Rise in the Rankings: Essential SEO for Video Creators

The 12-step YouTube SEO Guide for Beginners Who Want More Views

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Boost Views with Smart YouTube Backlink Tactics

YouTube is the world’s 2nd most visited site. That means achieving a higher ranking can be beneficial for you. YouTube SEO can help you to boost traffic, get more views, and achieve higher rankings. In this article, we’ll explain what YouTube backlinks are and the safest way to get them.

In this article

01 [What Are YouTube Backlinks?](#Part 1)

02 [Are YouTube Backlinks Important?](#Part 2)

03 [How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?](#Part 3)

04 [A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO](#Part 4)

What Are YouTube Backlinks?

Links between other sites to your YouTube videos are referred to as YouTube backlinks. Backlinks are crucial to growing traffic, increasing discovery speed, and improving ranks. Backlinks are almost akin to a site’s reputation as they can act as a vote of confidence for the quality of your videos.

The content of a video with more backlinks is seen as more valuable by search engines than those with less, as each backlink adds confidence that the video is worth linking to.

The popularity of the sites linking to a YouTube video also plays a part as they naturally lead to increased traffic coming to sites through backlinks. Search engines often check popular videos for new backlinks leading to the quick discovery of new content.

The quality of backlinks significantly impacts the ranking and visibility of a given video. Search engines consider links from relevant sources as more valuable as people are more likely to click them.

Lastly, placement and formatting of links play a part as a link that stands out is more likely to generate traffic than one that doesn’t.

Are YouTube Backlinks Important?

Yes. Backlinks are one of the vital aspects of SEO. They are essential to ranking well in Google search results, and they also help you stay ahead of your competition.

Backlinks act as a powerful source to attract your target audience. While getting people to your might be challenging, sending them to your other work is a breeze. You only have to include YouTube backlinks for free to do so. With 65% of people being visual learners, YouTube is a resourceful place for using backlinks.

How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?

Getting high-quality backlinks can be challenging if you don’t know how to do it. The good news is that there are many different methods that you can use to get links that will benefit your YouTube videos; all it takes is a little creativity.

With that in mind, here are some of the safest ways of getting YouTube backlinks for free for your videos.

Guest Vlogging

If you have a large social media following or even just a few loyal subscribers on YouTube, consider using that to your advantage. Many bloggers and popular vloggers will allow guest appearances in their videos — as long as they also get something out of it. If you are a vlogger in a specific niche, you could guest vlog for someone well-known in your niche, or anyone with higher ranking videos than yours.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Posting original content on social media sites is also a great way to get high-quality backlinks for free. People will click your links, and this can help you to get more views and subscribers too. Many bloggers and vloggers often post the videos they feature on their social media platforms.

Web 2.0 Sites

The use of Web 2.0 sites is a great way to get backlinks for your YouTube videos. Web 2.0 sites, such as Squarespace, Blogger, Blog, Weebly, and WordPress allow you to embed your videos. You can post original content on these sites, which will then link back to yours. So this makes them powerful links indeed.

Incorporate such websites into your marketing strategy and then target your keywords correctly to get more user engagement. In turn, both your site and embedded video will rank on the top page of search engines, meaning you will rank for that particular search query.

Pinterest Video Pins

Pinterest video pins are another great option. They are simply a link to your YouTube video placed on the Pinterest site. With over 320 million monthly active users and more than 200 billion pins saved, this is a great way to get YouTube backlinks for free. It also helps you grow your following.

Creating backlinks using Pinterest video pins can help you tell a story about your brand, idea, or project. Video pins attract and grab the attention of your audience using a cover image. What’s more? You can create video adverts to advertise on Pinterest.

Unlinked Mentions

The use of unlinked mentions means that whenever someone writes about a YouTube video without linking it back, you provide them with a link yourself; this is a great way to obtain YouTube backlinks for free.

● Questions: Is it safe to buy YouTube backlinks?

● No, it is not. You should not buy backlinks because it’s against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you get caught, you will get a Google penalty for trying to cheat the system.

A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO

Quality of Your Videos

YouTube and Google rank high-quality HD videos higher than those of low quality. Use Filmora to create and edit your videos before uploading them to YouTube.

