The internet is a place of constant change. Platforms are born, gain popularity, and then die, replaced by more modern channels more relevant to modern users. This cycle of digital life applies to most websites, but there are some that break the mold and have been celebrating triumphs worldwide for years. YouTube belongs to this elite group. The platform was born over 15 years ago and quickly became one of the fastest-growing websites in the world. Today, it is the third most visited website in Poland (after Google and Facebook) and the second most popular search engine in the world. Therefore, YouTube is a platform with enormous marketing potential that shouldn't be underestimated.
YouTube positioning – why do it?
More and more marketers are investing in YouTube, but this most often involves ads generated on this channel using Google Ads . Meanwhile, YouTube can also provide a brand with a significant increase in visibility thanks to organic traffic – how-to videos, company videos, industry event reports, product instruction videos – all of this content helps brands gain interest and customer trust. Of course, there's a catch. According to statistics, approximately 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute! The platform hosts billions of videos, uploaded by users from 88 countries. Therefore, it's not enough to assume that simply uploading a video online will be enough to become the king of YouTube – according to a Pex report, nearly 90% of YouTube videos don't exceed 1 views. Just like with Google, you have to put in the effort to rank high and get noticed. This is where YouTube video positioning comes into play.
YouTube video positioning – what is it all about?
SEO is still primarily associated with optimizing websites and the texts they contain, but the term encompasses a much broader definition. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) applies not only to written content but also to all other materials posted online, such as photos and videos. Therefore, on YouTube, we can also take appropriate steps to optimize published content and thus increase its views. And it's definitely worth doing, as YouTube is the world's largest search engine for entertainment content. According to research conducted by Ahrefs in 2019, a few basic SEO activities, taking no more than 5 minutes, are enough to increase a video's organic reach by 30%. If we decide to dedicate about 15 minutes to optimization and enrich the video with all the elements of SEO in the YouTube search engine, we can increase reach by as much as 400%! But let's take it one step at a time. Let's explain step by step what it takes to make our video highly visible on YouTube.
Step one – analysis
The foundation of any structured and effective YouTube SEO efforts is a thorough analysis of the channel and individual videos. This allows us to see the current visibility of videos, what's performing best, and where there are problems and room for optimization. Specialized tools like vidIQ can help with this.
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vidIQ is a Chrome browser plugin that allows you to measure your YouTube video SEO results and increase the organic reach of your videos, while also checking the results of your competitors and similar channels. The most useful feature of the program is the algorithm that determines the optimization score, or estimated SEO score, for each YouTube video. It analyzes all video-related factors and determines the likelihood of the video ranking high in search results or in the sidebar with similar videos. The plugin also allows you to conduct a channel audit and check your competitors' activities. This tool provides you with the basic knowledge you need to start positioning on YouTube.
Step two – movie title and file name
The title is one of the first things a user sees when choosing content to watch. However, it's also one of the elements considered by the YouTube algorithm when selecting results for a viewer's search query. Therefore, it's crucial that it accurately describes the video's topic and also includes a relevant keyword.
A keyword is a term that users enter into the platform's search engine to find a video on a given topic. Choosing a keyword is crucial and should be based not on gut feelings, but on hard data on the monthly search volume for a specific phrase. Online tools such as the previously mentioned vidIQ plugin or Ahrefs, a keyword explorer that provides results for all the world's most popular search engines, can be helpful in finding the best keywords. However, the easiest way to find valuable keywords is to check the suggestions in the YouTube search engine.
A video title should best explain what the user will find in the video, but it's worth remembering that a long title can be truncated in a list of similar or recommended videos. To ensure this doesn't happen, create a title no longer than 60 characters , including spaces. However, you can also leverage the so-called Zeigarnik effect, which suggests that people feel the need to complete a process once they've started. Therefore, if the title is too long and truncated, there's a chance the user will open the video to learn the rest of the title. However, it's important that the title ends at an interesting point.
When choosing longer titles, it's crucial that the first three words match attractive keywords as closely as possible. Long-tail keywords, CTAs, or clickbait may follow. However, using clickbait titles only works if they fully relate to the video's content. Ultimately, user engagement with the video determines whether the YouTube algorithm will continue to display the material for a given query as engaging content. If many people watch the video and don't abandon it within the first few seconds, it means the content is valuable—this is called meeting user intent.
YouTube video positioning will be more effective if you also include the keyword in the filename of the file you intend to upload to the platform. This is a crucial step in SEO, as algorithms can interpret the name to determine the video's topic. A meaningless, original filename therefore reduces your chances of appearing in search results and the recommended videos bar.
Step three – video description
The video description is a place where we can include all the most important information about the material – the creators, location and time of production, etc. However, it's also a space where we can leverage the potential of keywords. An SEO-optimized description should include phrases that are thematically related to the video, but placed naturally – artificially saturating the text with every keyword that comes to mind will not only fail to increase organic reach but may also be counterproductive.
