Video SEO: Optimize Your YouTube Videos in 5 Easy Steps

Just like Google, YouTube is effectively one big search engine for its users – the main difference being that its key focus is video content. Because of this, there are various ways that you can optimize your YouTube videos for search and get them seen by wider audiences.

For clarity, optimizing videos for search is when you make adjustments to your content to increase its visibility online. If you’ve tweaked your content correctly, one of your videos could appear first when a YouTube user types in a search query that’s relevant to it.

Below, I’ve listed five easy ways to give your video content a visibility boost. 

1. Write Video Transcripts for Your Videos

YouTube’s algorithm uses text and code to better understand the content of your videos, which includes scanning your video descriptions, titles, and tags. I recommend taking this one step further and creating transcripts for your videos too. Once these transcripts are in place, YouTube will have another important piece of information to scan.

Creating transcripts is recommended for a few reasons:

• It highlights important keywords – YouTube can scan your transcripts to find relevant words, ensuring that your video appears for searches featuring similar queries. Make sure that you conduct keyword research to see what users are looking for and decide which terms you want to include in your video scripts.
• You can also rank in Google search results – When searching for a query on Google, you might’ve come across a video snippet that showcases videos from YouTube. If Google can crawl your video transcript, you could appear there too.
• They’re used to create closed captions – If you add timestamps to your video transcripts, you can also create closed captions that help users follow the video without audio. It’s most important for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing because it improves your content’s accessibility.

There are multiple ways to create YouTube video transcripts. You could enable YouTube’s automatic captioning tool, which creates captions for your videos, Shorts, and live streams. The only catch is that you’ll need to check the accuracy of these subtitles before you publish.

Alternatively, you could use a free transcription tool. Some of my favourites include Notta (which offers up to 120 transcription minutes a month) and oTranscribe.

2. Keep Video Titles and Descriptions Concise

When creating titles and descriptions for your videos, think about what your target audience will be searching for. Though it’s all well and good incorporating keywords for the algorithm, it’s much more important to think about the viewer’s journey to your video.

To create effective titles and descriptions, I suggest thinking about the kinds of questions that your audience will be asking. The text you’ve provided should make the user feel confident enough that your video will answer their question, so be sure to include the most relevant information as soon as possible. 

3. Create Engaging Thumbnails

Your thumbnails could mean the difference between a user clicking on your video or not, so you need to make them look enticing. For best results, avoid sticking with YouTube’s auto-generated thumbnails and create custom ones instead.

To create custom thumbnails that make a great first impression, follow these best practices: 

• Stay within the recommended size – YouTube’s recommended thumbnail size is 1280 x 720px
• Choose high-quality images – Steer clear of low-resolution images, since they look blurry and unprofessional
• Use short and snappy text – Don’t force too much text inside your thumbnail. Instead, keep it short, sweet, and readable
• Apply color wisely – According to color theory, the colors you choose can influence how your viewers feel, so think about the emotions you want them to associate with your thumbnail

When you’re ready, you can use free graphic design tools like Canva to create your thumbnails and add them to your videos via the “YouTube Studio” tab on your profile.

4. Embed Videos on Your Website Too

With 82% of all video results shown in Google search coming from YouTube, how can you take advantage of this prime real estate? One solution is to embed videos from your YouTube account directly onto your website too. This leaves you with two direct audience streams: one from your YouTube channel and one from your website.

Additionally, if your website’s video content is complemented by the appropriate keywords (in headings or video descriptions for instance), your content is more likely to appear on search.

For best practice, make sure that the content in the YouTube video matches the content of the page it’s embedded to – this is to ensure that the entire page is as helpful for users as possible.

5. Optimize All Content for the YouTube Algorithm

Similarly to the Google search algorithm, the YouTube algorithm aims to provide users with the most relevant results based on their keyword searches, though there are slight differences. While Google’s prime objective is to answer user queries (most of the time), YouTube is more about providing sources of entertainment and learning.

The best ways to optimize for the YouTube algorithm are:

Improving watch time

This metric measures how long a person spends watching your video. The longer the watch time from viewers, the more likely your video will jump to the top of the YouTube results page.

Keep an eye on this metric and tweak future content based on where users are dropping off most during a video. If a specific video has a short watch time, maybe your intro is too long and doesn’t excite the viewer, or you need snappier editing.

Optimizing videos with keywords

Your videos should include keywords that reflect their content and what your audience will be searching for. The table below showcases where you should put your target keywords for the best results:

That said, try not to get too hung up on keywords. Though they are important for YouTube’s algorithm, important details like your videos’ titles and descriptions should be helpful for the viewer first and foremost.

Before moving on, here are some useful, first-hand insights from a business owner. The Founder and CEO of Shoutcart spoke to us, revealing why video SEO has been important for his business:

Advice from Experts: Shoutcart

Serg Aspidoff

My name is Serg Aspidoff. I'm the Founder & CEO of Shoutcart, a self-serve influencer marketplace that reaches over 1B followers and subscribers. We work with over 150K influencers and celebrities.

Why do you think video optimization is important?

As far as SEO goes, optimizing your videos can help them rank higher in search engine results pages, which can lead to more views and engagement. This increases your chances of getting your message across, increasing your visibility, and ultimately driving more traffic to your website.

Is it necessary if you're an ecommerce brand?

If you’re an e-commerce brand, video marketing can help you boost your conversion rates, as people are more likely to do business with you after watching a good promotional video about your products.

And if you’re a B2B brand, videos can help you build trust and credibility with potential customers by showing how your products or services can solve their problems.

What are your actionable optimization tips?

You can use several different tools to optimize your videos on YouTube and your website. Some of the most popular and effective ones include:

– Keyword research: Before you start creating a video, do your keyword research first. This will help you determine what terms people are searching for and ensure that your video is optimized for those terms. Then, include those keywords in your video title, description, and tags.