The software allows you to change the resolution of your videos; it has a range of resolution settings you can choose from to enhance the quality of your videos. You can also adjust the contrast, brightness, tint, and saturation of your videos.

Moreover, you can cut a section in the middle of a video and remove the shake from videos. Additionally, the program allows you to trim, crop, rotate and join videos.

The best part is: You don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to use this software. It is easy to use and has an aesthetically pleasing interface.

Versatile Video Editor - Wondershare Filmora

An easy yet powerful editor

Numerous effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials provided by the official channel

Help you create high-quality YouTube video

Try It Free Try It Free

Video Title

The title of your video has a significant effect on your YouTube SEO. Including your target keyword in your title will help your video rank higher. A compelling title also drives a high CTR (click-through rate). However, you should avoid creating clickbait titles, as this can hurt your ranking.

Engagement

YouTube ranking also depends on how viewers engage with your video. If users watch, share, like, and comment on your videos, Google and YouTube will give them a priority. As such, the more engagement your videos receive, the higher they will rank.

YouTube Tags

Tags allow YouTube to know what your video is about. For this reason, your first tag should be the target keyword. You should also include variations of the target keyword when adding tags.

Conclusion

Using these methods can help you gain high-quality links to boost your YouTube SEO and increase views and subscribers to your channel. Keeping this in mind, the quality of your video is one of the ranking factors. Use Filmora to edit and create HD videos that will get on top of search results.

02 [Are YouTube Backlinks Important?](#Part 2)

03 [How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?](#Part 3)

04 [A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO](#Part 4)

What Are YouTube Backlinks?

Links between other sites to your YouTube videos are referred to as YouTube backlinks. Backlinks are crucial to growing traffic, increasing discovery speed, and improving ranks. Backlinks are almost akin to a site’s reputation as they can act as a vote of confidence for the quality of your videos.

The content of a video with more backlinks is seen as more valuable by search engines than those with less, as each backlink adds confidence that the video is worth linking to.

The popularity of the sites linking to a YouTube video also plays a part as they naturally lead to increased traffic coming to sites through backlinks. Search engines often check popular videos for new backlinks leading to the quick discovery of new content.

The quality of backlinks significantly impacts the ranking and visibility of a given video. Search engines consider links from relevant sources as more valuable as people are more likely to click them.

Lastly, placement and formatting of links play a part as a link that stands out is more likely to generate traffic than one that doesn’t.

Are YouTube Backlinks Important?

Yes. Backlinks are one of the vital aspects of SEO. They are essential to ranking well in Google search results, and they also help you stay ahead of your competition.

Backlinks act as a powerful source to attract your target audience. While getting people to your might be challenging, sending them to your other work is a breeze. You only have to include YouTube backlinks for free to do so. With 65% of people being visual learners, YouTube is a resourceful place for using backlinks.

How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?

Getting high-quality backlinks can be challenging if you don’t know how to do it. The good news is that there are many different methods that you can use to get links that will benefit your YouTube videos; all it takes is a little creativity.

With that in mind, here are some of the safest ways of getting YouTube backlinks for free for your videos.

Guest Vlogging

If you have a large social media following or even just a few loyal subscribers on YouTube, consider using that to your advantage. Many bloggers and popular vloggers will allow guest appearances in their videos — as long as they also get something out of it. If you are a vlogger in a specific niche, you could guest vlog for someone well-known in your niche, or anyone with higher ranking videos than yours.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Posting original content on social media sites is also a great way to get high-quality backlinks for free. People will click your links, and this can help you to get more views and subscribers too. Many bloggers and vloggers often post the videos they feature on their social media platforms.

Web 2.0 Sites

The use of Web 2.0 sites is a great way to get backlinks for your YouTube videos. Web 2.0 sites, such as Squarespace, Blogger, Blog, Weebly, and WordPress allow you to embed your videos. You can post original content on these sites, which will then link back to yours. So this makes them powerful links indeed.

Incorporate such websites into your marketing strategy and then target your keywords correctly to get more user engagement. In turn, both your site and embedded video will rank on the top page of search engines, meaning you will rank for that particular search query.

