23 Tips on How to SEO YouTube Video

You’ve spent hours crafting the perfect YouTube video. You nailed the content, visuals, and sound. But after hitting “publish,” you notice something troubling: Your video isn’t getting views. You’re frustrated and confused. What went wrong? Unfortunately, this is a common scenario. Many creators underestimate the importance of optimizing their videos for search. Incorporating proven YouTube marketing tips—like keyword-rich titles, compelling thumbnails, and strategic tagging—can dramatically increase your video’s visibility.

If you’re among this group, don’t worry. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, so there is a good chance your content will be discovered over time. However, you must implement SEO best practices to speed up the process and help your videos reach their full potential.

This guide will cover optimizing your videos for search, including keyword research, tags, descriptions, transcripts, thumbnails, and more. Following these tips will not only help your videos get discovered by new audiences but also improve engagement among your existing subscribers.

Importance of YouTube SEO
23 Tips on How to SEO YouTube Video
9 Best YouTube SEO Tools
YouTube SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Create Viral Shorts In Seconds With Crayo

Importance of YouTube SEO

1. Enhances Overall Visibility

When you optimize your videos for YouTube and Google SEO, you significantly boost your visibility, making it easier for your audience to find your content. When users search for keywords relevant to your video, YouTube’s algorithm analyzes your video’s metadata—such as title, description, and tags—to assess its relevance to the search query. By enhancing your metadata, you improve the likelihood that your video will show up in search results.

2. Increases Engagement

YouTube’s algorithm considers engagement metrics like watch time, likes, and comments when ranking videos in search results. The platform favors videos that retain viewer attention for extended periods. By fine-tuning your video’s title, description, and tags, you enhance your chances of being recommended to viewers more inclined to watch and interact with your content. Optimizing for YouTube SEO not only boosts your video’s search ranking but also boosts your overall engagement on the platform.

3. Generates Traffic

YouTube serves as a powerful traffic source, particularly for eCommerce brands. By optimizing your videos for YouTube SEO, you increase the likelihood that viewers will click through to your website or other social media platforms. Including a link to your site in the video description and prompting viewers to explore it can drive more traffic. Additionally, embedding the video on your website can enhance your SEO, improving search engine rankings. This amplifies your brand’s visibility and helps funnel traffic to your online properties, such as your website or eCommerce store.

4. Fosters Brand Awareness

YouTube is a fantastic platform for cultivating brand awareness. Creating high-quality videos optimized for YouTube SEO allows you to highlight your brand’s distinct value proposition and engage with your target audience. As people interact with and share your content, your brand’s reach will expand, helping you build a loyal following.

5. Boosts Conversions

Lastly, YouTube SEO can enhance your conversion rates. Increasing traffic to your website or social media channels through your YouTube videos raises the chances of viewers becoming customers. Furthermore, showcasing your brand’s unique value proposition and nurturing a loyal following cultivates a community of engaged customers more likely to make repeat purchases.

YouTube SEO is a potent tool for businesses aiming to connect with their target audience and grow their brand. You and your marketing team should leverage it. Optimizing your videos for YouTube SEO gives you an edge over competitors who aren’t creating videos or correctly tagging and utilizing the platform.

1. Leverage Crayo AI for Effortless Video Production

Crayo AI transforms the creation of short videos by enabling users to generate unlimited content quickly and efficiently. This tool streamlines video-making by automatically producing captions, visual effects, background music, and more. Users can easily transition from concepts to fully realized shorts in minutes, allowing them to focus on creativity rather than logistics. Explore Crayo AI’s capabilities today with its free clip creation tool—no account needed.

2. Identify Strong Keywords for Your Video

Effective YouTube SEO begins with the identification of relevant keywords and phrases. These terms should accurately describe your video’s content while aligning with the search habits of your target audience. To find potential keywords, utilize YouTube’s search suggestion feature by entering relevant words or phrases and reviewing the platform’s recommendations. This practice will help you uncover popular search queries to inform your keyword strategy.

