those all-important video titles and descriptions. Here’s where you’ll set the brilliant title and description you worked on following the guidance above.

Other YouTube SEO areas

While YouTube only pinpoints your video titles as areas crawled by their search engines, there is chatter among YouTubers and SEO experts that other areas may have an impact.

Among those are:

• Video file name: What you saved your video file as on your device.
• Channel description: How you’ve summarized your profile while creating your YouTube channel (editable via YouTube Studio).
• Subtitles or closed captions: YouTube can auto-generate captions, or you can upload your own SRT file (SubRip Subtitle, a plain text file) as part of the upload process.
• YouTube tags : Keywords that can be added as part of the upload process by clicking ‘Show more’ in the Video Details section. 
• Playlists: How you group and organize your videos on your channel.
• Hashtags: Hashtags added to the video description.

Sai is certain these will play a role in your video performance. 

“YouTube goes beyond just titles and descriptions when it comes to ranking videos. 

2024 is optimizing for user experience & relevance! I've found that using a mix of broad and niche tags is key,” she says. 

It’s definitely worth including keywords in tags, channel description, and uploading your own SRT files, she adds. “While YouTube gives you plenty of space with 500 characters for tags, I've learned it's best to keep it focused and specific. In my experience, around five to twelve relevant tags do the trick! So, it's worth getting them right.

“My brand has also garnered good leads by using links in the channel descriptions. SRT file uploads have helped us with more engagement, too.”

Analyzing your SEO performance

An often-skipped step in any social media strategy is checking back in to see if your efforts are working. Luckily, YouTube has some great analytics tools that use two key metrics to make it really easy to measure the impact of your optimization. 

To get to your analytics, go to YouTube Studio , then choose Analytics from the menu on the right. Here, you’ll be able to get a bird’s-eye view of your overall SEO performance, along with which terms your videos are ranking for. 

To see the former, click on the Content tab on the top menu bar, then scroll down to the How viewers find you box. Take note of what percentage of traffic comes from YouTube search, then check back in again after optimizing your videos. At the top of the page, you can also segment this view by videos, Shorts, Lives, and posts. 

Clicking on See more will take you to a Google Analytics-style graph, where you can more closely monitor this traffic and changes over time. 

To get SEO results on specific videos — and see what your videos are ranking for — head back to the Overview page within YouTube Studio Analytics and scroll down to find the video you want to analyze. (If you can't find it here, you can also navigate to video-specific metrics via the Content tab on the left).

This will serve you a wealth of important metrics on your video, including watch time, key moments for retention, and engagement. To find out how well it performed in SERPs (search results), click on Reach in the menu at the top. Here, you’ll find a pie chart similar to the one above, this time showing how much traffic came to this particular video from search. 

Scroll down again, and you’ll see the YouTube search terms box, where you’ll see exactly what keywords are bringing people to your video. Again, clicking See more will give you a more in-depth graph, which shows exactly how many people viewed your video from specific terms. How great is that? 

Experiment with YouTube SEO for the best results 

As we often preach on this blog, what works for one target audience might not work for another – so your mileage with the above tips will vary! As always, the best course of action when it comes to optimizing your videos for search will be finetuning your process and tracking your performance. 

Happy optimizing! 

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How To Do YouTube SEO in 2024 [Tips + Free Tool]

Wondering why your YouTube videos are struggling to get views? These YouTube SEO tips can help your videos reach more people.

Table of Contents

If you’re a content creator or run a brand’s YouTube channel, you probably want more people to watch your videos. Of course, creating great content is important, but did you know other factors within your video determine who sees it and when?

Like most search engines and social networks, YouTube uses a variety of elements to determine the placement of your video in search results. YouTube SEO is all about optimizing these different elements to ensure your videos are shown to more people more often.

If you’re ready to learn more about YouTube SEO, here are some proven tactics and best practices to follow.

Free YouTube Growth Checklist : Find out how one YouTuber grew his channel to nearly 400,000 followers in 4 years and how you can gain 100,000 followers a year too.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing YouTube videos and channels to rank higher in YouTube search results. YouTube SEO includes strategies like keyword research, script optimization, link building, and more.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and is typically used for web pages that want to rank in search engines like Google.

However, many social media platforms —like YouTube and Instagram — have their own rules for pushing certain content forward.

How does SEO on YouTube work?

YouTube’s algorithms use many SEO factors when ranking YouTube videos and channels. These include information sources like video titles, descriptions, metadata, tags, thumbnails, watch time, view count, and more.

Ultimately, the algorithm wants to show viewers the most relevant and useful YouTube videos. It’s good for them and you, because when you like what you’re watching, you’re more likely to stay on the platform.

But YouTube isn’t the only search engine you should optimize your videos for. YouTube videos can also rank in search engines like Google.

That means a well-optimized YouTube video won’t just appear in YouTube’s search results. If you do it right, your YouTube videos can also show up in Google’s main search results, video search results, Google Images, and the Discover tab.

In short, a strong YouTube SEO strategy includes two components:

• YouTube optimization
• External SEO

If you can combine these two search engine optimization techniques together, you’re looking at some serious YouTube success.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Why is YouTube SEO important?

YouTube SEO is important for a few reasons.

• More views. Turning up in top search results means more people will have the opportunity to click on and view your videos. You worked hard on them! So, give them a chance to shine.
• More chances to convert. More eyes mean more views , shares, and engagement. Plus, more possible subscriptions and revenue down the line.
• Boost organic website traffic. Having your videos show up in online searches helps increase click-through rates to your website, build brand awareness and loyalty, and drive organic traffic from YouTube.
• Cost-effective. YouTube SEO doesn’t cost much. All you need to invest is your time and maybe a little extra for the right tools and software (we’ll outline our favorite YouTube SEO tools later in this blog).
• Competitive advantage. Showing up in top YouTube (and Google) search results means your content is seen before your competitors. This competitive advantage can help you solidify your place as an industry leader.

How to do YouTube SEO: 13 essential tips

Wondering how to rank YouTube videos? Here are 13 proven YouTube SEO tips that Hootsuite’s own YouTube channel producers use to get their videos to show up at the top of the SERPs.

1. Conduct keyword research

Keyword research is an essential part of SEO for YouTube. In other words, you want to identify the words and phrases your audience will likely use when searching for content like yours.

When conducting YouTube keyword research, start by identifying primary, secondary, and longtail keywords.

• Primary keywords have higher search volume, but they tend to be more competitive and difficult to rank for.
• Secondary keywords have lower search volume, meaning less competition and (potentially) a better chance at ranking well.
• Longtail keywords are longer and more specific phrases, generally related to your primary and secondary keywords. For example, if your keyword is “boost Instagram post,” a longtail keyword might be “boost Instagram post from ads manager.”

You can use the same keyword research tools you’re already using for external SEO. This includes Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and the like. Many of these tools, like Semrush , have added YouTube keyword analytics to their feature offerings.

These tools can be a great help. However, YouTube’s search bar also suggests related queries as users type, and these suggestions can be a goldmine. In addition to your general keyword research, our YouTube experts recommend leveraging the YouTube search bar to find related search terms.

Plus, recency does seem to matter on YouTube. If the top YouTube videos for a particular keyword have a lot of views but are relatively dated, this may point to an opportunity for you to create a successful new video with those topics.

When doing your keyword research, look at the size of competitors’ YouTube channels versus the video’s views. If channels with small followings have a lot of traffic, it’s a sign that the keyword is popular and gaining traction.

2. Add keywords strategically to videos

Now that you have your target keywords, it’s time to add them to your video. Keywords should be included in the following places:

• Video title
• Video description
• Title cards & overlays
• Video chapters
• In your video script

Google recommends using the target keyword as close to the beginning of the title, description, and tags as possible. Try combining longtail keywords, synonyms, or related terms when writing descriptions and adding tags

As with any SEO strategy, though, don’t just cram keywords in anywhere you can .

YouTube SEO is about making your content easier for your viewers to find and for YouTube’s algorithm to understand. If you overuse your keywords, you risk confusing your audience. Or worse—getting penalized by YouTube and Google.

3. Use captions

Captions are an essential part of social media accessibility . Not only do they benefit your viewers with hearing impairments, but they also add context and fill in any audio gaps that viewers might miss. In fact, a recent study showed that 75% of people watch videos on mute, making captions an essential viewing component.

In addition to improving accessibility and user experience, captions also present an opportunity to include important keywords that YouTube can easily pick up on.

You can add captions manually by uploading a text transcript or a timed subtitles file. YouTube also offers the option to directly enter transcript text, allowing the subtitles and timings to sync with your video automatically.

In some cases, you can even add automatic captions through YouTube’s speech recognition technology after you upload your video. If you do use this route, make sure to proofread the captions, as automated captions tend to be less accurate than manually created ones.

It’s better to build your video around your keywords instead of adding keywords after the fact. Including your keywords in your script makes for a better viewing experience than trying to shoehorn them in after the fact.

4. Use cards and end screens

YouTube cards allow you to link to other videos, playlists, channels, or even external links from your YouTube video. Cards appear with a custom message in the top right corner of your video for a few seconds, and viewers can click to learn more.

Plus, cards also appear below your video description so viewers can access all linked or relevant videos. This is a great way to direct viewers to additional video content on your channel.

End screens are visual elements that appear during the last 5-20 seconds of a video. These give you a chance to promote other videos, encourage subscriptions, or point users toward your most popular playlists.

Here’s an example of what your end screen could look like:

From an SEO standpoint, both cards and end screens keep viewers engaged with your content longer.

While we don’t know everything about what makes a YouTube video rank higher or lower, we do know that the video’s success plays a part. Keep your audience interested in your content, and your SEO performance will improve.

5. Add timestamps to your video

YouTube timestamps tell YouTube when the important parts of your video begin and end.

This information allows YouTube to better understand the content of your video — and, in turn, gives you a stronger YouTube SEO ranking signal.

We suggest adding timestamps (also called chapters) to your video description, as well as the video itself, to make it easy for viewers to navigate your content.

However, your chapters will also appear below your description as yet another option for navigating your video.

Need another reason to add chapters to your YouTube videos?

In Google search results, timestamps appear in a “Chapters” dropdown next to the video. If a user searches for a particular phrase and Google sees that this phrase is used as a timestamp, Google will direct the user to the exact part of your video where they can find the answer.

6. Categorize your video

YouTube uses categories to group videos into broad topics, like “Sports” or “Technology.” While categories may not directly impact your ranking, they tell YouTube which channels produce the best quality content in that space, which makes it easier for the platform to recommend related content (like yours!).

Selecting the appropriate category for each video you upload gives YouTube a clear signal about what your video is about. YouTube will use this information to determine whether your video should appear in search results for certain topics.

You can access the Category area under the Details tab of uploading your video:

7. Upload a custom thumbnail

It’s always important to be aware of how your content will appear in search results. If your ideal viewer sees your title and thumbnail, will they want to click on your video?

Give yourself a good shot at success and make your YouTube titles accurate and descriptive, with thumbnails that are visually appealing enough to stand out from the crowd.

Thumbnails impact your video click-through rate, which in turn affects your SEO on YouTube.

If you have a verified account , we suggest creating custom thumbnails rather than relying on YouTube’s auto-generated options.

YouTube recommends :

• Thumbnails have a resolution of 1280×720 (minimum width of 640 pixels)
• Be uploaded in image formats such as JPG, GIF, or PNG
• Be under 2MB for videos or 10MB for podcasts

Look how much nicer your video feed looks when all of your thumbnails are properly branded with eye-catching graphics:

8. Embed videos in your blog

Just like with any social media platform, cross-promotion matters on YouTube. Our in-house YouTube experts found that embedding YouTube videos in relevant blog posts can improve SEO for both your YouTube channel and the blog.

Of course, this assumes you already have an active blog — but if you don’t already have a high-traffic home for your content, don’t worry. We found that embedding YouTube videos in microblogs (like Twitter or Tumblr) can also have a positive SEO impact.

Just remember: When embedding YouTube content, make sure all videos are relevant to the URL and keywords they are linked to.

Your embedded video will look something like this:

9. Place hashtags in your description

If you include 2-3 hashtags in your video description, they’ll appear at the top of your description, giving YouTube and viewers a better idea of what your video is about.

Not only are these hashtags clickable, but you can also search for specific hashtags in YouTube search.

When selecting hashtags for YouTube video SEO, use keywords related to the content you’re publishing. If your brand name is relevant, consider using it as well.

Including multiple hashtags in YouTube descriptions is a good idea — just don’t overdo it. YouTube’s algorithm sees the overuse of hashtags as spammy .

10. Build playlists

Think of YouTube as a database of video content. You want to make sure your videos are filed appropriately and easy to find. That’s why it’s important to organize your videos into keyword-optimized playlists.

Playlists are one more signal that helps YouTube understand what topics your channel covers and helps viewers navigate the content more easily.

For example, if you create a playlist for, say, “YouTube SEO tutorials,” don’t include videos about gardening or makeup. (This seems obvious, but you’d be surprised…)

Instead, titles like “Ultimate YouTube SEO Guide,” “10 YouTube SEO Tips,” and “How to Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO” will help YouTube direct viewers to your content.

Take a look at how our YouTube experts have organized our playlists:

11. Go back and refresh old video content

Regularly posting and editing videos is one of the best ways to ensure YouTube’s algorithm recognizes you as an active user.

If you have an older video that hasn’t gotten much traction in a while, consider updating the title, description, tags, or even the thumbnail image to help YouTube’s algorithm find it again.

YouTube will also let you cut or edit a segment of an existing video only once. Apart from that, the content should be evergreen — so don’t age it with a specific year in the script if you can avoid it.

12. Don’t be afraid to rank twice

YouTube isn’t like Google when it comes to SEO; you can go after the same keyword multiple times without running into cannibalization issues.

YouTube videos aren’t judged as web pages, so you won’t be penalized if multiple videos rank for the same keyword on Google, either.

In fact, our research found that both Google and YouTube are more than happy to rank different videos from the same channel twice, as you can see below.

7 tools you can use for YouTube SEO

There are several helpful YouTube SEO tools on the market today. These tools can help you optimize your YouTube channel, analyze the performance of individual videos, track keyword rankings, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of our top seven.

1. YouTube description generator

Hootsuite has a free YouTube description generator that your team can use to put together SEO-friendly video descriptions based on your video topic, category, call-to-action, and more.

Disclaimer: Please note: This tool may display inaccurate or offensive material that doesn’t represent Hootsuite’s views. You’re solely responsible for use of any content generated using this tool, including its compliance with applicable laws and third party rights.

If you’re struggling to create cohesive video descriptions, especially if you’re ramping up your video production and publication schedule, this tool can be a huge help. Let this video description generator take a stab at your description—you can always polish it up later.

We mentioned that Semrush now has its own YouTube Keyword Analytics tool earlier, but Semrush’s general Keyword Overview tool is also incredibly useful for YouTube SEO.

This tool researches SEO content topics in Google, which is great content inspiration for your YouTube channel. It provides specific keyword data such as monthly volume of searches, competition, and SERP placement.

Plus, Semrush compiles a master list of related keywords based on similar search queries, which you can use to break your content topics down even further.

Most importantly, Semrush shows you which keywords have video-rich results on Google. These keywords are good opportunities for YouTube videos, as they mean your video can show up on a Google SERP page (not just in the Video tab).

Just remember that the general keyword research tool pulls data from search engines, not YouTube. However, in our experience, this data also generally applies to YouTube.

Ahrefs is another great tool for keyword research for both Google and YouTube. It’s similar to Semrush in that it offers a general keyword exploration tool that can work for both while also offering a free YouTube keyword tool.

Source: Ahrefs

Simply type in your keyword to get YouTube-specific data. You can also use the Keyword Explorer to assess overall keywords and apply those to your YouTube strategy.

4. TubeBuddy

Browser extension TubeBuddy is another absolute must-have tool for YouTube SEO. This extension seamlessly integrates with your YouTube account and can help with tasks like keyword research and video optimization.

TubeBuddy also provides comprehensive YouTube SEO data, including:

• YouTube keyword data
• Translator for video titles and descriptions
• Best practice audit to make sure that your content is YouTube-approved
• A/B testing for YouTube titles and descriptions
• Detailed analytics and usage statistics

The keyword research suite in VidIQ provides everything a YouTube content creator needs to get their videos seen and ranked in YouTube search results

With VidIQ you can:

• Research YouTube keywords
• See competitor tags
• Translate keywords
• View average views and subscribers
• Autocomplete tags

6. YouTube Analytics

YouTube Analytics is YouTube’s native keyword research panel. It provides insights on YouTube search terms and also flags content gaps.