– Transcripts: Well-written transcripts of your videos can help them rank higher in search results, as they provide another avenue for people to find your content. They also make your videos more accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

– Captions: Add captions to your videos so people can watch them without sound. This is especially important for videos that are posted on social media, where most users scroll through their feeds with the sound off.

– Thumbnails: Choose thumbnail images for your videos that are clear and eye-catching. This will help them stand out in search results, and social media feeds, making people more likely to click on and watch them. In email marketing alone, thumbnails help increase clicks by more than 21%.

– Social media: Marketing across all platforms is essential for driving traffic to your website. Make sure to post your videos on your social media channels and include links to your website in the descriptions. This way, your views can be funneled back to your site, increasing traffic.

Now you know how to improve video SEO for YouTube, it’s time to take a closer look at social media.

As we’ve seen with TikTok’s popular search engine, social media platforms offer another way for users to search for specific content. By repurposing your YouTube videos for social media, you can tap into these wider audiences and drive more views to your content. 

However, you need to think about your audience carefully before transforming your YouTube video content into shortform clips. Consider which social media sites they use the most. 

During the editing process, make sure that your content is tailored to their desired platform. For example, if you’re posting on Instagram Reels, you need to keep your videos short (under 90 seconds) and seamlessly edited.

Additionally, if the social media platforms you utilize have influencers who promote products or services in the same sector as yours, you could use this as an opportunity to start an influencer marketing strategy too. If you’re working with influencers across multiple platforms, you could multiply the amount of views you’re getting!

Wondering which tools will best help you optimize your video content? Luckily for you, there are numerous tools out there, but here are the ones I’d recommend the most.

1. The YouTube Search Bar

• Useful for: Finding related keywords for potential queries

When you’re looking for keywords, the best place to start is actually the YouTube search bar! This is where users will be searching for content, so it’s the easiest way to gauge what searches are currently popular. 

As an example, I started typing in “best pasta restaurants” when using the search bar.

This caused a dropdown to appear that featured other searches related to my original query. These other searches included “best pasta restaurants in the world,” “best pasta restaurants in nyc,” and “best pasta restaurants near me.” From these results, you can then work out what people are currently looking for.

Additionally, it’s worth clicking on some of these searches to see which competitors come up first. You can then scope out their content, assess its quality, and plan to make engaging videos that are even better.

2. Google Trends

• Useful for: Finding popular trends to create content for

If you’re deadset on creating more video content but aren’t sure which topics to cover, I suggest using Google Trends. The free platform shows you which search terms are most popular, allowing you to identify what topics your viewers are interested in.

3. Keyword Research Tools

• Useful for: Analyzing the keywords you’ve found

For more exhaustive keyword research, you can opt for a dedicated keyword research tool instead. Though I advise against stuffing your YouTube content with keywords (which is a common SEO mistake), these tools can help you choose popular keywords that are relevant to your business and aren’t already saturated with competition. 

On the market, you’ll find a mixture of paid and free keyword tools to choose from. Here are a few that I recommend: 

We spoke to marketing and SEO experts for their experiences with video optimization. Read to discover real life experiences and examples of how to optimize for success from experts.

Advice from Experts: Small Business Rainmaker

Serg Aspidoff

I’ve been doing marketing for my own companies and other businesses for over 20 years. One of my businesses was named the Inc. 5000 because of our marketing. Video has always been a key element used at all points in the customer journey.

How do you optimize videos for YouTube?

Then write the script based on the primary keyword phrase. The script, video title and description on YouTube should all contain the primary keyword phrase.

Create a good thumbnail and select it when uploading. (Don’t let YouTube select it.) Create a captions file (.srt) and upload that with the video. YouTube isn’t always accurate transcribing. 

Have any advice for video optimization beginners?

Yes, just start creating! I still learn something new with almost every video I make.

For the do-it-yourself video practitioner, do some studying. First, learn the software you’re using. For example, Camtasia and Adobe have in-depth online classes and tutorials. Then, brush up on the basics of video SEO.

What are some key optimizations for website videos?

For all videos, start with a purpose in mind.

Then write the script and determine the type of video, e.g. animated, talking head, presentation style, etc. When uploading to a website, it helps if the site has a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This ensures the video will load and play properly anywhere in the world. If no CDN is available, it helps to have a video hosting platform such as Screencast or Vimeo.

You can use YouTube to host your videos, but you only have limited control over what the viewer sees when the video is done playing. A video hosting platform gives you better control. I usually output each video in .mp4 and .webM format, both of which work well in all browsers and most social media platforms. 

Advice from Experts: Evcharger Reviews

Michael Kim

My name is Serg Aspidoff. I'm the Founder & CEO of Shoutcart, a self-serve influencer marketplace that reaches over 1 billion followers and subscribers. We work with over 150K influencers and celebrities.

What's important to focus on in video optimization?

You can focus on optimizing the video for a website by working on each of the following:

1.  Use the right title for video along with the keyword
2. Add targeted keywords in the file name of your video
3. The first few seconds should contain the words that are directly related with your targeted keyword.
4. Add a transcript of the video.
5. The heading of the landing should be the same as the title of the video.

Any further advice for video optimization starters?

Do not overcomplicate optimization, just focus on the basics and quality of the video.

Since you’ve made it this far, you now have a better understanding of video optimization and how you can apply different video SEO tactics to your content. But what comes next? To see whether your SEO efforts are paying off or not, I recommend keeping on top of your YouTube Analytics to track your progress. 

If you spot fluctuations in views, or find that one piece of content is doing far better than the rest, you can create an action plan and keep improving the quality of the content you create for better results.