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"[Updated] Enhancing Video Impact Interpreting YouTube Metrics Wisely"
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Enhancing Video Impact: Interpreting YouTube Metrics Wisely
How to View YouTube Statistics
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Learn how to view YouTube statistics and you can grow your channel faster. By paying attention to your statistics, which are available for free to every YouTuber in the Analytics section of the Creator Studio, you will be able to see how successful your individual videos are and replicate that success.
The information available for each video includes how many new subscribers it attracted and how much watch time it has so far (which is important if you want to monetize someday). By looking at which videos are performing well in these areas you can determine what you are doing right and replicate that success in future videos.
- How to View Your YouTube Statistics
- Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
- Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
- How to View Other People’s YouTube Statistics
Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora to Get More Views
As one of the best video editing software for YouTube, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. After editing, you can upload the video to YouTube directly when export. Download the free trial version below and start making YouTube videos with Filmora.
How to View Your YouTube Statistics
In order to view your YouTube Analytics, sign in to your YouTube account and go to your Creator Studio. From there, click into the Analytics tab in the menu on the left of your screen.
In order to check which of your videos are performing the best, click on Watch time under Watch time reports. At the top of the page there’ll be a graph of your watch time in general, and if you scroll down you’ll see a list of your videos ranked by watch time. The best performing ones will be at the top and, to see more stats related to these high-performing videos, simply click on their titles. Afterwards, you’ll be able to click around the different sections in your Analytics and see reports relating to the specific video you clicked on.
The two main types of analytics reports are Watch Time Reports and Interaction Reports.
1. Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
To find Watch time reports you just need to log into your Google account, go to the Creator studio, click the analytics tab, and then click on watch time. You can see the watch time of every video on your channel, which is important data to have because watch time is the most important factor when it comes to ranking your video in search results.
A watch time report includes the total amount of time that your video, or a selection of videos, is actually being watched for. In order to make sure that you are publishing only quality videos you need to make sure that your viewers are consistently sticking to your videos and watching them all away through, or at least to the half-way mark. Watch time represents one of the most meaningful metrics in ensuring that you are engaging your audience.
YouTube analytics can now display a watch time of every video that you have produced. Seeing the metrics on how long people are actually watching every video that you produce can show you what you’ve done right in the past and what you need to do more of to continue raising your watch time.
Alongside watch time you can see the average duration individual viewers are watching your videos for. The average percentage of your video that gets viewed will showcase areas where you may be struggling with your video content. For example, if an abnormally high number of viewers are clicking away during your intro, there’s probably something about that clip that needs to be changed.
In the watch time reports for individual videos, you will be able to see data on where your views are coming from and which demographics are watching the most. Where your viewers are watching, in terms of desktop or mobile, is also interesting data that is available in this section.
Click here for more tips onincreasing your views .
2. Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
Interaction reports are related to the actions viewers take – i.e. subscribing to your channel, liking your videos, or leaving a comments. You can find interaction reports in the Creator Studio under Analytics.
Interaction reports can be broken down into several different reports that can help determine the overall performance of any YouTube videos. The main interaction reports that you should be interested in include:
1. Subscribers: You can find extensive data on your subscribers, like demographics including age groups and gender. Learning more about your subscribers can help you to tailor your content. For example, if you learn that your viewers are mostly young women under 24 in the USA, you can do research into what is currently popular with young women under 24 in the USA.
Want to see your subscriber count in real-time?
2. Likes and dislikes: Likes and dislikes aren’t a powerful metric when it comes to search engine rankings, but they provide useful information to creators. If you’re getting a lot of dislikes on a video, you should look into why. If you’re getting a lot of likes on a video, it can indicate that you should focus on creating similar content.
3. Playlists: A viewer watching a video in a playlist is much more likely to keep watching more videos from that playlist, making playlists great for the growth of your channel. Reports in this section will help you figure out which of your playlists is performing best, which could give you an idea of which types of videos or video topics are going over best with your viewers.
4. Comments: Reading comments is a great way to figure out what your viewers think, but that’s not all they’re good for. If viewers return to a video to continue talking to you or other viewers then that will drive up your views and watch time. If a video is especially good at generating discussion, you should figure out why (i.e. your sign-off question) and keep doing it.
5. Sharing: Discovering where your video is being shared can be important for figuring out what platforms you should be on besides YouTube. If your video is shared and viewed a lot on Twitter, you should consider making a Twitter account for your channel.
6. Cards: Tracking the performance of your Cards will help you optimize them to direct traffic between your videos. By testing out different time stamps for cards you’ll find the perfect places to put them. By trying different messages in your cards you’ll learn how to write ‘calls to action’ that mobilize your viewers.