Pinterest Video Pins

Pinterest video pins are another great option. They are simply a link to your YouTube video placed on the Pinterest site. With over 320 million monthly active users and more than 200 billion pins saved, this is a great way to get YouTube backlinks for free. It also helps you grow your following.

Creating backlinks using Pinterest video pins can help you tell a story about your brand, idea, or project. Video pins attract and grab the attention of your audience using a cover image. What’s more? You can create video adverts to advertise on Pinterest.

Unlinked Mentions

The use of unlinked mentions means that whenever someone writes about a YouTube video without linking it back, you provide them with a link yourself; this is a great way to obtain YouTube backlinks for free.

● Questions: Is it safe to buy YouTube backlinks?

● No, it is not. You should not buy backlinks because it’s against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you get caught, you will get a Google penalty for trying to cheat the system.

A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO

Quality of Your Videos

YouTube and Google rank high-quality HD videos higher than those of low quality. Use Filmora to create and edit your videos before uploading them to YouTube.

The software allows you to change the resolution of your videos; it has a range of resolution settings you can choose from to enhance the quality of your videos. You can also adjust the contrast, brightness, tint, and saturation of your videos.

Moreover, you can cut a section in the middle of a video and remove the shake from videos. Additionally, the program allows you to trim, crop, rotate and join videos.

The best part is: You don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to use this software. It is easy to use and has an aesthetically pleasing interface.

Versatile Video Editor - Wondershare Filmora

An easy yet powerful editor

Numerous effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials provided by the official channel

Help you create high-quality YouTube video

Try It Free Try It Free

Video Title

The title of your video has a significant effect on your YouTube SEO. Including your target keyword in your title will help your video rank higher. A compelling title also drives a high CTR (click-through rate). However, you should avoid creating clickbait titles, as this can hurt your ranking.

Engagement

YouTube ranking also depends on how viewers engage with your video. If users watch, share, like, and comment on your videos, Google and YouTube will give them a priority. As such, the more engagement your videos receive, the higher they will rank.

YouTube Tags

Tags allow YouTube to know what your video is about. For this reason, your first tag should be the target keyword. You should also include variations of the target keyword when adding tags.

Conclusion

Using these methods can help you gain high-quality links to boost your YouTube SEO and increase views and subscribers to your channel. Keeping this in mind, the quality of your video is one of the ranking factors. Use Filmora to edit and create HD videos that will get on top of search results.

02 [Are YouTube Backlinks Important?](#Part 2)

03 [How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?](#Part 3)

04 [A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO](#Part 4)

What Are YouTube Backlinks?

Links between other sites to your YouTube videos are referred to as YouTube backlinks. Backlinks are crucial to growing traffic, increasing discovery speed, and improving ranks. Backlinks are almost akin to a site’s reputation as they can act as a vote of confidence for the quality of your videos.

The content of a video with more backlinks is seen as more valuable by search engines than those with less, as each backlink adds confidence that the video is worth linking to.

The popularity of the sites linking to a YouTube video also plays a part as they naturally lead to increased traffic coming to sites through backlinks. Search engines often check popular videos for new backlinks leading to the quick discovery of new content.

The quality of backlinks significantly impacts the ranking and visibility of a given video. Search engines consider links from relevant sources as more valuable as people are more likely to click them.

Lastly, placement and formatting of links play a part as a link that stands out is more likely to generate traffic than one that doesn’t.

Are YouTube Backlinks Important?

Yes. Backlinks are one of the vital aspects of SEO. They are essential to ranking well in Google search results, and they also help you stay ahead of your competition.

Backlinks act as a powerful source to attract your target audience. While getting people to your might be challenging, sending them to your other work is a breeze. You only have to include YouTube backlinks for free to do so. With 65% of people being visual learners, YouTube is a resourceful place for using backlinks.

How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?

Getting high-quality backlinks can be challenging if you don’t know how to do it. The good news is that there are many different methods that you can use to get links that will benefit your YouTube videos; all it takes is a little creativity.

With that in mind, here are some of the safest ways of getting YouTube backlinks for free for your videos.