This YouTube SEO tool shows you the searches YouTube viewers are making and how popular each keyword is relative to others. You can also see location data, device data, which cards were clicked, if subtitles were used, and more.

7. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the best YouTube SEO tool for understanding how videos embedded in blog posts or web pages perform in the video tab on Google Search.

You can find YouTube impressions and clicks data, plus other related SERP information like total search queries, average rank position, video title/description updates, and more. It will also tell you if your embedded videos are being indexed successfully.

Grow your YouTube channel faster with Hootsuite. Schedule and promote your videos and engage with your audience from one dashboard. Sign up free today.

With files from Chloe West .

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Hannah Macready is a freelance writer with 12 years of experience in social media and digital marketing. Her work has appeared in publications such as Fast Company and The Globe & Mail, and has been used in global social media campaigns for brands like Grosvenor Americas and Intuit Mailchimp. In her spare time, Hannah likes exploring the outdoors with her two dogs, Soup and Salad.

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YouTube Search Engine Optimization: What Is It and How To Do It?

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In today’s digital age, YouTube has become a powerful platform for content creators and businesses alike, with over 2 billion monthly active users and 500 hours of video uploaded every minute.

As competition for viewers’ attention skyrockets, mastering YouTube Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential to ensure your videos stand out from the crowd.

What Is YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? 

YouTube SEO is the practice of optimizing YouTube content for greater visibility on the platform’s search engine. This includes technical aspects, such as including relevant keywords in titles and descriptions, as well as utilizing strategies like creating engaging thumbnails that draw the attention of users scrolling through results. To further improve visibility, content creators should utilize relevant tags and build links to their videos from external sites. Ultimately, YouTube SEO strives to increase video viewership by ensuring that your content ranks higher in related searches.

Here’s what everyone needs to know: 

With SEO at your disposal as a YouTube creator, you’ll be able to unlock the full potential of your content and reach a wider audience than ever before.

But first, let’s dive into the fascinating world of YouTube SEO and explore how optimizing your videos can lead to exponential growth in views, subscribers, and, ultimately, success.

YouTube SEO: Is It Really Necessary?

Yes, YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, surpassed only by Google. It is estimated that over 3 billion searches are made on YouTube every day, and over 1 billion hours of video content are watched each day. 

That’s why optimizing your videos for SEO is so important to ensure you reach the widest audience possible.

Whether it’s title optimization, meta description creation, or keyword research, utilizing proper SEO techniques can help your videos climb up in the search rankings. Additionally, creating an effective backlink strategy will also serve to maximize your visibility on YouTube and other platforms – giving you more chances to be discovered by potential viewers.

In today’s landscape, optimizing for YouTube SEO has become a must-have component for any content creator looking to expand their reach and make the most out of their channel. Implementing proven techniques and strategies such as title optimization and keyword research into your video content production process can dramatically change how visible you are on YouTube — leading to more views, subscribers, likes, and comments from viewers around the globe.

In fact, structuring your videos and channel around SEO tactics is the key to success on YouTube. That’s because YouTube’s algorithm works similarly to Google’s — it rewards content that is optimized for its platform. If you want to get ahead on YouTube, you need to start taking SEO seriously. With a well-executed strategy, you can maximize your YouTube reach and grow your channel faster.

3-Step Guide To Start Your YouTube SEO

Now that you know why SEO is important for YouTube, here are three steps to help you get started.

Step 1: Identify Your Audience

The first step is to identify who your target audience is . That’s because understanding the people watching your videos will help you create content that appeals to them.

Think about the typical age, gender, and interests of your viewers, and use this information to craft your videos accordingly. According to YouTube, the best way to identify your ideal viewer is to ask yourself who you can help and how.

Here are some of the tips you can keep in mind while identifying your target audience:

• Create a persona for your ideal viewer.
• Analyze who’s already watching your channel and engaging with your videos, then create more content to reach those people.
• Consider what type of content is popular among the audience you want to target.
• Research other channels in your niche to understand what type of content works well with their viewers.
• Identify the age group and gender that usually watch your videos.
• Look at the geographical locations of your viewers, and create videos that appeal to them.
• Study the interests of your viewers and what topics they are looking for.
• Focus on creating videos that cater to those needs and interests.
• Ensure you use language, tone, and style that resonates with them.
• Create content regularly so your viewers know when to expect new videos from you.

Step 2: Develop a Plan

Now, you should have an idea of what type of content your target audience likes. The next step is to develop a plan for producing quality videos that draw in viewers. 

An average user spends more than six hours watching videos per week. This means video marketing is a great way to reach and engage people in your target audience. Developing a plan for your YouTube SEO comprises three things:

• Setting goals — Determine what you want to accomplish with your video content. What do you hope to achieve?
• Creating a content calendar — Organize the topics and ideas into a weekly or monthly schedule.
• Developing a process — Establish systems for researching, writing, editing, and uploading videos.

Want to increase your likelihood of identifying topics worth creating? Do keyword research. 

Here’s a great tutorial from the team at vidIQ talking about how to do keyword research for YouTube: 

Step 3: Optimize and Monitor Performance

Once you’ve created your videos, it’s time to optimize them for the best possible performance. It works as an extension of your overall SEO strategy, so you should be familiar with keywords and other optimization techniques. To optimize your video content, you’ll need to perform several optimization checks that we are going to discuss in the latter sections of this guide.

Finally, you’ll need to monitor your performance regularly and adjust your strategies accordingly. Track metrics such as organic reach, click-through rates, engagement, and more to ensure your content is effective. It’s important to keep an eye on these things so that you can make changes if needed.

21 Tips to Optimize Your YouTube Channel

To excel in the competitive landscape of YouTube, it’s crucial to develop a deep understanding of the platform’s search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

A well-planned YouTube SEO strategy can significantly enhance your content’s visibility, increase discoverability, and, ultimately, drive growth for your channel.

In this guide, we’ll delve into the nuances and technicalities of YouTube SEO, highlighting factors and variables you need to consider while formulating your strategy. By gaining a thorough understanding of these concepts, you’ll be better equipped to optimize your content effectively and achieve long-lasting success on YouTube.

So, we have divided 21 tips into six parts to make it easier for anyone who wants to rank their videos. These include:

• Optimizing Your Video Content
• Enhancing User Engagement
• Improving Your Video Production Value
• Boosting Your Video’s Discoverability
• Analyzing and Reviewing YouTube Analytics
• Leveraging Other Platforms

To gain a clearer understanding of how these work and the factors that contribute to them, let’s explore each one in detail.

Part 1: Optimizing Your Video Content

Did you know an optimized YouTube video title can attract three to five times more viewers? A well-optimized video description, tags, and thumbnail are equally important. Here’s how to optimize each element for better results:

Insert keyword naturally in the video title

No matter how attractive your video title is, it can’t bring viewers if it’s irrelevant to what people are searching for. The real challenge is to make the title look attractive while still including the keywords. Try to come up with creative titles that describe both your content and your target keyword.

For example, if you’re creating a video about how to make the perfect smoothie, and this is the target keyword, you could come up with titles like “The Best Way To Make a Delicious Smoothie” or “How To Make a Perfectly Sweet Smoothie.”

Rename the video file using the target keyword

Not only should the title of your video include keywords , but so should its file name.

Renaming the video file allows search engines to find it more easily, increasing the chances of people finding and watching your video.

To rename the video file, you can follow these steps:

• Save the video file on your computer or device.
• Right-click on the file and select “rename” from the drop-down menu that appears.
• Replace the current name of the file with a brief but descriptive phrase, including your target keyword, making sure to separate each word with a hyphen.
• Hit “enter” or “return” to save the new file name.

Now your video is easier for search engines to find and can be more likely to appear in relevant search results!

Say the target keyword out loud in your YouTube videos

There’s another simple way to make sure your video is more SEO-friendly: just make sure you mention the target keyword out loud while recording the video. This signals to search engines that your video is related to the term and can help it show up in relevant search results. If you’re able to say the keyword several times throughout the video, even better!

Use the main keyword in your YouTube video descriptions

The description of your YouTube video is another great place to include your target keyword. Be sure to include the keyword at least once, preferably toward the beginning of the description so that it’s more prominent and easier for search engines to find.

You can also use variations of the main keyword within your descriptions to make sure that your content is still being optimized for relevant search terms.

Add closed captions to your videos

Closed captions are a great way to make sure that search engines can read the words that are said in your videos. Adding closed captions is also beneficial for viewers who may not have speakers or who want to watch with the sound off, as they can still understand what’s being said.

Plus, if you make your closed captions available in multiple languages, then more people from around the world will be able to access and understand your content.

Create custom thumbnails for your videos

When people browse YouTube or another video hosting platform, they will often select content based on the thumbnail images that are shown.

Using a professional  YouTube thumbnail maker , you can create custom thumbnails for your videos that help make them stand out from other videos with similar titles and provide further information about their content. According to YouTube, custom thumbnails can increase your click-through rates . So take some time to make sure that the thumbnail you create is eye-catching, informative, and relevant to the video’s content.

Encourage viewers to watch the whole video

To optimize your YouTube video’s performance, it’s crucial to encourage viewers to watch the entirety of its content. This boosts engagement and sends positive signals to search engines. 

Here are a few effective ways to achieve this:

• Craft captivating intros that pique curiosity.
• Deliver valuable and engaging content throughout the video.
• Use a compelling call to action at the end to motivate viewers to stay till the end. Remember, capturing and retaining viewers’ attention is key to SEO success.

Part 2: Enhancing User Engagement

While basic optimizations are essential for on-page SEO, optimizing your YouTube videos can significantly enhance user engagement. According to recent statistics, over 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices, and the platform has over 2 billion monthly active users. So, how can you optimize your YouTube videos for SEO and increase user engagement?

Google was granted a patent in 2015 for an algorithm that uses “watch time” as a ranking signal. This is why prioritizing user engagement is so important for YouTube SEO. Watch time is a key factor in helping YouTube determine if an asset is high quality or not and, thus, worth ranking on its search engine results page. 

Add a call to action (CTA) in your video and video description

Adding a clear and compelling call to action (CTA) to your video and video description can prompt viewers to engage with your content. One study showed that videos with a CTA receive 380% more comments than those with a CTA in a sidebar .

The CTA can be simple, such as asking viewers to like, comment, subscribe, or share the video. You could also direct them to other videos on your channel, website, or social media platforms.

Add targeted hashtags to your YouTube videos

Hashtags are a powerful tool to improve discoverability and reach a wider audience. When you add relevant hashtags to your title and description, it can increase your views.

Choose hashtags that are specific to your content and niche, and use them in moderation. Adding too many hashtags can make your video appear spammy and hurt the overall user experience.

Choose the most relevant YouTube video categories

Selecting the right category for your video can help YouTube’s algorithm understand your content and improve its discoverability. Choosing the most relevant category can increase views and boost your chances of appearing in the right search results and recommendations. According to Google, choosing the right category can improve your video’s visibility.

Leave a pinned comment on your own video

Leaving a pinned comment on your own video can encourage further engagement from your viewers. You could ask a question, provide additional information about the video, or direct them to other relevant content on your channel. By pinning a comment, you ensure that it stays at the top of the comment section and remains visible to your viewers.

Take advantage of end screens and YouTube cards

End screens and YouTube cards are effective tools for promoting your other videos, websites, and social media pages.

End screens allow you to add a call to action at the end of your video, while YouTube cards let you add interactive elements to your videos. These features can drive traffic to your website or social media pages and encourage your viewers to engage further with your content. By implementing these strategies, you can enhance user engagement on your YouTube channel, increase views, and grow your audience.

Part 3: Improving Your Video Production Value for Better YouTube SEO

In a previous section, we discussed what YouTube SEO is and how to do it effectively. In this third part, we will explore ways to improve your video production value, which is an essential element of YouTube SEO.

By creating quality content, your videos will rank higher in search results, gain more views, and attract a wider audience. Here are some tips to help you step up your game and make your videos stand out from the rest.

Step up the production value

Production value is an umbrella term that describes various aspects of your video, such as lighting, sound, camera quality, and editing. By improving these elements, you can create a more polished, professional-looking video that will keep your viewers engaged.

Here are some specific tips to help you step up the production value:

• Use proper lighting: Good lighting can make a significant difference in how your video looks. Natural lighting is excellent, but if it’s not possible, invest in some affordable lighting equipment.
• Invest in a good camera: Unlike in the past, high-quality cameras are now affordable. Choose a camera that can shoot in 1080p or more to ensure your videos look sharp and clear.
• Get good audio: Poor audio quality can be a distraction, so invest in a good microphone to ensure your audio is clear and easy to understand. Alternatively, you can use an AI voice generator tool if you’re limited on resources.
• Edit your videos: Editing is essential to create a smooth, polished look for your video. Use editing software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro to improve transitions, add effects, and remove unwanted footage.

Experiment with video length

According to research conducted by Backlinko , the average length of a first-page YouTube video is 14 minutes 50 seconds.  

The length of your video can have a massive impact on engagement and retention rates. Shorter videos like  YouTube Shorts , on the one hand, tend to have a higher retention rate and are more likely to be shared. Longer videos, on the other hand, can provide more in-depth information and increase watch time.

Here are some tips for experimenting with video length:

• Try different lengths: It’s a good idea to experiment with different video lengths to see what resonates with your audience. Try creating shorter videos under five minutes and longer videos over 10 minutes and comparing the results.
• Keep it concise: Regardless of video length, always make sure your content is concise and to the point.
• Highlight important information: If you have a longer video, highlight or break down important information into bite-sized chunks to make it easier to follow.
• Balance length and value: Aim to create a video that is valuable to your audience and has a length that is suitable for the content you are providing.

Part 4: Boosting Your Video’s Discoverability by Building Links to Your YouTube Channel

When it comes to boosting your video’s discoverability on YouTube, there are several strategies you can use to improve your SEO. One strategy that is often overlooked is building links to your YouTube channel, not just your videos.

Most people will only link to their videos when they share them on social media or other websites, but you can take things a step further by creating high-quality links that direct viewers directly to your YouTube channel.

Building these types of links will improve your overall visibility and help you reach more people who may be interested in the content you’re creating.

Why build links to your YouTube channel?

Links are an essential component of SEO and can help boost your video’s discoverability on YouTube. However, many content creators focus solely on building links to their individual videos. While this can be helpful in some cases, it’s much more effective to build links to your YouTube channel.

Here are a few reasons why:

• Improves your channel’s authority: When you build links to your YouTube channel, it can help establish your channel’s authority. Search engines see links as a vote of confidence in your content, and the more links you have pointing to your channel, the more authoritative it appears.
• Improves your video’s ranking: When your channel has more authority, it can help improve the ranking of your videos. This is because search engines view your channel as a trusted source of content, which can increase the visibility and discoverability of your videos.
• Increases brand awareness: Building links to your YouTube channel can also increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your channel. This is because links can serve as a referral source for viewers who are interested in your content.

How to build links to your YouTube channel?

Now that we’ve established the importance of building links to your YouTube channel, let’s explore a few strategies for doing so:

• Guest post on relevant blogs and websites: Reach out to relevant blogs and websites in your niche and offer to contribute guest posts. Within the guest post, you can include a link to your YouTube channel in your author bio or within the content itself.
• Utilize social media: Share your videos on social media platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn. This can help increase visibility and drive traffic back to your YouTube channel.
• Leverage influencer marketing: Collaborate with influencers in your niche to promote your channel and videos. They can help spread the word about your content to their followers, who may be interested in your channel.
• Participate in online communities: Join online communities related to your niche and participate in discussions. You can share your videos when they are relevant to the conversation, but be sure to follow community guidelines and avoid spamming.

Part 5: Analyzing and Reviewing YouTube Analytics

As a content creator on YouTube, it’s essential to have a thorough understanding of your channel’s analytics.

Analyzing and reviewing YouTube Analytics can help you optimize your content creation and increase your chances of success on the platform.

In this section, we’ll explore the three key areas of focus in YouTube Analytics: YouTube search analytics, watch time report, and increasing watch time.

We’ll dive into each point and provide detailed explanations of what they mean, how to access them, and how the data can be used to inform content creation.

Why is analyzing YouTube Analytics important?

Analyzing YouTube Analytics allows content creators to gain insights into their audience and how they interact with their content. It provides valuable information on metrics such as views, watch time, engagement, and demographics.

By understanding these metrics, creators can tailor their content to meet their audience’s needs and preferences, which can lead to increased engagement and growth on the platform.

