Youtube Video Optimization

And Monetization

W W W. R O Y D I G I TA L . I N
 YouTube Video
Optimization and Monetization
How to Monetize YouTube Videos in 2018

YouTube Monetization Eligibility Requirement

The eligibility requirement to be a part of the YouTube Partner Program (and to therefore
be able to monetize your videos) is 4,000 hours of watch time within the last 12 months
AND 1,000 subscribers. Also, the program must be available in your country.

You can check your watch time and subscribers in YouTube Analytics. Sign into your
YouTube account and go to youtube.com/analytics.

What Do I Do If I Don’t Meet the Requirement?

YouTube has a whole academy for creators to learn the ins and outs of creating a
successful YouTube Channel. There are lessons and tips on getting started, creating great
content, and more. Visit YouTube’s Creator Academy and the YouTube Creators YouTube
channel.

Also, you can monetize your videos in other ways, like selling your products or doing
sponsored videos.

What Do I Do If I Meet the Requirement but I’m Not a Partner?

There are 4 steps to joining the YouTube Partner Program:

1. Reading and agreeing to the YPP terms

2. Signing up for AdSense
3. Setting monetization preferences
4. Getting reviewed

You can apply to be a Partner.

If you were previously a Youtube Partner, your channel will be automatically reviewed
when you reach the eligibility requirement.

What Videos Can I Monetize?

Not all content is eligible for monetization. To see which videos you can monetize, visit
Youtube’s Video Monetization Criteria page, What kind of content can I monetize? page,
and Advertiser-friendly Content Guidelines page.

Also, as we stated in our previous Youtube Monetization blog, content you upload must
follow the YouTube Terms of Service if you plan on posting any videos, whether you want
to be a Partner or not.

Monetizing YouTube videos can be a fun way to supplement your regular income or, if you
get good at it, could be a sustainable business on its own.

How To Monetize Your YouTube Channel

Monetizing your YouTube channel is easy. We’ll walk you through how the program works
and how to set-up your account to begin earning revenue from your YouTube videos.

Understanding How YouTube Monetization Works

YouTube places ads inside or near videos. After you’ve enabled monetization on your
YouTube channel, your videos can be submitted and approved for monetization. In order
to earn the revenue that is generated from these ads, you will need to associate an
AdSense account with your YouTube account.

For a video to be eligible, you must own worldwide commercial rights to everything in the
video. For example, a video that features a song that you do not own the copyright for (e.g.
a song you purchased on iTunes) would not be eligible. For more information about
copyright and fair use, visit YouTube’s Copyright Center. In addition to complying with
YouTube’s copyright policies, videos must abide by YouTube’s Terms of Service and
Community Guidelines.
The two key factors for earnings are the type of ads and the pricing of the ads appearing
with your videos. Pre-roll ads, which lead into the beginning of a video, make more money
per 1 thousand views than less obtrusive banners. You will make money per ad click and a
smaller amount per view.

How Ads Are Displayed

Ads that are displayed with your videos are determined automatically based on a number
of factors, including how you categorize your video and video metadata. Make sure that
video titles, tags and descriptions are SEO friendly for best results. It is important to note
that you cannot control all of the ads that may appear on your channel. However, you are
able to block ads by general categories and exclude sensitive categories via your AdSense
account.

Getting Started: Step-By-Step

1. To begin, log-in to your YouTube channel account.

2. In the Channel Settings tab, select “Enable monetization.”

3. Follow the steps to accept the YouTube monetization agreement.

4. In the Uploads tab, you will see a green box with a dollar sign next to the videos that are
immediately eligible for monetization. Videos that are not eligible to be monetized due to
copyright will be appear under the Copyright Notices tab.

5. Next, you’ll need to associate an AdSense account to your YouTube channel. It is free to
set up a new AdSense account. You will need either a PayPal or a bank account and a
valid mailing address in order to have your account verified. AdSense will update you by
mail once your account has been approved. You can also associate an existing,
approved AdSense account to your channel. For instructions on how to associate your
YouTube and AdSense accounts, visit the Google support page.

a. Channel Creation and Optimization

How to Create a YouTube Channel

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).

To watch, share, create, and comment on YouTube content, you'll need a Google account.

If You Don't Already Have a Google Account.

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be
taken to a Google sign-in page. Click "more options":
From there, you'll be asked to follow a few steps to create a Google account. Once you've
completed them, proceed with the steps below.

If You Do Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be
taken to the same Google sign-in page above. If you have multiple Google accounts, be
sure to select the one you want to be associated with the YouTube channel.

2. Optimize your channel with brand details.

Once you're set up with and signed into your YouTube account, it's time to create a
channel. Back at youtube.com, click your user icon in the upper right-hand corner. You'll
see a drop-down menu, where you'll want to click "settings."
From there, you'll be taken to your account overview. Under "additional features," click
"create a new channel."

