How to optimize youtube videos to get more views and subscribers

How to optimize youtube videos to get more views and subscribers

Optimizing Youtube videos to get more views and subscribers requires a number of techniques and best practices. I’m going to share some very effective youtube optimization tips and tricks with you. In fact— I just implemented two of them! Can you spot them?

First—I want to share an important word of advice, as well as an important warning to lead with. There are thousands of “experts” out there. And it’s very easy to be fooled by the web today. With paid advertising, these “experts” can get to the top of the ranking very easily. Additionally, keep in mind that many of these top ranked videos have a lot of proprietary methods of increasing views—in fact, it’s well-know that lists can be obtained and purchased, as well as “rankings” being obtained and purchased as well. Not all rankings are created equal. Just like a WIX online web designer that works FOR WIX, will create hundreds of videos claiming they are the best platform. Biased information misleads consumers—so PLEASE be careful, and be wise.

PRO TIP: Beware “EXPERTS” on Youtube. Many of them are using a lot of tricks to appear like experts and can mislead you.

In addition, third party software add-on “experts” show up telling people how to get better rankings on Youtube‚ making it look like they’re an average dude— but they work for these third party software companies and obviously will promote it and make it look like it’s THE do-all solution. So be careful— dig deep, and do the research. The best you can always do are the basics first—the obvious, safe, secure, and practical ways to resolve Youtube optimization.

PRO TIP: Do your own research, and focus on practical basics first that don’t rely on third party add-ons.

That all being said— there are also true and real experts, and a lot of them. I call them professionals. It’s their profession, and they’re sharing what they know. And usually for nothing. So let’s forge ahead here. Let’s optimize your YouTube videos.

The Youtube Machine—their algorithm

The Youtube machine (algorithm) acts like many other online apps do, but unique to Youtube. An algorithm is a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. So simply understanding the basics, you can achieve better results by playing along with those “rules.”

The three initial and more primary algorithms for Youtube that affect SEO, are (TDT): T (title), D (description), and T (tags). Next to that though—simultaneously are 3 other important factors, what I call (TDQ): T (trends), D (draw), and Q (quality).

Let me explain. 

Title

The title reflects what people are searching for. Not what YOU think they want, but what they are searching for. So if I am searching in the Youtube search bar for how to cook bread, then your title should be “How to cook bread,” not “Cool bread baking tips I learned from my grandmother.” The title also will put your video in front of the people that are SEEKING for that specific search topic. Search Youtube for similar items and note the popular videos and what they use for titles. Then leverage searching youtube for what your audience might search for, and use those as titles for your work.

PRO TIP: Use titles your audience will search—NOT what you think is “cool” to use.

Description

The description should also match your title, and for the most part repeat it. Since the algorithm will search next for the description, it will want to find that same important text that’s in your relevant title. Again, what people are SEARCHING for, not what you think is a fun bunch of text. Make the description relevant to what others are searching for.

PRO TIP: Make your relevant description work along WITH your title, in a repetitive way.

Tags

Tags are search words that are most popular or relevant. There’s a section that you add in current, trending, relevant, and important search words so your videos get noticed (optimized). So your tags need to be what people are searching for—NOT what you think are neat words. So for example, If I sell dog supplies, I think of the person searching and I might have “inexpensive dog supplies, dog supplies online, or cheap dog supplies.” By searching Youtube your self, you can easily see what the trending search words are. 

PRO TIP: Search youtube for what your audience might search for and use those key words (statements).

Trends

Trends are what’s hot today— what’s a big deal. What people are into today, right now. Be it American Girl dolls, Donald Trump, Space X, or JFK (although there was no web then!)… What’s trending is what will shine most, be seen more, be searched more, and simply be at the top of the ladder. It’s like setting up a history of paper video. Although sure, you may get a few views here and there, but if it’s not “trending” then don’t expect a huge interest. And trending things often go viral (spread quickly) although sometimes out of the blue.

PRO TIP: Be aware of what’s trending today and consider that in your video content.

