A few weeks ago I shared best practices for Facebook as provided by my partners at Facebook. Today I am going to share best practices from another great partner of ours, YouTube.
If you are familiar with YouTube you know it works exactly like a search engine. On the left side are the natural searches (unpaid) and on the right side is the promoted videos (paid). The best way to get exposure to your content on YouTube is SEO (search engine optimization). Here is YouTube’s guidance for SEO in their own words. Thanks Elliott.
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YouTube video search uses a variety of signals to determine the placement of a video in our rankings, including the video file name, title, and any associated metadata. The more information provided about a video, the better it can be searched. In general, we strive to give the best possible objective video result. That said, here are some best practices that you can use to help your videos rise:
- Add a descriptive title to your video
When users search for a video on YouTube, they will find your content easier if you include an accurate and descriptive title for your video. An engaging title can also help your video stand apart from the rest of the crowd.
- Make your descriptive content clear and specific
Try to determine what content your video contains that will help users find it and distinguish it from other videos. Providing content that is descriptive, accurate, and unique is an important factor. Using complete sentences in your description is also a good idea. For more information, you can reference What should I put in my video description?
- Provide accurate tags
Including tags that users may use when they search or browse videos also helps. However, avoid using techniques such as keyword stuffing which will ultimately hurt your videos rankings.
- Embedded Videos
Embedding videos on websites may make your videos more discoverable and easier to find on the web. For information on how to embed videos, please refer to
How do I embed videos on my website or blog?
Google has also published webmasters guidelines that apply to all sites that embed or point to video content. This document also provides important quality guidelines that webmasters should take into consideration when linking to or pointing at videos.
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Marty,
When optimizing a YT video for search, is it better to use long-tail or short-tail tags?