End screens: End Screens are essential for keeping viewers on your channel. The report of the click-through rates of your end screens is important for helping you figure out which kinds of links work, and which style of ends screen is most effective for you. Are people more likely to click when you talk to them through the end screen, or when it’s a static card?
7. 360 heat map reports: A heat map report works specifically with 360° videos if you are choosing to engage your audience with this type of content. Viewing YouTube video statistics for 360° heat maps will help to show the areas on your video that viewers are most interested in.
How to View Other Peoples YouTube Statistics
If you want to check out the statistics of rival YouTube channels (including the most subscribed channels on YouTube ), or channels you’re a fan of, try using Social Blade . Social Blade is one of the most trusted sources of YouTube data, and it may actually be easier to check your own basic stats there than in the Creator Studio sometimes due to their simple layout. To get started all you need to do is type the name of any YouTube channel into the search bar. You’ll be able to see reports on daily views, channel growth, and even estimated ad revenue (learn more about how to view a channel’s ad revenue here ).
Now that you know how to view YouTube statistics, what will you do with them?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Learn how to view YouTube statistics and you can grow your channel faster. By paying attention to your statistics, which are available for free to every YouTuber in the Analytics section of the Creator Studio, you will be able to see how successful your individual videos are and replicate that success.
The information available for each video includes how many new subscribers it attracted and how much watch time it has so far (which is important if you want to monetize someday). By looking at which videos are performing well in these areas you can determine what you are doing right and replicate that success in future videos.
- How to View Your YouTube Statistics
- Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
- Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
- How to View Other People’s YouTube Statistics
Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora to Get More Views
As one of the best video editing software for YouTube, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. After editing, you can upload the video to YouTube directly when export. Download the free trial version below and start making YouTube videos with Filmora.
How to View Your YouTube Statistics
In order to view your YouTube Analytics, sign in to your YouTube account and go to your Creator Studio. From there, click into the Analytics tab in the menu on the left of your screen.
In order to check which of your videos are performing the best, click on Watch time under Watch time reports. At the top of the page there’ll be a graph of your watch time in general, and if you scroll down you’ll see a list of your videos ranked by watch time. The best performing ones will be at the top and, to see more stats related to these high-performing videos, simply click on their titles. Afterwards, you’ll be able to click around the different sections in your Analytics and see reports relating to the specific video you clicked on.
The two main types of analytics reports are Watch Time Reports and Interaction Reports.
1. Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
To find Watch time reports you just need to log into your Google account, go to the Creator studio, click the analytics tab, and then click on watch time. You can see the watch time of every video on your channel, which is important data to have because watch time is the most important factor when it comes to ranking your video in search results.
A watch time report includes the total amount of time that your video, or a selection of videos, is actually being watched for. In order to make sure that you are publishing only quality videos you need to make sure that your viewers are consistently sticking to your videos and watching them all away through, or at least to the half-way mark. Watch time represents one of the most meaningful metrics in ensuring that you are engaging your audience.
YouTube analytics can now display a watch time of every video that you have produced. Seeing the metrics on how long people are actually watching every video that you produce can show you what you’ve done right in the past and what you need to do more of to continue raising your watch time.
Alongside watch time you can see the average duration individual viewers are watching your videos for. The average percentage of your video that gets viewed will showcase areas where you may be struggling with your video content. For example, if an abnormally high number of viewers are clicking away during your intro, there’s probably something about that clip that needs to be changed.
In the watch time reports for individual videos, you will be able to see data on where your views are coming from and which demographics are watching the most. Where your viewers are watching, in terms of desktop or mobile, is also interesting data that is available in this section.
Click here for more tips onincreasing your views .
2. Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
Interaction reports are related to the actions viewers take – i.e. subscribing to your channel, liking your videos, or leaving a comments. You can find interaction reports in the Creator Studio under Analytics.
Interaction reports can be broken down into several different reports that can help determine the overall performance of any YouTube videos. The main interaction reports that you should be interested in include:
1. Subscribers: You can find extensive data on your subscribers, like demographics including age groups and gender. Learning more about your subscribers can help you to tailor your content. For example, if you learn that your viewers are mostly young women under 24 in the USA, you can do research into what is currently popular with young women under 24 in the USA.
Want to see your subscriber count in real-time?
2. Likes and dislikes: Likes and dislikes aren’t a powerful metric when it comes to search engine rankings, but they provide useful information to creators. If you’re getting a lot of dislikes on a video, you should look into why. If you’re getting a lot of likes on a video, it can indicate that you should focus on creating similar content.
3. Playlists: A viewer watching a video in a playlist is much more likely to keep watching more videos from that playlist, making playlists great for the growth of your channel. Reports in this section will help you figure out which of your playlists is performing best, which could give you an idea of which types of videos or video topics are going over best with your viewers.
4. Comments: Reading comments is a great way to figure out what your viewers think, but that’s not all they’re good for. If viewers return to a video to continue talking to you or other viewers then that will drive up your views and watch time. If a video is especially good at generating discussion, you should figure out why (i.e. your sign-off question) and keep doing it.
5. Sharing: Discovering where your video is being shared can be important for figuring out what platforms you should be on besides YouTube. If your video is shared and viewed a lot on Twitter, you should consider making a Twitter account for your channel.
6. Cards: Tracking the performance of your Cards will help you optimize them to direct traffic between your videos. By testing out different time stamps for cards you’ll find the perfect places to put them. By trying different messages in your cards you’ll learn how to write ‘calls to action’ that mobilize your viewers.
End screens: End Screens are essential for keeping viewers on your channel. The report of the click-through rates of your end screens is important for helping you figure out which kinds of links work, and which style of ends screen is most effective for you. Are people more likely to click when you talk to them through the end screen, or when it’s a static card?
7. 360 heat map reports: A heat map report works specifically with 360° videos if you are choosing to engage your audience with this type of content. Viewing YouTube video statistics for 360° heat maps will help to show the areas on your video that viewers are most interested in.
How to View Other Peoples YouTube Statistics
If you want to check out the statistics of rival YouTube channels (including the most subscribed channels on YouTube ), or channels you’re a fan of, try using Social Blade . Social Blade is one of the most trusted sources of YouTube data, and it may actually be easier to check your own basic stats there than in the Creator Studio sometimes due to their simple layout. To get started all you need to do is type the name of any YouTube channel into the search bar. You’ll be able to see reports on daily views, channel growth, and even estimated ad revenue (learn more about how to view a channel’s ad revenue here ).
Now that you know how to view YouTube statistics, what will you do with them?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Learn how to view YouTube statistics and you can grow your channel faster. By paying attention to your statistics, which are available for free to every YouTuber in the Analytics section of the Creator Studio, you will be able to see how successful your individual videos are and replicate that success.
The information available for each video includes how many new subscribers it attracted and how much watch time it has so far (which is important if you want to monetize someday). By looking at which videos are performing well in these areas you can determine what you are doing right and replicate that success in future videos.
- How to View Your YouTube Statistics
- Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
- Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
- How to View Other People’s YouTube Statistics
Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora to Get More Views
As one of the best video editing software for YouTube, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. After editing, you can upload the video to YouTube directly when export. Download the free trial version below and start making YouTube videos with Filmora.
How to View Your YouTube Statistics
In order to view your YouTube Analytics, sign in to your YouTube account and go to your Creator Studio. From there, click into the Analytics tab in the menu on the left of your screen.
In order to check which of your videos are performing the best, click on Watch time under Watch time reports. At the top of the page there’ll be a graph of your watch time in general, and if you scroll down you’ll see a list of your videos ranked by watch time. The best performing ones will be at the top and, to see more stats related to these high-performing videos, simply click on their titles. Afterwards, you’ll be able to click around the different sections in your Analytics and see reports relating to the specific video you clicked on.
The two main types of analytics reports are Watch Time Reports and Interaction Reports.
1. Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
To find Watch time reports you just need to log into your Google account, go to the Creator studio, click the analytics tab, and then click on watch time. You can see the watch time of every video on your channel, which is important data to have because watch time is the most important factor when it comes to ranking your video in search results.
A watch time report includes the total amount of time that your video, or a selection of videos, is actually being watched for. In order to make sure that you are publishing only quality videos you need to make sure that your viewers are consistently sticking to your videos and watching them all away through, or at least to the half-way mark. Watch time represents one of the most meaningful metrics in ensuring that you are engaging your audience.
YouTube analytics can now display a watch time of every video that you have produced. Seeing the metrics on how long people are actually watching every video that you produce can show you what you’ve done right in the past and what you need to do more of to continue raising your watch time.
Alongside watch time you can see the average duration individual viewers are watching your videos for. The average percentage of your video that gets viewed will showcase areas where you may be struggling with your video content. For example, if an abnormally high number of viewers are clicking away during your intro, there’s probably something about that clip that needs to be changed.
In the watch time reports for individual videos, you will be able to see data on where your views are coming from and which demographics are watching the most. Where your viewers are watching, in terms of desktop or mobile, is also interesting data that is available in this section.
