YouTube video SEO uploading checklist

 

Video can transform your brand in countless ways, bringing your story to the massive audience of platforms like YouTube, and reaching customers in new and deeper ways. Producing great video content is a lot of work, meaning it's important to maximize its reach to get the best return on your investment. SEO optimization of your YouTube videos can help do just this. Whether you are looking to optimize the reach of branded content, or building an entire video strategy around search, following a step-by-step SEO checklist will help to ensure that you’re leaving no stone unturned. 

To learn more about YouTube, check out our post on how to create a Youtube channel for your brand.

 
 

YouTube video upload SEO checklist

  1. Title

    1. Descriptive Title - ie. “How To Choose the Right Size Backpack vs “Backpack Guide”

    2. Up to or under 50 characters, under 65

    3. Use keywords in the title

  2. Description

    1. ~ 300 words, original copy helps, but you can pull from other areas if you need to

    2. CTA & link for relevant related video(s)

    3. CTA & link for relevant page(s) on your website

    4. CTA for channel home

  3. Playlists

    1. Add to the relevant playlist

  4. Keyword Tags

    1. Use as much of the character limit as you can without losing relevance

    2. Include medium length (3-5 words) phrases

    3. Tips to find keywords below

  5. In Video

    1. End Screen: subscribe CTA and Relevant Videos

  6. Transcriptions

    1. Check accuracy of YouTube created transcriptions

 
 

other tips & tricks

download TubeBuddy Chrome extension

This is a powerful tool that can help you find keywords and deep-dive both popular content and competitors in order to optimize your own channels and videos. Download link.

approach your YouTube SEO as you would SEO on your website

SEO-savvy marketers wouldn’t just upload a new article to their website without meticulously checking their optimization, so why would you do the same with a video? Video is usually an even bigger investment, too, so optimizing it to reach as many people as possible is perhaps even more important. Likewise, think about the way you drive links, both internally and externally to your content - using your mature pages with established authority can help to drive both views and authority on YouTube search.

how to do keyword research for YouTube

While there are tools out that will show search volume and keyword suggestions for YouTube, data is less available and oftentimes less helpful than looking at Google search. Because of this, we recommend somewhat of a hybrid approach to YouTube keyword research. This means looking at Google search volumes in your preferred tool, then validating with some YouTube-specific research like checking autocomplete searches for your keywords manually or using a tool like Keywordtool.io to do it for you. This can help you identify which types of content might perform well on Youtube.

takeaways

Just like the content you publish on your website, it’s important that your videos on YouTube are optimized for visibility in search, both on YouTube itself and in Google search’s video snippets and video search. Following the steps we’ve laid out here, you can make sure that your brand and video team are maximizing your content investments.

 
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