7 SEO techniques for YouTube that are worth using for your brand

SEO techniques for YouTube may be the answer for companies looking to expand their digital strategies, especially when it comes to influencer marketing. It may seem unconventional, but there are countless ways to optimise the site’s search engines.

YouTube is a platform which is definitely worth investing in. In its dedicated YouTube survey, Opinion Box revealed that among its 100 million+ users, around 61% subscribe to branded and corporate channels. In addition, about 86% of YouTube users access the site at least once a day.

If you’re curious about how to put these techniques into practice, check out the topics we’ve addressed below.

1. Who goes on YouTube?

To be successful on YouTube, it’s important to give people what they want, right?

Therefore, keyword research should figure in every brainstorm for possible video topics, increasing the chances of it appearing in user searches.

Be careful though: look for terms that match both your brand and your target audience. After all, users tend to place more trust in those figures with the authority to speak on a given subject.

Having defined your personas, it’s time to establish what they are searching for online. Search Listening is a great exercise here: drop a relevant term into the YouTube or Google search box and see what results come up.

2. How do users search for videos?

Now that you have the keyword for your video, it’s time to think about a title that starts with this word. This is how people will find your content, just like with Google searches.

Creativity is also important when naming your video: the title should be direct, and inspire curiosity. It’s also important to create a thumbnail, or video cover, that complements the video title.

Remember to write in short sentences, with a maximum of 55 characters, otherwise the title will be cut short. Be careful to avoid sensationalism or “clickbait”-style phrasing.

3. Help people to find your videos

Another very important SEO technique for YouTube is the tag, i.e. the categories which your video belongs to. With tags, you can explore secondary keywords in addition to the main one, increasing the chances of your video appearing in searches.

Your content can also be recommended by YouTube based on similar videos. So it pays to look at your competition’s tags and titles, to expand the range of terms related to the main topic.

4. Descriptions make the user’s life easier

Just as every book and movie comes with a brief synopsis, each video should contain a short summary of its key points. By looking at this brief description, the viewer will know whether they have clicked on the “right” content. You can even include the timestamp for each topic addressed in the video.

And it doesn’t stop there. You can also take the opportunity to insert the keyword at the beginning of the first paragraph. Just like in blog articles, putting the term in the title and right at the beginning of the text helps the algorithms to prominently display your videos in searches.

Don’t forget that the description has a limit of 150 characters. Use them wisely to provide an overview of the video, including links, referrals and sources, as well as your brand’s social media and website information for potential followers.

5. File name

It may seem like a stretch, but putting the keyword in the video name can be useful too. Naming the document correctly will help Google’s algorithms to understand what your content is about, and display it in searches on the subject – even in image and video searches outside of YouTube.

6. Frequency of publication

Once you have videos with relevant content for your audience, combined with an SEO strategy, the next step is to think about how frequently you want to publish this material. According to Google, the ideal frequency for building a loyal audience is 2-3 times a week.

This is because YouTube counts on your work to keep its users entertained, and understands that the more you publish, the greater your commitment to the platform, and the more it feels “comfortable” recommending your videos to viewers.

7. Disclosure

To increase your channel’s visibility, it’s important to create a marketing strategy on social media and on your company’s blog. For example, using one of your videos to break up the visual monotony of an article, or short bursts of content on Instagram to pique your followers’ interest in watching the full-length version.

Using the SEO techniques for YouTube mentioned above, combined with high-quality content, should allow your channel to grow consistently and organically.

This growth will give you the time and space to analyze whether your strategies are working; whether your audience is genuinely interested in your videos; and, above all, whether relying on audiovisual formats is actually leading to long-term returns for your brand.