3. Craft Compelling Video Titles

Once you’ve identified your target keywords, the next step is to incorporate them into an engaging video title. Titles are a key factor in how YouTube indexes and ranks your content, so it’s essential to include relevant keywords. Research indicates that shorter, more precise titles with exact keyword matches perform better in search results. Additionally, titles should serve an SEO purpose and entice viewers to click on your video.

4. Use Accurate Closed Captions

While YouTube provides automatic captioning for videos, these transcriptions are often inaccurate and can harm your SEO efforts. Instead, create and upload precise closed captions in an SRT format to enhance the viewer experience and boost your search rankings. Accurate captions help search engines understand your video’s content, while also increasing accessibility for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

5. Optimize Video Tags

Tags are valuable for informing YouTube’s algorithm about your video’s content. Using relevant keywords and phrases as tags improves your chances of ranking for those terms and being recommended alongside similar videos. While search engines have evolved past the reliance on meta tags, YouTube still utilizes them as a ranking factor. Aim for 6-8 relevant tags to optimize your video’s discoverability without diluting the algorithm’s focus.

6. Offer Multilingual Subtitles

Expanding your video’s reach to international audiences can significantly enhance its SEO value. By providing subtitles in multiple languages, you make your content accessible to non-native English speakers and create additional keyword opportunities for search engines to index. This strategy can improve your chances of ranking for low-competition, non-English search queries. Always verify the accuracy of your translations to maintain professionalism.

7. Write Descriptive Video Descriptions

Video description is key to informing YouTube’s algorithm about your content while engaging viewers. Add relevant keywords and phrases to your description to improve your SEO chances. Additionally, use the initial lines of your description to capture viewer interest, as this text is often visible in search results. Include CTAs, timestamps, and social links to enhance the user experience and drive traffic to other platforms.

8. Optimize Text Components for Target Keywords

After identifying your primary keywords, ensure that all relevant text components associated with your video—a title, description, and tags—are optimized for these terms. This practice will improve your chances of ranking for your desired keywords and appearing in related search results. Use natural language to incorporate keywords into your text, avoiding “keyword stuffing,” which could harm your SEO performance.

9. Edit File Names Before Uploading

YouTube’s SEO optimization opportunities begin the moment you create video content. Before uploading, edit the file name to include relevant keywords. This practice will help YouTube’s algorithm identify the topic of your video and improve your chances of ranking for related search queries. Avoid generic file names that contain random letters and numbers, as these do not provide any informative value.

10. Create Transcriptions and Captions for Videos

YouTube’s algorithm cannot read images and videos—only text and code. Therefore, one of the strategies you can adopt so that it understands what your content is about is to create transcriptions and captions. Transcription is the transformation into text of what the video talks about. You can do this manually or use the YouTube tool to facilitate this work.

You can also turn it into captions by adding timestamps to the transcript. They are employed so that users can follow the video even if they cannot activate the audio and work as an accessibility tool for people with hearing impairment. In addition to captions, you can put the transcript text in the video description to give viewers more information about the video.

11. Mention Target Keywords in Your Video Content

To maximize your SEO potential, naturally incorporate your target keywords into your video dialogue. This practice will help ensure that your keywords appear in auto-generated captions and transcripts, which serve as valuable text components for SEO indexing. Strategically planning when to reference your keywords in your video can improve your chances of featuring them early in your transcript, further solidifying their importance to search engines.

12. Aim for Longer Video Lengths

Research indicates that longer videos perform better in search rankings than shorter content. Aim for videos that are around 10 minutes long to improve your chances of ranking for competitive keywords and offering more comprehensive information to viewers. While quality should always be prioritized over length, this general guideline can help optimize your video for search visibility.

13. Design Eye-Catching Thumbnails

Thumbnails significantly impact your video’s click-through rate, so it’s critical to create visually engaging images that entice users to click on your content. Optimize your thumbnails using high-resolution photos with a 16:9 aspect ratio and minimal text to avoid clutter. Experiment with different designs and A/B test their performance to refine your thumbnail strategies over time.