The first step is to create a Brand Account. It can be whatever name you want, and doesn't
have to be the same name that you used to create your Google account -- but we do
recommend that it reflects the brand the YouTube Channel will represent.

After you enter the Brand Account name, you might be asked to verify the account via text
message or voice call. If that happens, enter the code you receive from the option you
choose.

Once you've verified your Brand Account, you'll be taken to the dashboard for your
channel. Now, it's time to start customizing it.

3. Customize your channel.

There are two elements of customization for a new YouTube channel: descriptive details,
and visuals.

Descriptive Details
From your channel dashboard, click "customize channel."

We'll start with the fundamental details about your channel. After you click "customize
channel," you'll be taken to your basic channel page, where you'll see a cogwheel on the
right.

Click that, then click on the section that says "advanced settings."
Here's where you'll enter some basic information about your channel, like the country
where it's based, as well as optimize it for discoverability by adding keywords that
describe what it's about and selecting whether or not you want it to appear as a
recommended channel on other account pages. It's also within these settings that you can
link an AdWords account, add a Google Analytics property tracking ID and make
advertising selections.

Next, you'll want to add your channel description and links. Back on your channel
customization dashboard, click on the "About" tab.

There, you'll be asked to fill in such details as a channel description, which you can
optimize for discoverability -- more on that later -- as well as contact information, and links
to your website and social media channels. Up to five links can overlay your channel art,
meaning that the banner on your profile page will contain icons for the links you choose to
overlay on this list.

For example, if you wanted to overlay your banner with a link to your Facebook Page, it
might look like this:

Your channel art is part of your channel's customization, which we'll move onto next.

Visuals
When it comes to creating and adding channel art, Google has a plethora of resources for
content owners, from a gallery of images to image editing tools.
One of the trickiest parts of channel art is creating a responsive banner that matches
dimensions for various user experiences, like desktop, mobile, or TV. Luckily, Google has
this handy image that represents the best dimension for each viewing platform ...

You'll also want to upload your profile photo. If your channel is linked to a Brand Account,
as is the example we've used in this step, then you'll need to update this image in the
"about me" section of your Google account. Note that this rule also applies to your channel
name when using a Brand Account.

When you click "change" under your profile icon, you might see this message:

Click "edit," and you'll be taken to this page, where you can edit your Brand Account
information, including your profile photo (which will be displayed on your YouTube
channel).
We recommend choosing an image with dimensions of 800 x 800 pixels.

Next, it's time to add your channel art, like a banner image. Back on your channel
customization dashboard, you'll see

Cover art dimensions on mobile and more, best tips (), etc ...

4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

Optimizing your channel for discoverability is just the beginning. Once you start adding
videos, you'll want to optimize them for search, which in turn helps users discover your
video.

But this goes beyond giving your videos accurate, clear, and concise titles -- though that is
important. Below, we describe some of the most important things to optimize on YouTube.
(For a fully comprehensive post on YouTube SEO, visit this post.)

Title
When we search for videos, one of the first things that our eyes are drawn to is the title.
That's often what determines whether or not the viewer will click to watch your video, so
the title should not only be compelling, but also, clear and concise.

Description
This should be limited to 1,000 characters -- and remember that your viewer came here to
watch a video, not to read a lot of text. Plus, YouTube only displays the first two or three
lines of text, which comes to about 100 characters, so front-load the description with the
most important information.
Tags

Using tags doesn’t just let viewers know what your video is about -- they inform YouTube,
too, which uses tags "to understand the content and context of your video," according to
Backlinko. That way, YouTube can associate your video with similar videos, which can
broaden your content's reach. But approach with caution -- just as with your title, don't use
misleading tags because they might get you more views -- in fact, Google might penalize
you for that.

Category

Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube --
but that might not be as simple as it sounds. YouTube Creator Academy suggests that
marketers "think about what is working well for each category" you're considering by
answering questions like:

Who are the top creators within the category? What are they known for, and what do they
do well?

Are there any patterns between the audiences of similar channels within a given
category?

Do the videos within a similar category have share qualities like production value, length,
or format?

7 YouTube Channel Optimization Tips

YouTube has quickly increased in popularity and is now the most popular social network.
According to Pew Research, 73% of U.S. adults used YouTube in 2018. People gravitate
to YouTube to follow their favorite brands, vloggers, and to watch how-to videos. I
personally have stumbled upon certain channels I subscribe to simply from watching
similar content.

YouTube has even added its own live TV network. Since YouTube is owned by Google, it’s
become even more important to optimize your channel. Potential subscribers may even
see your videos in Google searches if you do this right. Here are some helpful tips for
optimizing your channel, whether you’ve already created a YouTube channel for your
business or you’re just getting started.

