Last year, our channel got over 172, 000 viewsfrom Google search alone.
And it wasn't just luck.
We focused heavily on video SEO.
Now, there are 3 reasons why you should tryand rank your YouTube videos on Google.
First, it's much easier to rank high for competitiveterms compared to web pages.
Second, the traffic you get is free and pretty consistent.
And third, the extra things you need to doaren't that difficult or time consuming.
So today, I'm going to walk you through thestep-by-step process to rank your YouTube videos on the first page of Google.
Stay tuned.
[music] What's up creators? As I'm sure you know, videos have been appearingmore and more in Google's search results.
In fact, video carousels nearly doubled inthe SERPs in 2017.
Now, video SEO is a bit different from YouTube SEO.
Video SEO is the process of increasing visibilityand ranking in search engines like Google.
Whereas YouTube SEO is the process of increasingvisibility and rankings in YouTube search.
The good news: properly optimized videos forGoogle can also rank in YouTube and vice versa with just a few additional things.
So let's get started with the step-by-step process to getmore views to your YouTube videos through search.
Step one is to find video topics with rankingand traffic potential.
Google ranks content that best serves a user's query.
And generally speaking, if videos are rankinghigh OR are prominent in the SERP, it's a sign that creating a video on this topic haspotential to get views from Google.
For example, if you search for “best iphone cases, “you'll see all results are more or less blog posts.
So trying to rank a video for this keywordwould be pointless because you won't rank and therefore you won't get views throughGoogle search.
Now, key in something like “iphone x unboxing, “and you'll see all results are from YouTube.
So in addition to YouTube search traffic, there'spotential to get views from Google's audience too.
To measure the total traffic potential of a videotopic, just copy and paste a top-ranking video URL in Ahrefs' Site Explorer, and you'll see the estimatedamount of monthly search traffic it gets.
Now, just because a video ranks high in Google, it doesn't mean it gets a meaningful amount of search traffic since some keywords rarelyget searched.
So there are 3 ways to find video topics withboth ranking and traffic potential.
First is to use Content Explorer, which isa searchable database with over a billion pages.
To find YouTube videos with traffic, just searchfor site:youtube.
com which will narrow results to only YouTube.
com.
Then add inurl:watch, which narrows it downto just videos.
Finally, add title:your topic, which willsearch all YouTube videos in our database with the word or phrase in the title.
Alright, let's sort the results by organic traffic.
And there are tons of relevant topics that havehigh potential to send more views your way.
It's also worth looking at the organic trafficgraphs to look for consistency of traffic.
So I'll set the trends graph to the past threeyears and you can instantly see which topics would likely result in consistent views from Google.
The second method is to search through YouTube'sorganic keyword rankings.
Just enter youtube.
com in Site Explorer, thengo to the organic keywords report to see all keywords the site ranks for.
Next, use the Include search box to searchfor a broad keyword related to your niche.
To see the total search traffic potential, click on the caret beside the URL you want to investigate and you'll see an estimationof total monthly search traffic for that video.
Again, if you find a topic that seems like it's worthgoing after, click through to the Overview page, and click on the Organic traffic tab.
Ideally, you'll want to see somewhat consistenttraffic like this rather than inconsistent spikes and drop-offs like this.
The third way is to scrape and analyze Googlesearch results.
You'll need a Chrome extension called “Scraper”to do this efficiently.
Start by going to Google and search forsite:youtube.
com and then a title related to your niche.
Next, click on Settings, then Search Settings, andmake sure that you set the results per page to 100.
Click Save and you'll be taken back to thesearch results page.
Now, you can right-click on any link on thepage and click Scrape similar.
From here, you should have all of the YouTubeURLs you can copy to your clipboard.
And if it doesn't work for you, you'll need to copyand paste some code into your XPath Reference.
I've left the code for you in the pinned commentjust in case so you can copy and paste it yourself.
Let's clean this up by removing all columnsexcept the href column.
I'll click Scrape one last time and then copythe URLs to the clipboard.
Finally, go to Ahrefs' Batch Analysis tooland paste your list of scraped URLs.
And after you run the search, you should beable to see how much traffic each of these videos get from Google.
You can click on the Traffic column to sortthem in descending order and click through to the videos you want to analyze.
Awesome, so after using these three methods, youshould have some great video topics with ranking and traffic potential.
Let's move on to the next step which is tocreate an optimized video.
It goes without saying that your videos needto engage your audience, meaning long watch times, high audience retention, andboast-worthy session watch times.
But you probably already knew that.
Now, something a lot of creators forget isthat the Internet is more or less text-based.
So if Google, YouTube or whatever search enginecan't interpret the text attached to your video, then you'll never rank.
So optimizing videos aside from engagement, is all about giving as much context as possible to search engines.
And the way you do that boils down to thewords spoken in the video, matching visuals, and metadata.
All of these are easy to implement but theyrequire some planning.
Let's go through some strategies.
For speech in video, I highly recommendscripting your content or outlining them in detail so you don't go off on tangents.
Plus, YouTube is able to extract some meaningfrom the audio and video.
And I believe this is how auto-generated closedcaptions happen.
Scripts and outlines help you to be concise, and they also allow you to mention specific keywords you want Google to pick up.
For example, in the beginning of this video, I said: “Last year, our channel got over 172, 000 viewsfrom Google search alone.
And it wasn't just luck.
We focused heavily on video SEO.
” My goal is obviously to rank this video onboth YouTube and Google for “video SEO.
” But don't get me wrong.
You're not going to start magically rankingon YouTube or Google because you said your primary keyword.
There's more that goes into this.
In fact, the words and phrases you use cancontribute massively to earning big features like suggested clips.
A suggested clip is a featured snippet in Googlethat's time-stamped to a YouTube video.
They attract a ton of attention consideringthe amount of space they take up in the SERP.
Based on Google's research paper they parseinstructions using automatically processed transcripts.
They then analyze the steps within videosusing transitive verbs, which are action words about an object, i.
e.
“mix the eggs” or “grind the beans.
” Also, since they originally tested theirtechnology on recipe videos, they state: “any recipe step that is missing a verbis considered noise and discarded.
” So if you're creating step-by-step instructionalvideos, use transitive verbs for your steps and keep them concise.
More on this in a bit.
The second thing you should do is match yourvisuals with your speech.
And this can all be done using planned b-rollclips in post.
For example, if I was creating a video on howto make perfect aeropress coffee, I'd say: “Grind your beans using a burr grinder.
Add the beans into your aeropress .
Boil your water to 183 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, pour the water slowly in a circular motion.
” You should't say… “grind the beans witha manual hand grinder.
This is mine which I got for Christmas.
It grinds decently, but, boy, can it get tiring!” This is also a key factor to earning suggested clipsas indicated in the same Google research paper.
Third, you need to optimize your metadata.
This includes things like your title, description, and, I guess, tags but as a less valuable component.
Generally speaking, you'll want to include yourprimary keyword in both the title and description.
Also based on my own observations, I've foundthat adding a detailed description of the video helps us rank for more keywords.
There's more information on optimizing titles, descriptions, and tags in our YouTube SEO video, so I'll link that up in the description.
Now, these are the basics of video optimization, and in my opinion, the three most important things you should do for every video you create.
By using these tips and creating an engagingvideo, you'll heighten your chances of getting in video carousels and earning suggested clips.
But there's still work to be done.
The next step is to add closed captions toyour instructional videos.
Remember: we want to help YouTube andGoogle understand the contents of our video as much as possible.
And since the words that are spoken can easilybe transcribed to text, this is probably the best and easiest way to add context to your video.
So if you've scripted your video, it's a cinch.
Just add your transcript to YouTube and syncthem with your speech.
Now, if your videos aren't scripted, YouTubewill automatically generate closed captions if your video is in English.
It's gotten pretty good, but it's not quite perfect.
For example, in this video, Tim is saying: “Hey guys, this is Tim Soulo from Ahrefs andright now you're watching episode number 3.
” So bottom line: polish those auto-generatedcaptions or upload your own.
In addition to context, YouTube says in aCreator Academy video that text on screen has proven to be so engaging that it increasesthe watch to completion rate.
These two factors lead to a monumental gainin SEO ranking and engagement.
So by using closed captions, you're creating a betteruser experience for people with hearing loss, non-native speakers, and for those atwork or in a noisy coffee shop.
Alright, step 4 is to create an enticing thumbnail.
It's no secret that great thumbnails leadto more clicks.
So I have a few tips to help you out.
First, don't use a screenshot or a still from your video.
Instead, create a custom thumbnail that contrastsfrom both Google and YouTube's SERP.
As you can see, we use blue and orange whichmakes our thumbnails standout.
Now, compare that to a thumbnail that usesGoogle's colors and you'll see it doesn't create the same effect.
Tip two is to make your images congruent withthe video title.
Here's one of ours on long-tail keywords.
When possible, we try to go beyond the typical”business smile and title, ” which in my opinion, makes our thumbnails stand out fromcompeting videos.
The final step is to add timestamps to your videos.
And this can help you get the “key moments”feature in Google.
Google explains: when you search for thingslike how-to videos that have multiple steps, or long videos like speeches or a documentary, Search will provide links to key moments within the video, based on timestamps provided bycontent creators.
As far as I've seen, key moments are onlyshown on mobile at this time.
But as you can see, this video is splicedup with screenshots and timestamps to different parts of the video.
To do this for your own video, just add timecodesalong with a short description beside it.
We try and keep it simple with basic phrasesand an easy-to-read format.
It's estimated that video will represent 82%of all IP traffic in 2021.
And the fact that video is starting to dominateGoogle's SERP is a good indicator that it's time for you to up your video SEO game.
We have a bunch of videos on YouTube SEO, video SEO, and getting more views to your YouTube videos.
So I recommend checking those out.
And if you enjoyed this video, makesure to like share and subscribe for more actionable marketing tutorials.
So keep grinding away, get your videoson the first page of Google and YouTube, and I'll see you in the next tutorial.
.
