YouTube SEO: 13 Ways to Rank Higher In 2022

YouTube SEO: 13 Ways to Rank Higher In 2022
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Written by Samantha Ferguson
Samantha is Copy Team Manager at Wyzowl. She has written over 1,000 scripts and hundreds of articles on video marketing so what Samantha doesn't know about video isn't worth knowing!
Last updated on 25th January 2022
If gaining popularity on YouTube is a mystery to you, then you’re in the right place! When
we look at the mostviewed channels and videos on YouTube, it can be easy to put their
fortune down to the fact that the channel is already wellknown and has lots of subscribers.
But every single YouTube user started with 0 views and 0 subscribers. Every single one.
So how can one video about [enter any subject here!] accumulate millions of views, while
another video about the same subject can barely reach ten people?
The answer is not elusive or mysterious. The answer is YouTube SEO.
If you want people to see your videos, then you need to optimise your videos.
It IS possible to rank higher on YouTube, you just need to know how–and we’re going
to show you! Here are 13 ways to rank higher on YouTube in 2022…
Article Contents
2. Optimise the title
3. Optimise the description
4. Include the right tags
5. Create an engaging script
6. Start making longer videos
7. Keep people watching
10. Create playlists
11. Create backlinks
12. Get social
Closing thoughts
1. Have a focus keyword Whether you’ve already posted your videos to YouTube, or you haven’t even pressed
record yet, creating a focus keyword for each video will really help your rankings. All
search engines work by matching the users search term with the most relevant results–
and YouTube is no different!
If you’re jazzing up old YouTube videos, rewatch them and try to pinpoint the main
topic. Ask yourself: What is the focus of this video? What is the key word?
For any future videos, it’s easier if you choose a keyword before you start. That way, you
can use a keyword research tool to help you find the most popular search terms to use.
Popular keyword research tools include: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Keywords Everywhere, and
KeywordTool.io. They all work in a similar way, but keywordtool.io is the most ‘beginner’
friendly. You just select your chosen search engine–in this case, YouTube–and then
enter your chosen keyword. We’ve gone with ‘Instagram Hacks’:
The free version of the tool gives you a list of the most popular keywords relating to
your search term, like this:
But with the pro version, you can dig a little deeper by also comparing search volume,
CPC (costperclick), and competition. This will help you to find a set of keywords that have
a high search volume and low competition to give you the best chance of ranking higher
on YouTube.
Once you’ve found a keyword that closely matches the topic of your video and seems to
offer a good opportunity, jot it down and carry on reading this article for tips on how to use
it to rank higher.
2. Optimise the title Once you’ve got your keyword, you can begin to use it to optimise your video in different
ways to help you improve your YouTube ranking. One of the simplest ways to do this is to
include the keyword in your title. But, with 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every
minute(!), a keyword alone is not going to be enough to give you a huge SEO boost.
Your title needs to be compelling. It needs to send a message to YouTube users that
says ‘Click me!’ A great way to do this is to promise something. Are you going to teach
your viewers something? Are you going to entertain them? Let them know what they’re
about to watch. Take a look at the results below for our keyword ‘instagram hacks’:
The highestranking videos for this keyword promise to teach their viewers something
new– and, of course, they all include the keyword verbatim. But they also have a little bit
of extra description. The title ‘Instagram Hacks’ is not enough to gain views, or even ‘I will
teach you instagram hacks.’
You need to think deeper.
Let your viewers know exactly how many hacks you are going to teach them, or
promise them something specific and highly soughtafter like the second video in the
above example.
3. Optimise the description In addition to optimising your title, you also need to optimise your description. Now, while
your title is mainly to catch the eye of potential viewers, you can be a little more indepth
with your description. YouTube displays the first 125 characters of your description, but it
is a good idea to write around double that–aiming for 250 words if you can. YouTube
also recommends that you put the most important keywords toward the beginning of your
description.
Of course, it’s not all about the algorithm. Your viewers will be reading this too, so
make sure you keep their engagement in mind.