14. Boost Click-Through Rates in Search Results

Improving your video’s click-through rate can help boost its SEO performance, as YouTube’s algorithm uses CTR as a ranking factor. To optimize for CTR, create attractive titles, descriptions, and thumbnail combinations that entice users to click on your video. Monitor your CTR performance and analyze which search result elements lead to higher clicks to inform your future optimization strategies.

15. Use YouTube Cards and End Screens

YouTube cards are preformatted notifications encouraging people to take the desired actions during your video. Once set up, cards appear in the top right of your videos for users to click on and explore. Since YouTube aims to keep people on YouTube, cards are a great way to boost your ranking. You can add up to five cards in a video. Cards can include various CTAs, such as directing viewers to another channel, donating to a nonprofit, or crowdfunding.

End screens appear after a video finishes and tell a viewer what they can do next. Both cards and end screens can optimize viewer experience and encourage them to watch another video or take further action when they’ve finished. End screens can direct viewers to these elements: View other YouTube videos, playlists, or channels. Subscribe to your channel. Explore your website, merchandise, or crowdfunding campaigns.

16. Foster Audience Engagement

Encouraging users to interact with your video content is vital for improving your SEO performance. Likes, shares, comments, and subscriber conversions all signal to YouTube that your video is valuable to viewers and can help boost its search ranking. To foster engagement, prompt your audience to comment, share, or subscribe to your video and respond to their interactions to help build community.

17. Promote Your Channel and Videos

You first must promote your channel and content across various platforms to drive traffic to your videos. Utilize social media, blogs, email newsletters, and other outlets to share your videos and reach new audiences. Embed your videos in relevant blog posts, use them in social media interactions, and promote new releases to your email lists to help expand their initial reach.

18. Monitor Your Analytics and Performance

Tracking your YouTube analytics is essential for understanding how your channel is performing and where to improve. Review your analytics reports regularly to assess key metrics, including watch time, traffic sources, and subscriber growth, and use these insights to inform your content and optimization strategies.

19. Use Video Categories for SEO

YouTube offers a range of categories to help organize and classify video content. Selecting the correct category for your video will improve YouTube’s understanding of your content, enhancing your chances of ranking for relevant search queries and being recommended alongside similar videos.

20. Create Playlists for Related Content

Organizing your videos into themed playlists can improve viewer experience and keep audiences on your channel longer. To enhance their visibility in search results, optimize your playlists for SEO by incorporating relevant keywords into the titles and descriptions.

21. Optimize Channel Art and Logo

Your YouTube channel’s visual branding may not directly impact your SEO performance, but strong logos and cover art can improve user experience and foster brand trust. Create high-quality custom visuals that are on-brand and unique to your channel to help it stand out in search results and enhance audience recognition.

22. Collaborate With Influencers for Extended Reach

Partnering with social media influencers can help you reach new audiences and improve your brand’s credibility. When selecting influencers to work with, prioritize those whose audience overlaps your target demographic to ensure your collaboration drives valuable engagement.

23. Host Live Q&A Sessions to Boost Engagement

Live Q&A sessions foster real-time audience interaction and can help improve your video’s engagement metrics. Promote your upcoming live streams in advance to drive viewership and create interactive experiences that encourage audience participation. Live sessions allow for spontaneous discussions and help build community and enhance brand trust through personal interactions.

9 Best YouTube SEO Tools

woman on laptop - How to SEO YouTube Video

YouTube SEO tools help you optimize your videos for search, improve rankings, and grow your audience. These resources offer keyword research, tags, transcripts, analytics, and more. Here are eight of the best YouTube SEO tools.

1. Crayo AI

2. TubeBuddy

A browser extension and mobile app that helps with every aspect of your YouTube channel.

Key features

Keyword research, tag suggestions, thumbnail generator, A/B testing, SEO studio, video analytics, and more.

Pros

Easy to use, comprehensive features, affordable options.

Cons

Some tools are basic, limited free versions, depending on browser compatibility.

3. VidIQ

A popular browser extension and app that provides video analytics and optimization tools.

