Interview by expert Mohanashyam

As of the latest report, YouTube, the second largest search engine, has 1.47 billion viewers (2017) and is expected to reach 1.8 billion viewers in 2021. As the YouTube viewer traction is increasing, the number of content creators is also growing each day.

Every minute more than 500 hours of video content is being uploaded on this platform.

The competitiveness forces the content creators to create quality content, but it comes with some disadvantages.

For example, sometimes good content doesn’t get the traffic it should get from the audience.

It’s not a myth, and people fail to focus on the technical optimization of the video. Proper optimization of the video will drive massive traffic to outperform the competitors.

Wake AU director Brian Wright, Digital and YouTube marketing expert, in a recent question and session shared his valuable wisdom gained over the years on YouTube Marketing. We documented this extraordinary Q/A session with him and were super excited to share his knowledge with the readers.

Q1. What are the SEO factors one should keep in mind to rank a YouTube video?

Answer:

Viewers love quality content that makes the viewers watch the video till the end. With quality video content, we can rank the youtube video on google and YouTube’s internal search engine.

If the user creates quality content that gets a lot of engagement, then the user doesn’t have to promote the content. The YouTube algorithm itself promotes the content as YouTube loves to host the quality content users love.

Most people think that merely uploading a video will attract viewers. It takes some time for them to understand the technical optimization of the video, especially for new users.

Some people overlook the fact and make the same mistake for a long time and quit even after having some mind-blowing content.

I would suggest people have to treat their videos like their blog content. We optimize it for SEO keywords, attractive headlines, and media to get the reader’s attention when we write a blog.

In the same way, we have to SEO optimize the video. We have to focus on the following things.

Choosing the correct keyword is another critical factor that should be taken into account seriously. While choosing the keyword, search the keyword in Google. If you find video results for that particular keyword on the SERP’s first page, you can go for that keyword.

1. Video titles
2. Descriptions
3. Tags
4. Thumbnails
5. Hyperlinks
6. Transcripts

Video titles that attract user attention and increase the click-through rate. It should be natural, and you should not stuff keywords. Descriptions must provide valuable information about the video.

Tag your videos to the keywords and phrases that are relevant to the video. So, the search engines quickly identify and categorize them to show the correct video content the viewer is looking for.

Thumbnails are a great way to attract and make the viewer engage with your content. It should contain a brief about the video. Mostly use it as a visual storyteller.

And the last thing to do is to optimize the hyperlinks to promote the link juice flow. You can redirect the viewer to your other videos and your social profiles and retain them as regular viewers of your videos.

Creating transcripts for videos will improve the SEO and make the video SEO-friendly for search queries. It can be used as video subtitles as well.

Q2 What are the common mistakes a YouTuber makes?

As I said earlier, they don’t optimize the videos properly for SEO. Apart from that, they are making the following mistakes.

1. They optimize the content quality part and fail in the SEO part. Some do the opposite.
2. Not promoting the videos on their website or social media
3. Buying subscribers and videos. A great piece of content will attract subscribers automatically.
4. Boring content and lousy video editing. Not focusing on the value the video can give to the viewer
5. Not being consistent and improper content plan
6. Not understanding the target audience. Failing to research on the audience

So, avoid these mistakes. Otherwise, it's like burying all that content in the graveyard, and the time, the energy you spend to create the video may go in vain.

Q3 What's the benefit of embedding YouTube videos?

Answer:

Let me put it this way.

We have three types of audience.

1. Audience who love to read – blogs
2. Audience who loves to watch – YouTube videos
3. Audience who loves to hear – podcasts

When you embed a video in your blogs or gets shared by others in their blogs, it will redirect the reader to the YouTube video. By embedding a video, you tap the new audience base. Thus, it will increase viewer engagement as well as traffic to your website.

We have to keep in mind that embedding videos in websites may affect the site speed.

Q4 What are recommended tools for YouTube video ranking?

There are a lot of tools available in the digital world. But using a few tools and using it properly would be enough for YouTube marketing.

First, we have to stay in the trend to create videos and understand what people are looking for.

For that, I will recommend Quora, Google trends, and any active forum on your niche.

For keyword research and keep up with the channel metrics

I would suggest Google’s analytics and keyword research tools like VIDIQ, Keywordtool, and Answerthepublic.

Q5 What is your advice on using a self-host?

Simple. If you want many viewers to find and watch your videos, you can go for YouTube as it has a massive amount of viewers, and you can reap a great amount of traffic.

If you self host your videos on your web server, then the traffic to your video depends on how well you optimized your website for SEO and the traffic you get on your website and viewers’ trust.

It’s possible to get views for videos. But, my recommendation would be YouTube hosting

Q6 What is your advice for a person who wants to be a YouTuber?

Being consistent and keeping the channel updated with fresh quality content is essential. Then following the technical guidelines to optimize the video content with great effort will help rank the video. For example,

1. Creating Video for Target Audience
2. Audience Research
3. Keyword Research
4. Promoting Video
5. Following SEO Principles

Final Thoughts

Brian Wright shared his insightful wisdom on YouTube marketing that he gained over a decade. YouTube is a great platform that already has massive traffic. You can tab into the potential customers base following the above insights from Brian.

From YouTube, your website can get massive traffic and potential customers, and leads for your business.

Thanks for Brian sharing his knowledge.