According to the latest statistics, over 2 Billion users are visiting YouTube every month, and over 1 Billion hours of content are viewed every single day.

YouTube today is more than just a place to store videos. It is the world’s second largest search engine, directly controlled by its owner Google. 

What does this mean for businesses that want to succeed with video? It means they must be prepared to treat YouTube as a search engine and plan the SEO tactics accordingly.

With this in mind, here are three ways to improve your success with YouTube SEO:

1) Do Your Keyword Research

You can use the link with Google to your advantage, and plan your keyword strategy for your videos just as you would for the regular SERPs.

You will notice that whenever you type results into the YouTube search bar that suggested results will begin to populate. This is because these results are driven by keyword results. These keyword results are based on what YouTube users have searched for in the past.

A little bit of research into ideal keywords can help you to better rank for those same searches. By adding the keywords into your title, description, and tags you then allow YouTube to include you in those specific search results and grow your visibility.

2) Provide Direction

Because people are so overwhelmed and distracted by the volume of content, it’s essential to give them some direction to make things easier.

By asking your audience to like, comment, subscribe, and share your videos, you are more likely to get them taking action

Having more user engagement tells youtube that a specific video is more popular and it will then be shown to more people in the recommended feed.

3) Quality Over Quantity

Because of the massive volume of videos uploaded every day, it can be tempting to think you need to keep uploading more and more.

But the truth is that for people to want to engage, you need a certain level of quality in your content. 

The best way to do this is to put yourself in your users’ shoes. If you feel that your videos are useful, engaging, or entertaining, then that is likely to be the same reaction your users will have.

A great tactic is to ensure you do or say something interesting in the first 20 seconds or less, as that is the critical time to catch attention.

If you follow these three steps, you will be well on your way to better success with YouTube SEO, and growing your reach with video.

Looking to grow your business via online video and SEO? Brandastic is a digital marketing and advertising agency based in Costa Mesa, California. We specialize in SEO for business, as well as helping grow your brand online through social media. Reach out today to see what we can do for you.