Key features

Real-time SEO score, keyword research, tag suggestions, thumbnail analysis, social media monitoring, and competitor insights.

Pros

User-friendly, robust analytics, helpful for growth strategies.

Cons

Some features behind the paywall can be overwhelming for beginners.

4. Morningfame

An invitation-only tool focusing on YouTube analytics and optimization.

Key features

Keyword research, SEO score, performance tracking, and video comparison.

Pros

Unique approach, easy to use, actionable insights.

Cons

Limited access and fewer features than competitors.

5. YouTube Analytics

YouTube’s built-in analytics platform for tracking channel and video performance.

Key features

Real-time data, traffic source analysis, audience demographics, engagement metrics, and device performance.

Pros

Comprehensive, free, easy to access.

Cons

Limited to YouTube data, it can be complex for beginners.

6. Google Trends

google trends - How to SEO YouTube Video

A free tool for exploring search trends and topics over time.

Key features

Keyword popularity, regional insights, related queries, and topic comparisons.

Pros

Free, simple interface, useful for content planning.

Cons

Limited to Google data, less specific than other tools.

7. AnswerThePublic

answer the public - How to SEO YouTube Video

A keyword research tool that visualizes search questions and phrases.

Key features

Search insights, question categories, and data exports.

Pros

Unique visualizations are user-friendly, and a free version is available.

Cons

Limited to Google and Bing, with fewer features than competitors.

8. Canva

A graphic design platform for creating custom YouTube thumbnails and visuals.

Key features

Templates, drag-and-drop editor, image library, and animation tools.

Pros

Easy to use, professional designs, free version available.

Cons

Limited features on the free plan, not specific to YouTube.

9. Social Blade

A platform for tracking social media analytics and growth.

Key features

YouTube channel stats, revenue estimates, subscriber tracking, and competitor comparisons.

Pros

Free access, comprehensive data, valid for benchmarking.

Cons

Estimates can be inaccurate and limited to social media.

These YouTube SEO tools can help you optimize your videos for search and improve your visibility on the platform. Each tool has unique features and benefits, so explore them to find the best fit for your needs.

YouTube SEO Mistakes to Avoid

woman looking upset - How to SEO YouTube Video

1. Brief Descriptions Lacking Keywords

Previously, many believed that YouTube SEO relied heavily on on-page elements like titles, descriptions, and tags for keyword ranking. The misconception was that exact-match keywords in tags alongside titles were crucial for SEO. However, it’s now clear that, in addition to titles, descriptions are essential for including those exact-match keywords and contextual information for YouTube’s algorithm.

Descriptions often get overlooked, but a well-structured one can be highly effective. Including important keywords and phrases helps YouTube understand when to show your video in search results and when to suggest it alongside related content. Tools like ChatGPT can assist in generating optimized descriptions; simply tweak them as needed.

2. Failing to Articulate Target Keywords

Another key element of YouTube SEO is closed captions. YouTube automatically transcribes video dialogue for accessibility, and its accuracy has significantly improved. Earlier, experts thought only custom captions would be indexed, but that’s no longer true. Whether you upload your captions or use automatic ones, you must include your target keywords in the video verbally.

Clear dialogue helps algorithms understand your content, increasing the chances of reaching your desired audience. You might even gain a “featured clip” spot in Google search results, showcasing a video segment that answers a user’s query.

3. Neglecting Off-Page Metrics

Some of the most significant SEO factors influencing YouTube rankings are unrelated to your actions; they focus on viewer behavior. Off-page metrics include:

Audience retention (how long viewers watch),
Engagement (likes, shares, comments, subscriptions)
Click-through rate (how often users click on your thumbnail).
Consider what these metrics signal to algorithms.

Would an engaging and valuable video receive low engagement and short average view durations? Simply knowing what affects performance isn’t enough. You must monitor those metrics and refine your video strategy accordingly. Ignoring this data will unintentionally harm your video’s SEO. Use YouTube’s analytics dashboard to track reach, views, and engagement and optimize your video and channel.

4. Poor Thumbnail Designs

As previously mentioned, click-through rates are a crucial off-page metric, and thumbnails can make or break this, even for the most optimized, high-value videos. I’ve observed videos rank #1 for search terms within 24 hours of publishing, only to drop to second-page results due to poor click-through rates.

So, what do ineffective thumbnails look like? They are designs that fail to attract attention, spark interest, or appear valuable. Custom thumbnails are essential for standing out, and testing different thumbnail variations can help identify the best-performing options.

5. Forgetting to Encourage Engagement

Video performance is closely tied to engagement metrics like comments, shares, likes, and subscriptions. Brian Dean of Backlinko analyzed 1.3 million YouTube search results and found that videos with high comment counts often ranked first in searches. As he notes, “If someone leaves a comment, it sends a strong message to YouTube that they probably enjoyed the video (or at least engaged with it.)”

The issue is, creators often forget to do the obvious: ask for engagement. There’s no shame in requesting that viewers participate in conversation, express appreciation, or promote your content. Furthermore, on-screen prompts and visuals can effectively reinforce these requests.

6. Not Directing Audiences to More Content

While having an individual video perform well is beneficial, ensuring your entire channel succeeds is even more critical. As you might suspect, when your entire channel excels, it positively impacts the discoverability and searchability of all your videos. A primary challenge is that creators often struggle to facilitate viewers’ access to multiple videos on their channels (or prolonging their viewing sessions).

Users watching multiple videos in one sitting yield at least two advantages: It boosts view durations across several videos and increases the total time a viewer spends on YouTube.

Naturally, YouTube favors content that keeps users on the platform, as it creates more advertising opportunities. Therefore, enhancing user viewing sessions with your material will likely produce positive results for your channel and video performance.

YouTube expert Sean Cannell recommends a “cluster strategy.” Before filming, he considers four to ten related videos. This approach enables him to cross-reference videos in a series and link to related content in video descriptions and on YouTube cards.

7. Overlooking Short-Form Video

As the name implies, short-form videos are brief. They may last up to a minute or even 90 seconds, but typically are 30 seconds or shorter. Some are as quick as 10 seconds. These vertically-oriented videos (think: filmed on a phone) often loop or autoplay into subsequent clips, catering to shorter audience attention spans. Following TikTok’s rise, platforms prioritize short-form content, enhancing their reach.

Instagram has embraced Reels, while YouTube is focusing on Shorts. Earlier this year, HubSpot discovered that many marketers believe short-form videos deliver the best ROI of any media type. This makes sense. The format fits the medium. On YouTube, over 70% of traffic comes from mobile devices so this content would be optimized for phones. Short-form videos attract viewers and introduce them to your brand or personality. They can drive traffic to longer videos, boost subscriptions, and help grow an audience through this popular medium.

Crayo AI is the fastest way to create short videos. Create unlimited short videos at once. Crayo even auto-generates captions, effects, background, and music for you. Take advantage of an opportunity of a lifetime and make easy money with the TikTok creator fund program. Go from ideas to short videos in seconds:

Write an outline/prompt,
Customize the style (select a background video, voice narrator, and music from Crayo’s free templates),
Finish and export!

Go viral, make money, and make clips in seconds with Crayo. Try Crayo’s free clip creator tool today — just click the ‘Try Now’ button on our homepage to get started. No account required! Go from prompt to viral shorts videos in minutes with Crayo.

Create Viral Shorts In Seconds With Crayo

Crayo AI is a powerful tool for producing short videos quickly and efficiently. Whether you want to create content for YouTube Shorts or TikTok, Crayo simplifies the process. With Crayo, you can generate unlimited short videos at once, making experimenting with different ideas and styles easy.

The platform even auto-generates captions, effects, background options, and music for your videos, so you can focus on what matters: creating engaging content that resonates with your audience.

23 Tips on How to SEO YouTube Video

Table Of Contents

Importance of YouTube SEO

1. Enhances Overall Visibility

2. Increases Engagement

3. Generates Traffic

4. Fosters Brand Awareness

5. Boosts Conversions