Start with your name

If you’re creating a channel for your business, make your channel name your business
name. If it’s for your blog or personal brand, make your channel name something that
reflects this. You can even make separate channels for different parts of your business like
BuzzFeed does for all the different topics they cover. Your followers will need to easily find
you so play it safe with a simple name and a URL that matches it.
Create a profile photo and custom banner

For most channels, your profile photo should just be your logo. If you don’t have a logo,
you may want to create one for consistent branding across all your website and social
media platforms. Your profile photo could also be a professional picture of you if your
channel is your personal brand or vlog. This photo appears very small on your channel so
keep it simple.

You can also upload a custom banner that is consistent with the look of your profile photo
and your overall branding. Make sure the banner is a high-quality photo that highlights
what you do. The font, colors, and photos should be consistent with what’s on your blog
and other social profiles. You could also create different banners regularly to reflect your
video posting schedule or a promotion you’re running.

Fill out the about page

The about page is important for users to see what exactly you do. This is just like the about
page for any other social media profile, but should also explain what the videos on your
channel are about. Start with a simple description of what type of content is on your
channel and include keywords related to your brand. The first few sentences are what
users see when your channel shows up in a YouTube search. You can then further explain
your brand and goals, but try to keep it short and sweet. Your videos will show what you do
in more detail.
Link to your other social profiles
This is a great way to connect further with your audience and gain followers on other social
media networks. In the about section of your channel, you have the ability to link to other
social media profiles. Make sure these profiles are consistent with your YouTube channel
and have been updated recently. You can even link to a website or blog too which is an
excellent way to boost your social traffic. You should also link to your channel on your other
social media profiles and your website.

Make a trailer

The trailer auto-plays when users visit your channel, making it important to have an
engaging video right from the start. This could be one of your most popular videos or you
can create a custom trailer. When you create a trailer, highlight what makes your channel
unique.

What’s something you would want to know if you were visiting your channel for the first
time? Make sure it’s no more than two minutes long and is engaging right from the start.
End with a call to action, like asking viewers to subscribe. If you need help with this, visit
YouTube’s Academy to learn more about creating a fantastic channel trailer.

Create video playlists

This is the easiest and most effective way for organizing your channel. Playlists showcase
each topic you cover in your videos so users can find what they’re looking for with a few
clicks. Title your playlists with a category that best describes your videos and add a
keyword-rich description. For example, I regularly watch PopSugar Fitness on YouTube.

Their channel playlists make it easy to find workout videos for yoga, leg workouts, dance,
beginners, and even by the workout length. Make sure your video selections for each
playlist make sense and you can even place videos in more than one playlist if they fit. You
can also organize the videos in your playlists. The best way to do this is to put your more
recent videos first.
Add keywords and featured channels

These two things will help your channel rank better in YouTube’s search. You can add
keywords to your channel by clicking on Creator Studio > Channel > Advanced. Once
you’re in your advanced settings, you can add channel keywords. These keywords may
be similar to your website keywords but try to focus more on what your videos are about.
You can also connect your AdWords account for promoting your videos.

Adding featured channels allows you to promote a friends’ channel or a channel you like.
This helps you because you’re supporting other YouTubers and you could even ask the
channels that you feature to feature yours too. You could also feature a new channel
you’re starting for cross-promotion. This also helps users discover more great content and
further see what your brand is about through the channels you recommend. You will see
where to add featured channels on the top right of your channel customizer dashboard.

Optimizing your YouTube channel will help you successfully use YouTube to benefit your
brand and rank higher in Google search. Look out for the second part of this blog post
where I discuss how to optimize your YouTube videos.

b). Channel Verification

YOUTUBE: HOW TO VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT & ASSOCIATE YOUR WEBSITE

Having a verified business page on Google and Facebook makes brands far more
credible to visitors, and the same is true of YouTube. A YouTube channel with a verification
badge tells users that the page is authentic.

So how do you know if your brand’s YouTube channel is verified?

A verified YouTube channel will have a verification badge in the form of a checkbox to the
right of the brand’s name. Take Google’s YouTube account for example. The check to the
right of the name indicates the page is verified and lets visitors know this is the official
channel for Google.
Another way to check if your account is verified is by going into your YouTube settings.
Click on Channel Settings, then click on Status and Features, and you will be able to see
your account status. If your account is verified, you will see a bolded “Verified” next to your
brand’s name.

If you don’t see a verification badge on your YouTube account, or your Account status is
not showing as “Verified” in your Channel Settings, there are a few steps you can take.
Google support lists them as follows:

Ÿ Note: YouTube has updated their verification process since we originally posted this.

Ÿ To get a verification badge today, you must meet YouTube’s eligibility criteria of 100,000
subscribers. Once your channel has 100,000 or more subscribers, you can submit a
request for a verification badge to YouTube.