There are a couple of things you need to remember when writing your video descriptions:
1. Don’t forget to include your keyword(s)!
2. Make sure that what you’re writing is unique. Don’t just copy and paste
some text from your website or elsewhere
3. Include your website URL to direct viewers to your site
Take a look at this example:
Straight away we can see a link to the creator’s website. Then below that are a couple
of lengthy paragraphs about the video, including the title of the video and the keyword
(build an online business) in the very first sentence.
A unique, optimised description like this allows YouTube to understand what your video
is about and then put it in front of the right people.
4. Include the right tags
After placing your keyword(s) in your title and description, you also want to put them in the
‘tags’ section. Tags are for YouTube’s reference only, so your viewers won’t see what you
include. Feel free to add as many variations of your keywords and search terms as you can
think of. If we stick with the ‘Instagram Hacks’ example, here are 7 you could use:
1. Instagram Hacks
7. Social Media Tips
Notice that they don’t need to be superspecific. There is a Chrome Extension for YouTube
called Tube Buddy. Among many other features is keyword rank tracking, and this allows
you to find out the search ranking for different tags so you can use the best ones for SEO.
You should also use an app like VidIQ to help you see what tags your competitors are
using. By using the same tags as your competitors, your videos will start ranking in the ‘Up
Next’ section whenever someone watches their videos–so you can direct attention from
them to you!
5. Create an engaging script You might be tempted to skip this point. After all, scripts are wooden and awkward, and you
want to come across as natural and spontaneous, right? Well, an engaging, wellwritten script
can actually give you a better chance of coming across as natural and spontaneous, while at
the same time ensuring you don’t get sidetracked and lose viewers.
A script can help you tighten up your language, cut out the “ums”, “ahs”, and “where was
I?” and grab your viewers’ attention. A study by AdAge in 2015 (a lifetime ago in video
marketing years) found that marketers have just 10 seconds to capture and engage their
audience before losing them. Their study also found that if your audience isn’t fully
engaged by the first 30 seconds, then you’ve likely lost 33% of them. And remember, that
was in 2015! It’s even more difficult now.
So make sure you write a script with a short and snappy intro, one that gets to the point
quickly and informs viewers why they should stay tuned. Think of it as an expansion on
your title–set a promise at the start that you will fulfil by the end.
6. Start making longer videos Despite popular belief, longer videos actually outperform shorter ones when it comes to
YouTube. Type any keyword or phrase into YouTube and usually the topranking videos
are pretty lengthy:
In fact, YouTube actually use total view duration as a ranking factor. It makes sense if you
think about it–the longer you watch, the more engaged you are, the more likely you are to
watch more videos and the more likely you are to see the advertisements – aka kerching for
YouTube!! The longer your videos are watched, the higher your rankings are likely to be.
This naturally means YouTube favours longer videos that can be watched for longer periods.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should try and drag your videos out for as long as
possible, it just means that you shouldn’t feel pressured to fit everything into a limited
time slot. If your videos are long and comprehensive, yet still engaging enough to keep
viewers watching, YouTube will definitely take note and you’ll start to rank higher.
7. Keep people watching It’s all well and good to create a long video with keywords in all the right places, but if you
can’t get people to stick around and watch your video then you’re going to be sending a
very bad message to YouTube.
Watchtime is extremely important for YouTube SEO, so viewer retention is key. If you
want to keep people watching your videos, you need to make sure they are as visually
entertaining as possible. So many creators just sit in front of a camera and talk, but that
isn’t very engaging.
VTEC: How It Works | Science Garage
Watch later Share
This video is almost 10 minutes long and the subject matter could be considered dry
by some. However, the added animation and fun editing makes the video so much
more engaging.
To make sure your videos stand out, try adding some animation here and there, or put a
lot of effort into your editing to keep viewers on their toes.
With this in mind, it’s also important to get to the point quickly at the start of your video. Tell
the viewer what the video is about, how you’re going to help them and then get started.
It’s also a good idea to compare the watchtimes of your previous videos. This will help
you to see if there is a particular topic or videostyle that your audience enjoys more.
8. Encourage engagement There’s a reason that seemingly every YouTube video ends with: “If you liked this video,
click the like button down below, and don’t forget to subscribe for more content…”
…or something like that.