Key areas of focus in YouTube Analytics

YouTube Search Analytics

YouTube Search Analytics provides information on how viewers discover your videos through search. It shows the top keywords that viewers use to find your videos, which can help you optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags. You can also see how many views and how much watch time your videos receive from search results and compare them to other traffic sources.

To access YouTube Search Analytics, go to your YouTube Studio dashboard and click on Analytics > Reach Viewers > Traffic Source > YouTube Search.

Practical advice: Use the top keywords that viewers use to find your videos in your titles, descriptions, and tags. This will help your videos appear higher in search results and increase their visibility.

Watch Time Report

Watch Time Report provides information on how long viewers watch your videos and how they engage with them. It shows the total watch time, average view duration, and audience retention for each video. You can also see which videos have the highest and lowest watch time and identify trends in viewer behavior.

To access Watch Time Report, go to your YouTube Studio dashboard and click on Analytics > Reach Viewers > Watch Time.

Increasing watch time

Increasing watch time is essential for growing your channel on YouTube. The longer viewers watch your videos, the greater your chances of appearing in search results and recommendations. YouTube’s algorithm prioritizes videos with high watch time and engagement, so it’s crucial to optimize your content for this metric.

To increase watch time, focus on creating engaging content that provides value to your audience. Use eye-catching visuals, compelling storytelling, and clear calls to action to encourage viewers to watch your videos until the end. Consistency is also key, so try to publish videos on a regular schedule to keep your audience engaged.

Best practices for using YouTube Analytics

• Measure overall growth: To measure overall growth, track metrics such as total views, watch time, subscribers, and engagement rate over time. This will help you identify trends and areas for improvement.
• Identify trends: Look for patterns in your data, such as which videos perform best, what topics resonate with your audience, and how viewers interact with your content.
• Capitalize on successful videos: Use insights from successful videos to inform future content creation. Look for common themes or elements that contribute to their success and incorporate them into new videos.
• Track progress over time: Regularly review your analytics to track progress and make adjustments to your content strategy. Analyzing and reviewing YouTube Analytics should be an ongoing process to ensure continued growth and success on the platform.

Part 6: Leveraging Other Platforms for YouTube SEO

Creating engaging content is only half the battle when it comes to achieving success on YouTube. The other half is getting that content in front of as many people as possible.

One way to increase the visibility of your YouTube videos is by leveraging other platforms and cross-promoting your content. Let’s see how you can do this.

Share on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful social media platform that can help you reach a professional audience and grow your network. Sharing your YouTube videos on LinkedIn can increase their visibility and drive traffic back to your channel. It can also help establish your authority in your industry and build your brand.

When sharing your YouTube videos on LinkedIn, be sure to include a compelling title and description that highlights the value of your content. Use relevant hashtags to increase the reach of your post, and tag any relevant connections or groups. You can also use LinkedIn’s video feature to upload your videos directly to the platform.

Share on Facebook/Instagram/TikTok

Sharing your YouTube videos on social media can help you reach a wider audience and drive more views to your channel. Start by sharing links to your videos on the platforms where most of your followers are active, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Make video transcripts your content marketing shortcut

Pro tip: Video transcripts are a valuable tool for content creators looking to boost their SEO and increase the accessibility of their content.

A transcript is a written version of your video’s dialogue, which can be used to create captions, blog posts, social media content, and more.

Using transcripts in your content marketing strategy can help you rank higher in search results and reach new audiences.

Transcripts provide search engines with text that they can crawl and index, making it easier for them to understand the content of your video. They also make your content accessible to viewers who may have difficulty hearing or understanding your video. When creating transcripts, be sure to use relevant keywords and phrases that align with your video’s topic and target audience.

You can also use transcripts to create blog posts or articles that expand on the topics covered in your video, providing additional value to your audience.

The 5 Best YouTube SEO Tools To Try in 2023

Being a YouTube content creator is not an easy task, and with video content becoming increasingly popular, there’s a lot of competition out there.

However, one thing that sets successful YouTubers apart is their ability to optimize their content for search engines. YouTube search engine optimization (SEO) is, therefore, just as important as optimizing for Google and other search engines.

Fortunately, several SEO tools can help YouTubers boost their views and rankings. In this section, we’ll discuss the five best YouTube SEO tools to try in 2023.

vidIQ is the most popular YouTube SEO tool that is used by many YouTubers and businesses. vidIQ offers comprehensive analytics for your YouTube channel, including competitor analysis, keyword research, and video performance tracking.

One of the most impressive features of vidIQ is its ability to show you what keywords your competitors are ranking for, allowing you to create similar content and compete effectively. vidIQ also offers several other features, including bulk video editing, tag recommendations, and much more.

TubeBuddy is another popular YouTube SEO tool that offers similar features to vidIQ. With TubeBuddy, YouTubers can optimize their videos for specific keywords, create thumbnail templates, and manage their YouTube comments. TubeBuddy also has a Chrome extension that makes it easy to manage your YouTube channel while browsing the web.

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool that is primarily known for keyword research and competitor analysis for blogs and websites. However, did you know it has a feature that can help you identify YouTube video keyword opportunities as well? With Ahrefs, you can analyze competitor YouTube channels and find high-performing keywords that you can use in your own video titles, descriptions, and tags.

Morningfame

Morningfame might be a lesser-known YouTube SEO tool, but it’s quickly gaining popularity among YouTubers. With Morningfame, you can access detailed audience analytics, engagement tracking, and keyword analysis. Morningfame also offers a unique feature called “VideoTrigger,” which provides personalized recommendations and tips for improving your video’s success.

Social Blade

Social Blade is an essential tool for tracking YouTube channel statistics. It provides detailed analytics for any YouTube channel, including video views, subscribers, estimated earnings, and much more. Social Blade is helpful for tracking your own growth and monitoring your competitors. It also shows you estimated earnings for any YouTube channel, which can be useful when negotiating sponsorships.

Conclusion: YouTube SEO: What Is It and How To Do It?

In conclusion, YouTube SEO involves optimizing videos for search engines and viewers, which includes using relevant keywords, creating transcripts, and providing additional value to the audience through related blog posts or articles.

Implementing these best practices can increase visibility in search engine results and attract more viewers on YouTube. Tools like YouTube Analytics and Tubular can help track video performance and identify areas for improvement.

However, success ultimately depends on creating compelling content tailored to the intended audience that speaks directly to their needs.

By following these tips, businesses can maximize their presence online and take advantage of the potential that YouTube has to offer for increasing engagement with customers. Video marketing, when done right, can be a powerful tool for any brand looking to expand its reach.

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Other reads on this topic, how saas companies can use reddit to drive results, search engine optimization (seo) vs generative engine optimization (geo): key differences and strategies, how guild conducted a rebrand & site migration with excellence, learn how the best b2b saas companies do marketing..

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YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Videos for YouTube Search

Updated: March 21, 2024

Published: March 12, 2013

Digging in to learn about YouTube SEO?

With video consumption at an all-time high, getting your videos at the top of the world’s largest video platform might seem difficult.

Here’s the good news: Ranking your YouTube videos doesn’t require technicalities or spammy tactics.

Instead, there are some key elements that the YouTube algorithm uses to rank the videos. YouTube SEO is about optimizing the videos around these elements and closely sticking to the algorithms.

That’s what it took us to scale our YouTube channel to around 399k subscribers and achieve the top spots for various search queries.

In this post, we’ll review proven YouTube SEO tips that have worked for HubSpot’s YouTube channel and will work for you, regardless of your channel size. Let’s get started.

How do your videos rank on YouTube?

Youtube ranking strategy, youtube seo tips, youtube seo checklist, youtube seo tools.

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There’s no definite answer to this question.

To get videos to rank on YouTube, we must first understand the YouTube algorithm and YouTube’s ranking factors.

Like any search engine, YouTube wants to deliver content that answers the searcher’s query. For instance, if someone searches for “how to tie a tie,” YouTube won’t deliver a video titled “how to tie your shoelaces.”

Instead, it will serve search results that answer that specific query.

As you try your hand at YouTube SEO, think about how you can incorporate terms and phrases used by your target audience.

You’ll also need to think about YouTube analytics and engagement. When it ranks videos, YouTube cares about a metric called “watch time” — in other words, how long viewers stay on your video.

A long watch time means you deliver valuable content; a short watch time means your content should likely not rank.

If you want your videos to rank, create content optimized for longer watch times. You can, for instance, prompt users to stay until the end of the video by promising a surprise or a giveaway.

Is it worth optimizing videos on YouTube?

Optimizing your videos on YouTube reaps the same results as optimizing your pages for Google: higher rankings, more clicks, and better conversions!

Optimizing your videos can achieve the desired results on YouTube and even bolster your Google search engine ranking. Google suggests optimizing your videos to improve visibility and engagement.

If you’re actively solving your prospective customers’ problems with your YouTube videos, then you’ve done 90% of the YouTube optimization work.

In addition, ranking videos on YouTube is a key element of your inbound marketing strategy, even if it might not seem that way. As recently as a decade ago, inbound video marketing was a brand new idea.

Marketers were learning that they couldn’t just publish a high volume of content — it also had to be high-quality and optimized in ways that made it as discoverable as possible through search engines.

That content was once largely limited to the written word. Today, that’s no longer the case. Instead, a comprehensive content strategy includes written work like blogs and ebooks, as well as media like podcasts , visual assets, and videos.

And with the rise of other content formats comes the need to optimize them for search. One increasingly important place to do that is on YouTube.

If you’re feeling lost, don’t worry. We cover the most important YouTube SEO tips and strategies below so you can effectively optimize your content for YouTube searches.

YouTube SEO

YouTube SEO is a process that helps users find your video content on YouTube. It includes using keyword research to optimize playlists, descriptions, and videos.

YouTube SEO combines basic SEO practices with YouTube-specific optimization techniques. If you’re new to search engine optimization, check out this complete SEO guide .

To be successful on YouTube, you’ll need a clear strategy. This strategy has two parts. First, you need to understand how YouTube SEO works.

Then, you’ll want to use that knowledge as you choose a target audience, develop a plan for your channel, and set goals for growth.

How does YouTube SEO work?

YouTube is part of Google, and it uses similar search algorithms to show users the videos that best match their search queries.

When a user searches a query on YouTube, the search robots scour the video platform to deliver the best results based on these algorithms. Watch this video to understand how YouTube search algorithms work:

The search algorithms evaluate various signals and elements to rank these videos, not only on YouTube but also on Google search results.

Search history and viewer personalization play a crucial role in customizing the results.

The algorithm also uses video performance and optimization to rank videos on YouTube.

Videos with more watch time likes, and shares are placed above those with lower engagement (or high bounce rates).

Additionally, the search engine robots can’t watch the video content but crawl through the text elements like title, description, tags, and video metadata.

Optimizing the videos with a relevant title, clear and concise description, and general and specific tags can help you place your videos better than the non-optimized ones.

When combined, these signals tell the algorithm how relevant, popular, or engaging your video post is for a user’s query.

Choose a target audience.

For many content creators, audience growth starts with picking a topic and then optimizing YouTube videos. But with growth comes competition.

It was once simple to create a YouTube channel for a broad topic like “product reviews” or “tech,” but today, new YouTube channels need a more specific focus.

As you narrow your target audience, think about who you want to engage with your channel and why . Ask yourself:

• How much do you know about your target audience?
• Why do they spend time on YouTube ?
• What other social media platforms does your audience prefer?
• What inspires their interest and loyalty?
• Are there other YouTube channels or creators that you should partner with to connect with this audience?

Free YouTube Description Templates

Free templates to help you plan and promote your YouTube videos.

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Develop a plan.

Creating a content plan can seem simple if your YouTube channel centers on a topic you love. But most of the time, the challenge isn’t in coming up with ideas — it’s about making them happen.

Comprehensive content planning entails solid video creation capabilities with high-quality images, clear and concise video content or voiceover, a short and powerful title, long descriptive text, and a lot more.

If you want to optimize YouTube for SEO, content planning isn’t just about what videos you’re making and when to post them. It’s a process to figure out what resources you need to improve traffic, conversion, and engagement with your video content.

For example, you may have a great idea for a video about surfing, but where are you getting your footage? If you’re not recording yourself or your local community, it may be tough to find high-quality source material for your videos.

Building professional skills or a team with expertise in editing , sound, and animation can also boost the quality of your videos. But if those resources aren’t readily available to you, you may need a plan to create great videos without them.

Competitive analysis can also help with planning, whether you’re figuring out the right video length or where to promote your videos on other social platforms.

This free content planning template can help you create a solid plan for your YouTube strategy.

Featured Resource: Content Planning Templates

Set goals for growth.

YouTube offers many helpful metrics that can help you assess whether your team is meeting your strategic goals. Broad metrics can be helpful to track consistency and big shifts in performance, like algorithm changes.

But it’s also a good idea to choose focused metrics that align with your goals. For example, if you want to increase your audience, track your subscriber count , impressions, and audience retention.

If engagement is your goal, look at likes, comments, shares, and watch time. Driving web traffic? Add links to your video descriptions and annotations, then track those sources on your website.

Tracking the metrics that align with your goals will help you learn how you’re growing your audience. You can use that knowledge to create more effective videos for your users and SEO.

And that effort will help you keep growing your YouTube channel .

Perform keyword research.

A robust SEO strategy starts with effective keyword research. What search terms the searchers use to find their queries is monumental for SEO and YouTube strategists.

Type the main search term in the search bar, and YouTube search engine auto-suggests a long list of keywords, like Google.

Incorporating these keywords, a variation of keywords, and broad match phrases within the various elements of your YouTube video can bring the right audiences.

Kate Ross, SEO of Irresistible Me Hair Extensions , advises:

“When you’re working with YouTube SEO, think about where you’re placing your keywords. It’s like leaving breadcrumbs for viewers to find your videos. Put these keywords in your video’s file name, title, description, and tags. Imagine you’re giving YouTube a map to understand what your video is about.”

This YouTube video, for example, has the main keyword: “Free WordPress themes.” The main keyword is filled in the title, description, and hashtags. Thus, the video seems relevant to the searcher’s query of finding free WordPress themes.

Image Source

• Rename your video file using a target keyword.
• Insert your keyword naturally in the video title.
• Optimize your video description.
• Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to your topic.
• Categorize your video.
• Upload a custom thumbnail image for your video's result link.
• Use an SRT File to add subtitles & closed captions.
• Add Cards and End Screens to increase your YouTube channel's viewership.
• Add hashtags to increase reach.
• Create a playlist about your video’s general topic.
• Experiment with video length.
• Use YouTube's autocomplete feature.
• Try timestamps.
• Add a call-to-action in your video and video description.
• Review YouTube search analytics.
• Optional: Leave a pinned comment on your own video.

1. Rename your video file using a target keyword.

Your YouTube SEO efforts start even before you upload your video. The goal is not merely to rank it on YouTube — but also on Google.

Search robots don’t crawl the video content, only the source code of your video. By including the target keyword in the video file name, the YouTube algorithm can read the file name and all the code that comes with it when it’s uploaded.

With that in mind, replace the “business_ad_003FINAL.mov” file name (don’t be embarrassed — we’ve all been there during post-production) with your desired keyword.

For example, if your keyword is “house painting guide,” your file name should be “house-painting-guide,” followed by your preferred video file type (MOV, MP4, and WMV are some of the most common that are compatible with YouTube).

Pro tip: The best practice is to use a modifier with a keyword such as “best,” “how-to,” or “guide.”

2. Insert your keyword in the video title.

Video titles are the first point of contact for your viewers. In fact, they are an important element in helping your video index and rank.

If you have performed extensive keyword research, you’ll have a bunch of high-traffic and relevant keywords. So, your title should be as close to the user’s search terms as possible.

Be sure to include the exact keyword or a broad match at the very beginning of the title to get higher visibility.

Your video title should closely represent the content of your video. For example, this HubSpot video is titled “Brand Positioning,” which is also the target keyword of the video. The video content essentially describes ways to position your brand.

Lastly, make sure to keep your title fairly short — HubSpot campaigns manager Alicia Collins recommends limiting it to 60 characters to help keep it from getting cut off in results pages.

In fact, most of our best-performing videos have title lengths between 50-60 characters.

Pro tip: Longer titles tend to perform worse than videos with short and clear titles. This is not a rule of thumb, but it is highly advisable.

3. Optimize your video description.

As important as the title, the video description describes your content in detail. The good news is that you have 5,000 characters to flaunt your video content.

A video description is important for two reasons. First, it compels the viewer to click on the video, and second, it helps the algorithm identify your content through a combination of keywords.

