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

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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

Mastering YouTube Promotion: 26 Effective Techniques

25 Smart & Proven Tactics to Get Your YouTube Channel Noticed

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

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If you’re wondering how to get your YouTube channel noticed - how to finally start standing out - then you’ve come to the right place.

Here are 25 of the best, smartest, ways to get your YouTube channel noticed and start growing:

1. Post YouTube Videos Consistently
2. Provide Value in Each Video
3. Ask Viewers to Subscribe with a ‘CTA’
4. Spend time building your YouTube Community
5. Set YouTube Goals and Announce Them
6. Find a Niche for Your Videos
7. Build a Strong Personal Brand
8. Create Custom Channel Art
9. Practice Makes Perfect
10. Add a YouTube Intro Video
11. Use Video Effects and Transitions
12. Make Eye-Catching Thumbnails
13. Use Lots of YouTube Tags
14. Use YouTube Playlists to Increase Watch Time
15. Promote Your YouTube Channel on Social Media
16. Interact With Your Viewers
17. Check Out the Big Channels in Your Genre
18. Do Collaboration Videos
19. Write a Detailed Description for Every Video
20. Use Keywords that are Searchable
21. Make Your Thumbnails Consistent
22. Always Have a Plan for Your Videos
23. Make Titles That Get Views
24. Create a YouTube Channel Trailer
25. Give Each YouTube Video a Memorable Ending

1. Post YouTube Videos Consistently

In order to consistently draw viewers back your page and get the most out of your content, you need to be able to keep posting constantly . Only posting sporadically when you feel like it – three times one month, then just once the next – will not encourage viewers to subscribe. If you develop a schedule and regularly post content each week (or every day if you’re really ambitious), your viewers can start to expect when a video will be released. Some of the best content creators will continue to release videos at least a few times a week in order to continuously draw an audience back to their channel.

2. Provide Value in Each Video

Before you turn your camera on and start making a new video, ask yourself what value you want your viewers to take away from it. Will they come away from your video with knowledge, a new skill, or a feeling of amusement? Be sure to have a clear objective in mind with every video.

3. Ask Viewers to Subscribe with a ‘CTA’

Asking viewers to do anything (like, subscribe, etc.) is called a CTA, or ‘call to action ’. Asking for subscribers is a call to action that needs to be included in every video.

One of the objectives of every video you produce should be to try and appeal to brand-new viewers for your page. Something as simple as asking the viewer to subscribe if they liked your video can really help you grow faster. Sometimes people who really love your content still need to be reminded to subscribe. It is important to attract subscribers – not just viewers – in order to make sure that you have reliable, ongoing, support for your videos.

4. Spend Time Building your YouTube Community

YouTube is a large community and consistently interacting with other creators will help you to gain support for your videos . It helps a lot if the people in your genre know you. You can watch each other’s videos, give each other constructive feedback, and there may even be opportunities for collaboration.

Many video creators draw inspiration from each other’s videos and even spend time working with each other and promoting each other’s content. If you consistently comment on someone’s videos, without asking them to check out your channel (most people find this annoying), they will probably decide to go look at your videos too. Eventually, you might even find an opportunity to appear in one of their videos or have them appear in one of your videos so that you can each be exposed to new potential viewers.

5. Set YouTube Goals and Announce Them

Setting goals for yourself – i.e. reaching a certain number of subscribers – and letting your viewers know is a great way to meet your goals faster.

Sharing your goals helps your community feel more engaged and like they are a bigger part of your channel. This can be an excellent marketing tactic. When you share your goals, they become your follower’s goals too and they will help you reach them. Creating a payoff where your subscribers can help you reach 2000 subscribers or 1000 likes on a video can help you accomplish more goals to sustain the longevity of your channel. It also fosters a feeling of community by uniting everyone together and allowing them to share your feeling of accomplishment. This works especially well if you offer a reward – i.e. ‘I’ll do a special video when I reach 2000 subscribers’.

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6. Find a Niche for Your Videos

Many creators on YouTube have found success by carving out very specific video types and niches for themselves. When you are hoping to grow your subscribers on YouTube you really need to find your niche. When you can start to create videos that have predictable subject matter (predictable in the sense of ‘reliable’, not boring), this will attract more regular viewers because people will know what they can expect from your content. Having a niche can also help you find brand deals because you’ll grow a very specific audience that might be interested in very specific products. A smaller, targeted, the audience can be more valuable to an advertiser than a larger, more general, audience.

Your niche will generally be a combination of your larger genre (i.e. gaming, comedy, beauty, food) and something else you are passionate about. For example, reviewing vintage video games or creating desserts based on movies are both potential niches.

7. Build a Strong Personal Brand

Building a brand on YouTube is one of the best ways to generate a devoted following. Building a brand is very important because it makes you more memorable and familiar to viewers. In order to successfully build a brand, you need to think about the image you are trying to create and the culture you want to create for your community. The values you express, the types of videos you do, the clothes you wear, and your channel art are all parts of your brand. The grand total of all of these elements will form your brand and the way you are perceived.

Having a strong, unique, the brand will make viewers feel more attached to you and make your content more recognizable.

8. Create Custom Channel Art

To differentiate yourself from your competition you’re going to need to have custom Channel Art that reflects the vibe of your content. Work at creating or sourcing some graphics for your cover photo, your profile photo, and all of your thumbnails. Having a set color scheme or even a branded style of artwork for your page will help you to look more professional. Differentiating your page from others will create a feeling of familiarity and support your brand.

9. Practice Makes Perfect

In order to start producing more professional content, you need to practice your filmmaking technique. Regardless of the type of video that you are producing, a little bit of practice goes a long way.

Rehearsing what you are going to say can make you feel much more confident. Playing with the video editing software that you’re working with will save you time when you’re actually polishing a video . Practicing taking photos and videos with your camera outside of making YouTube videos will help you feel familiar with its features. As you start to get more dedicated and practice with your video creation, your videos will gain more viewers and you can grow more subscribers on YouTube.

Simply making more videos is a great way to get in more practice.

10. Add a YouTube Intro Video

A professional-looking intro clip (learn how to make one here ) supports your brand and makes your videos seem more polished. Intros capture attention and let viewers know the type of video that they are watching almost immediately. Building a 5-10 second introduction (no longer) with your name or the name of your channel will go a long way to improving the professionalism of your video.

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11. Use Video Effects and Transitions

Adding transitions between clips or topics is a great way to keep viewers engaged with your videos.

Using simple color effects, like filters, can help each of your videos look much more professional.

It can take some time to add these kinds of effects to your videos , but it isn’t really very difficult (many editors, including Filmora, let you drag and drop these effects into your timeline) and it will help your videos hold viewers’ attention for longer. It can also garner much more engagement and many more subscriptions for your YouTube channel.

12. Make Eye-Catching Thumbnails

A thumbnail that grabs a viewer’s attention will get more clicks. Take a photo of yourself making an expression relevant to your video and edit the image in Photoshop or using a free service like Canva (or one of these other YouTube thumbnail makers ). Add graphics, like emojis, to give your thumbnail a pop of color and include large, simple, text if you feel like your thumbnail needs to be given context (i.e. ‘fall makeup look’, as opposed to just another makeup video).

13. Use Lots of YouTube Tags

Tags are essential to helping people actually find your videos on YouTube. Tags should include keywords/search terms people might be looking up in order to find videos like yours. Looking at the tags of some of your past videos and seeing how well they performed will give you an idea of what kinds of tags you should target in the future. Looking at the tags of some of your competitors will give you an idea of what tags you should be using for your own videos.

Services like the Google Keyword Planner can also help you with finding new keywords/tags. Making your tags with search engine optimization in mind will help ensure that people can find your video when searching for those specific keywords. YouTube has an algorithm very similar to the Google search engine for helping people locate videos they may be interested in.

14. Use YouTube Playlists to Increase Watch Time

Playlists are great for increasing your channel’s watch time , an essential metric for ranking in YouTube’s search results. If someone enjoys your video enough to watch to the end, and then a related video starts to play right after, it’s much more likely that the user is going to stick around and view the second video. When you start to link videos together you will start to see your views grow.

Playlists are also important because they help to organize your channel and make it easier for viewers to find content they are interested in.

15. Promote Your YouTube Channel on Social Media

Improving engagement as well as the notoriety of your brand often means branching out beyond YouTube. By creating accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram for your channel you will gain more ways of engaging your followers. Often the promotion that you do through social media can equate to a large number of viewers and subscribers. The key to expanding into other social media platforms is to choose the sites your existing audience is already on. For example, Instagram is essential for a beauty YouTuber, but not for a gamer.

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16. Interact with your Viewers

Spending time interacting with your viewers via comments and social media is important. Taking suggestions and paying attention to what your viewers like most about your videos will make your viewers feel more included in the process of creating your videos. This will make them much more loyal to your channel. A great way to interact with your viewers is by doing shout outs or Q&A videos.

17. Check Out the Big Channels in Your Genre

Spending time examining your competition is very important. By looking at the popular channels in your genre you can learn what kinds of videos are popular and what types of video titles and tags you should be using.

18. Do Collaboration Videos

When you collaborate with other YouTube creators it leads to mutual success. You can cross-promote some of their content and they can promote some of your content in the process. It’s amazing how much your channel can grow when you’re exposed to other people’s audiences. Even if you might view another content creator is your competition, sometimes uniting together on a project can help you to mutually prosper.

Make sure your potential partner makes the kinds of videos your own audience would like. Then you’ll know that your videos are something your partner’s audience will like.

19. Write a Detailed Description for Every Video

The description box is one of the most commonly underutilized tools on YouTube. Make sure that you use the space to write a full description of each video. In the first three lines of every video description, use the keywords most relevant to your content, provide links to your other social media accounts, and ask viewers to subscribe. Lower down in your description, under the ‘read more’ tab, write a detailed summary of your video. This will improve your SEO/search engine optimization.

20. Use Keywords That Are Searchable

In your titles, descriptions, and tags you need to use the words or phrases that viewers are most likely to type into YouTube’s search bar when looking for content like yours. Doing a bit of keyword research will help you gain more subscribers on YouTube and more viewers on almost every video.

For example, if you do a product review of a new smartphone, you will get a lot more views titling it ‘iPhone X Review and Unboxing’ than ‘You won’t BELIEVE this phone’ because iPhone X, review and unboxing are all keywords that people might search for.

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21. Make your Thumbnails Consistent

The thumbnails that you choose for your videos can be an extension of your brand. By using similar layouts, colors, and fonts for every thumbnail you will create a familiar look and viewers will recognize your videos when they see them. If someone can instantly recognize your video thumbnails it will strengthen your brand and encourage repeat viewership.

22. Always Have a Plan for Your Videos

If you can plan out a script or outline (whichever you’re comfortable with) for your video, or even plan out a series of videos that you could shoot over time, it can lead to far better content. Taking the time to create a plan for every single video will lead to much more polished results that will generate far better responses from your viewers. Planning takes time, but not as much time as trying to edit the content that had no clear plan.

23. Make Titles that Get Views

Writing great titles that are optimized for search engines is one of the best ways to see some huge improvements in your channel’s growth rate. Your titles need to be able to draw in an audience and get them interested in your content. They also have to set expectations for your videos and contain the right keywords to make them searchable. Big channels can get good results with titles that build suspense or ask questions, but while you’re small it’s better to avoid clickbait and make your titles as direct and literal as possible.

24. Create a YouTube Channel Trailer

Your channel page on YouTube might be where a viewer makes the decision to subscribe, or not to subscribe. YouTube allows you to set a featured video that will autoplay in this space, and a lot of the most successful creators use this as an opportunity to post a channel trailer . Your channel trailer welcomes new viewers and tells them what to expect from your content.

You can create a trailer quickly by filming a quick introduction and combining it with clips from your previous videos.

25. Give Each of Your Videos a Memorable Ending

Ending every video on a high note – with some kind of joke or surprise – will leave viewers with a good feeling, which will make them more likely to keep watching more of your videos.

Be sure to share your own tips on how to get your YouTube channel noticed.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett