If you’ve been paying attention to online marketing efforts, hopefully you haven’t noticed keywords while reading or viewing something. That’s because the idea of using keywords is to not notice it. Although YouTube is visual in nature, keywords are still key in helping you get more YouTube views.
YouTube Crash Course
You know what YouTube is, but do you know how to use YouTube for marketing? It’s a task that involves more than just posting a clever video. The right choice of words is still necessary for people to find your video. You won’t be very successful in YouTube marketing if no one can find your video when you do a search. As a general rule, if someone takes more than a minute to find your video, you’ve already lost it.
Use relevant keywords
It’s tempting to use keywords that you think will get the most views on YouTube, but that strategy could backfire. Do you really want to annoy potential customers? You can still be creative with your keywords and honest about your content. Some ways to use keywords to your advantage with your YouTube marketing efforts include:
• Pose a question with some keywords relevant to the content of your video. This serves two purposes. It makes your video easier to find and questions tend to increase curiosity. Questions that are meant to break a preconceived notion or myth, offer advice, or solve a common problem tend to get the most attention.
• Choose your labels carefully. Picking every category your video remotely fits into is counterproductive. Sure, you’ll get more views, but you’ll also annoy people who are looking for something else. Choose only tags relevant to your content. If your content changes, change your labels.
Use keywords to boost daily searches
YouTube ranks daily and weekly searches. Earning a coveted spot at the top of the daily or weekly list can equate to marketing success, assuming you have a quality video that engages your viewers. If you find that your keyword selections no longer work, change them or use variations. The idea is to keep things fresh and attractive.
Give your video a title
One of the most common YouTube marketing mistakes is expecting a video to speak for itself. It doesn’t take much extra effort to create a title page before your video starts. Your title should be short and descriptive with a few keywords relevant to your content. Don’t worry about including your company or brand on the cover. Save that part of the marketing for your content and the final page.
Understand how the typical searcher thinks
Think about how you search for videos on YouTube. You probably don’t think like a marketing executive. Keep in mind that most people on YouTube aren’t there to search for something to buy. It is usually for entertainment purposes. Some keywords that tend to be more successful on YouTube include:
• Well known names (celebrities, athletes)
• Titles (movies, TV shows)
• Quotes (usually from someone famous or well known)
• Actions/verbs
• Objects in the video (car, sign, or anything that immediately catches your eye)
• Emotions (usually funny or sentimental)
Optimize your video title
Keywords do not make up a title, but need to be included in it to increase the number of views you get. In order to achieve this goal, there are a few basic title rules related to YouTube marketing that need to be followed:
• Do not use puns or humor in your title. Not everyone is going to be in on the joke and it’s awkward to work with legitimate keywords in a title that isn’t serious about its content.
• If you “must” include your brand in the title, place it at the end. Keywords tend to be most effective towards the beginning of your title.
• Titles should be around 100 characters. This includes the space between words.
• Your video description should be as detailed as possible. On YouTube, it can be up to 5,000 characters, or about 800 words when spaces are included.
Optimize your labels
You get 120 characters for your tags on YouTube, so you want to add some relevant keywords in your description as naturally as possible. Even on YouTube, obvious keyword stuffing is frowned upon. Labels must include:
• Location (usually just city or state)
• Themes (be specific to the video)
• Brand (you’ll definitely want to include your brand here)