When a user searches for a term, the search results page only displays a maximum of 120 characters. After that point, viewers have to click “show more” to see the full description.

That’s why we suggest front-loading the description with the most attractive information.

For the later part of the description, include the exact keywords with a blend of broad matches and phrases as you describe your content.

To add more context to the description, you can include the call-to-action (CTA) text that asks the viewers to subscribe, download a free ebook, or purchase a product.

Here’s an example of a great video description from Brand Master Academy that’s optimized around a variation of keywords.

Notice how the video description consists of a variation of keywords in the content. The description also includes the timestamps with the relevant keywords.

It is also a good practice to include five to eight hashtags in the video description that align closely with the main keyword.

An optimized description can also help you show up in the suggested videos sidebar, which can be a great source of views.

Pro tip: If you need a high-performing video description, try one of these proven YouTube description templates .

Download These Templates for Free

4. Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to your topic.

YouTube suggests using tags to let viewers know what your video is about. But you’re not just informing your viewers — you’re also informing YouTube itself.

YouTube uses tags to understand the content and context of your video.

That way, YouTube figures out how to associate your video with similar videos, which can broaden your content’s reach. According to our experiment, targeted tags can help you appear on the sidebar of the video.

Note that YouTube tags are different from YouTube hashtags (more about it in tip 9). While the tags help understand the content of your video, hashtags provide relevancy to your content and anchor your viewers through similar hashtags.

The best practice is to use popular competitors’ tags to help YouTube understand it better. To find a tag, simply go to the View Source option and search for “keywords” to find the relevant tags.

Here’s an example of finding tags for one of our videos titled “ How To Create a Marketing Campaign in 2024 ”:

Don’t use an irrelevant tag because you think it’ll get you more views — in fact, Google might penalize you for that.

And like your description, lead with the most important keywords, including a good mix of those that are common and more long-tail (as in, those that answer a question like “How do I?”).

Pro tip: Use these simple instructions to add and make the most of tags in your YouTube videos.

5. Categorize your video.

Categorizing the videos won’t boost your rankings or improve engagement. But, by selecting the relevant category, the YouTube algorithm gets an idea of what your video is about.

YouTube’s categories divide the large repository of videos on the search engine into different categories such as gaming, education, music videos, pets & animals, fashion, and more.

Once you upload a video, you can categorize it under “Advanced settings.”

It’s important to go through a comprehensive process to find which category each video belongs in. Answer questions like:

• Who are the top creators within the category? What are they known for, and what do they do well?
• Are there any patterns between the audiences of similar channels within a given category?
• Do the videos within a similar category share qualities like production value, length, or format?

Best for: Signaling to the YouTube algorithm what your video is about.

6. Upload a custom thumbnail image for your video’s result link.

Your video thumbnail is the main image viewers see when scrolling through a list of video results.

Thumbnails directly don’t affect your video SEO, but they surely boost the click-through rates (CTR). An average CTR between 2% and 10% is considered ideal and gives a positive or negative signal to the YouTube system.

While you can always pick one of the thumbnail options auto-generated by YouTube, you will notice a significant difference in clicks between the two.

Also, a custom thumbnail with a company logo is memorable and doesn’t get lost in the large pool of videos.

Joshua Uebergang , the director of Digital Darts, notes that a video’s thumbnail is the first thing viewers see on YouTube and in search results. It’s important to make it eye-catching.

“The secret is to craft your thumbnail before making the video, not at the time of upload, so the video itself delivers on the thumbnail. The best YouTubers sort out their thumbnail and title before hitting record,” Uebergang says.

He also recommends taking inspiration from competitors or similar videos.

“Look at the top videos of high-performing channels to see the thumbnails of their best videos. Sort the videos on the channel by the most popular videos. Identify the words or styles that can be mimicked, then add your style to it. Never copy,” says Joshua.

YouTube recommends using images that are 1280x720 pixels — representing a 16:9 ratio — that are saved as 2MB or smaller .jpg, .gif, .bmp, or .png files.

If you follow those parameters, it can help confirm that your thumbnail appears equally high-quality across multiple viewing platforms.

Here’s the screenshot of the video thumbnails from our HubSpot YouTube channel. Note how we have used the text and a presenter’s face to pique the viewer’s interest.

While the text in the thumbnail refers to the content of your video, the face signifies the authenticity of the video by a real person.

Insider Science also uses custom thumbnails with images that resemble the content and text to arouse curiosity.

It’s important to note that your YouTube account has to be verified to upload a custom thumbnail image. To do that, visit youtube.com/verify and follow the instructions listed there.

What we like: Creating your own thumbnails allows you to be in charge of how your videos are presented to viewers.

7. Use an SRT File to add subtitles and closed captions.

Like much of the other text we’ve discussed here, subtitles and closed captions can boost YouTube search optimization by highlighting important keywords since the YouTube algorithm can read the texts in the source code and video.

Your subtitles and closed captions not only help with YouTube SEO but also increase the engagement of your video. Videos with captions witness a 12% increase in watch time comparatively.

However, it depends on whether you use a closed caption or a subtitle for your video.

Closed captions or transcripts are the textual representation of the audio in the same language as the audio file — including noises, such as “door open,” “exhale-inhale,” and more. Video captions assist hearing-impaired viewers to understand the video content.

Video subtitles represent the audio in different languages. Assuming that the viewers can hear the audio, the subtitles provide a useful translation into various languages.

With roughly 20% of the world’s population as native English speakers, it makes sense to use a multi-language transcription in the video.

For example, our team at HubSpot incorporates subtitles in the video that translate into multiple languages, making it accessible to non-native English speakers.

To add subtitles or closed captions to your video, you’ll have to upload a supported text transcript or timed subtitles file. For the former, you can also directly enter transcript text for a video so that it auto-syncs with the video.

Adding subtitles follows a similar process, but you can limit the amount of text you want displayed. For either, head to your video manager, then click on “Videos” under “Video Manager.”

Find the video you want to add subtitles or closed captioning to, and click the drop-down arrow next to the edit button. Then, choose “Subtitles/CC.” You can then choose how you’d like to add subtitles or closed captioning.

Pro tip: Find out how to add closed captions to your YouTube video in the video below:

8. Add Cards and End Screens to increase your YouTube channel’s viewership.

When you’re watching a video, have you ever seen a small white, circular icon with an “i” in the center appear in the corner or a translucent bar of text asking you to subscribe?

Those are info Cards, which YouTube describes as “preformatted notifications that appear on desktop and mobile which you can set up to promote your brand and other videos on your channel.”

You can add up to five cards to a single video, and there are six types:

• Channel cards that direct viewers to another channel.
• Donation cards to encourage fundraising on behalf of U.S. nonprofit organizations.
• Fan funding to ask your viewers to help support the creation of your video content.
• Link cards, which direct viewers to an external site, an approved crowdfunding platform, or an approved merchandise-selling platform.
• Poll cards, which pose a question to viewers and allow them to vote for a response.
• Video or playlist cards, which link to other YouTube content of this kind.

For detailed steps on adding a card to your video, follow these official steps from Google or check out the video below:

End Screens

End screens display similar information as cards, but as you may have guessed, they don’t display until a video is over and are a bit more visually detailed.

A good example is the overlay with a book image and a visual link to view more on the video below:

Here’s another example of how HubSpot uses the end screens to encourage its viewers to subscribe to the channel or jump to another video.

There are a number of detailed instructions for adding end screens depending on what kind of platform you want to design them for, as well as the different types of content allowed for them by YouTube.

Google outlines the details of how to optimize for those considerations here .

It’s important to note that YouTube is always testing end screens to try to optimize the viewer experience, so there are times when “your end screen, as designated by you, may not appear.”

Take these factors into account as you decide between using either cards or end screens.

These factors may seem a bit complicated and time-consuming, but remember: The time people spend watching YouTube has more than doubled year over year .

There’s an audience to be discovered there, and when you optimize for YouTube, your chances of being discovered increase.

What we like: Cards and end screens allow you to incorporate CTAs in subtle but impactful ways.

9. Add hashtags to increase reach.

Hashtags are a part of the YouTube user interface that allows you to add related terms to your content, just as you would on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Hashtags show up right above your video title for easy clicking and discoverability. You can use your company name, as HubSpot does below, or include related keywords.

We also recommend using hashtags in your YouTube description, but don’t go overboard; the YouTube algorithm constantly checks for spam.

Overly hashtagging may get you inadvertently flagged. Instead of using every hashtag you can think of, choose two to three that you feel most accurately describe your video.

To search for the hashtags related to your video content, you can leverage the auto-suggest feature. By typing in the main keyword, the search engine suggests you with a string of keywords that are searched around that topic.

Note how Neil Patel uses a few hashtags in his video that’s centered around achieving ROI from content marketing.

Best for: Increasing the findability of your videos through relevant topic searches.

10. Create a playlist about your video’s general topic.

Playlists are a great way to organize your videos into a compiled theme. With over 37% of millennials engaged on YouTube daily, creating a playlist for your channel can create an easy walkthrough of the videos.

The best practice is to group your videos in keyword-optimized playlists or a theme.

This won’t only signal to YouTube what your videos are about, but it will also keep viewers clicking from video to video, increasing your view count and, by extension, your rankings.

For example, Yoga with Kassandra grouped all of its short yoga classes in a playlist titled “ 5-15 min Yoga Classes .”

Not only is the title short and descriptive, but the playlist description includes related keywords such as “10-minute yoga classes,” “10-minute morning yoga stretches,” and “bedtime yoga classes.”

At HubSpot, we use this strategy to segment our videos based on the viewer’s interest. Each of these videos falls under the labeled theme so that users can jump to another video from the same playlist.

Best for: Brands that have multiple videos covering similar topics.

11. Experiment with video length.

Just like longer blog posts perform better than short blog posts (<1,000 words), longer videos outrank the shorter ones.

The longer a viewer stays on the page, the YouTube algorithm gets a positive signal for a higher engagement — leading it to rank better among others. So, don’t shy away from making your video as long as you can.

After all, the user is seeking a detailed answer to its query. Though the length may vary from one niche to another, the optimal video length is around 11 minutes .

For instance, the majority of Mr. Beast’s videos range from 13 minutes to 20 minutes, which we think is ideal for the audience type and content.

However, that’s not a magical number or an obligation. Not every person on YouTube will stick around for 10 minutes or more.

For example, over 70% of watch time on YouTube happens on mobile devices. While some people can watch an hour-long video on a small screen, this figure shows how important it is to know your audience.

To find the right watch time for your audience, try creating videos of varying lengths. Then, do a quick analysis of the watch time, average view duration, and audience retention for each video and adjust your strategy.

Pro tip: Longer videos tend to bring more opportunities for ads and higher chances of earnings.

12. Use YouTube’s autocomplete feature.

This feature makes it simple to find the most popular search terms for your video topic.

Just start typing a keyword phrase (or a seed keyword) and see what other keywords and phrases come up. Then, add the most relevant terms to your title, descriptions, and tags.

You can also use this tool to discover top YouTube trends or to figure out which keywords your competitors are targeting. These insights can help you pivot your YouTube SEO strategy for better results.

Pro tip: Check out this post for more useful YouTube features .

13. Try timestamps.

Timestamps mark different sections of your videos. They make it easy for your audience to find the content they’re looking for within each video.

Adding a timestamp can improve retention and user experience because it sets expectations. Timestamps give watchers an easy way to jump to what they want to see in a video or a reason to wait for that section to appear on-screen.

Timestamps also improve SEO because they make it easier for YouTube’s algorithm to understand your video content. This helps your video appear for search terms within your video, not just the overall theme of your video.

For example, if your video is about baking a cake, your video might include sections on baking equipment or cake trends like geode cakes.

If you add timestamps to mark these sections, a user might not find your video when searching for “how to make a cake” because of competition for this keyword, but they could find it by searching for “how to make a geode cake.”

You can manually add a timestamp or add and edit automatic video chapters with YouTube Studio. You can also look into different YouTube automation strategies and tools to speed up this process.

Best for: Segmenting long videos and helping YouTube understand the content of your videos.

14. Add a call-to-action in your video and video description.

CTAs are a powerful way to foster engagement. A CTA that offers value not only encourages likes, subscribes, and shares, but it can also improve viewer engagement metrics.

This can boost your video’s visibility in search results and the suggested video feature.

For maximum effectiveness, vary your CTAs. There are around eight different types of CTAs to drive visitors to your website or any product pages.

In one video, you might do a verbal CTA asking viewers to like, subscribe, or share. For another video, ask your audience to bookmark your video or click shared links in your description.

You’ll also want to ask your viewers to share comments and feedback. These actions aren’t just valuable for user experience. They also give signals to YouTube that your video is engaging and offering value to your viewers.

Here’s a standout example of how Cindy uses a “Subscribe” CTA to constantly remind her viewers to subscribe.

Pro tip: Check out these CTA examples for inspiration.

15. Review YouTube search analytics.

While analytics are useful for tracking progress toward your goals, you can also actively use this data to improve your YouTube SEO .

Say you’re trying to figure out why traffic suddenly jumped up for one of your videos. It might be that your video is ranking for a popular keyword. Or a popular website recently added your video.

You can dig into the video-specific data and see why that jump happened. Then, you can figure out how to optimize other videos with the same tactics.

YouTube analytics can also help you anticipate keywords that are increasing in popularity. Optimizing your videos for those keywords early on gives you a better chance of ranking higher in those search results.

Finally, your analytics can help you better understand your audience. It’s not unusual to start a YouTube channel with an intended audience and then see those demographics shift over time.

Analyzing the age, location, and interests of your real-time audience can help you make smart changes.

Most SEOs recommend keeping an eye on these metrics to map the success of your efforts:

• Watch time.
• Average watch duration.
• Impressions and click-through rate.
• Card clicks.
• Unique viewers.
• Traffic sources.
• Subscriber growth.

What we like: YouTube search analytics give you the hard numbers to see where you’re succeeding and where you have room to improve.

16. Optional: Leave a pinned comment on your video.

Leaving a comment on your video might seem over the top, but it’s a smart strategy. Not only do more comments improve your video’s rankability, but they can generate high levels of audience engagement.

A pinned comment may result in hundreds of replies, like it did for Matt D’Avelia below :

Be sure to leave an engaging comment that furthers the conversation or offers more value for readers.

Pro tip: Check out this post for more on YouTube comment management .

• Choose a target keyword for your video.
• Include the target keyword in the file name.
• Include the target keyword in the title.
• Include the keyword, as well as keyword variations, in the video description.
• Add related tags to your video.
• Add your video category.
• Upload a custom video thumbnail.
• Add subtitles and closed captions.
• Add cards and end screens that tie into the topic of your video.
• Add hashtags to your video.
• Create a playlist about your overarching topic.
• Optional: Leave a pinned comment to generate engagement or provide more value.

To sum up everything we’ve just covered, here’s a quick checklist for you to go through when making sure you’ve done everything you can to optimize your YouTube videos.

1. Choose a target keyword for your video. This can be a topic, a question, or a highly specific query. If you’re not sure of the right target keyword, use a keyword research tool or simply explore YouTube’s existing content library for inspiration.

2. Include the target keyword in the file name. Don’t use spaces between each word, but rather dashes (-) or underscores (_).

3. Include the target keyword in the title. Next up, work the target keyword into the title of your video, but be creative, and be sure to do it naturally. You don’t want the title to simply be “[keyword].”

The title is the first thing users will see, so try to create intrigue and interest while promising to help the viewer in some way.

4. Include the keyword, as well as keyword variations, in the video description. The video description is the lifeblood of y o u r Y o u T u b e SEO strateg y . Write a natural description with one to two mentions of y o u r target ke y word, as well as variations of this ke y word.

5. Add related tags to your video. While most users don’t use tags to find videos, they can help the YouTube algorithm categorize your video and serve it to the appropriate audience.

Add around five to eight industry tags , being sure not to overdo it so that you’re not flagged as spam.

6. Add your video category. While not as specific as tags, categories help users find your video and help the YouTube algorithm understand what your video is about.

Categories come into play on the homepage, the explore page, and the sidebar menu.

7. Upload a custom video thumbnail. Create a thumbnail that includes either a variation of your keyword or a short phrase that could generate clicks (like “1,000 organic followers, fast!”).

As mentioned, you’ll need to verify your YouTube channel to get access to custom thumbnail uploads.

8. Add subtitles and closed captions. Subtitles and closed captions are a much-needed accessibility component of your videos. They also indirectly help you optimize for YouTube search by giving YouTube a text version of your video content.