Why is setting a relevant description so important for YouTube SEO? Content in this field is one of the elements considered by algorithms when categorizing videos, so including keywords in it increases the likelihood of your video landing in the sidebar with suggested videos on similar topics. This sidebar is a significant source of views for most YouTube channels.
The character limit for descriptions is high enough to allow for a thorough discussion of each piece of content. It's worth taking advantage of this potential and creating a comprehensive description (at least 450 characters)—this is a crucial element of YouTube SEO. It's important, however, that most users will only see the beginning, which is about 100-150 characters . To view the entire text, you must click the "show more" button, which only a small percentage of internet users choose. Therefore, the first few sentences should contain the most important information about the video and key keywords.
Step Four – Tags
Choosing tags is one of the most important steps in YouTube SEO. They should best indicate to users what they'll find in the content, but also help algorithms thematically link the video to other videos on the platform. Tags largely determine which videos will be included in YouTube's suggested sidebar. However, it's important to choose tags for your video carefully – too many unrelated tags can be considered spam by the algorithms and result in a YouTube penalty. The previously mentioned vidIQ tool can help you choose the best tags. It can be used in two ways. If you add the first tags to the video, the algorithms will show you similar tags with great potential. However, you can also manually search for them by checking the vidIQ program to see which competitors are performing best in YouTube SEO. It's worth including niche keywords in your tags, such as the channel name or exact phrases from the video title, as well as popular, yet not very broad, terms. If we have a video with a recipe for chicken stew, a better tag would be #stewsauce than just #recipe.
Step Five – Adding a Custom Thumbnail to Your Video
Next to the title, the thumbnail is the most visible element in the results list. Therefore, it largely encourages or discourages users from clicking the link, and therefore plays a significant role in the website's positioning on YouTube. Therefore, it's worth ensuring a positive visual experience for your audience and creating a dedicated board that informs about the video's subject matter and attracts users' attention. While you can choose one of the automatically generated thumbnails, YouTube itself states that 90% of the most effective videos are those with a custom thumbnail . It's important that the image is of high quality and legible in the video listing, even on smartphone screens – after all, approximately 70% of YouTube users access the site on mobile devices.
The parameters relevant to a thumbnail are:
- thumbnail size: 1280×720 pixels,
- format: .jpg, .png, .gif or .bmp,
- file size: maximum 2 MB.
When creating thumbnails, it's worth using a graphics program like Canva – it not only has a creator with sizes appropriate for YouTube, but also ready-made templates that we can use.
Step six – subtitles for movies
It's also a good idea to add subtitles to videos published on YouTube. They're useful when users watch videos with the sound muted and make it easier for hearing impaired viewers to understand. They're also crucial for YouTube's rankings – the platform's algorithm favors videos with subtitles, ideally in multiple languages. Subtitles can be added in a variety of ways. The simplest is to include a simple transcription of the text in the video description. This allows users to read the content but not watch the video simultaneously. Alternatively, you can use a simple YouTube editor and add subtitles directly to the video on the platform. On the available timeline, you can specify when a specific section of text should appear on screen and how long it should remain, making it easy to synchronize the subtitles with the audio. You can also use an external tool and export the file to YouTube in .srt format. For the most important videos on your channel, it's worth adding both the transcription in the description and the subtitles within the video itself.
Step Seven – Cards and End Screens
End cards and screens can be compared to text links to various tabs on a website or external services. They encourage viewers to view other videos, subscribe to a channel, or visit an online store, but they also allow users to conduct surveys, for example.
Cards are formatted notifications that can be set at different points in a video using the timeline editor. When cards are enabled on YouTube, teasers will appear within the video, which, when clicked, take the user to another video, channel, etc., depending on the implemented link. A maximum of five cards can be added to a single video. End screens work on the same principle, but appear after the video ends, as an element that takes up the entire player. You can set a selected photo as a background image and include visually appealing links – for example, when you choose to include a link to another video, its thumbnail will appear on the screen.
By utilizing the power of cards and end screens, we significantly increase the likelihood that a user will engage with other content we publish—especially if we combine it with appropriate calls-to-action within the video. This makes it a crucial element of YouTube SEO.
YouTube positioning – a simple way to increase visibility
Initially, positioning your YouTube videos may seem difficult and time-consuming, but with a little practice, it takes no more than a few to a dozen or so minutes (of course, creating a transcript will take longer, but it's definitely worth adding). Compared to the time needed to prepare the video, this is very little, and it can determine whether the effort put into creating the recording will be worthwhile. Importantly, properly positioning your YouTube video builds a more engaged audience, and thanks to it, the content often achieves a higher average rating (thumbs up to thumbs down ratio) than paid-for videos. What better reason could there be to start positioning?
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