Draw

Similar to trends and viral activity— the “draw” is if what you create draw people in. So it comes down to the wow or cool factor that might draw your audience in, the subject or content that draws interest, or maybe the emotional impact of what you create. Nonetheless, think about what will “draw” in or attract your biggest important audience. What THEY will be drawn to. As opposed to what you “think” they might like.

PRO TIP: Create content with the audience in mind. What THEY will react to best.

Quality

It should go without saying here, but quality of content is critical. Taking the time to create quality material means it will experienced, engaged with, reacted to, repeatedly watched, and remembered as “quality.” People really love and appreciate quality. It enhances the experience, and simply guarantees a better audience relationship. How many poor videos have you seen. Compared to AWESOME videos. Which ones will be watched and shared more?

Qualification goes hand in hand with quality as well. By creating or posting high level content— like you at a public event, a lecture, or mentioned in a high level news channel, or movie, etc… Any “qualifier” that puts you in the drivers seat, or seen as an expert in the field, will many times improve your channel—thus video views.

Quality also includes the video quality, the art and graphics quality, the text, the lighting, the production, the end and intro screens—the whole production from start to finish. 

Finally, be sure to start with a quality idea—all the way through, include all parts and pieces. The name of your graphics, the name of your video file, spell checking, that links work, that all features in Youtube are considered and used if appropriate. Go through everything carefully and professionally with a quality mindset.

PRO TIP: Focus always on quality— not quantity. Quality comes from the heart.

Other factors that improve Youtube video optimization

Time is an important factor

There are other factors that matter when it comes to optimizing Youtube videos. Time: Give it time to work. Many popular videos gain popularity in time. No views turn into thousands as time and exposure grows. Don’t get all worked up if you have one or two views. Be aware of optimization techniques, but give time a chance to work. Also the year IN time matters… 10 years ago, Youtube video optimization and algorithms were vastly different than today. As they will continue to change as time goes on. What you put out today, will grow later. You need to start somewhere.

PRO TIP: Give your videos time to work. Trust time and be patient.

Create content to entertain or educate

Content is really meant for two things. To educate, or to entertain. And people consume and enjoy both. So make sure whatever you create applies to either of these— and THEN, do them well. Awesome entertainment, or awesome educational content. If you do that then you are guaranteed to have audience consumption and engagement.

PRO TIP: Create content to entertain or educate.

Start by engaging, keep the engagement, and ensure final engagement!

When creating videos, you want an attractive and interesting introduction or beginning. It’s when people continue to watch, or skip it all together. So wow them up front. Then— to keep them watching, be sure to keep it interesting, not too long, not boring, and make them feel like they NEED to watch more. Then, close with a compelling “to learn more” so they truly engage with you on the back end. Go to your website, buy more, etc…

PRO TIP: Keep the engagement from start to finish.

Don’t sacrifice your values, virtues, or brand JUST to get more views. 

Too many people lose themselves in their own ego and craving for more. So desperate to get more likes or views, they’ll do anything to get there. That then minimizes and compromises your true values—your self and your business. All for fame. Don’t do it. You can stick to brand—maintain your values and beliefs while creating great content and gaining what I call qualified leads, organic, highly nurtured, or permission-based followers—people that care about what you have or what you do. That’s ultimately what we really want. They will promote you, they will follow you. They will become buyers, and raving fans.

The lemonade in the refrigerator won’t sell itself

While Youtube certainly will provide “some” exposure, no matter what you put up there, you will also improve your visibility and SEO with all the common best practices today. But keep in mind that you need to actively promote your content. Share it on social media, send emails to your lists, put it on your website, create youtube or other social media ads, text it to friends and family. By actively telling the world about it, you will get more views. It’s the rule of any business. Just like the lemonade you create. It does nothing in the fridge. You have to get it out there— market it, let as many people know about it as you can.

PRO TIP: Effectively, actively, and passionately market your video to as many as you can.

A million views? Know what kind of audience you REALLY want— and why

The Kardations are popular today, so any one of them might get 2 million+ views. I personally saw a school bus behind my house spin out of control on a winter day. Someone video taped it, put it on Youtube with “magic school bus soundtrack” and got over 2 million views. It trended and went viral. That was a scary and dangerous event— “famous” on Youtube… is that good? Now compare that to an audience of followers or types of people that you REALLY want watching your videos. Do they fit your criteria for your ideal audience? Do you really want millions of views, or hundreds of views from people that you really would care about and care about you and what you do?

PRO TIP: Focus on the audience you REALLY want— not just anyone.

Know your strategy—and think carefully about it

A VERY important note here. These are tips to improve Youtube SEO (only), so people see more of your videos on Youtube. So remember that this is Youtube’s search algorithm only. FIRST you need to agree that you even want your goal or strategy to be seen on Youtube more—for Youtube’s sake. Remember, the more people that go to Youtube, will continue to go to Youtube to see your content. We are creatures of habit.

If however, your goal is to have people go to your website, engage with you, buy stuff, etc… you need to decide if Youtube is even part of your brand and marketing strategy. So for example, do you want people to see your videos on your website—or on Youtube? Because that’s where they will go once you gain an audience.

PRO TIP: Clearly define WHY you want a Youtube video.

Integrating Youtube with your business

A smart way to incorporate Youtube with your business, is to develop a plan that allows the big search engine (youtube) to reflect your business, but also pushes engagement to have people go to your store (your website) as well. But how? Think about the content you create, why you create it, and who it’s for. Create your videos to add your presence in the youtube search engine space, and to entertain or inform, but lead the watchers to what you ultimately want—website visits. And you can do that with the right graphics, call to action, ending, and appropriate text in the description so people can find you easily, click the links, etc…

An example: I start a cooking show for elderly people. I create a great brand, great website. I have some great, fun, cooking videos for seniors. I add them to my website as a part of my marketing—I want elderly  to watch my videos, download my recipes, to share on their social media platforms, buy my programs and material, and spread the word. Simultaneously though, knowing that many might be on Youtube, I want a handful of videos on Youtube so elderly people on youtube can see what I do, and share videos on Youtube. BUT, I’m sure to introduce who I am and what I do, and where to find me on my website (since that’s important). As well, in the ending something like “to get more great recipes, come and visit me at elderlycooking.com.” And also have links in the description box.

PRO TIP: Integrate Youtube with your business as one of many secondary channels to share what you do. Not as THE primary place of your business. Your website and business first—Youtube and others second.

Why do you want “fame” on Youtube?

We need to be careful. It’s human nature to want to be noticed, to be important, to be seen, to be known. In fact, that’s the primary focus behind all social media… To want “likes” and “views,” and thumbs up… it taps into our human nature to want recognition and fame. So if we get caught in that trap— for the reason of wanting fame, that’s a whole other reason for why you are doing this. 

If on the other hand, you are doing this to simply share what you do with relevant, likeminded, and qualified audiences, and simply having fun, or using it as a way to share content and invite people to join you… that’s a different philosophy with a different outcome. And that doesn’t tie into craving fame or emotional tie-in to likes, views, etc…

PRO TIP: Simply create quality, meaningful, relevant, and important content for others gain—not for your ego’s fame. 

Be cautious about building your fame on “someone else’s” platform

We all want to be movie stars. But what we really want is to create a masterful brand— a business that thrives, and serves the many… So your brand, business, presence, etc… is really meant to be built way before Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, etc… are even considered. Don’t use Youtube as a portal for fame. You end up putting way too much effort into these other platforms, which make more people visit THEM and not you! Remember, when they are on YOUR video, they also very easily get your competition’s videos recommended next to them. 

PRO  TIP: Build YOUR platform first—then share your content on other platforms.

So now you are on a huge competitive platform along with millions of others, and helping them grow instead of focusing on your business. Important examples of putting your eggs in one basket: People used to “buy” tapes, cds, and itunes songs… in stores. They now subscribe to apps like Spotify, Music, Pandora… People used to use “My Space” the old competition to Facebook. Now POOF they’re gone… so what happened to everyone that put their “all” into My Space?

Also— an overlooked aspect here is this scary truth: You post your content on any online platform that doesn’t belong to you, THEY own it— not you. You upload a video, or content, they now have it, they now own it, and you can never undo it or get it back. You can take it down— but it’s never truly gone. And in fact, read the terms and conditions, they own rights to that content. And nowadays, they also control who sees what— and when. If they don’t like it, they don’t show it. That’s a fact. So you are at their mercy, their house, their rules, their platform. Not yours.

PRO  TIP: Be careful and mindful about what you create, why you create it, and where it will live.

Tag searching

Pretend you are a person, searching for whatever it is you are looking for. Type that in the search bar in Youtube, and note the top 10-20 list of what comes up. Those search words are the most popular search criteria of the day. So you screen shot or write down what those are, and add them as tags to your relevant video.

So for example, in this piece I am creating right now here, I searched “youtube optimization,” “how to optimize youtube,” and “how to get more views on youtube.” And the following came up that I will use: how to get more views on youtube, how to get more views on youtube 2020, how to get more views on youtube 2021, how to get more views on youtube videos, how to optimize youtube videos, how to optimize youtube channel, how to optimize youtube videos for search, how to optimize youtube seo, youtube optimization tools, youtube optimization checklist, youtube optimization tutorial, youtube optimization strategy.

PRO TIP: Search Youtube for what others will search for in your space—and use those as tags.

Third party tools

While there are many third-party tools available with YouTube such as Tube Buddy which gives you great information on keywords tags etc., it's really best to try to work with the YouTube platform directly if you can. What happens is you start to rely on these third-party platforms and eventually you have to upgrade them to get more features, and you also have to learn them, and know how to use them, and on top of that you also have to have it available on all of your other devices which is usually not the case. I have used so many third-party tools over the years that end up going out of business and become useless. So third-party tools can be useful but try to avoid them if you can or better yet use them if you think they'll have a huge impact on what you're doing.

PRO TIP: Try to avoid third party tools unless you are sure you can master them and they will really do you well. 

Subscribers might be what you really want

Keep in mind that subscribers are people that love what you're doing and want to see more. That's different than just views because many times views are from people that might not really care, they're just watching part of your video. With the subscribing feature on YouTube you are actually gaining an audience of qualified leads and users which ultimately are the people you want watching your videos anyway. So focus on creating quality content that is aimed at your subscribers a.k.a. you are raving fans.

PRO TIP: Create content for your raving fans—your “subscribers.”

Cautious consistency is valuable in optimization as well

Youtube and many other social media platforms rely on seeing your consistency. If you do more, they see you as a good risk— more people might show up, more advertisers, more views, more activity on their platform. So you will  “trend” more, and thus show up a little more. Not 100% the case, but definitely viable. But be careful again not to just post content for the sake of content. That affects quality.

The basic essentials of optimizing Youtube videos

Remember that Youtube is one of many social media platforms that allow you and millions of others share video content. So making sure it’s the right platform for you, why you’re using it, and to whom you are creating content for are important. But there are simple ways to improve your optimization of Youtube videos: Focus on your title, description, and tags. Make use of Youtube’s own search engine to get help with the right tags. Then—popular trends people are looking for, what content will draw them in, and overall excellent quality—then promote it. Do these few things to start with and you are sure to get an uptick in watches and subscribers. 

Top 10 list of basic list of items to help ensure your Youtube videos are seen more:

1. Quality-made, interesting, engaging, and exciting video people will love

2. Attractive thumbnail that makes it easy to see what it’s about

3. Naming your video files and graphics with relevant names that fit what people are seeking

4. Relevant title that fits what people are seeking

5. Relevant description that fits what people are seeking

6. Relevant TAGS that fits what people are seeking

7. Promote it in as many places as you can—social, email, text, web, print— tell everyone!

8. Consider social media advertising— it can get your video in front of more people

9. Watch and fold in popular modern trends… what’s popular? Consider making content in that space

10. Continue to make more! The more you’re out there— the more you’ll grow and be exposed