9. Add cards and end screens that tie into the topic of your video. Cards are equivalent to internal and external linking, and end screens allow you to engage viewers during those critical last few seconds when a viewer might be tempted to click on another piece of content.

10. Add hashtags to your video. Hashtags are different from tags. They show up above your video title and help you increase reach and authority by further signaling what your video is about.

11. Create a playlist about your overarching topic. One of the best ways to optimize YouTube videos is to create playlists.

Finding a few related videos and putting them in a playlist will not only attract more viewers, but it will also help the YouTube algorithm understand how your video relates to others in your upload library.

12. Optional: Leave a pinned comment to generate engagement or provide more value. As a brand, you can and should comment on your own videos — not only to reply to your commenters but to offer more value to readers.

Now, most of the SEO tips above rely on you finding a keyword and promoting your video correctly. And not all of those tips can be carried out through YouTube alone.

To get the most bang for your videography buck, consider some of the tools below to optimize your video for search.

• HubSpot: For Content Strategy
• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer: For Keyword Research
• Canva: For Thumbnail Creation
• VidIQ Vision: For Data Mining
• TubeBuddy: For Productivity
• Cyfe: For Analytics

1. HubSpot SEO Marketing Software

Our SEO marketing software, developed here at HubSpot, allows you to find popular keywords for creating content and organizing keywords into groupings — what we call “topic clusters.”

By sorting your content into topic clusters, you can oversee which pieces of content are related to one another, which types of content you have planned, and what you’ve already created.

While the keywords you discover in HubSpot reflect their popularity in a standard Google search, many of these topics will also produce videos on Google’s search engine results pages.

In those cases, you can create topic clusters that have both blog and YouTube content belonging to them. Speaking of which, we also have a blog ideas generator that develops topic ideas based on your input. You can then automatically turn these ideas into complete blog posts, which can be repurposed into video scripts.

Clustering your content — and linking from videos to blog posts, and vice-versa — can give you more authority in the eyes of Google and YouTube, while giving you more ways to capture traffic from the people searching your topic.

Pro tip : HubSpot integrates with YouTube for useful dashboards and performance tracking. You can also access more advanced reporting features through HubSpot’s marketing analytics platform . For example, you can compare blog posts and YouTube performance side-by-side, identify your top revenue sources, and organize marketing performance data from multiple channels in a single place.

2. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO platform that allows you to monitor a website’s ranking, estimate the organic traffic you’d get from each keyword, and research keywords for which you might want to create new content.

One popular feature of Ahrefs is Keywords Explorer, which allows you to look up details related to a keyword you’re interested in.

And, as you can see in the screenshot above, you can filter your keyword results by search engine — including YouTube.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer gives you a keyword’s monthly search volume, how many clicks for videos ranking for that keyword, related keywords, and more.

You might know Canva as a design template for creating all kinds of cards, photos, logos, and more. It just so happens that this popular product has a Thumbnail Creator for YouTube videos.

As stated in the tips above, thumbnail images are critical to promoting your content in YouTube search results and enticing users to click on your video.

Using Canva’s Thumbnail Creator, you can create the perfect preview image for your video in 1280 x 720 pixels — the thumbnail dimensions YouTube requires.

4. vidIQ Vision

This is a Chrome extension, available through Chrome’s web store in the link above, that helps you analyze how and why certain YouTube videos perform so well.

This includes the tags a video has been optimized for, its average watch time, and even how quickly that video might be gaining traffic.

The vidIQ tool then gives an SEO “score” you can use to create content that performs (or outperforms) the results you already see on YouTube.

5. TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is an all-in-one video platform that helps you manage the production, optimization, and promotion of your YouTube content.

Its features include an automatic language translator (which helps you rank for non-English keywords), a keyword explorer, tag suggestions, a rank tracker for your published videos, and more.

Cyfe is a large software suite that offers, among other things, a YouTube analytics platform. On this platform, you can track performance on YouTube and on your site.

In addition to traffic analytics, Cyfe can show you which keywords you’re ranking for and which ones are most popular across various search engines. Sounds a lot like Google Analytics or Moz, right?

That’s because Cyfe has data from both of those tools and more built into it.

Start Optimizing YouTube Videos

Video marketing is crucial for businesses and creators. No matter what SEO tip or tool you start with, a successful YouTube channel begins with good content.

Make sure your viewers have something high-quality and relevant to watch when they find you.

Optimizing your YouTube videos can help attract more views and build community — and lead to more conversions and sales. So, start today and watch your YouTube channel grow.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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YouTube Case Study: How these brands and influencers are generating millions through YouTube marketing

YouTube is one of the biggest search engines in the world.  

And knowing the ins and outs of YouTube marketing is going to be key for online business success in the coming years.  

The short version of the benefits include…

• A huge platform with massive active user base
• A reticence from many professionals to being “on camera”
• Ability to improve the discoverability, reach, and optimisation of uploads
• A deliverable that can be used multiple different ways (transcription, audio, video, clips, still images etc.)

I think video marketing is where everyone should be focusing their attention right now. 

• It has a greater impact and more varied use. 
• The tracking of engagement stats is more detailed. 
• The “putting a face to a voice” element helps build trust. 

I’ve spent months looking at what the best YouTubers do well. Not in the way of generating ad revenue. That’s out of your control and a fool’s goal. YouTube could amend their algorithm or advertising rules and turn a solid 5-figure/month revenue stream to pennies. 

No, I’m interested in how smart marketers use YouTube’s organic reach to increase and improve revenue streams they wholly own themselves. 

It’s something few are good at, but when the model is used well, it’s one that provides incredible gains for a business.

Table of Contents

Why focus on YouTube? 

The majority of “organic” acquisition fiends are super bullish on Google.  

And with good reason. Google is the #1 search engine in the world.  

But depending on one channel is never a good idea. While most folk are talking about how to write articles that rank on Google, there are people out there generating 6-figure+ income streams from another source. 

YouTube.  

According to SimilarWeb, YouTube isn’t just the world’s second most used search engine, but is actually the world’s second most visited website. 

It falls far behind Google in terms of raw numbers. Google has around 88B visits a month to YouTube’s 33B.

But there’s more to this than volume. 

When you dive into the numbers, you’ll note YouTUbe has far better engagement.  

I’m also of the firm belief that YouTube is only going to grow.  

If you know any young people (under 20 years old), you’ll know how YouTube is often the first port of call when they’re trying to figure something out.  

There’s been a shift to video explanations for a while. But I’d bet my bottom dollar video is going to become the go-to online medium for education and entertainment in the next 5-10 years.  

Already it’s much easier to watch a 3 minute video of Gordon Ramsay making Eggs Benedict than sift through multiple written recipes to find the one that…

• Doesn’t begin with 2000 words of the chef’s thoughts on the origins of eggs
• Is written in an easy to read style
• Doesn’t link out to other articles that explain things like hollandaise sauce and how to judge whether or not your eggs are bad

Videos streamline the process for many people. 

And for more technical tasks ranging from cooking to impress or fixing basic faults with your boiler, having a visual representation makes the process so much easier. 

And Google seems to agree. 

Google results now include detailed explanations and “chapters” of videos to help you find exactly what you need directly from search. 

Video is easier for the consumer. Which means more people will be flocking to video. So you should start producing video content.  

And there are very few reasons to not attempt video marketing.  .

If you have a smartphone, you have everything you need to get started.

Before you run off and start recording though, don’t make these mistakes.  

The mistakes many make with YouTube

The problem with YouTube is it LOOKS easy. 

You might see a kid making $5MM / year doing simple unboxing videos and think “ if a 9 year old cn do this, I can totally crush it” .

But YouTube isn’t easy. 

Most of the people I know who have tried (and failed) at YouTube made the below mistakes. 

Don’t build on someone else’s land

If you’re considering starting on YouTube, or you’re already doing well, do not become dependent on their payments. 

This is always a dangerous game.  

YouTube (and any other platform that relies on your content) has a history of changing rules for their own benefit. 

Here’s an excerpt from a story in 2018.  

And here’s what a creator shared more recently. 

The question I’d have for any serious marketers is how much money could you generate from an audience of 500,000?  

More than $30, right? 

YouTube is a great platform to reach your audience. But it should not be relied upon as a monetary channel. 

View any ad revenue you receive from YouTube as a bonus, not as the core source of income for your brand. 

Understand what metrics to track

I’m not going to say that views and traffic on YouTube are not important. 

They are. 

But understand where they sit in the journey. 

In our GoPro study we talked about the need for a North Star Metric (NSM). 

You need to know how YouTube views are feeding into your NSM. 

Let’s imagine that you’re a media brand like Morning Brew . And that your revenue model is based on selling ad space within your deliverable. 

Your NSM would likely be something along the lines of increasing the size of your engaged audience. 

Yes, you’d want views on YouTube, but you want to track how those view levels turn into engaged people in your owned audience. 

And what you’ll sometimes find is that the video types with lower views end up contributing more to your key NSM metrics.  

In the above, the video with more views contributes less to the NSM. 

The top track would work better if you were relying on YouTube’s partner system payouts.  

But we don’t want that. We want to turn people into your owned audience so you can continue marketing to them. And for that, the lower track with lower views (and a seemingly lower value) wins.  

Short version here is be sure you’re tracking the success of your videos against your NSM.  

If you’re not, then you could be optimising for the wrong thing and throwing money away.  

Personal vs brand accounts?

One of the things I’ve noticed over the years of watching successful brands is how personal brands often outperform company brands, especially on YouTube.  

In fact, in the last few months I saw Ahrefs run a Twitter ad from…

• Their brand account
• The CMO – Tim Soulo – account

Same ad, different name next to it when running.  

The one from Tim’s account outperformed the one from the brand. 

Probably because Tim has created a great personal brand and people like to see what he has to say.  

People are less likely to immediately judge a post (even if it’s an ad) if it comes from a person instead of a faceless brand. 

You see this all the time.  

• Tim Ferriss is the known entity and influencer rather than the “4-Hour Work Week team”.
• Ramit Sethi is the face of his brand,  not the “I Will Teach You to be Rich crew”.
• Peep Laja at CXL. 

You can point to hundreds of examples of a brand being driven by the personality of a single person. 

It’s obvious when it’s the founder. But what if you work at a large brand where the founder is no longer with us or simply doesn’t have the time/inclination to create videos?  

You find someone who is invested in the company’s growth, will be there for a long time, and you get them to be the face and evangelist of the brand. 

Let’s once again look at Ahrefs.  

Tim is often the person people think of when it comes to the brand, however, it’s Samuel Oh who runs their product education materials. 

Sam’s now the face of the majority of Ahrefs’ training videos. And if you head into the Facebook community for the tool, you’ll see him as a frequent receiver and answerer of SEO questions. 

The lesson here is that by giving your brand a face, it makes it easier for people to relate, empathise, and grow to love what you do. 

A faceless brand is easily dismissed. 

But watching the same person week in week out on YouTube is a way to foster greater loyalty. 

This alone could keep your audience around and engaged, even if the quality of your content drops in the short term.   

Own your audience

It all comes down to this. 

Own your audience as a person.  

If you’re a current YouTuber looking to increase revenue, the best thing you can do is take your subscribers off the platform into something you own completely, like an email list.  

If you’re a marketer looking to start/grow YouTube, use it as an acquisition channel. 

And remember to put a friendly face front and center.  

Remember that YouTube doesn’t care about you, only how far they can use you to get money off of paying advertisers.  

Now, onto the growth. 

Attracting people to your YouTube channel

Acquisition is one of the hardest parts of driving growth. YouTube is no different. 

It’s not easy to ensure your videos are the ones people find and click on.  

I’ve been diving deep into people’s channels and various training resources to figure this out. 

Below is the basic process that’s both often used and often recommended. Before we get into the written analysis, here’s the basic flow of actions we’re going to cover.  

Finding your talking point

It’s easy to get your phone out and start recording what you think your audience wants to watch.  

But before any ideation happens, you need to think about the topic you’re going to focus on. 

Getting niche here is key. You want to get yourself a reputation as the go-to source of information in that particular niche. 

You might not always remain in that niche, but you need something to start you off. 

How do you find your perfect niche and talking point? 

You should already know what kind of topics you want to focus on. However, you need to take it a step further and find the overlap between your business / its features/skills and what your audience wants to watch. 

The easiest way to do that is to look at what’s already doing well.  

If you already have content that’s on YouTube, then look at your own channel. 

If not, find someone who’s the closest competitor and head to their video list.  

If we imagine that I want to grow a channel on business and marketing advice, I might pick someone like Noah Kagan .  

Go to the channel and click on videos.  

Sort those videos by “most popular” to get a list of the most trafficked videos on that channel.  

A quick analysis of Noah’s channel highlights the best video ideas as…

• Breakdowns of / interviews with profitable businesses
• Instructional videos on how to make money
• Business/job ideas

There’s a big overlap between all 3. 

These aren’t on the nuts and bolts of marketing and business. We’re not talking about “how to write a great headline” or some other such tactical thing. 

This is higher-level stuff.  

It’s aspirational for many. 

But it could be tied back into something technical later down the line. For example, an email service provider could riff on this and create videos like…

• How [BRAND X] make’s $100,000 / month through email
• X 6-figure automation jobs for 2021 and beyond
• The 7-figure message used by [BIG BRAND]

The core idea – aspirational money making – is the same. It’s just changed slightly to align with the brand doing the research.  

Of course, getting this right depends upon you researching the right person. 

If you’re doubling down on your own content, then simply use your channel (if there’s enough research material).

If not, you want to find someone who is as close a competitor as possible.  

All you’re looking for is the core idea here.

What you want to do is record the idea types in a spreadsheet to get a quick overview of what is doing well on YouTube for channels your target market enjoys. 

The more of this research you do, the more patterns you’ll see coming up.  

For example, in analysing just the first few from Noah’s channel we can see that the best performing videos are…

• Financially focused
• Some case study-type videos (on financial success)
• A couple of listicle-based pieces that have “backed by data” in there

From these alone we have a starting point. However, one channel is not enough.  

Once you’ve got one channel out of the way, research at least 2 others to get a better view of what’s working and round out your data. 

The best way to find those channels is to click through to the most relevant video on the channel you’re researching. 

On the right hand side you’ll be able to filter the recommended videos by sub-type. 

Once you have a few options, click through to a channel with the best views and restart the process. 

Again, look for the archetypes and ideas that have got the most interest by sorting by most popular. 

Add new info to your spreadsheet. Rinse and repeat until you’re happy with the data you have. 

But be sure to do it at least 3 times. 

Why are we researching channels that are already doing well? 

Because these people have spent time, money, and effort to figure out what topics get clicks and what videos show up in the “recommended for you” side bar. 

Don’t reinvent the wheel here. 

Steal it from what’s already working. 

All you’re trying to do is find what’s getting recommended and insert yourself into the existing conversation and demand. 

Creating video ideas

Years ago, I took a training course on using Google’s Keyword planner to find YouTube video ideas. 

The concept is good, but the execution is too laborious. 

What we’re going to do is reuse that same idea to refine the overarching ideas and talking points into actual video ideas. 

And we’re going to use a super cheap tool called Keywords Everywhere for this. 

Keywords Everywhere is a Chrome extension that simply pulls relevant Google data into your searches. 

Let’s continue with the idea of business and marketing ideas. 

We already have a start on the potential seed keyword ideas. What we want to do now is activate Keywords Everywhere and type the seed keywords into the YouTube search box.  

 What you’ll see is something like the below.  

The information to the right of the Google auto-complete data is from Keywords Everywhere.  

The sweet spot is a search term that has…

• At least a few thousand search terms per month
• A higher than average CPC (this tells us it’s commercially viable)
• A lower competition score (competition is ranked 0-1, with 12 being the “most competitive”)

If you can find something that hits all 3, you have something people are searching for, has the potential to convert into sales, and there’s not a lot of competition. 

If that’s not enough information, click through onto one of the best potentials to get the video results page.  

Keywords Everywhere adds a bar on the right hand side with more detailed stats. 

And if you click the “Find YouTube keywords for ‘[keyword]’” you’ll get even more information.

Just like that we have a couple of new ideas to run with. 

Add these to your spreadsheet to get a better spread of ideas. 

I’d also use this opportunity to make a note of which ideas have the best search and conversion potential. You only want to focus on the easiest wins right now.  

Pick the best potentials in terms of traffic, commercial viability, and ease of ranking and use them to come up with actual video ideas.  

When you have some actual video titles, assess them on the ICE framework.   

