Video marketing is one of the most powerful strategies to get free traffic to your website besides, it also plays a major role to build your authority in the niche you are involved.
I’ve been reading a lot about how you can use videos to improve your traffic and now it’s time to go a little further and show you how to get free traffic from YouTube.
But first here is a question: why is YouTube so important?
Well, mainly it is because they are owned by Google, therefore once you know how to optimize your videos to rank better on YouTube you are also making your site achieve a larger audience which can bring you traffic from other services as well, such as Twitter and Facebook.
But before thinking about getting tons of traffic with video marketing we have to analyze our overall goal with this strategy because the last thing you want is to see your videos with a lot of views but not bringing any desired outcome.
At the end of the day we want a viewer willing to take action after watching our videos and this can be as simple as redirecting the viewer to our main website, getting new subscribers to our mailing list or even converting this potential customer into a buyer.
And there are some details you should know before worrying too much about your videos.
The first of them is about technology; in fact you have to know that technology is not a big issue. If you look closely on YouTube you will see that some of the most popular videos are not using fancy cameras or a professional production, so my first advice to you is this: forget about being perfect.
You don’t need this but you have to take initiative. You have to start recording videos, because once you start recording them you will get better, it’s just a matter of time until you see amazing progress.
That is my second advice: do your best! Don’t be shy about putting yourself in front of a camera or if you feel more comfortable use screenshot software.
Enough about recording now it’s time to make your videos rank on YouTube!
Understanding YouTube Search Engine
It is time to understand how YouTube search engine works. There are some key factors that we have to know before uploading our video into YouTube.
In a matter of fact, there are a total of 15 different factors that have influence on the way their search engine places your video but if we focus on the most important ones which are just 4, we will get good results and also the traffic we are looking for.
We have to understand that Google search engine and YouTube search engine are two different things, there some similarities but what you do to make your site rank on Google is not the same thing you should do to rank your video on YouTube and if you are still not so excited about video marketing here is a warning: ranking videos on YouTube is a lot easier.
And before we start discussing the main factors I can tell you that maybe the biggest difference between Google and YouTube is about keywords because the latter focus on multiple keywords to give you rankings which can be a good thing.
With that said, let’s learn how to optimize your video to YouTube.
Key Factors to Optimize YouTube Videos
The first ranking factor is your Title
Actually this is not different from Google and it follows the same rules. You have to use your keyword on the title and make it as enticing as possible. Don’t forget, your title is your headline so use it wisely.
But there are some caveats about using keywords in the title.
Here are some of them:
- use up to 60 characters;
- you can use secondary keywords if it makes sense;
- don’t repeat keywords because it can be considered a spammy tactic
- and finally don’t forget your goal with video marketing as mentioned above, leads, traffic and sales.
The second most important factor for YouTube is tags
And that is completely different from Google because a lot of SEO experts share the same opinion: Google just ignore tags but YouTube is different.
It can be seen as a little bit spammy but for YouTube you should add as many keywords as possible when choosing your Tags. Of course, only use related keywords otherwise you can be banned from YouTube.
And here is a tip: you can use quotation marks for your long tail keywords. In addition, you can use this tactic for you primary and secondary keywords as well, because this alone can boost your changes of discoverability for users.
The third most important ranking factor is your description
That is also completely different from Google and in my opinion this is because YouTube allows you to use really long descriptions. If Google let us use 156 characters on their search engine, YouTube give us the opportunity of using 5,000 characters and if you read their guidelines you will notice that they actually encourage users to take advantage when making use of this field.
And how can you take vantage of this? Well, by placing your primary and secondary keyword in your description however, don’t abuse and start repeating your keywords – you don’t need keyword density – and like I said previously, never use unrelated terms because this can actually hurt you.
OK… we talked about Title, Tags and Description, in other words we were talking about On-page or on-video if you wish however now we need to cover off page optimization or being more specific, incoming links.
The role of incoming links
Incoming links also plays a major role for your YouTube videos but that is completely different from Google. Yes, you heard me! It’s different for sure or you heard about a YouTube Penguin Update… I don’t think so.
With that in mind we can assume that some old school strategies to build incoming links to YouTube video are still very effective. Things like article marketing, bookmarking sites, forum and blog commenting, just to cite a few tactics can still bring you good results in terms of YouTube rankings.
The last thing I want to cover on this blog post is about a new factor which stands for Time Watched. This is not only important for your rankings but is vitally important for your conversions.
The Time Watched is a way YouTube can reward high quality and engaging videos and to be honest that is not so different from what Google does when analyzing time on page. For me that is absolutely the same thing.
This is extremely important for conversions, because the longer a viewer spend watching our videos the higher are the odds he will click a link, go to our site or take another desirable action.
But what it is interesting about YouTube is that they want a loyal user in other words, a user who will keep watching more and more videos therefore, if after watching one of your videos the viewer clicks one of those recommended videos this counts on your favor which is a great thing.
But we want a viewer engaged with the videos we prepared, so to wrap up here are some tips to improve the Time Watched of your videos.
Time Watched Essentials
First focus on quality and interesting content that will keep the viewer engaged and for that purpose, tactical videos are the better. Provide a solution to a problem, a step by step process or a how to video.
The last tip is about your analytics. You have to know when you are losing the viewer; actually you have to know the exact moment they are leaving your video.
Once you know this you can place a thumbnail hyperlink pointing to one of your best videos. To do that you need to use a new feature called “In Video Programming” so you can select the thumbnail and insert you hyperlink before the viewer leaves your video.
That is it for now. Thanks everyone. Until next time!
This post is written by Felipe Kurpiel. The bio in his own words: I really appreciate the opportunity of guest posting on this blog and I hope you could learn something from this article. If you want to learn how to make money on Youtube visit this page. I’ve also shared in-depth email marketing strategies at this page. I will be happy to help you.
