If you’ve stumbled upon this article, chances are that your 2020 goals include making a new YouTube account to be a successful YouTuber, or maybe you’re just looking for ways to take your YouTube journey to the next level. Either way, we got you!
As an explainer video production house, we know how hard it is to put timeless effort and dedication into a video, only for it to go unnoticed! How sad is that? We can relate to you there.
Also, if you’re designing a marketing campaign right now, it needs to include a YouTube strategy. After all, it is the second-largest search engine after Google! Now, this is huge!
One little tip we’d like to include here about marketing and creating brand awareness, is to invest in explainer videos. They’re short and to the point, and also have the tendency to go viral because of their creativity!
Chapter 1:
How To Get Your Video Ready For Optimization?
Before even thinking about how to optimize a video, you first have to think about its purpose. Think properly, because you’ll need to stick to it!
After you decide what you’re going to need it for, for example, if you’re planning on producing an animated explainer video, then you know it’s for marketing purposes, right? So when you decide on it, mold it from the beginning to fill its role.
While developing your video, keep its purpose at the front of your mind so you don’t stray away from it. People will be clicking on your video for a reason, to get info or to indulge in whatever content you produce for your audience, so give your viewers what they want!
This is your first step to your video optimization journey.
Chris Atkinson, in his online review of the San Francisco Summit, video optimization tips for Your Online Presence:
Once all the introductions and everything got out of the way, Julie Perry mentioned that the ad spends in 2013 would be $4 billion. When it comes to an ad the client wants to run, they should think backward in the video’s life cycle. Instead of figuring out what the ad is going to be right off the bat, you need to figure out where it’s going to run, what format it will run in, and work all the way back to the creative stage.
Chapter 2:
What Are Some General Video Optimization Techniques?
The following are some of the basic things you should keep in mind while making your video. No matter what social media channel you’re using, these rules/tips are general!
Tailor Your Effort To Your Audience
These comments are pertinent to any marketing strategy, not just advertising. In the process of optimizing a video choice for presenting your business to the public, be aware that the public is more sophisticated as a result of many years on the web. This sophistication is enhanced by the recent infiltration of paid media into social sites and goes beyond merely adding polish to the production of a video. A video targeted to the correct audience and placed appropriately for consideration in the right format will command predictable results.
Make Your Marketing Intention Clear
Your goal is the first thing to examine. It will be the deciding factor of whether to include the video as one part of a larger campaign, of whether to include skip options, or whether to place the video where the viewing is mandatory before being allowed to view more compelling content.
An explanatory video is often the greeting message to a company website. The implications of this placement are that your ideal customer has already found your website and is looking for more depth than would be offered by a shorter initial enticement.
Manufacturing An Animated “Celebrity”
One of the sure-shot methods to grab the attention of the public is a celebrity endorsement. A celebrity has access to a consumer’s emotions, trust, and perhaps more importantly, their benevolent interest. Celebrities are expensive, but the creation of a willingness to engage can be created by animation.
Once awakened, attention can be maintained by the best use of storyboards, humor, and professional scripting and voice inflection, all creating a personal connection. The creative scope of an imaginative animated video can summon the same types of bonding that a celebrity commands without the price of endorsement that a celebrity requires.
Examine Your Current Place In The Market
One of the suggestions put forth at the Summit was that you have to find out how accessible you already are. Take some time to sit down in front of a computer and search for your business.
- How broad is your brand recognition?
- Does a general product or service search produce information on your company?
- Is your service widely known enough that potential customers will search for you by name?
- Does a name search bring up your website, or is more information involved?
Decide If You Need Help
There is a possibility that making your own video may be an acceptable option for you, but a simple inquiry with a few pointed questions may save you wasted effort, time, and money.
- A creative video will not help you if it doesn’t reach your audience.
- A well-placed effort at increasing your name recognition will be less effective if the public finds it irrelevant or just plain boring.
- Do you have the necessary connections to place your efforts? With $4 billion dollars acting in this market, it isn’t as simple as it was three years ago.
I hope this was helpful to you, but buckle up! We’re going to be diving into the details now. You’re here for YouTube video optimization, and here it is!
Chapter 3:
How To Optimize YouTube Video?
The YouTube Video Optimization Guide is for every company no matter which industry the company belongs to. Every day, YouTube videos are watched by hundreds of millions of people and generate billions of views. YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
To help you promote your YouTube Video in the best way, we have drafted a complete guide for YouTube video optimization where step by step you can work in ranking your video on number one. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Identify Your Keyword
Write down a query that your customer might type into the YouTube search engine. For example, a prospect that is looking for an explainer video service might type something like an Explainer video or an animated explainer video. It’s much more specific and people initiating this search better represent your target audience.