You analyse

• The I mpact the video is likely to have
• The C onfidence you are of its success
• The E ase of creation and implementation

Rank each out of 10. 

The ones with the highest score are your best starting videos. 

By going through this multi-stage process you’ll find video ideas that…

• Have the potential to rank well and get decent traffic
• Should help you convert watchers to customers
• Are the best use of your time

But if you’ve been reading our content, you know we’re not going to simply put something up on YouTube and wait for the Google Gods to smile on us.  

We have more plans on this later.  

For now, let’s move on to YouTube SEO to increase your video’s chance of success.  

YouTube SEO

We’re jumping ahead a little here and assuming you’ve created the video and it’s ready for upload.  

When it comes time to upload your video, you’ve got to make sure you hit the right SEO elements to increase the vid’s chance of ranking.  

Unlike Google, you can’t rely on things like…

• Keyword density
• Relevant backlinks

You have to make sure that the handful of written elements tell Google what the video is about.  

You also need to make sure that those same written elements are relevant to the search someone would make.  

Let’s look at some examples. 

We’ll head back to Noah Kagan’s channel here and his video titled “5 Best Money Making Business Ideas You Can START TODAY”. 

The seed keyword in the above is Business Ideas.  

• The description
• The video tags

Noah has also included a secondary keyword of “start a business in 2021” in both the description and tags.  

This is what you need to do with the keywords you’ve identified.  

Much like an article, you need to include the primary keywords you;re targeting in these areas. Without this, Google won’t know what to rank you for.  

One thing I would recommend is to use more and longer tail tags that are relevant. 

If we look at another YouTuber – Ali Abdaal, you can see what he does with this.  

The video is for aspiring YouTubers. And it looks like the seed keyword is “start a YouTUbe channel”. 

If you look through his tags, he’s included a lot of long-tail variants of that seed keyword. 

This is great because it covers more ground. It tells Google what other kinds of searches your video should rank for. 

All you’d have to do here is pick a seed keyword that you identified in your research, head to YouTube and tap it into the search bar. 

If we do it again with “Profitable Business Ideas” we’d see the below.  

The idea for the video might be “Profitable Business Ideas you can start at home in 2021”.

The Seed Keyword would be Profitable Business Ideas as it has the highest volume.  

However, the tags could be some of the relevant longer tail searches like…

• Profitable business ideas low investment
• Profitable business ideas 2021
• Profitable business ideas you can start at home

If you search for these, you might also find other ideas like…

A lot of these searches have too low search volume to justify a full video.  

But if they’re relevant to your higher search volume idea, put them in as longer tail tags. This way YouTube has a better chance of ranking your video for the terms other people aren’t optimising for. 

Do this enough, and those small 210 searches per month could add up to a couple of thousand extra views.  

That’s the core of YouTube SEO from what we’ve been able to analyse.  

Now let’s move on to what to do when you’re getting traffic.  

Engaging your YouTube viewers

Unlike Google search, YouTube doesn’t look at things like backlinks to judge the value of content. 

They instead look at metrics related to how long a viewer spends on YouTube.  

Specifically they look at…

• CTR from thumbnail to video
• Average view duration
• Video length
• Subscriber count

And of course the keywords you’ve selected. 

In short, if you can create videos that hold user attention and get them to like, comment, and subscribe, you’ll do well in the rankings.  

Easier said than done though, right? 

After watching a lot of successful videos, I’ve broken down the basic approach to creating something that ranks to the below.  

Now, this model isn’t 100% accurate. 

The general approach is the same. However, you might find that the “like and subscribe / comment” section works better in your video a little earlier or later. 

Maybe you have a key promo point earlier in your video and so will want to pull that forward. 

This is not set in stone. 

This is intended as a starting template. 

Let’s look at it in more detail.  

Thumbnail and headline

Earlier on I mentioned the benefit of having a single person to be the face of the videos.  

That face should also feature heavily on the YouTube thumbnails.  

If you take a look into the psychology behind why this is important, you’ll find studies like this one . It details how faces in marketing are much better at grabbing a user’s attention. 

In the above linked study, faces are detected twice as fast as images without faces, and they work to create a greater feeling of community and brand recognition with the customer.  

Take a look at anyone who’s using YouTube as a marketing channel well, and you’ll see faces.  

Some examples…

Ali Abdaal – Productivity YouTuber

12 out of 15 feature Ali’s face.  

Alex Cattoni – Copywriting YouTuber

15 of 15 feature Alex’s face.

Ahrefs – SaaS tool for SEO

15 of 15 feature Sam’s face.  

Corridor Crew – VFX studio

15/15 feature some form of face. 

What’s interesting is how the Corridor Crew do this.  

They could just lead with their faces in each video. However, they also make use of celebrities and recognisable characters they’re featuring in their videos. 

This is a great workaround for brands who have a “behind the scenes” staff that might not want their faces featured. 

In addition to the use of faces, note the use of language between the headline and thumbnail copy.

The two are related, but aren’t a 1:1 copy. 

The copy within the image is often a “quick reference” type piece of copy.  If someone was skimming through the YouTube results for a search, the image copy needs to stand out.  

Using the image copy to cover…

• A major benefit
• The key lesson
• Some form of transformation

Is key to grabbing attention. 

The actual headline should be optimised for keywords. But pull a short version of the message and include it in the video thumbnail.   

Ideally in a way that feeds the search term or question back to the searcher.  

Ahrefs video on What makes a backlink “good”?

Primary keywords used in headline:

• SEO course by Ahrefs

Query keywords used in thumbnail:

• Good vs Bad backlinks

Why it works:

This video is going to rank for searches around good backlink generation, and Ahrefs is an established name in the SEO space. 

So the keywords make sense.  

The primary questions they’ll be wanting answers to are how to get high quality backlinks.

So the image copy also works to grab attention.  

Alex Cattoni’s video on How to build a 7-figure business

• Build a business
• $1,000,000 secrets

Building a business is a common search term. Crafting a video around the topic that appeals to relevant keywords is a no-brainer.  

Alex has also put one of the primary benefits of building a successful business – financial reward – in the thumbnail. Not only that, she’s used the magic number that often gets attention. $1,000,000. 

Be sure to check the downloads for a checklist for the thumbnail and a big list of headline formulae.  

Tease (optional)

Not every channel or video does or needs this. But I personally think it’s a great addition.  

Often, when clicking through to a video you’ll be greeted with a very short ~5-10 second segment of something notable from later in the video. 

We’re talking something that grabs attention and makes the watcher think “my god, I have to watch this now”. 

The Corridor crew guys are great at this.  They lead every video with a ~10 second segment of high-interest point from later in the video.  

 In this video they tease 2 high-interest points. 

• The team talking about how good an old-school visual effects shot is
• A sneak peek of a call they have with the lead FX guy for The Snyder Cut of Justice League

Of course that intro is super flashy and attention grabbing as well. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Meryl Streep brandishing a shotgun? 

I love this as a tactic. 

It’s the same concept as an open loop. 

You feed the user a tidbit of information that piques their curiosity. Their brain won’t be able to rest until that loop is closed which increases their chance of watching more. 

Which, of course, increases your key metrics. 

If you want to implement this it seems the best YouTube open loops lead the video with a huge revelation, interesting point, major benefit. 

However, be careful not to give too much away. 

With the intro you want to continue on that open loop type approach. 

The best intros are super simple. You simply tell the watcher what they’re going to learn, see, or get from your video. 

You basically want to give them a reason to watch your video. Tell them why it’s important for them.  

Noah Kagan offers a good example in this video on the 9 biggest job opportunities for the next decade.  

Within 30 seconds, Noah has outlined why you should watch the video. 

The full script from this section is…

“So I made this video to help show you high-paying, cool careers I highly encourage everyone to consider for the next decade so you don’t have to waste your time in a dead-end cubicle job for years like I did”.

Is someone who’s looking to earn a lot of money with a cool job going to be interested in this? 

Yes.  

Will outlining the above to them within the first 30-seconds help retain their attention? 

Your intro should be as simple as that. 

Whatever the message your video is trying to communicate, the value sections are where you do it.  

Doesn’t matter if that value is…

• Entertainment
• Information
• Something else

Just make sure that you offer the value the user expects from you. 

Like & subscribe

One of the golden rules in marketing is to make the CTA easy to understand and obvious.  

Button CTAs say things like “Buy now”. They tell the user what they want them to do to progress to the next stage.  

It’s no different with your YouTube videos.  

As mentioned earlier, your video’s ranking is determined by engagement factors.  

2 of those are the number of likes and subscriptions it generates.  

So, rather than leave this to chance, you have to ask people to take the action. 

It appears that most YouTubers don’t lead with this at the start of the video. 

They wait until they’ve provided a little value in their video before asking the user to subscribe.  

As for that ask, it happens in one of two ways.  

• It’s a simple on-screen graphic that pops up as a reminder 

• They actively call it out by saying something like “if you enjoy this content and want more, please consider subscribing”. JackFrags , a video game YouTuber, does a good job of this as seen below.  

Promo / Traffic shaping

This is the difference maker in my opinion. 

YouTube is a great medium. And no doubt there are skilled YouTubers out there eating off their ability to craft engaging videos. 

However, in my opinion this simply isn’t good enough. 

You’re building your business on land you don’t own. If YouTube changes anything to do with their monetisation strategy, you could be left out in the cold and see your revenue fall through the floor. 

The best YouTubers use YouTube as an acquisition channel. And they use a promotion or traffic shaping strategy to make money off the YouTube platform. 

There are a couple of ways you can do this which I’ll explain shortly. 

However, in short what you want to do is recreate what is, in effect, a content upgrade on YouTube. 

Basically give a short, relevant tease of your product or offer within YouTube and tell people within the video where they can learn more. 

You can do this mid video with a verbal call out, or simply leave it to the end with YouTube’s end card. 

Personally, I’d recommend both.  

One other thing to note is that smart marketers generally don’t redirect directly to a sales page though. They’ll redirect to an email sequence that continues to build trust. 

If we were to visualise what that might look like, it would be something like this. 

The tease is something you’ll have to play around with. However, the most successful teases for traffic shaping follow the same principles as a regular content upgrade for written content. 

So you want to engage people with the primary content – in this case the video – and tell people where to go to get…

• A downloadable template
• The next edition or “editor’s cut” video
• A downloadable version

Or something similar. 

Anything that would make the act of clicking through form the video to your website a no brainer.  

Nurture and grow your viewers

So at this point you have engaging videos that increase the chances of people…

• Liking 
• Subscribing
• Watching longer periods of time
• Checking out your off-YouTube properties

But the whole model here is very one directional.  

You’re burning your YouTube bridges in a way by simply using it to funnel traffic to your offers.  

And if YouTube is providing you with good leads, you want to keep that going. 

The thing I’d recommend here is setting up a very simple engagement loop with the people you’ve directed to your owned audience platform. 

There are two steps to dominating YouTube.

Step 1 – Keep it going

I don’t think anyone should rely 100% on a rented audience platform for their revenue. 

However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.  

If YouTube is getting your brand in front of people, keep the momentum going.  

If you’re following this guide and…

• Choosing relevant topics
• Optimising for high volume keywords
• Creating optimised videos that increase engagement

YouTube will reward you with greater reach and a growing audience.  

You’ll find your videos showing up in search and in the recommended videos section. 

Don’t ruin any progress you have made or will make. 

The best advice is to keep things going and be consistent on the platform. Check any successful channel and you’ll see that they have consistent upload schedules.  

Here’s a look at XiaoMaNYC’s recent uploads.  

When it comes to your publication schedule, don’t worry about daily, weekly, monthly etc right now. 

Instead, focus on what is a realistic publication schedule for you to churn out quality videos that align with the template above. 

Quantity is great, but if the quality isn’t there then it’s useless. 

The other action I’d recommend is…

Step 2 – Set up smart engagement loops

I recently wrote about how Eddie Shleyner creates engagement loops to bring his owned audience into the growth of his rented audience. 

You should do the same with YouTube. 

If you’re directing people off YouTube to your email list, then use those people to ensure each new video gets off to the best start possible. 

Yes, YouTube will tell your subs that a new video has been published, but not everyone is sitting around on YouTube waiting for you to hit publish. 

The best marketers make sure that each new video is pumped out to their email subs.

Unsurprisingly you’ll see Noah Kagan doing a great job of this. 

At the start of his emails he’ll often link to his most recent video on YouTube. 

This is a great way to get the initial traction and show YouTube that the video is worth wider promotion.

Your email subscribers are super invested in your brand. Make sure they know about how they can get closer to you.

All it takes is a quick email to say “ check out the latest video here ”.

If you want to kick this up a notch, you could also incentivise people liking, subscribing, and commenting on your video with some form of giveaway.  

Just be aware of the rules YouTube has established for this though .

Again, Noah has a great example of this. He ran a giveaway for his Tesla. And to be in with a chance of winning, you had to be subscribed to him on YouTube.  

If you have a relevant giveaway that could drive engagement, use it.  

If I was to do this, I’d ask people to like and comment to be in with a chance of winning. Then I’d use something like WooBox to pick a comment at random as the winner.  

Basically, you want to ask your email subscribers to check out your latest videos. 

And maybe once a month or quarter, do a giveaway that incentivises people to take the engagement actions that boost your video’s reach. 

Visualised that might look like this. 

With this model you’re getting your owned audience to help boost your reach, thus attracting a greater audience on a rented platform. 

This isn’t anything new and is also the model I’d recommend for any social media platform. 

Step 3 – Video promotion tips

Waiting on an algorithm to rank your content and drive visitors for you is a fool’s game.

The wonderful thing about video content though is how it can be reused in multiple ways for promotion.  

You could quite easily take all the below from one video…

• A transcript to publish below the video on your site for SEO juice
• Multiple short clips (10 seconds, 30 seconds, 5 minutes etc) to promote on multiple networks
• Still images for sharing
• Audio for a podcast

This can be a lot of work though.

What I’d recommend is simply focusing on pulling multiple promotional clips from each video to be shared across other networks where you have an audience. 

If you’ve already edited the video, this is a pretty quick and painless approach. 

Just identify short segments that would work well as promotions and share them across multiple networks with the link pointing back to the original video.   

Here’s a visualisation.

This clip method works as a teaser. As you can see there’s still enough of the video left that, even if someone saw all your clips, they’d still want to watch the whole thing.  

The full YouTube model

Let’s pull all of the various sections together to create one, complete YouTube model and run through everything quickly.  

From a high-level, the model looks something like this.  

With a little explanation, that’s…

• Step 1 – Research high volume, low competition video ideas and the relevant keywords
• Step 2.5 – Take multiple clips from that video to promote it across social sites and communities
• Step 3 – Create an opt-in page for your email list, use a relevant lead magnet upgrade that’s hinted at in your video
• Step 4 – Send the viewer a welcome email series that promotes your paid asset
• Step 5 – Add the user into your usual newsletter rotation
• Step 6 – When you publish a new video, make sure you email your current email subs to check it out
• Bonust step – If possible, run giveaways on your YouTube channel that require likes/comments. Make sure to promote through the usual channels of social, communities, and your email list.  

Let’s also recap the model’s steps with simple bullet points.  

Acquisition

Follow this process to publish videos that…

• Your audience wants to watch
• Is optimised and so will have a better chance of organic rankings

And some more detailed explanations.  

• Step 1 – Identify a niche talking point to help you build authority and an audience faster
• Step 2 – Research competitor videos to identify topics of high interest
• Step 3 – Use that research to identify potential video ideas
• Step 4 – Find the keywords that have high volume, low competition, mid-high CPC
• Step 5 – Make sure your video uses relevant keywords in the title, thumbnail, description, and tags 

This will help give your video the best chance of ranking well and attracting organic traffic on its own. 

Optimising the video’s topic and basic SEO is one thing. However, YouTube ranks videos based on user engagement.  

After watching countless videos of channels that are growing right now, there is a general pattern to the kind of video that gets good watch time and helps to grow a channel.  That basic model is…

Here’s a run down of the steps. 

• Step 1 –  Lead with a tease of an interesting point that comes up later in the video to create an open loop and curiosity
• Step 2 – An introduction that teases what the viewer will learn or receive as a benefit for watching the video
• Step 3 – Start delivering value
• Step 4 – After a little value has been delivered, either ask the user to like & subscribe or put a graphic on screen as a prompt
• Step 5 – Continue with the value of the video
• Step 6 – At the point of highest interest for your owned assets, tell the user where they can go to get access to it. This should be to a free lead magnet to secure their email address
• Step 7 – Continue providing value 
• Step 8 – End card that keeps them engaged with your channel and offers a direct link to your owned asset opt-in

One thing to note here is that there are no hard and fast rules on exactly when you should ask users to like and subscribe or when you should try to shape traffic to your owned audience opt-in. 

