Do you want your YouTube channel to take off and reach a wider audience? Then it is essential to learn how to rank your videos properly on this platform. Fortunately, you do not need to be a technology expert to achieve it. In this article, we show you some basic elements you should take into account to rank a video on YouTube. The first and one of the most important elements is video quality.
Best tips to rank a video on YouTube
It is not only about having good content, but also about presenting it in the best possible way. You must make sure your video has high visual quality and that its audio is clear and understandable for your viewers. It is also essential that your content is relevant and interesting for your target audience. With these basic elements, you will be on the right track to rank your videos on YouTube and attract more viewers.
How to rank a video on YouTube
The first and one of the most important elements is video quality. It must have the following characteristics:
- Content should be relevant and interesting for your target audience.
- High-quality video, preferably 1920 x 1080px.
- The audio quality should be clean, so viewers can understand everything being communicated to them.
Make the most of keywords on YouTube
Before uploading a video, it is advisable to rename the file so that it contains the keyword you want to rank for. Ideally, when you export/save it in your editing program, you should optimise the meta tags and information options such as the description. Use keywords and make the most of every detail when optimising your videos.
Once everything is ready, it is time to upload the video. In the top right corner, you will see an arrow that lets you upload the video. Simply dragging the video file onto it will start the upload. While your video is uploading, you can carry out a basic configuration, such as the type of video you want (public, private, unlisted or scheduled), the title and other options.
The importance of a good optimised title
You will be able to add the video title, description and tags.
It is important that these three elements contain your keyword, synonyms or variations of it, because all text on YouTube helps search engines better understand your video content, index it more appropriately and help you achieve better rankings.
The difference between public, unlisted and private is as follows:
- Public mode: The video will be visible to everyone.
- Private mode: The video can only be viewed by the users you choose via email. The video cannot be found through search and will not appear on your channel.
- Unlisted mode: The video can be viewed as long as you have its URL. It will also not appear on your channel or in search results.
The main difference between unlisted mode and private mode is that anyone with the URL can view it. You do not need express permission to watch it, as you do with private videos.
Thumbnails
For the video thumbnail, YouTube will give you options and you can define which one you want to use. It is important that it stands out to attract an audience.
End screens, or how to keep users watching your content
Within the video configuration options, we can see a tab called End screen and annotations. Here, we need to focus on the end screen sub-tab.
What are end screens for?
They are used to send users to other videos, playlists or even other YouTube channels. The recommended approach is to link to related content about the topic covered in the video, to make the user keep watching your content. We can even link to channel subscription.
When promoting an article or a company, we can link to those products or companies in end screens. In some sponsored videos, this is mandatory.
The importance of subtitles
Subtitles matter because search engines do not understand video content by themselves, so the text you add helps them make sense of it. Through transcripts, you help YouTube index the content you wrote in the video transcript, including the keywords it contains, and you give your video’s ranking in the search engine a boost.
You can use YouTube’s own native tool to create the transcript, or you can choose an external tool. If you want to stand out in the digital world, you need an effective SEO and digital marketing strategy. We are your trusted SEO agency in Madrid to achieve it.