Ÿ If your channel falls below the 100,000 subscribers, try contacting YouTube support for
further options.

Additionally, you can link your website to your YouTube channel. Doing this will tell
YouTube and Google that this is the official channel for your brand, which adds more
authenticity.

To do this, go to Advanced Channel Settings (Creator Studio > Channel > Advanced) and
scroll down to the Associated Website section of the page. From there, you can add your
website link into the blank field.

Once complete, you will receive a “Success” message letting you know your channel and
site are now linked. If you see a “Pending” status, you need to verify the site in Google
Search Console and will give you a link with instructions to complete verification (if you
own the website, you’ll be able to click Verify, and otherwise can Request approval to have
the website owner approve verification.)

One other thing to consider is adding links to your website directly from your YouTube
videos. This can be done using cards, which allow you to overlay hyperlinks to your
website and product pages in your YouTube videos.

c). Raw file optimization

Yet to be done..!
d). Title formatting and optimization

How to Optimize Your YouTube Video Titles and Descriptions

YouTube is the second largest search engine, right behind Google. And with over 1 billion
users, there’s a niche for everyone.

Starting a YouTube channel is a great way to engage with your audience and boost your
thought leadership. Which is why plenty of businesses use it to get discovered and
generate leads.

But it isn’t for everyone…

YouTube isn’t just a place to host a few random business videos. It takes time and
commitment to build and maintain a YouTube channel.

If you’re ready to make that commitment, you have to understand how YouTube works
before you can gain any traction.

And perhaps most of all, you’ll need to understand how to optimize your videos in order to
see results.

Understanding YouTube’s Ranking System

Did you know that video views don’t really matter anymore?

Views are an outdated method of measuring your video’s engagement. A video could have
thousands of views, but if no one’s actually watch it, the video’s ranking is going to
plummet in search results.
Ultimately, YouTube is a business, and ad revenue is what keeps the lights on. In order to
generate income, they need to get ads in front of viewers.

So if you want to rank, you have to serve YouTube’s interests, which means keeping
viewers on YouTube as long as possible.

A good place to start is by focusing on improving the viewing experience and getting your
audience to stick around.

Your viewers don’t want to be surprised by irrelevant content. They want a productive
experience, so make sure you’re targeting appropriate keywords and choosing relevant
titles for your videos.

When you keep YouTube’s goals in mind and optimize accordingly, they’ll reward you by
moving your video up in search!

Optimizing Your Videos for YouTube

Ideally, you’d begin the optimization process long before your video goes into production. If
you really want to see success on YouTube, your video’s production value and content
have to be on-point.

But no matter where your video initially falls in search, there’s always room for
improvement.

Once you’ve uploaded your video and made it public, there are two main ways to help your
video stand out from the crowd:

1. Write a clickable title that includes relevant keywords

2. Construct an enticing description

Both of these elements need to accurately represent the topic of your video to compel
people to click-through and watch. You should be using this space to show the value your
video brings, so people will realize why your video is the one they should pick.

Choosing a Title for your Video

The first thing users look at when they search for a video is a relevant title that will give them
the answer they’re looking for. But that’s not the only function your video’s title serves.

It also helps YouTube understand what your video is about, and when it should show up as
a search result. That’s why identifying keywords and including them in your title is one of
the best ways to optimize your videos.

Catering to YouTube’s ranking system and prospective viewers are equally important, so
aim to write a title that achieves both goals. Even though you only have about 55-60
characters to work with, focus on showing the value of your video in a clear, concise way.
That said, you’ll also need to make sure that your video actually uses the keyword you’re
targeting. If it’s not used in the video, then YouTube will assume you’re engaging in
spammy behavior.

The Description

When it comes to your video’s description, you’ve got a little more room to play.

But surprisingly, few people take advantage of the 5000 character limit.

And when they do, they don’t use it wisely.

Unlike Cards and Annotations, which only allow you to promote an associated website
linked to your YouTube account, you can include links to any URL in the description box.
That’s why you’ll often see a link at the very start of the description, or somewhere within
the first few sentences.

But when people visit YouTube, they’re not searching for links the same way they are on
Google. They want a video that will give them answers, and descriptions help them decide
where to click.
Beneath the video’s title, you have less than 130 characters to explain the value and
relevance of your video to a user searching for a video to watch, and link are a waste of that
space.
In fact, beginning your video’s description with a link can actually damage your search
rankings by lowering your click-through rates from search, a negative ranking signal!

Your Optimization is Only as Good as Your Video

YouTube is no longer a place for novice creators to upload diary-style webcam videos.

People expect quality in both the content and the visuals, which is particularly important if
you’re up against stiff competition in your industry.