We can’t say “at exactly 7 minutes and 29 seconds do X.  

It depends on your video topic, length, and the script you’ve written for that video.  

It’s similar to putting a CTA on a sales page. There is no one best placement.  

You have to look at where the intent for action is the highest. 

So, where in your video is someone most likely to think “ I can’t wait for the next video” ? That’s where you push for the like and subscribe.  

Find the place in your video where someone would think “ I wish I could do that ” to push them toward your owned asset opt-in which will set them on the path to solving the problem themselves (and adding them to your email list). 

The exact timing of these things will be different for every video you make. And you need to experiment and keep an eye on these to find the best possible location. 

Once you’ve got your videos on topics that people are interested in, and a template that fosters better engagement, it’s time to hit the growth.

The first thing you’ll want to do is increase the ToFu traffic.  

And the easiest way to do this is to make sure that your video is being promoted across any and all relevant social platforms, communities, or areas your ideal audience hangs out. 

Here’s how I’d recommend doing this.

• Step 1 – Pull short video clips, still images, or quotes from your video asset
• Step 2 – Share those short versions across social platforms, communities, and forums where your 
• Step 3 – make sure they all include a link back to the original video
• Step 4 – Rinse and repeat. Never let your promotion of videos (even old videos) die off

This will help drive new viewers from one rented audience platform to another. 

But to kick the growth machine up a notch you need to increase the chance of…

• Sales and revenue you control (not YouTube ad revenue)
• Engagement that increases the reach of the video

The best way to achieve both of these is through email.  

Here’s what the visualisation would look like.  

If we break it down, here are the steps. 

• Step 1 – Include a relevant tease and promotion of your owned asset in your video
• Step 2 – Offer the owned asset as a freebie if they join your email list
• Step 3 – Send a welcome email series that builds trust whilst also promoting your paid asset (generating revenue you own 100%)
• Step 4 – When the welcome sequence is done, add them to your normal newsletter rotation
• Step 5 – Email your newsletter subscribers when you have a new video out to get initial traction in terms of views

With this you’re bringing our owned audience back to the rented audience platform to manually increase the engagement, which helps increase overall reach. 

To kick that up another step, you can run a giveaway or competition on YouTube that requires engagement. 

Promote that through the same channels above (social and email) and you should see a drastic increase in engagement and new views.

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YouTube SEO Case Study: A 55% Increase in YOY YouTube Traffic

On the 21 st of February 2017, we optimized a promotional YouTube video for our client in the education industry. Our aim was to increase the video’s visibility in YouTube as well as increase YouTube traffic. As a result of our efforts, we saw a 54.54% year-on-year increase in YouTube traffic as well as improvements in YouTube rankings.

Some Background Info

Our client’s particular niche in the education sector is seasonal, with demand reaching its peak twice a year in October and April, as shown in the graph below. Although we did see an initial 16% month-on-month increase in YouTube traffic and improvements in YouTube and Google search results, a fair comparison needs to consider seasonal trends.

The main metric we’ve focused on for this case study is ‘Traffic Sources>YouTube’ to discount any traffic from external sources, seeing as the video was also embedded elsewhere online.

Here’s What We Did:

• We optimized the video title to increase the click-through-rate and we front-loaded the video’s keywords
• We provided an overview of what the company does in the description box and we included a full video transcript
• We enabled comments with approval to make the video appear ‘friendlier’ and more engaging
• We added relevant video tags
• We optimized the meta description (YouTube displays the first 125 characters of the description box)
• We made the hyperlinks in the description box clickable
• We added a channel header image that included the web address to encourage people to visit the site
• We added a channel description and link to the website homepage under the ‘links’ section
• We changed the video category from ‘People and Blogs’ to ‘Education’
• We changed the country from Afghanistan to the UK

Year-on-Year Comparison: a 54.54% Increase YouTube Search Traffic

21/02/2016 – 21/03/2016 Compared to 21/02/2017 – 21/03/2017

Results After 1 Month – a 16% Increase in YouTube Search Traffic

21/01/2017 – 21/02/2017 Compared to 21/02/2017 – 21/03/2017

Over that one-month period, we also saw an increase in the video’s Google and YouTube search rankings for our targetted keyphrases:

Google Rankings Summary

Youtube rankings summary, conclusions.

Given that our client’s industry is seasonal, the fairest way to analyse our improvements is through a year-on-year comparison. As a result of our efforts, we saw a 54.54% year-on-year increase in YouTube traffic as well as improvements in YouTube rankings. After the first month of implementing our changes, we saw a 16% month-on-month increase in YouTube traffic and improvements in YouTube and Google search results

Related posts:

Content Marketing Case Study: 325% YOY Traffic Increase (+ 450% Increase in Revenue)

SEO Case Study: A 1005% Increase in Traffic in 9 Months

On-Page SEO Case Study: A 48% Boost in Year-on-Year Organic Traffic

SEO Case Study Example: A 20.48% Increase in Organic Traffic in 8 Weeks

Jamie Thomson

Jamie Thomson is an award-winning senior copywriter and the owner Brand New Copy copywriting studio. With over 15 years professional writing experience, he helps companies engage with their target audience through tailored content strategies and exceptional copywriting.

That’s impressive. Thanks for such a detailed post with screenshots to back it up.

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14 SEO Case Studies to Improve Your Strategy in 2024

Are you looking for the best SEO case studies to inspire and improve your strategy in 2024?

SEO case studies are the ultimate way of finding out what works (and what doesn't) to climb search results.

Join us as we share 14 real-life examples that cut through the noise to reveal strategies that yield results .

In This Article

What Is an SEO Case Study?

How can seo case studies help me, 1. later (saas), 2. medpark hospital (medical), 3. transit (mobile app), 4. iowa girl eats (food blog), 5. krispcall (saas), 6. handle the heat (food blog), 7. the independent pharmacy (b2c).

• 8. Hawthorn (Local & eCommerce)
• 9. All About Cookies (Web & Tech)

10. Oxford English Dictionary (Publishing)

11. meshki (ecommerce), 12. golfer geeks (golf blog).

• 13. Explore (Travel & Tourism)

14. Wagering Terms (Sports)

Aioseo trends: your gateway to the latest seo success stories.

AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin. Get it for free!

An SEO case study analyzes how businesses transform their online presence using search engine optimization (SEO.) It uses real-life examples to showcase specific SEO strategies and their effect on a website's rankings and traffic.

SEO case studies are one of the best ways to learn what strategies move the needle. They act like blueprints for the digital landscape, demonstrating the techniques behind top-ranking websites.

This is important for website owners because once you know what works, you can replicate those strategies to grow your traffic .

14 SEO Case Studies for 2024

Ready to learn from the best?

These websites use strategies that work—and these SEO case studies prove it.

Later is a leading social media management tool. It helps over 7 million users create, schedule, and share their content across all major social media platforms. Later has over 1.8K positive reviews on the Apple store and over 5K on Google Play.

Key Growth Contributor: Later added a Social Media Glossary with over 200 pages of content. The impact was immediate. Shortly after going live, these pages generated an impressive 60% of the site's total traffic.

Top Strategies for Your Site:

• Create high-quality content that fulfills search intent.
• Implement schema markup to win rich results on the SERP.
• Build more backlinks to your site.

Read the full SEO case study here: Later 147% YoY Growth

MedPark is a private hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. It caters to its local audience but also aims to become a global destination for medical tourism. It was recently awarded one of Thailand’s top 10 hospitals .

Key Growth Contributor: In a push to expand its local and international reach, MedPark Hospital tailored content to its Thai and global audiences. They did this by creating thousands of new pages in both Thai and English. Thailand traffic more than tripled keyword rankings YoY, while U.S. rankings went from non-existent to 206K keywords . English pages generated over a quarter million organic visits in the analysis month's traffic alone.

• Tailor content to your audience(s).
• Assign hreflang attributes on multilingual sites.
• Use the marketing funnel to meet the different stages of your customer’s journey.

Read the full SEO case study here: MedPark Hospital 523% YoY Growth

Transit is a mobile app for public transportation. It provides real-time data on transportation lines, departure times, and delays. Transit covers over 300 cities worldwide and has over 10 million downloads on Android. It also ranks #4 in Apple navigation apps.

Key Growth Contributor: For most of the website's lifetime, Transit had under 300 pages on its site at any given time. Then, in 2023, they accelerated their content production using programmatic SEO . Pages skyrocketed to 10-21K . These new landing pages highlight specific commutes using regional transportation methods, like buses, subways, and trains.

• Build out your content portfolio to rank for more keywords.
• Leverage automation to streamline content creation.
• Optimize for Google’s People Also Ask box with FAQs.

Read the full SEO case study here: Transit 1,134% YoY Growth

Iowa Girl Eats is a gluten-free food blog by Kristin Porter. She started her blog in 2018 and received 1.5 million monthly organic visits in 2023. What’s even more impressive is that she reached this new traffic milestone in just 3 months.

Key Growth Contributor: Iowa Girl Eats' success lies on the search engine results page ( SERP .) Thanks to a generous implementation of recipe and review schema markup behind the scenes, Porter won attractive recipe snippets on the SERP. Iowa Girl Eats is frequently featured in Google's recipe carousel, and her food images rank in Google image search.

• Implement recipe schema markup to win recipe snippets on the SERP.
• Optimize images to rank in Google image search.
• Craft user-centric content that ranks in People Also Ask.

Read the full SEO case study here: Iowa Girl Eats 508% Growth in 3 Months

KrispCall is a virtual cloud phone system. It offers a range of SaaS communication products, from a cloud telephony system to virtual phone numbers and call center software. KrispCall boasts a global customer base, with headquarters in Singapore and an additional office in Australia.

Key Growth Contributor: KrispCall leveraged programmatic SEO to create a landing page for every area code in the United States. They also included international area codes of some of their top traffic-driving countries. These pages had a dramatic effect, generating 82% of all U.S. traffic during the analysis month.

• Address audience needs and fulfill search intent .
• Optimize page templates for programmatic SEO.
• Implement FAQ schema markup to win PAA results.

Read the full SEO case study here: KrispCall 1,969% YoY Growth

Handle the Heat is a baking blog by Tessa Arias. She started the blog in 2009 after graduating from culinary school. Today, Handle the Heat has over 1,000 dessert recipes online. Tessa's blog stands out in the food blogging world because she infuses science into each recipe. Readers enjoy helpful baking tips that are backed by science and sweet-tooth-approved.

Key Growth Contributor: Handle the Heat had a two-fold primary reason for its SEO success. (1) Tessa's commitment to high-quality , comprehensive content in every blog post. (2) Google algorithm updates that rewarded Tessa's efforts with a boost in rankings. The full SEO case study dissects Tessa's content and shares the specific algorithm updates that elevated the blog's performance.

• Write for people first, search engines second.
• Engage your audience on social media.
• Implement schema markup behind the scenes.

Read the full SEO case study here: Handle the Heat 295% Growth in 6 Months

The Independent Pharmacy is an online pharmacy based in Bristol, United Kingdom. It provides medical consultations, health advice, and prescriptions to ePharma shoppers. The site was launched in 2013 and is considered one of the leading UK online pharmacies today. It has over 19,000 online positive reviews and offers over 800 treatments .

Key Growth Contributor: The Independent Pharmacy leveraged FAQs to enhance its visibility on the SERP. They include FAQs on almost every landing page and implement FAQ schema markup behind the scenes. This strategic move proved pivotal, winning them 8.7K keyword rankings in the People Also Ask box during the analysis month. It also contributed to them surpassing over 1 million monthly visits .

• Use FAQs to optimize for PAA results.
• Implement FAQ schema markup to win PAA snippets.
• Maintain content freshness with regular updates.

Read the full SEO case study here: The Independent Pharmacy 634% Growth in 6 Months

8. Hawthorn (Local & eCommerce)

Hawthorn is a Chicagoland mall located in Vernon Hills, Illinois. It's been a neighborhood staple for over 50 years and expanded into the online market in 2015. More recently, Hawthorn added an eCommerce platform in 2020. The blend of brick-and-mortar with eCommerce has been pivotal in Hawthorn's long-term success.

Key Growth Contributor: During the spring of 2023, Hawthorn added 51K new pages to its online shopping platform . This move tripled their keyword rankings (326K keywords) and triggered a jump in traffic. It also brought more non-branded traffic to the site than ever, effectively expanding Hawthorn's reach.

• Include a 301 redirect strategy as you plan for a domain migration.
• Extend your reach by optimizing for new, relevant keywords.
• Use image SEO to win rankings in Google image search results.

Read the full SEO case study here: Hawthorn Reached 252K Monthly Visits in 5 Months

9. All About Cookies (Web & Tech)

All About Cookies is an informational resource for online privacy and data security. They cover topics like identity theft prevention, antivirus protection, VPNs, and more. Tutorials and software recommendations are their main type of content, generating over half of site traffic.

Key Growth Contributor: In 2023, All About Cookies added almost 600 new pages to its site. This new content was segmented into five distinct categories, each catering to a different stage in the marketing funnel . This comprehensive approach assured All About Cookies met the needs of each of its customers, regardless of where they were in their buying journey. It also contributed to an influx of new ranking keywords (approximately 259K.)

• Create a content marketing funnel to serve each stage of the buyer’s journey.
• Optimize for all areas of the SERP for maximum visibility.
• Implement schema markup to win more attractive search results.

Read the full SEO case study here: All About Cookies 3,336% YoY Growth

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a prominent historical dictionary of the English language. It's a comprehensive guide to the meaning, history, and usage of over half a million words. The OED is widely recognized as the most complete collection of the English language.

Key Growth Contributor: For most of the website's lifetime, OED's content was locked behind a paywall. However, in 2023, they switched to a freemium model, adding free factsheets to the site. Factsheets are accessible to all users and search engines. This transition proved instrumental in OED's online presence. Factsheets account for 99% of all pages and are the primary driver of the site's organic traffic .

• Implement SEO-friendly URLs to aid users and search engines.
• Add new, indexable pages to rank in search results.
• Optimize content for People Also Ask results.

Read the full SEO case study here: Oxford English Dictionary 1,041% Growth in 3 Months

MESHKI is a popular Australian clothing brand. It features trendy women's designs and is frequently spotted on social media influencers. MESHKI has an international customer base and leverages three domains to target specific audiences (Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.)

Key Growth Contributor: In 2023, MESHKI launched its third domain (meshki.co.uk). It was specifically designed to cater to UK customers . All three websites use a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) to signal their geographic locations to search engines. This decision allowed MESHKI to target traffic in each country , boosting rankings in their respective locations.

• Use ccTLDs to target international markets.
• Leverage on-page SEO to boost rankings for branded keywords.
• Implement product schema to win review snippets on the SERP.

Read the full SEO case study here: MESHKI 589% Growth in 3 Months

Golfer Geeks is a beginner-friendly golf blog. It was started in 2015 by Jamie Boudreaux, an entrepreneur and avid golfer. His goal? Share his love for the sport and help readers improve their game.

Key Growth Contributor: Boudreaux actively fought content decay (a natural decline in performance over time) by regularly updating his blog posts . This involved revisiting some of Golfer Geeks' high-performing content, such as product lineups and reviews. By infusing new material into older content, Boudreaux optimized for content freshness . This approach holds dual benefits for both users and search engines. It demonstrates that the content is still relevant today, making it more likely to maintain or improve its ranking.

• Fight content decay by monitoring organic performance.
• Use image SEO best practices to rank in Google Images.
• Implement FAQ schema to win People Also Ask rich results.

Read the full SEO case study here: Golfer Geeks 190% YoY Growth

13. Explore (Travel & Tourism)

Explore is a travel resource for planning trips. Just shy of accommodation bookings, it has everything globe-trotters need to choose and organize their next vacation. Explore provides destination recommendations, travel guides, planning tips, and more.

Key Growth Contributor: After a recent acquisition, Explore focused on its content strategy in 2023. They added thousands of new pages targeting long-tail keywords . These search queries are easier to rank for because there is less competition . They also have high conversion rates , making them ideal for websites looking to grow their traffic and revenue fast.

• Target long-tail keywords and create content that fulfills search intent.
• Implement schema markup to win more real estate on the SERP.
• Build more backlinks and interlink across domains.

Read the full SEO case study here: Explore Quadrupled Traffic in 10 Months

Wagering Terms is a digital glossary for sports betting terminology. It has an extensive catalog of key betting terms and phrases for both beginner and advanced bettors.

Key Growth Contributor: Leading up to its explosive organic growth, Wagering Terms had a simple approach to its content strategy: build out its glossary . They added around 1.5K new entries to the site in 6 months, and the results were immediate. Each month, organic traffic experienced significant growth. This effect snowballed into a record high of 42K monthly visits at the end of 2023. Ultimately, Wagering Terms proves that a simple concept, when done right, can lead to incredible results.

• Grow your existing content portfolio.
• Understand and fulfill search intent.
• Implement schema markup for click-worthy search results.

Read the full SEO case study here: Wagering Terms 1,231% Growth in 3 Months

In the world of SEO, knowledge is power.

We hope these SEO success stories inspire you to unlock the full potential of your online presence. Each case study is a testament to the impact strong strategies can have on your growth.

To stay on top of the latest developments on SEO strategies and trending websites, we invite you to visit AIOSEO Trends .

We share new SEO case studies here every week .

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• Who’s dominating the SERP
• What SEO strategies they used
• How to replicate their success on your site

Plus, you’ll get the tips , tools , and resources you need to make these optimizations a reality.

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30 Best SEO Case Studies: Real Examples & Results That Work

How would you like to read the best SEO case studies ever published?

More importantly, how would you like to copy the best practices in search engine optimization that are based on real-world examples and not just theory?

Below, you’ll find a list of the top 30 SEO case study examples along with the results and key findings. By studying these SEO case studies and applying the lessons learned on your own site, you can hopefully achieve similar results for your SEO campaigns.

Best SEO Case Studies

How i increased my organic traffic 652% in 7 days  – backlinko seo case study, seo investment – google search central case study.

Find out how an investment in SEO and implementing applicable structured data can improve user experience and increase organic traffic on Google Search.

How to Create a Squeeze Page That Converts at 74.5%  – Gotch SEO Case Study

See how Nathan Gotch used 9-step approach to create a squeeze page that converts at 74.5%. The tactics revealed in this case study also boosted another one of the pages by 69%, so you know it’s a proven method that works.

From 126 to 121,883 Unique Visitors in Under 6 Months – Ahrefs SEO Case Study

This SEO case study example focuses on Northmill, a Fintech company founded in Stockholm. It reveals how you can analyze your business competitors to develop higher-quality content that will gain a huge amount of traffic and convert those readers into customers. Read it to find out exactly what Northmill did during an SEO campaign to go from 126 unique visitors to 121,883 in under 6 months.

Ranking in 24 Hours in the Competitive SEO Niche – SEO Chatter Case Study

This case study was a partnership between SEO Chatter and Keyword Chef. It shows you how much organic traffic and money was earned by publishing 45 blog posts based on keywords found with the Keyword Chef tool. You’ll also discover the steps taken to get those posts to rank in the top 10 positions on Google within 24 hours or less after publishing.

From 0 to 75,000 Visits A Year – Ryan Darani Case Study

Find out complete details on the challenges, limits, budgets, and timeframes for a client that went from 0 clicks per day to now 300-400 on average with only 60 pieces of content on the site.

How We 4x’d Traffic and Doubled Revenue in E-Commerce – Diggity Marketing SEO Case Study

Diggity Marketing is also featured on my SEO secrets page and is a good resource for more SEO success case studies.

6-Step Process That Generated 150,732 Visits  – Robbie Richards SEO Case Study

In this SEO case study, you’ll learn a repeatable 6-step process that one SEO marketer used to get his client to #1 in Google. This strategy helped him outrank big name brands like Mashable, and increase organic traffic by 11,065% in just 6 months.

Scaling an Outdoor Niche Site to a $175K Exit – The Website Flip SEO Case Study

Get a complete month-by-month breakdown of how one business bought a website on Flippa and scaled it for a $175,000 exit. You’ll learn every step they took with SEO and site improvements from day one of the purchase at $23,000 and the sale 22 months later, all while making $100,938 revenue on top of the final sales price.

How Long Does It Take to Rank for A Keyword  – Bloggers Passion SEO Case Study

Find out how long it really takes for a keyword to hit the first page of Google in this case study. SEO for a new post can take some time to kick in before the page generates thousands of visitors from search. But how long do you have to wait? Is it one week, 30 days, or longer? Read this data-packed example to find out as well as get actionable steps you can take to speed up the ranking process.

Traffic Improves SEO and Affects Google Rankings – Cognitive SEO Case Study

This company tracked a strong correlation between a spike in traffic from a Reddit post to an increase in Google rankings for an ultra-competitive keyword. Find out how they experienced a boost from the 74th position to the 8th in Google search results in just one day.

$780 Revenue In Month 1 with An Aged Domain – Stream SEO Case Study

This is an ongoing case study of a website built on an aged domain. In this first post, you’ll learn how the aged domain was resurrected and what SEO steps were taken in the first month to generate $780.

Large Images In Google Search – Google Search Central Case Study

How i increased seo traffic by 600% in 24 months  – wordstream seo case study.

The author of this case study took a site from 20,000 monthly visitors to over 150,000 (a 600% increase) with mostly on-page SEO updates and internal linking methods. He even unpublished 90% of the content on the blog. Learn the four SEO techniques that he used in the right way to explode the search traffic.

A Case Study of Winning in Local SEO  – SEMrush Blog SEO Case Study

How to 4x organic traffic in 6-months using pure seo basics – authority builders seo case study.

This is an interesting case study on SEO because the site that was studied had increased organically from 7,000 visitors per month to about 68,000 between January to April. The site owner was doing a lot of things right but many simple things were also being done wrong. Find out here how you don’t need fancy SEO tricks to get high rankings and traffic to your blog or website. Once the author performed a technical SEO audit and put into place some off-page optimization strategies like link velocity, anchor text ratios, and relevance, the site’s traffic quadrupled in the next 6 months.

How to Rank in the First 2 Results on Google – Leanne Wong SEO Case Study

How to 14x search traffic in 8 months – matthew woodward seo case study.

Matthew Woodward is an expert in search engine optimization and he publishes a lot of SEO case study examples. This one in particular is worth the read because it shows you how SEO doesn’t have to be complicated to get exponential results. Inside, you’ll learn how to create a strong plan of action based on 7 steps. Using these same strategies in this case study, the author We increased traffic on an affiliate website from 2,732 visitors per month to 38,420 in just 8 months (14x higher or 1,306% to be exact).

Data-Informed Strategy Delivers Results – Rise Interactive SEO Case Study

This is an SEO case study for the American Egg Board (AEB), a U.S. The AEB is best known for its long-running slogan, “The Incredible, Edible Egg”, and the Just Mayo scandal. The AEB relies heavily on organic traffic to drive awareness; however, it was experiencing a steady decline in traffic and organic visibility, year-over-year. Learn how the Rise Interactive agency used an integrated site-wide keyword strategy, an SEO-first approach on the site structure, and ways to capitalize existing SEO equity to generate an 87% increase in mobile traffic and 22% improvement in desktop traffic.

How an Integrated, Keyword-Driven Blog Strategy Increased Organic Traffic to a Leading Analytical Laboratory’s Blog by 58% – TopRank Marketing SEO Case Study

Organic visitors increased by 87%, located in target local cities – wastecycle seo case study.

The client behind this case study is Wastecycle, a sustainable waste management company that provides a recycling and waste management service. Wastecyle wanted to get more business by reaching customers looking for local skip hire and Hallam digital marketing agency provided local SEO strategies to achieve this goal. Read the SEO case study to find out how the agency generated an 87% increase in organic visitors in local cities, 150% increase in clicks for the targeted term “skip hire”, and 297 varied phrases achieving page one rankings on Google.

How We Ranked on the First Page of Google for 4 Competitive Keywords in Just 8 Months – OutreachMama SEO Case Study

Design modo penalty removal boosts organic traffic by 61.79% – reposition seo case study.

This is a good SEO success case study to read because it focuses on Google penalty removals. You can skim through in less than one minute too. Design Modo, a resource for digital designers and developers, had an apparent partial penalty that had gradually decreased its organic traffic month on month. Reposition SEO agency got involved and found out that the root of the penalty was due to Design Modo’s outbound links rather than the usual inbound links. After a few tweaks and a reconsideration request to Google, the organic traffic increased 61.79% along with an 86% improvement in all keyword rankings.

An Increased In Total Organic Users By 555% – Victorious SEO Case Study

This case study follows the journey of Oji Vape, a wholesale vaping supplied company, that initially got burned by an agency that used outdated SEO tactics that no longer applied to Google’s constantly evolving algorithms. After switching to Victorious SEO agency, Oji Vape experienced a 555% increase in organic visitors within 8 months. This has translated to a 745% improvement in goal completions that took into account sales inquiries by phone and online form submissions. Find out what Victorious did to achieve these amazing results.

Content Strategy for a B2B Furniture Supplier – Web Talent Marketing SEO Case Study

313% more organic traffic with real examples – from the future seo case study.

This case study examines the SEO results from 3 different websites, in 3 totally different niches, that all have different conversion metrics for “success.” Learn what steps were taken to run an SEO campaign for each website to meet the key goals for success.

How We Got a 32% Organic Traffic Boost from 4 On-Page SEO Changes – Moz SEO Case Study

A 48% boost in year-on-year organic traffic – brand new copy seo case study.

This case study focuses on Field & Lawn, a marquee hire company that operates throughout the UK. As a result of the hired agency’s efforts, Field & Lawn saw a 48% increase in Year-on-Year traffic, a 5% reduction in bounce rate, and a significant ranking improvement for almost all 42 targeted keywords. Find out what methods were used to gain these increases in visibility and how you can copy them for your own success.

How I Ranked 1800+ Keywords on Page 1 of Google in Just 6 Months – Shane Barker SEO Case Study

7 steps to 197,514 monthly traffic – apollo digital seo case study.

In this SEO case study, you’ll discover the step-by-step formula of the entire search engine optimization process that Apollo Digital uses to rank its clients’ websites. This study in particle focuses on a SaaS business process management software and how it went from around 8,000 monthly visitors to about 200,000 in less than 2 years. You’ll get everything explained in detail like the content writing process, interlinking strategies, visual improvements, headline tweaking, and of course, SEO tactics.

Read More Case Study Examples

I also have more digital marketing case studies with real results from other industry experts that you can study and use to improve your online marketing campaigns:

What Is an SEO Case Study?

An SEO case study is an in-depth study of search engine optimization in a real-world context. It can focus on one SEO tactic or a group of SEO strategies to find out what works in search engine optimization to improve traffic and organic visibility.

Are Case Studies Good for SEO?

Case studies are good for SEO because you can learn about how to do search engine optimization in an effective way. Instead of just studying the theory of SEO, you can learn from real examples that applied SEO methods to achieve success.

Summary for the Best SEO Case Studies

I hope you enjoyed this list of the best SEO case studies that are based on real-world results and not just theory.

As you discovered, the SEO case study examples above demonstrated many different ways to perform well in search engines. By studying the key findings from these examples, and applying the methods learned to your own site, you can hopefully achieve the same positive outcome. New SEO success case studies are being published every month and I’ll continue to update this list as they become available. So keep checking back to read the current sources of information on search engine optimization.

SEO Chatter is dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of search engine marketing to help marketers understand how to increase organic website traffic and improve search engine rankings.

Arneeon Media - Digital Marketing, SEO and PPC

Lifting Your Spirits By Raising Your Ranks

YouTube Strategy Case Study

UPDATE Sept. 28, 2016, Well that was Fast!   – see below

In 90 seconds you can say a lot about your product or service using video and it will engage your search audience more than simple words could ever do. Yellowpages has been capitalizing on this for years offering simple walk-through videos of businesses and then uploading them to the YP YouTube channel as part of their multiple thousand dollar ad packages. Even though those videos do not get much traffic for the most part.

In just a moment I will show you two case studies I have done and a live demo occurring in conjunction with this blog.  Using SEO skills and a cool strategy to rank YouTube video with surprisingly fast results I was able to launch videos to the top. So stay tuned!  UPDATE Sept. 28, 2016, Well that was Fast!   – see below

First, let’s talk stats. What are the facts regarding YouTube in general …

Youtube Statistics – 2016

taken from Statisticbrain and Fortunelords

+ The total number of people who use YouTube – 1.325 Billion. + uploaded to YouTube every minute , 300 hours of video! + Almost 5 billion videos viewed on Youtube every single day. + The average number of mobile YouTube video views per day is 1,000,000,000 + Female users make up 38% and male users are 62%. + More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices. + YouTube’s mobile revenue is up 2x y/y. + YouTube overall reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. + The number of hours people spend watching videos (aka watch time) on YouTube is up 60% year-over-year, the fastest growth seen in 2 years. + You can navigate YouTube in a total of 76 different languages (covering 95% of the Internet population). + 9% of U.S small businesses use Youtube

These numbers are pretty staggering. People are making a very good living just on YouTube alone and businesses that tap into additional engaged traffic using YoutTube not only gain exposure and clients, but they also build an authoritative link back to their business which in turn boosts SEO for their site/brand in general.

My recent case studies make use of a YouTube video SEO strategy that I came across recently. It is proving very effective for targeted video uploads especially for local niche markets. I will not reveal the details of what the contents of the videos in my tests were. Nor will I link to the videos directly for obvious reasons, but I will include the stats and proof images that have been modified to remove details. Also, my live case study #3 (at the end) will allow you an over-the-shoulder peek so that you can see what happens over a one week period and beyond with a video project in the works right now. So let’s get to it …

Details: Health Product launch – done 6 months ago – still holding ranks

This was the first test using this strategy.  The video was uploaded and optimized using a readily available system that has been around for years. Then further SEO was applied. The cool thing is the results are still sticking and the video I uploaded outranks the corporate video from the company that launched the product in the first place. It was a product launch for a new health product and my video announcing it coming to market still outranks the actual company’s video for  the keywords I was targeting. Also, the length of a video does not seem to be a factor as this video is only 29 seconds long.   The video it outranks from the large health company is 3 minutes plus in length video.

Details : Flooring Company Video – done 7 days ago – page 1 of Google and top of YouTube

This was done completely as a test to show a client some of the potential available for video. No further SEO was done to help maintain the rankings on this video so it will likely drop off in the future depending on the competition. At any rate, it hit number one on Google within hours for the target keyword which was a generic flooring term commonly searched and the name of the city. Essentially a local search for a common keyword.  The video appeared on page 1 of Google and at the top of YouTube.  At the time of this blog, it remains there.

This was also a video the client currently had on YouTube that was not seeing much action. In many cases, we simply take a customer’s existing uploaded video, add an intro and outro to it and then repost it with the YT SEO strategy, details, descriptions, and tags.

The results are stunning and an incredibly powerful way to get your message in front of your target audience.

Case #3  UPDATE Sept. 28, 2016

is happening right now with this article, targeting the keyword “YouTube Video Consulting Vancouver” I am going to Live Stream this video in on Tuesday (Sept. 27, 2016 @ 1pm PST)  this will upload it automatically to YouTube and will allow you guys to watch the ranking unfold for it.  This may seem to be a bit of a risky maneuver on my part but experience shows consistent results. Having consulted with some of my SEO buddies who are also seeing great results, I feel very confident that I can get this video to page 1 of YouTube and potentially Google as well in a very short time using this YouTube video SEO method.

The Video will be streamed live right here on Sept. 27, 2016, watch for it:

UPDATE Sept. 28, 2016, Well that was Fast!

We hit #1 for the target keyword today in Google regular search, video search and in YouTube.  One day after the live upload … Slam dunk!

This is fun!

Videos are like multimedia business cards in a 1 to 5-minute segment you can visually lay out what you do. Even simple videos with a slide show, music, your logo and phone number with a link to your site in the description can do wonders for your business. It brings familiarity and branding at the same time to potential customers that are searching for your service.

Arneeon Media is now offering this as a service that can be done with new or existing videos. Note, existing video ranking is an added SEO skill strategy similar to regular website SEO and as such, it can take time unless you have us re-upload it with some slight modifications using our YT strategy.

We can also make simple slideshow style videos for you. To do this we will need photos and graphics supplied for editing the video.

What are our prices? Here is a breakdown in US dollars.

existing new or old video ————————————- $150/month for 3 months existing video with no modification just SEO ————– $250/month for 6 months Arneeon produced slide show video ————————-$150 setup fee plus $150/month for 3 months

#ArneeonMedia  #YouTubeVideoRanking

Interested in Search Engine Optimization for your site/business? Start by filling out our Discovery Form

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