9 YouTube video SEO Tips and tricks for better rankingTurbocharge Your Video ROI!

Tip #1: Don’t be lazy.
Create magnetic content on YouTube and then
optimize your videos directly on YouTube. That
includes uploading your videos, describing them,
interacting with your viewers and sharing them. As
YouTube is a social beast that drives a tremendous
amount of ranking, make sure you have resources
that can reply to viewer comments and requests.
You won’t be successful unless you dedicate some
time to building your presence.
Tip #2: Optimize your video titles.
Titles are very important as they show in the player
and in the search engine results pages. Only 50
characters show up in universal search so include a
targeted keyword phrase at the start. At the same
time, make sure that your titles are compelling to
encourage clicks. Since YouTube says that it’s ok
to duplicate a keyword phrase, if it doesn’t look too
spammy and your title is still engaging, do it. You’ll
want to think about re-optimizing over time to
consider including other keywords as well.
Which one would you click on?
YouTube video titles
Tip #3: Maximize descriptive text areas.
Use descriptions liberally, putting relevant, targeted
keywords first. Include URLs starting with http:// to
your channel, playlist, or site in your video
descriptions. It can be helpful to use a URL
shortener such as bit.ly to include tracking code
and customized keywords. If you have a long-form
video, add links within the video to your description.
Vary the video descriptions on your website and
those on YouTube to avoid issues with duplicate
content.
As far as tags go, add as many as you can without
duplication or including irrelevant phrases. Consider
related keywords; for example, if you were doing a
video about an attorney then it would be appropriate
to include ‘legal’, ‘lawyer’ and ‘judge’. As with titles,
include your most important keywords first.
YouTube video descriptions
Tip #4: Get friendly with annotations.
When YouTube launched their Creator Playbook last
year, they revealed that their search algorithm favors
videos that drive traffic to other videos through
annotations. Annotations can be used to link to
other videos, related videos, your playlist and your
channel – and those annotations are going to help
your rankings. You can also use annotations to
encourage interaction, issue calls to action and post
messages.
YouTube video annotations
Tip #5: Create playlists.
Playlists get indexed separately from individual
videos so they give you the opportunity to appear in
YouTube search results multiple times (e.g. you
could get a result for one of your videos and a
result for a playlist with lots of your videos at the
same time). They’re easy to do so there’s no
reason not to do them.
YouTube playlists
Tip #6: Make sharing a snip.
Shares are a ranking factor so encourage
embedding and allow commenting and rating.
YouTube embedding
Tip #7: Dress it up.
Customize your YouTube channel through settings,
themes, colors and modules. Also, be sure to
include a background image.
Tip #8: Drive conversions.
Push YouTube viewers to convert through in-video
calls-to-action featuring teasers or promo codes,
product page links in your descriptions and
annotations.
YouTube in-video call-to-action
Another interesting and free tactic is to use
YouTube’s call-to-action overlay ads – the semi-
transparent ads that appear near the bottom of the
video – to drive traffic from the video to an external
URL. You can set up a promotion for your video
through YouTube’s Promotion Program and
predetermine how much you’re willing to spend on
an ad (e.g. $0.01).
YouTube overlay ads
Tip #9: Be unique.
Consider creating unique content specifically for
YouTube (e.g. teasers or bloopers) as online retailer
Vat19.com does, or creating unique channels on
YouTube. Zappos, for example, has Zappos, Zappos
Style, Inside Zappos and the Zappos Insights
channels.