As one of the web\u2019s most popular multimedia platforms, YouTube reaches more American consumers in an average week than every cable network combined. It draws in around 2 billion unique users each month, who together watch more than two hundred and fifty million hours of video a day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Granted, this is all self-reported data from Alphabet, YouTube\u2019s parent company. It was, notes online magazine Variety<\/a>, intended as part of the company\u2019s pitch to ad buyers. Yet even if the numbers aren\u2019t entirely accurate, one thing is clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a lot of money in YouTube. And its power doesn\u2019t solely lie in sponsored content, either. If you know how to leverage them, YouTube videos are an excellent way to bring additional organic traffic to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll discuss that a bit more in a later piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, let\u2019s focus on YouTube itself. The first thing you need to understand about the platform is that it has its own set of rules where discovery is concerned. Fortunately, the YouTube algorithm doesn\u2019t seem to be that different from Google\u2019s – if you understand the latter, you should have no issues with the former. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, there are <\/em>a few key differences.\u00a0 Before we move on to how you can use YouTube to optimize your own website, it\u2019s important that we cover the ins and outs of optimizing your content on the platform. Because the better your understanding of YouTube, the better equipped you\u2019ll be to create high-quality, compelling content for your users.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your first step, as you might expect, is to start thinking about keywords to target with your videos. The process here is functionally identical to what you\u2019ve (presumably) already done for your website<\/a>. If you know what keywords and topics your website focuses on, then you know what to do with for your YouTube videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need a little guidance, however, the process goes something like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your video\u2019s title, description, and tags follow the same general rules as website copy on Google. They need to feature your targeted keywords as organically as possible<\/em>. More importantly, they need to be unique, well-written and searchable, while also providing the necessary context for users to understand what your video is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This advice all comes courtesy of the YouTube Creator Academy<\/a>, a resource published by Alphabet to help people better-optimize their YouTube channels. The Academy also recommends using hashtags in your video descriptions where appropriate, and timestamps for longer videos that let users skip to the sections most relevant to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, you\u2019ll also want to include extra information for users who click on \u201cshow more.\u201d This can be the same copy for each video. You might include details about other social media platforms, a link to your website\/blog, or information about who you are and what you do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where your title is concerned, you\u2019ll want to pair it with a good thumbnail. Something that draws the user\u2019s attention to your video, but is also relevant <\/em>to the content the video contains. YouTube recommends keeping titles concise<\/a> (60 characters or less), and avoid being sensationalist, clickbaity, or deceitful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Again – pretty much the same ground rules you\u2019d follow for a website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, you\u2019ve got video tags. These help YouTube identify what your videos are about. Digital marketing specialist Hubspot<\/a> recommends making your first tag your target keyword, with other tags ordered by importance\/specificity – you should also use a few broad tags as well, to describe your video\u2019s overarching topics.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s wrap up by going over a few of YouTube\u2019s critical ranking metrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can gain a lot from mastering YouTube.\u00a0 Quality video content can not only generate a ton of brand awareness and engagement but also bring a ton of traffic into other platforms. Moreover, through video monetization, you can even establish a secondary revenue stream. Mind you, the guide we\u2019ve written here won\u2019t help you master<\/em> the platform overnight. It\u2019s just something to help you get started. To help you take the necessary first steps towards excellence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As one of the web\u2019s most popular multimedia platforms, YouTube reaches more American consumers in an average week than every cable network combined. It draws in around 2 billion unique users each month, who together watch more than two hundred and fifty million hours of video a day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seohost.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Keyword Research on YouTube<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Optimizing Your YouTube Video\u2019s Title, Description, and Tags<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
YouTube\u2019s Most Important Ranking Metrics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Value of Video<\/h2>\n\n\n\n