In Part I of our YouTube series, we discussed the importance of YouTube search rankings and described the major factors that determine these rankings: video titles, descriptions, tags, how many social interactions have taken place on your video, and much more. Check out “How Does YouTube Rank Videos? YouTube Series, Part I” if you haven’t yet.
Now, let’s get into the more fun stuff where we get to experiment and see measurable results on our videos. One of the more common questions that is always floating around the Internet: “how do I get more views on my YouTube videos?”
To be honest: There is no secret, no magic formula. Getting lots of views on YouTube is similar to getting visitors to your website in that you follow a set of generally accepted guidelines for good search engine optimization, experiment, observe results, rinse and repeat. Of course, there are steps you can follow to take some of the guesswork out of this video optimization process.
What you need to know and do to get more YouTube views
- Understand video content still is and always will be king.
- Do keyword research before you upload videos.
- Analyze videos with similar content.
- Consistently monitor and re-optimize your videos.
Content precedes all
The first is pretty self-explanatory. Content is king. If your videos are boring, unoriginal, non-entertaining, or lacking information valuable to users, you’re going nowhere.
You can Tweet or share your video on Facebook until your fingers fall off, but nobody watches or shares boring videos. Your views will peak and fall off quickly.
When brainstorming for video ideas or while filming, think about the reasons you click on a video. More importantly, think about the YouTube videos you’ve shared on Facebook or bookmarked in the past — why did you share or bookmark those videos?
Researching keywords for YouTube video titles and descriptions
Doing a small amount of keyword research before you upload videos can go a long way. Your choice of keywords will determine how often you show up in search results on both YouTube and Google, and whether or not you hit your target audience. Since Google operates YouTube, the best keyword research tool you’ll find is Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool.
