First of all, a little explanation of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is necessary.
These are techniques/strategies used to improve the visibility/ranking of a website or a web page in the search results of search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Basically the famous question that scares web agencies “how do I get 1st on Google?”
As Youtube is also becoming a search engine (and yes), succeeding in the SEO of your channel is a very good way to increase the visibility of your videos and attract a wider audience.
Here are some steps to follow to improve the SEO of your YouTube channel:
- To start, use relevant keywords in the title and description of each video. Keywords should be relevant to the content of the video and easily searchable by users. It’s important to include them in the video title and description (between 250 and 400 characters), but avoid overusing them, as this could be considered “over-optimization” and hurt your SEO.To create a good description consider: Short description of the title or message to your community, links to your social networks (required), link to the EP or album if the track is part of it Smartlink, lyrics of the song, people who contributed to the production of the track or the video Hasthags…
- Use relevant tags for each video. Tags are additional keywords that make it easy for users to find your video when they search on YouTube. Tags should be relevant to the content of the video, and it’s best to use long tail terms (more specific, less used terms) to maximize the chances of showing up in search results. You can find some ideas here.
- Create themed playlists to group your videos by topic. This allows users to easily find your videos based on their interests. Playlists also allow YouTube to understand the topic of your video and display similar videos in search results.
- Promote your channel on other social media platforms. Share your videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. to increase its visibility. This will also allow you to reach audiences who are not yet subscribers to your YouTube channel.
- Use subtitles for your videos to allow users to understand the content of the video even if they can’t listen to it. Subtitles also allow users to better understand the content of the video if they have hearing problems or if they don’t speak the same language as you.
- Link to your videos from your website or blog. This will help improve the SEO of your videos. External links bring credibility to your channel and signal to YouTube that your content is relevant and interesting to users.
- Use performance data to understand what’s working and what’s not for your channel and adjust your strategies accordingly. Performance data allows you to understand user behaviors, when to post your videos, what topics get the most interest, and more.
- Use relevant information in your meta tags to boost the SEO of your video. Meta tags include information like description, keywords, titles, etc. that are read by search engines to understand the content of your video.
- Use eye-catching thumbnails to entice users to click on your videos. Thumbnails are the images that represent your videos in search results and on your channel, and they need to be attractive to entice users to click on them.
- Use features like polls and Q&A to get users to interact with your channel. Polls and Q&A’s allow users to give feedback and ask questions about your videos, which can encourage other users to watch your videos.
And don’t forget, interact with your audience.
Replying to comments and liking them is important.
Most importantly, on the day of the release ask your friends, family, cat and colleagues to do the same.
By following these steps, you should be able to improve the SEO of your YouTube channel and attract a wider audience. It’s important to note that SEO is an ongoing process and you’ll need to keep working on your channel to maintain and improve its ranking in search results.