Guest Vlogging

If you have a large social media following or even just a few loyal subscribers on YouTube, consider using that to your advantage. Many bloggers and popular vloggers will allow guest appearances in their videos — as long as they also get something out of it. If you are a vlogger in a specific niche, you could guest vlog for someone well-known in your niche, or anyone with higher ranking videos than yours.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Posting original content on social media sites is also a great way to get high-quality backlinks for free. People will click your links, and this can help you to get more views and subscribers too. Many bloggers and vloggers often post the videos they feature on their social media platforms.

Web 2.0 Sites

The use of Web 2.0 sites is a great way to get backlinks for your YouTube videos. Web 2.0 sites, such as Squarespace, Blogger, Blog, Weebly, and WordPress allow you to embed your videos. You can post original content on these sites, which will then link back to yours. So this makes them powerful links indeed.

Incorporate such websites into your marketing strategy and then target your keywords correctly to get more user engagement. In turn, both your site and embedded video will rank on the top page of search engines, meaning you will rank for that particular search query.

Pinterest Video Pins

Pinterest video pins are another great option. They are simply a link to your YouTube video placed on the Pinterest site. With over 320 million monthly active users and more than 200 billion pins saved, this is a great way to get YouTube backlinks for free. It also helps you grow your following.

Creating backlinks using Pinterest video pins can help you tell a story about your brand, idea, or project. Video pins attract and grab the attention of your audience using a cover image. What’s more? You can create video adverts to advertise on Pinterest.

Unlinked Mentions

The use of unlinked mentions means that whenever someone writes about a YouTube video without linking it back, you provide them with a link yourself; this is a great way to obtain YouTube backlinks for free.

● Questions: Is it safe to buy YouTube backlinks?

● No, it is not. You should not buy backlinks because it’s against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you get caught, you will get a Google penalty for trying to cheat the system.

A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO

Quality of Your Videos

YouTube and Google rank high-quality HD videos higher than those of low quality. Use Filmora to create and edit your videos before uploading them to YouTube.

The software allows you to change the resolution of your videos; it has a range of resolution settings you can choose from to enhance the quality of your videos. You can also adjust the contrast, brightness, tint, and saturation of your videos.

Moreover, you can cut a section in the middle of a video and remove the shake from videos. Additionally, the program allows you to trim, crop, rotate and join videos.

The best part is: You don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to use this software. It is easy to use and has an aesthetically pleasing interface.

Versatile Video Editor - Wondershare Filmora

An easy yet powerful editor

Numerous effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials provided by the official channel

Help you create high-quality YouTube video

Try It Free Try It Free

Video Title

The title of your video has a significant effect on your YouTube SEO. Including your target keyword in your title will help your video rank higher. A compelling title also drives a high CTR (click-through rate). However, you should avoid creating clickbait titles, as this can hurt your ranking.

Engagement

YouTube ranking also depends on how viewers engage with your video. If users watch, share, like, and comment on your videos, Google and YouTube will give them a priority. As such, the more engagement your videos receive, the higher they will rank.

YouTube Tags

Tags allow YouTube to know what your video is about. For this reason, your first tag should be the target keyword. You should also include variations of the target keyword when adding tags.

Conclusion

Using these methods can help you gain high-quality links to boost your YouTube SEO and increase views and subscribers to your channel. Keeping this in mind, the quality of your video is one of the ranking factors. Use Filmora to edit and create HD videos that will get on top of search results.

02 [Are YouTube Backlinks Important?](#Part 2)

03 [How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?](#Part 3)

04 [A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO](#Part 4)

What Are YouTube Backlinks?

Links between other sites to your YouTube videos are referred to as YouTube backlinks. Backlinks are crucial to growing traffic, increasing discovery speed, and improving ranks. Backlinks are almost akin to a site’s reputation as they can act as a vote of confidence for the quality of your videos.

The content of a video with more backlinks is seen as more valuable by search engines than those with less, as each backlink adds confidence that the video is worth linking to.

The popularity of the sites linking to a YouTube video also plays a part as they naturally lead to increased traffic coming to sites through backlinks. Search engines often check popular videos for new backlinks leading to the quick discovery of new content.

The quality of backlinks significantly impacts the ranking and visibility of a given video. Search engines consider links from relevant sources as more valuable as people are more likely to click them.

Lastly, placement and formatting of links play a part as a link that stands out is more likely to generate traffic than one that doesn’t.