Your videos need to be helpful to your target audience. Everything that’s said, visualized,
and demonstrated should be determined beforehand.

Even the most clever video titles and descriptions mean nothing if your video doesn’t
provide value.

Remember: your video is the star of the show. The title and description are just the
supporting cast, but they still play a key role in making sure your video shines!

e). Description Optimization

The Optimal YouTube Video Description: A Reel How-To Guide

Alongside a compelling custom thumbnail, and a title with a killer hook, an enticing video
description is almost certainly guaranteed to attract eyeballs. But so many brands and
creators fail to take full advantage of this basic feature, and therefore miss out on a huge
opportunity to engage with their viewers, rise in search rankings, and drive conversions.
We’re constantly surprised by the sheer number of video descriptions that are left blank, or
contain just a few words, like this one:

YouTube gives you 5000 characters to play with in the description box, and so why not use
some. There really is no excuse for neglecting this field when it often takes just a few
minutes to write copy that will not only benefit the viewer, but will also give YouTube some
much needed extra information about your video content. A well thought-out description
will help with video SEO and will give the viewer an outline of the content – leading to a
longer watch time, and, hopefully, more engagement.

A Few Facts about YouTube Description Field:

The description field on the YouTube watch page helps the viewer – as well as YouTube
itself – understand what your video is about. Only around 157 characters are shown on the
watch page above the ‘Show More’ button, so it makes sense to confirm the content of the
video here. Think of it as an ad that will entice the viewer into watching.
YouTube gives creators 5000 characters to use in this field, but the first couple of
sentences are hugely important because they will be pulled through and used as meta
data (along with the title and thumbnail) for the following:

Ÿ Google Universal Search Snippets ~100 Characters

Ÿ YouTube Search Results ~ 125 Characters
Ÿ YouTube API
Ÿ Facebook, Twitter, and other social media

How We Optimized ReelSEO Most Viewed Video

There are over 460 public videos on the ReelSEO YouTube channel, the majority of which
are how-tos and tutorials. Obviously, being the world’s leading guide to online video
marketing, we need to put our money where our mouth is when it it comes to video
optimization. We try to walk-the-walk with most of our videos but admittedly, even we could
spend more time on some of our video descriptions.

For this post, we will use the example of one of our best performing videos on YouTube –
“How to Create a Storyboard for Your Video Shoot“. We optimized the video, and the
accompanying blog post, for the main keywords ‘storyboard’, and ‘storyboarding’, as well
as semantically-related key terms. The results? The video appears (at time of writing) at #2
in the YouTube search results for ‘storyboard‘, and at #5 for ‘storyboarding’.

On Google, the video appears at #1 for the term ‘how to storyboard a video‘. Not bad for a
search query that returns 9.5 million results, right? It’s also the only video result that
appears on the front page for that query.

The video is well-produced, and answers a specific question, so we knew that it would do
well, but we also optimized the metadata to give the video every chance of being found
when people were searching about tutorials on that subject. At time of writing, the video
has generated 142,600 views, and significantly contributes to our YouTube channel
overall Watch Time. Now, let’s take a look at what we did with the description.
Video Description Essentials: Linking to Website(s)

Apart from certain annotations (fundraising annotations & associated website

annotations), the description field on the YouTube watch page is really the one place that
you can link off-platform. This is an invaluable feature for brands, and creators, because
they get the opportunity to drive traffic to a specific landing page elsewhere.

This is doubly important for e-commerce videos, where the video acts as a trailer for a
product, or a service. After all, 73% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after
watching a video, so link to a page that lets them do that.

Outbound Website Links: there are two schools of thought regarding the best place to
position your first outbound link.

1. YouTube-Centric Success Strategy: If your strategy is to create and grow a thriving

YouTube presence which conforms to YouTube best practices, and performs it’s best
within YouTube’s platform/environment — then you should already know that it’s
critically important to encourage engagement, and further drive video viewing within
YouTube itself. This all ties back to what’s known as “YouTube Watch Time”, and it’s
YouTube’s most important ranking factor for discovery. If you still want to provide links
off-YouTube, then we would encourage you to add the link below the fold.

2. However, if your strategy is to drive viewers to your website or any other URLs, we
would encourage you to include the link as high up in the description as you can. But,
PLEASE BEAR IN MIND, you are guiding the viewer away from YouTube which could
ultimately affect your overall performance in YouTube itself. We also highly encourage
you to read our in-depth guide to understanding YouTube’s Watch-Time factor.

At ReelSEO, we make a decision on a video-by-video basis, depending on our goals for

that content. For our storyboard video, YouTube Analytics confirms that Google Search
traffic (including YouTube) accounts for about 49% views for that video.
 One of our goals was to encourage traffic back to the landing page on ReelSEO, so we
made that blog post URL the first line of the description, to take advantage of the traffic
coming from search results.

The majority of the other views come from the video embed on the blog post landing page,
or directly from the blog post itself. This sets up a very efficient circle where we can either
guide the reader to YouTube from the blog post, or to the blog post from YouTube. We
ensured that both were optimized for the keywords we wanted to be found for, so the visitor
received the same value from both.

Be aware that links out from YouTube are no-followed, so you won’t get any precious link
juice from them, but they are still insanely valuable in terms of indexing, visibility, and
driving traffic to a site. If you have built other assets around a video marketing campaign,
then use the description to point the viewer towards them. Oh and always, always use
http:// before the URL or it won’t become clickable. Non-clickable link = waste of real
estate.

Extra Tip: If your landing page URL is very long, or doesn’t contain any relevant keywords
then consider using a URL Shortener like bit.ly to customize the link. While you’re at it, why
not tag and track referral traffic from that YouTube description link? That way, you can
confirm just how much traffic that first link sent you.

Video Description Essentials: 200-500 Word Synopsis

Now we come to the real meat and potatoes of the description. YouTube provides this field
to give you the opportunity to not only ‘sell’ your content to the viewer, but to also provide
them with context and extra information. You should use the description box to:

Ÿ Let them know what they are about to watch

Ÿ Give them a reason to watch it
Ÿ Let them know what to expect
We believe a good rule of thumb is that each video should have a uniquely written
synopsis, with a minimum of 200 words, to not only create context and value for the viewer,
but also for video SEO purposes. The video description field is a goldmine for SEO for all
sorts of reasons – but primarily because the 5000 characters provides you with an ability to
surround your video with additional relevant text to give context in search.

YouTube is reliant on the text surrounding the video (including closed captions) to identify
the topic so that they can return it for the relevant user search query. The more that
YouTube knows about your video – because you have told it via your title, tags, and video
description, the more confidence they will have to rank it.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world (we’re going to keep saying it),
and that kind of clout goes a long way with Google, its parent company. The chances are
that if the video ranks well within YouTube, then it stands a good chance of appearing in
Google’s Universal Search too, just like our storyboard video did.

You should already have a solid marketing strategy based on keyword research so it will
be easy to identify which keywords to use in the description. Not just your main keywords
either, the description is a great place to optimize for your for long-tail keywords.

There are more than 3.5B searches made on YouTube /month, so use your video
description to optimize for your keywords (Tweet this)

YouTube’s Description Snippet: Above the Fold

YouTube will only show around the first 157 characters of your description in its snippets,
Google slightly less in its Universal Search results. So, make this first part of your
description as engaging, and informative as possible. For the storyboard video, we used
the following for our opening paragraph:

This fits the snippet length nicely, and gives the viewer enough of a taster that they
(hopefully) want to click through to our watch page.

The first snippet should be placed above the fold (that is, visible to all viewers without the
need to click the ‘Show More’ button). Ideally, the keywords included should mirror the title
of your video.
Description Snippet: Below the Fold

So you have hopefully captured the viewer’s attention with your snippet. Now it’s time to
expand your description with some extra information. For our storyboard video, we used
the following:

That description is 154 words. We use some of the transcript further down in the
description (see below) so decided to keep the 2nd paragraph a little shorter. If you re not
building out your video description with other elements, than we recommend using
another 100-400 words here.

NOTE: We wrote up a post around the video – it would be very easy to cut and paste that
into the YouTube video description, but the SEO Gods frown upon this behavior so take
the time to re-write so you have that original content.

Video Description Essential: Include Strong Calls to Action

Annotations are brilliant for creating call-to-actions, but don’t forget to use the description
field to do the same. You can link out to many other places from this box so think about
what you want the viewer to do after they have watched the video. You might want to
encourage them to do any of the following:

Ÿ Visit a particular landing page on your website

Ÿ Sign up for a special sales offer or promotion
Ÿ Enter a competition
Ÿ Get a free download
Ÿ Subscribe to a podcast (like ReelSEO TubeTalk)
Ÿ Visit another channel as part of a cross-promotion
Ÿ Sign up to your newsletter
Ÿ Watch another video (individually or via a Playlist)
Ÿ Connect with you on social media
Ÿ Visit your YouTube channel ‘About Page’

Video Description Essential: Include a ‘Subscribe Here!’ Link

If you only set up one call to action link, it should be to encourage the viewer to subscribe to
your YouTube channel. Again, you can (and should) do this via an annotation, but it
doesn’t harm to include it again in the description. You can either ask the viewer outright to
subscribe and/or paste in the YouTube’s.

Video Description Essential: Link Out to Social Media

If you are active elsewhere across the internet, them make it easy for viewer to find you.
Yes, you may have already included this information on your YouTube ‘About Page’ but
you are asking the user to make that extra step to find that info – and they may not have the
inclination.

Let the viewer know that they can follow you on social media, and give them the links to
your profiles:

Video Description Essential: Channel Upload Defaults

Did you know that your can implement a standard boilerplate template for your video
descriptions? Well you can! Just set up automatic default uploads for your descriptions via
Video Manager > Channel > Upload Defaults (or follow this link). This will save a ton of time
if you publish a lot of content because they will be added to the description for every new
upload. It also ensures consistently.

We are very active on social media so we set up our defaults to link out to our profiles on
Facebook, Twitter etc. We also added a ‘Subscribe Now’ call to action, as well as a link to
our home page:
You can also automate other settings within this feature such as tags, ad formats, and
categories……

Video Description Essential: Choose the Right Category

Selecting a video category as part of your upload is mandatory. At the moment, you have
15 to choose from (see below), and you need to select one as part of the upload process. If
you are consistently creating content around a particular theme, then choose a category
and stick with it.

Obviously, make sure that the category is relevant to the video content you are publishing
– how-to videos may be one of the fastest growing verticals on YouTube, but if your content
falls squarely in the ‘News and Politics’ section then don’t try and game the system.

Ÿ YouTube’s Categories include: Autos & Vehicles, Comedy, Education, Entertainment,

Film & Animation, Gaming, How-to & Style, Music, News & Politics, Nonprofits &
Activism, People & Blogs, Pets & Animals, Science & Technology, Sports, and Travel &
Events.

Optional Extras: Use Your Video Transcription

YouTube gives creators, and marketers 5000 characters to play with in the description
field, and you can use these in a number of ways. As we’ve confirmed above, the
description box is the ideal location to optimize for your keywords, main and long-tail, so
any good, original content here will contribute greatly towards your video SEO strategy.

But don’t just copy and paste from your website, and definitely don’t copy and paste from
anywhere else! Take the time to craft some original copy, or do what other savvy marketers
do, and use all or part of the video transcript you have created for your content. As you
know, YouTube can’t actually ‘read’ the video, so transcripts, or closed captions, help give
the video some context. It’s standard practice to upload an SRT file to YouTube to enable
subtitles, but why not give YouTube a helping hand and also use the transcript in the
description box too.

We enabled closed captions for our storyboard video, but we also used the transcript as
part of our original blog post:
We didn’t want to use the full copy again in our YouTube description because of duplicate
content concerns. However, we pulled out the following paragraph, and added that to the
description:

If you haven’t posted the transcript in full elsewhere, then consider using it in the
description field.

Optional Extras: Use Creator Credits to Link to Collaborators

The description field is also the ideal place to link out to other YouTubers who you have
collaborated with. YouTube has just made this even easier with the introduction of ‘Creator
Credits‘, a feature available for channels with 10K subscribers, that lets you tag others for a
particular role.

The storyboard video example from above was created by Stephen Schweickart of Screen
specifically for ReelSEO Reel Rebel series, so we tagged him as Executive Producer:

Optional Extras: Use Chapter Markers for Longer Content

If you are uploading long-form content then consider using ‘chapter markers’ to enable
your viewers to jump to the content they want to. Adding these ‘time codes’ is easy – just
add (mm:ss) in the description. YouTube will automatically make this a clickable link for the
user, and they can skip right to the part they want to watch (and back again).

Our storyboard video comes in at 2:37, and we wouldn’t normally set up chapter markers
for a video this short. But, for this example we have, and if you go to the video you can try
them out for yourself:
You can find out more information about chapter markers in this Creator’s Tip video.

Takeaway: Our Top Video Description Tips

Hopefully, we have convinced you of the need to spend time crafting a really solid
description for every one of your videos. You can – and should – revisit your video
descriptions and optimize them if they are missing any information that could help
YouTube understand more about your content. We leave you with our top tips from this
post:

Ÿ Always use the http:// prefix on any external links

Ÿ Refer to your keyword research when writing copy – especially the long-tail key terms
Ÿ Use at least a couple of keywords in the opening sentences
Ÿ Always include a strong call to action
Ÿ Link out to your social media profiles
Ÿ Use the transcript of the video if you have one
Ÿ Use chapter markers if your video is long-form

It’s is a violation of YouTube’s TOS to use misleading info in your description field – so
don’t.

f). Tags Research and Optimization

Best Tags For YouTube – Learn How To Get More Video Views
So you’ve spent all this time creating great video content for YouTube and now it seems
that all your hard work is for nothing?

You’re struggling to get the views that your videos deserve, despite your best efforts?

We feel your pain!

How are people getting insane amounts of views on YouTube?

Well, here’s one way… proper video tagging. Do you know how to use YouTube tags
effectively to bump your videos to the top of YouTube’s search?

We’ll show you an easy way how in this article. Because just a few tweaks can get your
content directly in front of the right eyes.

