Video is in high demand these days
People are consuming video on all platforms and pages, demanding more at an exponential pace.
Spending on desktop online video is projected to grow 21% every year until 2019, according to Google.
HubSpot finds, “where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.”
Also from Hubspot:
- 85% of people say they’d like to see more videos from brands in 2018
- 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service
- 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video
It’s clear that video is leading the way in content consumption. A brand needs to be represented on video and YouTube is the place to showcase it.
Youtube is called the second-largest search engine. In 2015, Google released data showing “how to” videos on YouTube went up 70% with more than 100 million hours of how-to content watched. This trend hasn’t slowed down. The lesson is clear, to get more eyes on your website, you need YouTube.
How to Rank on YouTube
Set up your YouTube channel much like you would a social media page. Have a clean, interesting, and clear profile picture and banner. Set up your profile to include accurate information. Link up your website and social media sites. The setup is pretty basic but important to establish validity.
Vanity URL
Creating a custom URL for your YouTube channel is important. You can make it short, memorable, and specific for your company. But first, you have to meet several requirements via YouTube:
- Have 100 or more subscribers
- Be at least 30 days old
- Have an uploaded photo as a channel icon
- Have uploaded channel’s art
Most of these are simple, right? Let’s talk about how to get to 100 subscribers.
Keywords
Now, consider the keywords for your page – words related to your business and the videos you’ll be sharing. Then, fine-tune your list with this amazing tip from Backlinko: “One of my favorite strategies is to use YouTube’s Search Suggest feature. All you need to do is head over to YouTube and pop in a word or phrase and YouTube will hand you a bunch of keywords related to what you typed in.”
Brilliant, right?
Another brilliant tip from Backlinko is to search for videos related to yours, choose the most popular ones, and look at the keywords that the video uses in its title, descriptions, and tags.
Add your keywords in your metadata: video titles, descriptions, and tags.
Here’s a video by Brian Dean of Backlinko with more brilliant tips.
Video Metrics
You want a low bounce rate, longer sessions, and higher click-through rates on your website. These factors help Google determine if your page will rank higher or lower. In a similar way, YouTube uses metrics to help determine where your videos show up in searches.
We’ve covered keywords, now consider these other metrics for ranking.
The Audience retention report will tell you how well your video is keeping its audience by recording how long visitors are watching your video. You want people to watch to the end.
To understand the metrics for your YouTube channel, watch these videos and become a YouTube Analytics pro…for free!
Sticky Videos
To keep an eye on your videos, to rank higher, you need to increase viewer retention. In other words, you need to make sticky videos. Get visitors to stick to your content with these 3 tips from Brian Dean from Backlinko:
- Start off your video with a summary of your video (tell them what you are going to cover in your video). “Let your viewer know they are in the right place.”
- Jump right into the content. Viewers are busy and their attention will drop quickly with long, drawn-out introductions.
- Use open loops – previewing things that are coming up later in the video. This makes viewers curious about what is coming up later in the video. Make it something interesting and useful.
HD Video
High-quality videos will rank higher. You don’t need a professional camera crew to do that, though. Pay attention to what you are recording, making sure the picture, sound, and content are clear and steady. Stay on topic and provide useful content. It’s that simple.
Views, Likes, and Shares
These factors also impact your video’s rank. To increase views, likes, and shares, follow these tips from Search Engine Land:
- Share on all your social profiles
- Include in email updates/newsletters to your customers
- Embed on your website, use as a topic for a blog post, or place in an existing video section of your website
- Share on social bookmarking sites like Reddit or StumbleUpon
Final Touches
Add a thumbnail, subtitles, and closed captions. Again, small touches will add up big time when they are all combined. The overall goal is to develop a channel and content that people are attracted to. Spend the time to cover all of the bases and watch your video rise in rank.