Are YouTube Backlinks Important?

Yes. Backlinks are one of the vital aspects of SEO. They are essential to ranking well in Google search results, and they also help you stay ahead of your competition.

Backlinks act as a powerful source to attract your target audience. While getting people to your might be challenging, sending them to your other work is a breeze. You only have to include YouTube backlinks for free to do so. With 65% of people being visual learners, YouTube is a resourceful place for using backlinks.

How Can I Get YouTube Backlinks for My Videos?

Getting high-quality backlinks can be challenging if you don’t know how to do it. The good news is that there are many different methods that you can use to get links that will benefit your YouTube videos; all it takes is a little creativity.

With that in mind, here are some of the safest ways of getting YouTube backlinks for free for your videos.

Guest Vlogging

If you have a large social media following or even just a few loyal subscribers on YouTube, consider using that to your advantage. Many bloggers and popular vloggers will allow guest appearances in their videos — as long as they also get something out of it. If you are a vlogger in a specific niche, you could guest vlog for someone well-known in your niche, or anyone with higher ranking videos than yours.

Share Your Videos on Social Media

Posting original content on social media sites is also a great way to get high-quality backlinks for free. People will click your links, and this can help you to get more views and subscribers too. Many bloggers and vloggers often post the videos they feature on their social media platforms.

Web 2.0 Sites

The use of Web 2.0 sites is a great way to get backlinks for your YouTube videos. Web 2.0 sites, such as Squarespace, Blogger, Blog, Weebly, and WordPress allow you to embed your videos. You can post original content on these sites, which will then link back to yours. So this makes them powerful links indeed.

Incorporate such websites into your marketing strategy and then target your keywords correctly to get more user engagement. In turn, both your site and embedded video will rank on the top page of search engines, meaning you will rank for that particular search query.

Pinterest Video Pins

Pinterest video pins are another great option. They are simply a link to your YouTube video placed on the Pinterest site. With over 320 million monthly active users and more than 200 billion pins saved, this is a great way to get YouTube backlinks for free. It also helps you grow your following.

Creating backlinks using Pinterest video pins can help you tell a story about your brand, idea, or project. Video pins attract and grab the attention of your audience using a cover image. What’s more? You can create video adverts to advertise on Pinterest.

Unlinked Mentions

The use of unlinked mentions means that whenever someone writes about a YouTube video without linking it back, you provide them with a link yourself; this is a great way to obtain YouTube backlinks for free.

● Questions: Is it safe to buy YouTube backlinks?

● No, it is not. You should not buy backlinks because it’s against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you get caught, you will get a Google penalty for trying to cheat the system.

A Few More SEO Factors for YouTube SEO

Quality of Your Videos

YouTube and Google rank high-quality HD videos higher than those of low quality. Use Filmora to create and edit your videos before uploading them to YouTube.

The software allows you to change the resolution of your videos; it has a range of resolution settings you can choose from to enhance the quality of your videos. You can also adjust the contrast, brightness, tint, and saturation of your videos.

Moreover, you can cut a section in the middle of a video and remove the shake from videos. Additionally, the program allows you to trim, crop, rotate and join videos.

The best part is: You don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to use this software. It is easy to use and has an aesthetically pleasing interface.

Versatile Video Editor - Wondershare Filmora

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Numerous effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials provided by the official channel

Help you create high-quality YouTube video

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Video Title

The title of your video has a significant effect on your YouTube SEO. Including your target keyword in your title will help your video rank higher. A compelling title also drives a high CTR (click-through rate). However, you should avoid creating clickbait titles, as this can hurt your ranking.

Engagement

YouTube ranking also depends on how viewers engage with your video. If users watch, share, like, and comment on your videos, Google and YouTube will give them a priority. As such, the more engagement your videos receive, the higher they will rank.

YouTube Tags

Tags allow YouTube to know what your video is about. For this reason, your first tag should be the target keyword. You should also include variations of the target keyword when adding tags.

Conclusion

Using these methods can help you gain high-quality links to boost your YouTube SEO and increase views and subscribers to your channel. Keeping this in mind, the quality of your video is one of the ranking factors. Use Filmora to edit and create HD videos that will get on top of search results.

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