Click here for more tips onincreasing your views .
2. Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
Interaction reports are related to the actions viewers take – i.e. subscribing to your channel, liking your videos, or leaving a comments. You can find interaction reports in the Creator Studio under Analytics.
Interaction reports can be broken down into several different reports that can help determine the overall performance of any YouTube videos. The main interaction reports that you should be interested in include:
1. Subscribers: You can find extensive data on your subscribers, like demographics including age groups and gender. Learning more about your subscribers can help you to tailor your content. For example, if you learn that your viewers are mostly young women under 24 in the USA, you can do research into what is currently popular with young women under 24 in the USA.
Want to see your subscriber count in real-time?
2. Likes and dislikes: Likes and dislikes aren’t a powerful metric when it comes to search engine rankings, but they provide useful information to creators. If you’re getting a lot of dislikes on a video, you should look into why. If you’re getting a lot of likes on a video, it can indicate that you should focus on creating similar content.
3. Playlists: A viewer watching a video in a playlist is much more likely to keep watching more videos from that playlist, making playlists great for the growth of your channel. Reports in this section will help you figure out which of your playlists is performing best, which could give you an idea of which types of videos or video topics are going over best with your viewers.
4. Comments: Reading comments is a great way to figure out what your viewers think, but that’s not all they’re good for. If viewers return to a video to continue talking to you or other viewers then that will drive up your views and watch time. If a video is especially good at generating discussion, you should figure out why (i.e. your sign-off question) and keep doing it.
5. Sharing: Discovering where your video is being shared can be important for figuring out what platforms you should be on besides YouTube. If your video is shared and viewed a lot on Twitter, you should consider making a Twitter account for your channel.
6. Cards: Tracking the performance of your Cards will help you optimize them to direct traffic between your videos. By testing out different time stamps for cards you’ll find the perfect places to put them. By trying different messages in your cards you’ll learn how to write ‘calls to action’ that mobilize your viewers.
End screens: End Screens are essential for keeping viewers on your channel. The report of the click-through rates of your end screens is important for helping you figure out which kinds of links work, and which style of ends screen is most effective for you. Are people more likely to click when you talk to them through the end screen, or when it’s a static card?
7. 360 heat map reports: A heat map report works specifically with 360° videos if you are choosing to engage your audience with this type of content. Viewing YouTube video statistics for 360° heat maps will help to show the areas on your video that viewers are most interested in.
How to View Other Peoples YouTube Statistics
If you want to check out the statistics of rival YouTube channels (including the most subscribed channels on YouTube ), or channels you’re a fan of, try using Social Blade . Social Blade is one of the most trusted sources of YouTube data, and it may actually be easier to check your own basic stats there than in the Creator Studio sometimes due to their simple layout. To get started all you need to do is type the name of any YouTube channel into the search bar. You’ll be able to see reports on daily views, channel growth, and even estimated ad revenue (learn more about how to view a channel’s ad revenue here ).
Now that you know how to view YouTube statistics, what will you do with them?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Learn how to view YouTube statistics and you can grow your channel faster. By paying attention to your statistics, which are available for free to every YouTuber in the Analytics section of the Creator Studio, you will be able to see how successful your individual videos are and replicate that success.
The information available for each video includes how many new subscribers it attracted and how much watch time it has so far (which is important if you want to monetize someday). By looking at which videos are performing well in these areas you can determine what you are doing right and replicate that success in future videos.
- How to View Your YouTube Statistics
- Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
- Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
- How to View Other People’s YouTube Statistics
Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora to Get More Views
As one of the best video editing software for YouTube, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. After editing, you can upload the video to YouTube directly when export. Download the free trial version below and start making YouTube videos with Filmora.
How to View Your YouTube Statistics
In order to view your YouTube Analytics, sign in to your YouTube account and go to your Creator Studio. From there, click into the Analytics tab in the menu on the left of your screen.
In order to check which of your videos are performing the best, click on Watch time under Watch time reports. At the top of the page there’ll be a graph of your watch time in general, and if you scroll down you’ll see a list of your videos ranked by watch time. The best performing ones will be at the top and, to see more stats related to these high-performing videos, simply click on their titles. Afterwards, you’ll be able to click around the different sections in your Analytics and see reports relating to the specific video you clicked on.
The two main types of analytics reports are Watch Time Reports and Interaction Reports.
1. Interpreting YouTube Watch Time Reports
To find Watch time reports you just need to log into your Google account, go to the Creator studio, click the analytics tab, and then click on watch time. You can see the watch time of every video on your channel, which is important data to have because watch time is the most important factor when it comes to ranking your video in search results.
