YouTube is an excellent social media outlet to showcase your business’ video content, however, it’s also an excellent place to see about a 1,000 videos of cats running away from vacuum cleaners. How do you stand out and avoid getting lost in a sea of nonsense?
Start by optimizing your videos.
When optimizing videos in YouTube, it is important to use a descriptive title, unique description and relevant keyword tags. Below are some best practices for fully optimizing these areas.
Title
If possible, include a relevant keyword or descriptive phrase in the title that describes the video content. Avoid using season or episode numbers in the title; they take up space and will not help your ideal consumer find your video. If you do put them towards the end of the title, if there is room.
Tags
When choosing tags, it is helpful to put yourself in the user’s shoes. Use tags that are the same or similar to keywords you would use to find that specific type of video. Do not let yourself be confined to only the tags that YouTube auto-populates when you begin typing. Keep tags relevant to the video and avoid repetitive use, if possible. Using detailed tags will help you avoid repetition from video-to-video. Remember only use as many tags as needed to accurately describe the video. More is not always better.
Description
The description is your chance to “sell” your video to your viewers. The goal is to write a detailed, yet concise description of the video. If possible, integrate a keyword that was also used in the title. Add links to the end of the description that will enhance the user experience or allow them to know your company in more detail. This can include linking to related service pages or blog posts on your website, or to a similar video on your YouTube channel. Use your most compelling sentences at the beginning of the description – only the first few sentences will appear in search results.
Category
Each video can be assigned to a category. YouTube does not provide many options; choose a category that is the closest fit to the video.
An Example to Learn From
The following example puts these YouTube best practices to use. We found this computer repair company’s video on YouTube and considered it a great opportunity to show you how improvements could be made.
Title
Gateway NV57H Battery Replacement – Disassembly Take Apart NV55S NV75S NV77H NV56R NV76R
A better, more concise name for this video would be: Gateway NV57H: Battery Replacement Disassembly Tutorial. The extra model numbers are not needed in the title. Those can either be worked into the tags or the description.
Tags
For this video we recommend including the following tags:
- Gateway laptop battery replacement
- Gateway NV57H battery replacement
- Laptop battery replacement
There is no hard rule on how many tags are too many. According to YouTube, as long as they are relevant, you will not be penalized. However, using specified tags will allow users to be easily matched to a relevant video from their search query.
Category
This video was categorized under ‘How To and Style’, which is technically accurate, as it is a self-help video. It could also have been listed under ‘Science & Technology.’ However, in this case their choice makes more sense. Unfortunately YouTube does not offer many category options to choose from, so always opt for the most relevant one.
Description
Although this video has a description, it could use a bit more detail to be fully optimized. Mad Fish recommends writing a description that covers a high-level who, what and why of the video content. This description resembles keyword tags more than a synopsis, cramming in more model numbers than actual words.
From an SEO standpoint, the description does use a keyword this company is trying to optimize for: Gateway Battery Replacement. From a user standpoint, it would be helpful to know more details, such as the level of difficulty to replace the battery, or any specific tools you might need before watching the video.
When writing your company’s video descriptions, keep in mind what YOU would want to know as a user. What would make you click on a video? If it had no useful information attached to it, would you care? Optimization is easiest way to ensure your content is seen and more importantly communicates your brand’s message.
So be concise, be informative, be interesting, and make some noise!