So in this case, ‘explainer video’ will be your keyword.
Step 2: Find Your Industry Related Keywords.
Now that you have understood what your main keyword is i.e. “Explainer video”, start working on making keywords that are related to it.
Go to YouTube and start typing in the most relevant keyword.
As you type it in, YouTube will start to auto-suggest (as shown in the previous screenshot) a number of secondary keywords that are associated with your main keyword. You can get ideas from those suggestions.
Make a list of at least 5 related questions that you think your video will answer.
Then search those questions by removing the last 2 alphabets and the terms “how to” and “what”.
Make a document of each of the videos related keywords to you that are relevant to your audience.
Step 3: Create Short And Engaging Videos
A major part of Google’s YouTube algorithm (the math equation that decides where your videos will rank for a Keyword) is the WATCH TIME. In other words, how many people stayed, that is from starting till the end of the video.
To have a high WATCH TIME on your videos you will need:
- Super, high-value content
- Laser-focused approach
Do a quick intro and get into the tip, trick or hack as quickly as possible. Deliver the value and close with a call-to-action (CTA).
Believe me; people are going to watch your video if your video content answers their questions, solves their problems, Provides information, and connects with them emotionally.
When you are in the process of producing video content, do analyze what your competitors are doing. See what people like and dislike about them. Also, see how they are handling their YouTube channel and how they engage their customers with their videos.
Bonus tip for creating engaging videos: Focus on the video’s quality: Script, Photography or Animation, Sound, Music, and Narration.
Step 4: Upload And Optimize Your Video
Once the video is ready to be uploaded the next phase is to optimize it. Now for that, I have further divided it into some easy steps.
1: Adding the most relevant keywords is the key component of YouTube video optimization. Add the most relevant keywords to the video at least once in the description in the first 3 sentences. The description needs to be in sentence form and should be read correctly.
2: Add the keywords in the form of TAGS. Then, add a couple of variations of the same keyword also add those keywords which you have to list down in step 2. Lastly, add your name or the name of your company as a tag (particularly if you have a strong brand or strong personas that people might be searching for, add that in the tag too.)
3: Add a CUSTOM THUMBNAIL image that has a text overlay that describes the contents of the video. You can use a tool like Pixlr Express to lay text over the image that will be uploaded as the thumbnail.
Notice how this video thumbnail stands out against the rest of the videos in the YouTube search results.
You can upload thumbnail here by clicking on CUSTOM THUMBNAIL as shown in the picture below.
Make sure it’s high-quality and eye catching because it plays a part in viewers clicking on your video!
Step 5: Add Annotations On Your YouTube Video
Using annotations in your video can really get your video more viewers by engaging them and compelling them to spend the time to watching the video. What you can actually do to increase the view rate is to link the video with other ones in a series, or link to a certain category, or to your website in order to get more information. Annotations can really work well in prompting users to sign up. These annotations can stay on your video screen for a few seconds.
To create powerful annotations, add video background information, link to YouTube videos and channels, and try to create a call-to-action for sharing purposes.
You can add annotations from this section.
By getting different options, make sure to use the 10 in 10 out rule. This way the Annotation will come up at the start of the video. You can use different colors to make the annotations easily readable.
Step 6: Taking YouTube Video Optimization To A New Level
Ok… this is big!
This is one of the most important steps to YouTube video optimization. As a YouTube marketer, we’ve been waiting for this FOREVER. If you aren’t marketing on YouTube, then it’s time for you to take another look. And if you’re already doing one then you need to know about this. But first, let me explain the problem.
YouTube Marketing… The Old School Way
Ok, it’s not old school yet. In fact, most people don’t know about this new feature I’m going to share with you today. Here’s the thing:
50% of the videos viewed on YouTube are viewed through mobile. This is a BIG problem for those of us generating leads and sales from YouTube. Here’s why… The old way to get clicks from YouTube was to add something called an ANNOTATION to your video. An Annotation is just a call-to-action box that layover at the top of the video.
These annotations work REALLY well to generate leads and sales. But there’s one MASSIVE problem with these annotations that they don’t work on mobile.
YouTube Marketing… The New School Way
Enter YouTube Cards.
YouTube Cards are a HUGE development because for the first time you’ll be able to send traffic from mobile YouTube videos to your website. This means that by simply installing the YouTube Cards to your videos, you can easily DOUBLE your traffic, leads, and sales from YouTube.
This new feature will have a MASSIVE effect on your channel, as 48% of the customers use mobile and hence it can result in increasing your profits and double our business.
Chapter 4:
What Are YouTube Cards?
Here’s an example of how it would look on a screen.
The new YouTube Cards work to do much of the same things as traditional Annotations. They inform viewers about:
- Other videos on your channel
- Merchandise
- Playlists
- Websites
- Fundraising
So, what do you need to know?
- They’re installed on a per video basis (you’ll have to add them to each individual video)
- You provide the destination URL, customized image, title, and call-to-action text
- They’re rendered on desktop and mobile devices
- You can edit them at any time.
5 Types Of YouTube Cards:
1. Merchandise Card: Promote a creator’s licensed merchandise directly from the video. These are great for anyone selling physical products.
2. Fundraising Card: Links viewers directly to projects on whitelisted fundraising sites.
3. Video or Playlist card: Links to any other public YouTube video or playlist which can be of interest to the viewer of the current video.
4. Fan Funding Card: This card lets your fans show their appreciation for your videos by making a monetary contribution directly on the video page. Last but not least, the type of card that we use to drive leads and sales for our business…
5. Associated Website Card: Link directly to your associated website from a card. This is by far the most important one for an online business and I am going to show you how to set them up for your channel.
Just try this and you’ll see the changes yourself.
How Do I Set Up The New YouTube Cards?
Sign in to your YouTube Video Manager, and click on ‘Edit’ for the video you want to add a Card to.
Click on the ‘Cards’ button in the top navigation bar, click ‘Add Card’
Click on ‘Add Card’ again to open up the creation window for the Card type you want to add.
Enter a valid URL applicable to that Card type.
Upload an image (or pick one from the suggestions offered). Edit and optimize the title and call-to-action text and click Create Card.
Your Cards are now ready to get started generating leads and sales from mobile.
What YouTube Cards Look Like
For the first few seconds, they see the entire Card.
After that, you’ll see the “i” icon when hovering over the video
Once you click on the YouTube Card, Your Call to action text and image will pop up below.
By clicking the CTA tab you will be redirected to URL paste to it.
I hope this simple YouTube video optimization guide will help you in reaching your goals and ranking you number 1.
But we’re not done yet! We only covered the steps on how to optimize your video. Now, let’s look at some tips to help you on your journey! Below are some key pointers that will help increase your video’s standings in Google search results.
Chapter 5:
12 YouTube SEO Tips For 2020
1. Produce Great Content
Believe me, people are going to watch your video if your video content answers their questions, solves their problems, provides information, and connects with them emotionally.
When you are in the process of producing video content, do analyze what your competitors are doing. See what people like and dislike about them. Also, see how they are handling their YouTube channel and how they engage their customers with their videos.
Include how-tos and other video types about your brand to increase credibility and trust. Not only this, but people are more likely to buy your product or service just because there is so much information about it on the internet! Explainer videos are great in delivering these types of content!
Some important things to remember when creating video content:
- Make the video interesting, especially in the first 5-15 seconds to make the viewers stay longer on the video.
- Focus on the video’s quality: script, photography or animation, sound, music, and narration.
2. Assign A Video Title
YouTube is massive. It’s the world’s second-largest search engine. You don’t want to miss this great opportunity to showcase your video! Make sure that you add the relevant keywords in the video title. This would better enable the users to find your video in YouTube search results as well as other search engines.
Your video title should be under 66 characters so that Google can easily display it. Include information about the video content, and if you have room, you can add your brand name to the title, but only at the very end. It would be really good if you can add ‘video’ in the video title itself.
3. Use Appropriate Hashtags
Which keywords is the essence of your video? What words describe your video the best? Use them as hashtags at the end of your description to improve searchableness drastically and to rank higher on the page.
Use a maximum of 3 hashtags. They will be hyperlinked and will be displayed below the video title once your video goes live.
For example, we use #ExplainerVideo in our videos on our YouTube channel. What this does is, that whenever someone types these words in the search bar, or uses this hashtag, our video will be visible to them!
This is a relatively new tip, so make sure you use it before it becomes common!
These are also great for the viewers as they can access similar content by clicking on the hashtag and YouTube will take them to a new webpage where all the videos which use the same hashtag will be there. How amazing is this?
4. Include Keyword-Rich Description With Over 250 Words
By writing a detailed video description, you have the opportunity to inform, convince, educate, and persuade your users about your product/service. You have an 800-word limit and you need to create interest by writing a very catchy and persuasive video description. Remember also that only 25-30 characters appear in YouTube search results, so try to use your main keywords at the beginning of the title.
5. Optimize Tags
Search engines use Tags for positioning in organic searches. So, that’s why it’s so important to optimize your video tags. Also, YouTube links to similar videos if they contain the same content.
You can use at least 10 tags and they can be as long as 120 characters. Make unique tags that include your keywords. You can also use your brand name in the tags.
This is important because tagging that includes related keywords and topics will enable the video to appear under this context which would eventually increase the video’s reach.
6. Even Your File Name Should Have Keywords!
While saving your video, make sure it has the keyword which is the most targeted. YouTube’s algorithm catches up on this and ranks those videos higher which follow this practice.
For example, you have an explainer video on SEO:
-“finalvideo5.mp4” is a very bad file name.
-“Explainervideo.mp4” is good.
-“ExplainerVideo-SEO.mp4” is the best you could name your file!
Make sure to separate the keywords with a dash for readability so YouTube can pick on it and your video can rank higher.
7. Create Longer Videos
You probably know that long articles perform better than short articles. It’s because the user stays on the website longer, hence contributing to the SEO.
The same is the case with longer videos. Not only do they help with SEO, but they also give more space and flexibility to engage with the viewer more, as well as deliver more content.
8. Make Informational Videos To Increase Inbound Links
Think about it, if you create videos with information, facts or statistics, basically anything which is informational and shareable, won’t more people come across it?
Won’t people share it? Include your video link to their related blogs and websites?
Of course, they will!
When they share your video or link it anywhere, the SEO ranking of your video increases significantly because of inbound links. Even if you produce one video on statistics and it gets the attention, then your whole youtube channel will get attention!
Use informational videos to hook new viewers in. Once they see how great your content is, they’re bound to check out other videos and keep coming back for more!
But for that to happen, making interesting content and keeping consistent in the quality of your videos is absolutely imperative!
9. Engage Your Audience To Increase Your Comments
Comments are yet another thing that affects your SEO! However, they can be a little hard to get, but since they are so important, follow the tips below to get them rolling in!
1. Ask a question in your video
Make the video engaging by asking the viewers questions so they don’t get bored, or to make them think about a certain topic. Ask your viewers to answer your question in the comments, and make it feel important so that they don’t ignore you!
2. Encourage your viewers to ask you questions!
Once you start making targeted and relatable content on the regular, you’ll be creating authority for yourself, right?
For example, our company produces explainer videos. And since we have produced so many successful ones, any tip, tutorial or information (like this article) from us will mean something to the user because we have created authority in this domain.
Do you see where I’m getting at?
If you produce informational content regularly, then you’ll be doing the same for yourself. Hence, people looking for answers in your niche will watch your videos and come to you for help!
Which ultimately means that they’ll be commenting to ask you questions!
3. Answer questions with questions
Once the comments start rolling in, be grateful for this and take advantage of this by replying back in the first 24 hours.
Replying back with a question of yourself will compel them to comment even more to keep up the conversation!
10. Optimize Your YouTube Channel
OK, so it’s time to publish your video. You have two options for that: either upload a video to a new channel or establish a YouTube channel and then upload the video optimization to it. The only problem is it takes time to make a credible YouTube channel, but then again building credibility takes time anyway!
Add your content to your channel weekly in order to engage the users and keep them coming back. Users love quality content that really solves their problems and provides them with useful information.
For optimizing your YouTube channel, make sure the channel title provides the description of the contents of the channel, such as, the videos were lined up in the channel or what your product/service is all about. Try to market your product/service through the titles by giving some information about the content. Add channel tags. Make sure you add your industry keywords in the tags. List your social media accounts on your YouTube account in order to link them.
11. Be Watchful With Advanced Settings
You have an advanced settings option on YouTube. It is totally up to you what settings you create. But do remember that it’s really important if you want SEO to allow your users to leave comments about your videos. Comments are a good way of interacting with your users, learning what they think about your video, and what’s important to them.
12. Practice Sufficient Video Sharing
Now you’ve done all the necessary work required to optimize your YouTube video! What’s next? It’s time to share your video optimization, as much as you can, wherever you can. Share it on all social media channels. Use Email Marketing and reach out to prospects, customers, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances.
And last but not least! Remind people about your video as much as you can by sending them the link again!
Chapter 6:
Are You Ready To Upload Your Explainer Video?
So, you just learned about the YouTube optimization process and tips that you need to follow in order to increase the popularity of your video on YouTube as well as on other social media channels. Stick to this guide and everything should turn out fine.
But in order to optimize an explainer video optimization, you’ll have to be in possession of one… Let us solve this problem for you! With a highly trained team of designers and animators, I’m sure we can tick every requirement on your checklist and wow you with the end result.
We’re just a call away if you’re interested!
Good luck!