A watch time report includes the total amount of time that your video, or a selection of videos, is actually being watched for. In order to make sure that you are publishing only quality videos you need to make sure that your viewers are consistently sticking to your videos and watching them all away through, or at least to the half-way mark. Watch time represents one of the most meaningful metrics in ensuring that you are engaging your audience.
YouTube analytics can now display a watch time of every video that you have produced. Seeing the metrics on how long people are actually watching every video that you produce can show you what you’ve done right in the past and what you need to do more of to continue raising your watch time.
Alongside watch time you can see the average duration individual viewers are watching your videos for. The average percentage of your video that gets viewed will showcase areas where you may be struggling with your video content. For example, if an abnormally high number of viewers are clicking away during your intro, there’s probably something about that clip that needs to be changed.
In the watch time reports for individual videos, you will be able to see data on where your views are coming from and which demographics are watching the most. Where your viewers are watching, in terms of desktop or mobile, is also interesting data that is available in this section.
Click here for more tips onincreasing your views .
2. Interpreting YouTube Interaction Reports
Interaction reports are related to the actions viewers take – i.e. subscribing to your channel, liking your videos, or leaving a comments. You can find interaction reports in the Creator Studio under Analytics.
Interaction reports can be broken down into several different reports that can help determine the overall performance of any YouTube videos. The main interaction reports that you should be interested in include:
1. Subscribers: You can find extensive data on your subscribers, like demographics including age groups and gender. Learning more about your subscribers can help you to tailor your content. For example, if you learn that your viewers are mostly young women under 24 in the USA, you can do research into what is currently popular with young women under 24 in the USA.
Want to see your subscriber count in real-time?
2. Likes and dislikes: Likes and dislikes aren’t a powerful metric when it comes to search engine rankings, but they provide useful information to creators. If you’re getting a lot of dislikes on a video, you should look into why. If you’re getting a lot of likes on a video, it can indicate that you should focus on creating similar content.
3. Playlists: A viewer watching a video in a playlist is much more likely to keep watching more videos from that playlist, making playlists great for the growth of your channel. Reports in this section will help you figure out which of your playlists is performing best, which could give you an idea of which types of videos or video topics are going over best with your viewers.
4. Comments: Reading comments is a great way to figure out what your viewers think, but that’s not all they’re good for. If viewers return to a video to continue talking to you or other viewers then that will drive up your views and watch time. If a video is especially good at generating discussion, you should figure out why (i.e. your sign-off question) and keep doing it.
5. Sharing: Discovering where your video is being shared can be important for figuring out what platforms you should be on besides YouTube. If your video is shared and viewed a lot on Twitter, you should consider making a Twitter account for your channel.
6. Cards: Tracking the performance of your Cards will help you optimize them to direct traffic between your videos. By testing out different time stamps for cards you’ll find the perfect places to put them. By trying different messages in your cards you’ll learn how to write ‘calls to action’ that mobilize your viewers.
End screens: End Screens are essential for keeping viewers on your channel. The report of the click-through rates of your end screens is important for helping you figure out which kinds of links work, and which style of ends screen is most effective for you. Are people more likely to click when you talk to them through the end screen, or when it’s a static card?
7. 360 heat map reports: A heat map report works specifically with 360° videos if you are choosing to engage your audience with this type of content. Viewing YouTube video statistics for 360° heat maps will help to show the areas on your video that viewers are most interested in.
How to View Other Peoples YouTube Statistics
If you want to check out the statistics of rival YouTube channels (including the most subscribed channels on YouTube ), or channels you’re a fan of, try using Social Blade . Social Blade is one of the most trusted sources of YouTube data, and it may actually be easier to check your own basic stats there than in the Creator Studio sometimes due to their simple layout. To get started all you need to do is type the name of any YouTube channel into the search bar. You’ll be able to see reports on daily views, channel growth, and even estimated ad revenue (learn more about how to view a channel’s ad revenue here ).
Now that you know how to view YouTube statistics, what will you do with them?
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
From Novice to Narrative: YouTube SEO Strategies
The 12-step YouTube SEO Guide for Beginners Who Want More Views
Shanoon Cox
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
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
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
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
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
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- Title: "[Updated] Enhancing Video Impact Interpreting YouTube Metrics Wisely"
- Author: Brian
- Created at : 2024-05-25 13:24:04
- Updated at : 2024-05-26 13:24:04
- Link: https://youtube-video-recordings.techidaily.com/updated-enhancing-video-impact-interpreting-youtube-metrics-wisely/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.