Why your Business needs to be on YouTube

Every company that wants to succeed on social media must consider implementing video content in its communication strategy. We can confirm that 79% of consumers prefer watching a video than reading about a product. This means that video content allows your business to achieve engagement and branding fidelity, reach potential users, gain visibility and communicate your message, plus educate your audience about your services or products. According to Statista, on YouTube, every minute more than 400 hours of video content is uploaded. So, can you really afford to not be on Youtube?

Today we are going to give you a complete guide to improve your Video SEO. Let’s start.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the most important elements when it comes to developing an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy. Keywords are the words or phrases that potential users utilize to find specific content. Before uploading your video, you must find the right keywords so that your content can be featured in Google’s search results. Keyword research helps with understanding the demand for a keyword. For optimum effectiveness, you must find keywords that have at least 500 searches on Google. Here’s a list of top on-page SEO tools for keyword research.

Optimizing video elements

Tags

Once you upload your video on YouTube, along with the title and descriptions, tags are a basic element of an effective SEO strategy. This is another element that helps YouTube know what your video is all about, and that helps your video’s ranking. Another thing to take into account is that YouTube gives more importance and prioritizes the first tags that you write. So, you must arrange them strategically and select them by relevance. Through specific tools, you can even know about your competitor’s tags! This doesn’t mean you should copy them, but it can help you develop your own strategy. As TubeBuddy or VidlQ. Thereare3 types of tags that you should consider using: specific tags, compound tags, and generic tags. (Do you need to explain what these tags are? Or does the video link do that? If not, then maybe you should in your text.)

Video Description

Video descriptions are valuable information that helps viewers understand what they are watching. You must develop a well-written description, my friend, with the right and strategic keywords so that it can boost views, increase watch time and help your video show up in the search results. Your video description must include your selected keywords using  natural language. It is important that you don’t just add keywords. Also, each video must have its own unique description. Another important aspect is that the first two lines appear in the search results, so use this space to show viewers what they’re going to watch once they click. Another thing that you should do is add to your description playlists, time stamps, and creator credits.

Title

If you want to capture the attention of your audience, then it’s key to think about having a catchy and advertising-worthy title. It is important to use at least one of your keywords in your title. It must be concise and appealing, it should describe your video, and be searchable. You should never use misleading titles, as this will make your views drop and lose credibility to potential viewers. Remember that your title is like a slogan, it must catch the viewers attention enough for them to make that click, watch your video, and respond to your call to action. 

Thumbnails

Thumbnails are like miniature marketing posters for your YouTube videos.The more attractive the thumbnail, the more viewers will click on your videos. It is important to consider that thumbnails and titles go hand-in-hand, as both work together to develop a captivating story for your viewers and build anticipation. Also, Thumbnails and titles must be linked to your video content. Why? Because if they aren’t, then you’ve failed to show your viewers what they wanted to see in the first place. This means less audience retention and less content to be surfaced from potential users. So, don’t miss the opportunity to have your title, thumbnail, and video content work together as a strategic combination to exceed your viewer’s expectations.

Video Creation

What are the best types of videos to rank on YouTube?

Prioritizing the use of one video style over another is directly related to your brand identity and communication strategy. Consider that different types of videos have different purposes. This is directly related to your audience. Different audiences expect different content, as they have different needs. So, the first step is identifying your audience so that you can choose the best type of video for them. Commercial ads and educational videos work for the awareness stage. Animated explainer videos, how-to-videos, company story videos and product videos work in the consideration stage. While Testimonial videos work best in the decision stage.

How long should the video be?

The Video Manager in your YouTube account can help you identify which videos work best and which ones need to be modified (in length and content). The graphic by Wistia shows what videos in length are more likely to be watched. We can see that the most watched videos are the ones that have a longitude between 30 seconds and 1 minute.

Most of your videos lose viewership, because of the content itself. If one of your videos has low views and Average View Duration, then you should check the content, if there’s any possibility to make your video shorter without compromising its key message. You may also check the keywords, title, tags and video description. Keep in mind the power of editing and keeping the video fun for viewers!

How to hook the audience

We all know that first impressions are the most important and there’s no doubt that your channel trailer must call users attention to make them fall in love with your content and become subscribers. This is your presentation, it is your opportunity to tell viewers who you are, so keep it short and strong. On the other hand, you can ask viewers to subscribe with annotations. Also, your trailer can have an end card at the end. This can increase your subscribing probabilities.

Although, we must say that having more subscribers doesn’t mean that you’re going to gain visibility. “Engagement” means quality. Everything depends on the quality of your content and how effectively you retain and communicate your key message. This is how you truly hook your audience!

What’s the most important segment of the video?

Consider that If there’s a key message that you need your viewers to see, it’s best to put it in the first few shots. So, the most important segment of the video is right at the beginning. The first 5 to 10 seconds of your video is your opportunity to hook your viewers. So, you should grab their attention from the start. Especially if you’re making video ads, as the first 5 seconds are crucial to avoid viewers from skipping the ad.   

How to create a video for audience retention

Audience retention stands for The measurement of how much of a video someone watches on YouTube. When you’re creating videos for audience retention at  100%, you can use the Audience Retention Report from YouTube which can help you identify the videos with high audience retention. Here’s a tip to help you understand which content best matches viewers’ interests.

An important aspect to consider is the playlists. The way you arrange and make your playlists can influence your views. Playlists can encourage viewers to stay and keep watching your content. This aspect translates into more watch time. Also, always be sure to check your audio and video quality, and use a strategic narrators voice! As audience retention also depends on the quality of your material. 

Using keywords for SEO purposes

The development of keyword research is one of the primal steps of an SEO strategy. The goal is to reach the right viewers instead of just any audience. SEO keyword research must be done periodically, so that you can continuously identify old keywords to replace them with more specific and useful keywords, such as longtail keywords.

Call to Action

The call to action must be present on all of your videos. Although most videos add it at the end, you should add your call to action at the beginning or middle of your videos. This is because most drop-offs happen after the middle of a video. Also, you should add your call to action in the video description or even on your channel trailer!

Playlists

Playlists must be part of your content strategy as these are a basic element for organizing your videos. There are two types of playlists: series playlists and ordinary playlists.The first one is used for sequential videos and the second one for organizing your videos based on a specific theme. Here’s a tip between friends: add specific keywords to your playlists.

Channel Branding

Every brand has its own identity which must be reflected in every product, service, and content. This is how you differ from your competition and attract potential users, so your channel must respond to who you are as a brand. For example, the development of a YouTube Channel Trailer, or the design of your thumbnail image, should be related to your branding identity, the concept of the video, and your selected keywords.

Final Thoughts

YouTube is the second biggest search engine, so there’s no doubt that videos are the main characters of your communication strategy. So, don’t doubt the power of incorporating video strategies into your marketing plan! Videos have the highest click-through rate, are amazing for explaining concepts, and crucial for analyzing audience behavior.It generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined, and more! So let’s get started on those videos!