You know how to rank websites using SEO methods but what about Video SEO?

Video SEO is not the same as regular website SEO. Video SEO has also changed significantly in the last few years and ranking videos in Youtube is also a different strategy to ranking a video in Google Search.

If you have spent money on creating an amazing video but it isn’t ranked you will love this Video SEO Guide.

In this youtube video ranking guide, you will learn everything about ranking videos on Youtube and Google Videos.

What Is Video SEO?

Video SEO is optimising your video to be indexed and ranked for focus keywords.

There are many optimisation strategies to help your videos rank higher in search engines.

When carrying out effective vSEO the visibility of a video in video search engines will show up on the first page of the SERPs.

Youtube Ranking Factors 2021

Here are the following strategies to implement Video SEO:

Title Tag

An engaging video title tag will grab the attention of your audience and attract more clicks to your video.

A well-optimised SEO title tag helps search engines and readers understand the unique value your video offers.

Video title tags can help your viewers identify the content of the video and Youtube treat titles as one of the most important onpage SEO factors.

We always recommend getting the focus keywords towards the start of your video title tag.

Description

Video descriptions help YouTube and Google understand the context of your video.

Similar to Youtube Tags a well-written description with many LSI keywords will help your video show up in the Suggested Video sidebar.

We recommend writing unique video Youtube descriptions that also give the opportunities to link to your desired landing pages.

Utilise your video description to entice viewers on what next steps you want them to take.

Tags

YouTube tags function to help YouTube give more context to what your video is about.

The tags help massively in the recommended search of the “you may also like” list of videos.

The youtube tags help categorise the videos better and we always recommend keyword-rich tags being used.

Adding 5-9 video tags is our recommended number of youtube tags and try to use LSI keyword variations to help your video rank for more keywords.

Insert a Video Transcript

The text that pairs with your video are known as a video transcript.

Video transcripts make your videos more accessible by search bots since there’s additional text on the page.

Transcripts act the same way as content on websites.

Inserting a video transcript makes more indexable text that means you can rank for more keywords.

Video File

Prior to uploading your mp4 video file right-click on the video and then click “properties” to optimise all the metadata about the content.

The main tab we want to focus on is “details” where you can put in some vital information, which will help specify what the video contains.

The metadata can be full of focus keywords that help the YouTube algorithm understand exactly where you want the video to rank for.

Create Engaging Thumbnail Images

An engaging video thumbnail is often the first thing that grabs your attention as you browse YouTube.

The thumbnail images can entice clicks to watch your video and this engagement is key to Youtube’s algorithm.

The more people that click on your thumbnail, the higher your video will rank in Youtube search.

File name and optimise the image prior to uploading the thumbnail to help further with the optimisation techniques.

Channel Authority

Similar to SEO where websites need to build topical authority then your Youtube Channel needs to become an authority in your target niche.

Trying to rank one single video on a topic is much harder than when your channel has become an authority in the industry.

If you can focus your attention to cover a topic in its entirety to stand much better chances of ranking all the videos higher in that SERP.

When you also create dozens of amazing value videos on a given topic you can cluster these into playlists and try to rank playlists on your channel also.

High Retention Views

Youtube SEO is not about how many views your video has, but more about how much audience retention your videos receive.

Long view rates are how long you can keep your viewers engaged with your video.

Videos that have high retention views are going to rank higher on Youtube’s algorithm because it shows Youtube that your content is engaging and relevant.

Likes

YouTube use likes as a ranking signal as shows the viewers to be engaging with the video.

Videos with lots of likes are also likely to be high-quality so YouTube looks at the like to dislike ratio and from our tests, we have seen both likes and dislikes to influence betting rankings.

We do not train to go out and try to get dislikes but we feel the engagement on the videos (no matter if positive or negative) sends signals to Youtube people like to see this video because are engaging with it.

YouTube uses surveys to measure viewer satisfaction. Clicks of the ‘not interested’ button are a viewer satisfaction signal. Likes and dislikes are a viewer satisfaction signal.

Comments

From many studies the more comments a video has, the higher it tends to rank.

Comments still play a part in the Youtube engagement algorithm so it is always advised to proactively try to influence more comments.

Considering YouTube’s emphasis on user engagement, this result isn’t a big surprise.

Pay attention to the feedback on your comments. If people like your video topic then do more on this specific topic

Youtube is primarily an engagement search algorithm and replying to these comments also can help improve your rankings.

Hearted Comments

You can reward meaningful comments with hearts that show you acknowledge all engagement on your channel.

Hearting a comment is an act of favouriting a response by selecting the heart icon.

Other viewers will see your avatar with a small red heart on the lower left side and this has been seen to influence more comments being created.

We proactively teach all our customers to embrace comments and when positive to heart (favourite) the best ones.

DoFollow Backlinks

Google will rank YouTube videos with more backlinks higher in the SERPs.

Trying to get more dofollow backlinks to your videos is certainly an important SEO ranking factor in March 2024 for higher Google results.

Commenting on relevant blogs with the video link to help answer people’s questions is a good way to grow popularity.

More backlinks mean more credibility in the eyes of the search engines, and the result is a higher ranking on the Google SERPs (search engine results pages).

Embeds

Embedding your videos on a website behaves exactly like a backlink and is great for search engine optimisation.

Enabling your videos to get embedded on other websites give more chances of the video getting ranked in search engine results and getting more views.

The more high retention views your videos receive, your video popularity increases which directly improves your rankings.

Embeds of your YouTube videos indirectly improves the Video SEO because of the engagement they bring. But directly improves your Google video ranking as primarily Google search is based on links and the power from these embeds improve rankings in Google Videos and Google Search Results.

Social Media Shares

We strongly recommend sharing all YouTube videos uploaded to as many social media platforms as possible.

YouTube is the biggest video sharing network in the world so make sure you share your YouTube Channel for your target audience to find your content.

Sharing your videos on social media platforms will hugely increase your organic reach who will see your videos.

The best social media platforms we advise are:

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Instagram

You want to promote your content and connect with influencers or other creators within your niche.

DFY Video Ranking Service

If you think ranking videos is difficult and want to test out a service to rank your branded videos then get in touch today.

Check out the packages Video Veggie has to offer and get started to boost your videos to drive more exposure online.

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Summary

If you were wondering how to rank a video on youtube our Youtube Ranking Factors March 2024 covers everything.

Our Video Veggie case studies can show you what someone else did in regards to ranking their promotional videos.

Check out our case studies below: