How to Rank YouTube Videos

Are you a YouTuber and you are worried about having low views? It is not YouTube’s fault, neither is it due to the lack of visitors on YouTube. In fact, about 122 million YouTube users visit the site daily. Therefore come closer, let me tell you the secret. Apart from producing quality content, you might not know how to rank YouTube Videos.

Ranking YouTube videos is more than inserting keywords in your video titles, Meta descriptions, and tags. Wait, I will be sharing proven ways of ranking your YouTube video.

Check them out!

 Proven ways of How to rank YouTube Videos

1. How to Rank YouTube Videos – Keyword Research

Generate Ideas

Write down some words or phrases that reflect your ideas. For instance, how to rank YouTube videos, YouTube video ranking, and YouTube video ranking tutorials. After writing these ideas down, you can use any YouTube video SEO keywords generating tools to choose the relevant keyword.

• YouTube (Autosuggest)

At this stage, you can use any keyword suggesting tool like Ahrefs keywords explorer, YouTube (Autosuggest), keywordTool.io, Google trends, among others. But, I prefer YouTube (Autosuggest); it’s free and a feature on the YouTube app that works based on what the site visitors are searching for.

 Let me run you through how YouTube keyword suggestion works.

 Take any of the words or phrases you have noted and insert them into the YouTube search feature. YouTube shows related keywords. You can check for how relevant they are by inserting *(asterisk) before typing the word or phrase into the YouTube search feature.

However, if you are just starting on YouTube, it is always good to use a low competition keyword; so as not to get your video buried beneath in the ranking order.

To check for keywords competition, type the keyword into Google and check the about results under videos. There is no benchmark on what specific amount to use, but mostly, not too low or too high.

• Optimize for Google

Sometimes, Google ranks videos instead of written content, especially reviews, tutorials, how-to videos, and sport-related videos.

Why is this important?

Optimizing for Google will direct viewers to your video directly from Google.

 How do you get these keywords?

Insert the low competition keywords in any Google keyword suggestion tool, like Google planner or SEMrush, to mention a few, and then check for the monthly search rate. Choose any one between 150 and 1000.

• How to Rank YouTube Videos – Audience Engagement

Your channel engagement is very vital, according to YouTube. It tells YouTube how much people interact with your video and if they should promote it more. A particular way of increasing your video engagement is by producing valuable and intriguing content but not limited to it.

It also includes:

• Video Likes, comments, and subscriptions

YouTube ranks videos that are getting popular, and comments made by viewers tell a lot about your video. To get more comments, suggest to the viewer to drop comments and that you will respond to them. Because sometimes they like your content but often do not remember to comment until you remind them to do so.

The same applies to subscriptions. In fact, subscription is one of the yardsticks used by YouTube to rank videos. And once people subscribe, they can always see your videos regularly, like, and comment on them.

• Add suspense

If you are having issues with getting users engaged, while not adding a bit of suspense to your video, especially at the beginning.

• Video length

According to Backlink, YouTube ranks longer videos than shorter videos. However, while making long videos, remember valuable and intriguing videos that keep your viewers more engaged.

• Video Production Quality

Quality videos need good tools. A good microphone will better the inbuilt phone microphone. Ensure good lighting and a great background that appeal to your audience. A tripod stands to aid camera stability or other tools. 

• Compelling Title and Thumbnails 

An attractive title and good thumbnails increase your click-through rate and mean better SEO. Therefore creating quality titles and standout thumbnails that captivate and exactly reveal what your video is all about is an essential step not to avoid.

• How to Rank YouTube Videos – Video Optimization
• Place your target Keyword rightly in your Video Title and Description

It is good to insert your keyword in the title without spamming. One way to avoid spamming is to make the title at least five words in length. Also, insert the keyword at the beginning of the title, if possible.

While in the description, insert the keyword in the first sentence. Your description can be up to 250 words. Insert the keyword about 2 to 4 times.

It will help YouTube to crawl your keywords almost immediately, according to YouTube Creator Academy.

• Mention Your Target Keyword in Your Video

When making your video, you must mention your target keyword. With this, YouTube knows what your video is all about while transcribing your video to texts.

• Add Closed Captions

Enable the closed captions option. First, search engines can crawl it. Second, it is of benefit to the deaf.

It will better your SEO and give your video a boost. However, ensure the captions are accurate.

• How to Rank YouTube Videos – Video Promotion
• Use Social Media and Questions and Answers Websites

Posting your video on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media handles will definitely give you more views and potential subscriptions. Also, answering questions on Q&A sites like Quora and inserting your video link in them will lead to more audience, especially because people reading your answer might need more explanation.

• Create a playlist

A playlist is a collection of similar videos or sequential videos on a particular subject. Creating a playlist with appropriate keywords inserted in the title will lead to more views and retention.

• Feature on Another channel 

Look for other channels offering complimentary videos and get featured on their channel. For instance, if you have an SEO-related channel, get someone having a content writing channel. Once you feature, insert your link to give some views also.

• Embed Your Video

If you have a blog or you write blog posts as a guest, this is an advantage for you. You can place your video in any post and get the viewers from it. However, make sure there is a correlation between the post and the video.

• Use Email Signature

Inserting your latest video link in your email signature will always get high retention views. This is because you have personal contact with most people receiving the mail, and they will most likely want to know what you have in store.

With these hacks, it’s guaranteed that your YouTube videos will rank very high.