When it comes to search engines, YouTube is the second most popular one on the internet. If your business has the creativity, time, and budget for it, making YouTube videos to market yourself is a great way to engage your customers. Before uploading, you need to know how to make your YouTube channel SEO-friendly and how to promote YouTube videos with optimization.
Optimization is necessary if you want your YouTube marketing campaign to be successful. There are 800 million monthly views on all YouTube videos with hundreds of videos being uploaded every day. There is a lot of competition. For your videos to be seen, you need to understand how to optimize every aspect of your channel and videos.
Here are some of the tips that I use to optimize my videos:
- Keywords
YouTube has a Keyword Tool you can use, or you can use another keyword research tool to find words that relate to your brand and videos. These keywords need to be searched often in order to give your videos a higher rank. If you use certain keywords on your website or other social media tool, then you should incorporate those into your channel and videos.
Stat: 75% of users do not scroll past the first page of search engine results.
Tip: “How to” keywords are very popular on YouTube.
2. Channel
Your channel needs to have an appealing, sleek design that is branded and engaging.
- Your logo needs to be your avatar. It should be 800px by 800px.
- Your banner should be custom for the channel at 970px by 150px. You can make it clickable so people are directed to your website or blog.
- Your background needs to either match a logo color or be a custom brand background. If you create a custom background, remember that your content will be in the middle. The size should be 1500px wide by 2000px high.
- Make sure to put social icons everywhere so people can connect with you easily on other platforms.
Stat: In a poll of 400 Americans, half subscribed to at least one YouTube channel.
Tip: Use the keywords you chose earlier in your profile information and tags.
3. Content Strategy
Do not treat your YouTube videos like television commercials. That is the quickest way to turn off a viewer. If you do create content strictly meant for advertising needs to be creative and entertaining, nothing like a commercial. All of your content needs to be diverse and engaging. Everything you put on YouTube needs to serve a purpose or solve a problem. The goal of your content is to:
- Increase conversion rates
- Improve brand awareness
- Give users useful content that entertains or solves a problem
- Create social engagement and sharing
- Appear in SERP
Key Take-aways on YouTube SEO
In order to make great content, you need make a video schedule, produce the videos, deliver them to YouTube, then promote them across the internet. There are six main kinds of content:
- 1. How-To. How-to videos are the most popular kind of YouTube video. Many people prefer watching how to do something rather than reading a set of instructions.
- 2. Product Demonstration. Similar to a How-To video, you can create a video demonstrating all of the features of a certain product.
- 3. Client Testimonial. Compile a bunch of clips submitted by customers talking about how your brand helped them. They do not have to be professional commercial quality. The more “homemade” they look, the more potential clients will trust they are real people.
- 4. Trend Recap. If there is a trend or event going on that relates to your industry, recap it! For example, if you sell clothes, recap the fashion at the Oscars.
- 5. Audience Poll. Create a video starting a poll where your audience has to answer a series of questions in the comments. This creates excellent engagement and customer interaction, plus you get a look at how your audience thinks and what they want to see.
- 6. Illustrative Animations. Animations are a great way to illustrate a point in an accessible way. Make sure you have the talent and budget for animations.
Stat: 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, or one hour every second.
Tip: When your content is diverse, it will reach unique audiences that you might not have had access to before beginning your YouTube marketing campaign.
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Patrick Mahinge is a prolific digital marketer and "serial webpreneur". He runs multiple profitable niche websites and blogs monetized through affiliate marketing and advertising. Patrick generously shares his expertise in affiliate marketing, blogging, and online business through his Facebook group of over 5,000 aspiring entrepreneurs.