It’s because engagement affects your SEO! Whenever someone likes, comments, or
subscribes it sends a strong signal to YouTube that this viewer enjoyed the content
enough to engage with it, so it will start showing them more of your videos. Just take a
look at this chart:
This is from a study of 1.3 million YouTube videos by Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko,
and it shows a clear correlation between video comments and YouTube ranking.
9. Create an interesting thumbnail There are only two things a viewer sees before deciding to click on your video: The video
title and the thumbnail. And, with visual information processed 60,000 faster than text,
that thumbnail really counts!
YouTube can automatically assign a thumbnail to you, but this will just be a random
shot from the video. In order to stand out, you need to use a unique, attentiongrabbing
image that will encourage people to click. Take a look at the examples below:
Each thumbnail has been selected to draw viewers in. The presenters are looking directly
at the camera and the text on screen further reiterates what the video is going to be about.
This encourages users to click on the video, and a high clickthrough rate will seriously
strengthen your ranking performance.
10. Create playlists Playlists are an amazing way to increase the overall watch time of your channel because
they play automatically. So instead of watching just one of your videos, a viewer might
watch five or six!
To create a playlist, you need to group a couple of videos together that have a similar
topic or theme, like this:
It also helps to get in touch with people who create similar content to you (but aren’t
your competitors!) and ask them to add your videos to one of their playlists. The more
playlists your videos are featured in, the better!
Here’s an example of what you could say:
“Hey [NAME],
I LOVE your channel! Your recent video about [TOPIC] was really interesting to me
because [ADD COMPLIMENTS & SHOW INTEREST].
I think my videos are pretty similar to yours, so it could help viewers stay on your channel if
you included some of my content in your playlists. Here are some videos I think would fit:
[INCLUDE LINKS]
I’d be happy to return the favour. Just let me know which of your videos you would like me
to pop into my playlists.
Keep up the great work!
[YOUR NAME]”
When you contact these people, make sure you let them know why it is good for them too.
You don’t want them to think you are simply asking for a favour. By including your videos in
their playlists, they can cater to their viewers’ needs and also increase their own watchtime. It
also helps to offer to include their videos in your playlists too–sort of like a swap!
11. Create backlinks Link building is a huge ranking factor for any piece of content, video included. If you are
familiar with optimising written content, like your blog or website, for Google, then you’ll
know that they count the number of backlinks to help them determine how valuable your
content is. Seeing as Google owns YouTube, it should be no surprise that YouTube works
in this way too.
To increase your backlinks, be sure to post your video in as many places as you can, like
your website and your blog. You could also ask other websites in your niche to post your
video on their site or write guest posts for them that include your video. The more
backlinks you have, the better your YouTube SEO will be, and also your Google SEO.
Ranking highly on Google could also get your video featured on their first page of
search results for your focus keyword, which is a priceless amount of visibility for your
YouTube channel:
12. Get social One last way to rank higher on YouTube is by spreading the word about your video in as
many different places as you can think of! Basically, the more social signals your video
has, the better. So share it on all of your social platforms, and encourage people that you
know to share it, too.
Post on the usual sites, like Facebook and Twitter, but also think outside of the box. Search
for your keywords or topics related to your video in forums and post your videos there:
Another great place to share your video is Reddit. Just search for your keyword and
then join all of the subreddits that appear as a result:
Reddit has around 1.6 billion unique monthly users, and thanks to subreddits they are all
divided into niches, making it easier for you to reach the right people and increase the
CTR on your videos!
13. Add closed captions YouTube videos are able to support closed captions to benefit people with hearing
difficulties. An added bonus of these captions is that they are crawled by YouTube
and Google, so they can work to boost your SEO!
YouTube can automatically caption your videos, but this is usually riddled with errors. To
get your closed captions indexed and make them SEOfriendly, you need to edit the
captions YouTube provides or upload your own. Here’s how:
Creating subtitles and closed captions
Watch later Share
Closing thoughts YouTube is a competitive place to share your content because there are SO many people
visiting it on a daily basis. And while the competitiveness can be offputting at times, you
just need to remember that there are still many ways you can rank higher and improve
your YouTube SEO to make your channel and your videos more lucrative for your
business. If you’re struggling to come up with top video content ideas in the first place, our

YouTube SEO: 13 Ways to Rank Higher In 2022

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