What Are YouTube Tags And Why Are They Important?

About 400 hours of new video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute, according
to Business Insider. 400 hours per minute – that adds up to a mind-boggling 576,000
hours of video per day.

As you can see, you are not the only content creator on YouTube who’s trying to promote
his business or build a successful channel with hundreds of thousands of followers.

How can you ensure that users will actually find your videos in the first place and prevent
them from getting lost in the depth of YouTube?

Flashy thumbnails, catchy titles, a little bit of clickbait. The truth is, there is a whole arsenal
of strategies and techniques that will make your videos stand out. One of them, which
many video marketers often underestimate, is using YouTube tags.

What you have to know is that YouTube is not only the second most popular social
network, it’s also the second largest search engine right after Google. Viewers use
YouTube’s search bar to find videos that provide solutions for a specific problem that they
have or to learn more about a topic in general. And that’s where YouTube tags come into
play.

If you are not completely new to online marketing, you’ll know that in order to rank your
website prominently in the SERPs (search engine results pages), you have to optimize it
for the right keywords. The same applies to ranking videos on YouTube.

What do you do once you have a long list of keywords that you want one of your videos to
be found for? Include them as tags. Tags can be words or short phrases and they allow you
to tell YouTube what your video is all about and help to categorize it.

On a side note: The number of tags you can include per video is limited. You can use a
maximum of 30 characters per tag and 500 characters in total including separators. This is
why you want to choose your tags wisely!
It’s About A Good Mix

Now that you know that you can drive more views on YouTube via search when you
properly tag your videos, the question remains: What are the best tags for YouTube
videos?

First of all, the more tags you add the better. This is because your videos will rank for more
keywords at the same time and it increases the chance that they will be displayed in the
related and suggested videos lists of other videos.

However, it’s not that easy. There are good tags for YouTube and there are bad tags for
YouTube.

In order to find the good ones, think about how users would search for your video. The best
way to go about this is to come up with a mix of highly-targeted multi-word tags, single-
word tags, broader terms and also your channel name.

Ÿ Multi-word tags are whole phrases that describe the content of your video precisely.
Make sure to also include synonyms here.

Ÿ Single-word tags are like headwords and can be pulled from the multi-word tags. Again,
don’t forget to use synonyms.

Ÿ Broader terms will make your video(s) appeal to a wider audience by showing YouTube
that it relates to thousands of other videos.

Ÿ The reason why you want to add your channel name as a tag is because people might
be searching for that name directly.

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say you’ve created a video explaining “How to Teach Your Dog to Sit”.

For multi word tags or phrases, it’s probably a good idea to include the following:

Ÿ “how to teach your dog to sit”

Ÿ “how to train a dog sit”
Ÿ “teaching a puppy how to sit”
Ideas for single-word tags are:

Ÿ “how”
Ÿ “dog”
Ÿ “puppy”
Ÿ “sit”
Ÿ “train”
Ÿ “teach”
Broader term to include:

Ÿ “pets”
The tag “pets” suggests that your video is not only related to content about dogs, but to all
topics that have something to do with pets.

Channel name:

Ÿ “Andy’s Awesome Dog Training”

And lastly, definitely avoid including any unrelated tags. This is only going to confuse
YouTube and will make your video show up for irrelevant search queries, which can even
lead to a removal.

How To Add YouTube Tags

Here are some step-by-step instructions that will guide you through the process of adding
tags to your videos on YouTube:

1. In your YouTube dashboard, upload a new video that you would like to publish. You can
already start adding tags while the video is still uploading. Simply click into the “Tags“-field
under the “Basic info“-tab.
2. Copy or type in all tags separated by comma.

3. Once you are done with all the settings, hit publish.
Of course, you can also edit the tags of your already existing videos. All you have to do is
go to the video manager, click the “Edit” button next to a video and scroll down to the tags
field that we are already familiar with.
g). Advance Settings

How to Open Advanced Settings in YouTube

YouTube's advanced settings page allows you to manage your channel and gives you
options such as adding channel keywords and changing your country. This wikiHow article
will show you how to open YouTube's advanced settings.

Quick Summary

1. Go to youtube.com and sign in.

2. Click your profile picture (top-right).
3. Click Creator Studio.
4. Click Channel from the left.
5. Click the Advanced option right under.
1. Go to YouTube and sign in. Visit youtube.com in your web browser and sign in with your
Google account if you're not already signed in.

2.Open the Creator Studio. Click your profile picture at the top-right and select
3. Navigate to your channel settings. Select "CHANNEL" from the left panel.

4. Go to the advanced settings page. Click on the "Advanced" option under the
"CHANNEL" header.
5. Finished. You can also get to this page directly by going to
youtube.com/advanced_settings.

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