SEO for YouTube has taken a lot of prominence due to the immense growth of platform users and the potential to generate an ample amount of sales. Every search engine algorithm works differently, and indeed, YouTube’s algorithm is different from Google’s algorithm. 

The step-by-step guide lets you understand how YouTube ranks your video from viewer search query to ranking your video in the list. At the same time, you will also understand what optimization needs to be done at every step to align with YouTube’s requirements. 

So, let’s be clear about this guide. Instead of just touching the basics, this is a definitive guide about everything related to YouTube SEO. 

This article is divided into two sections. One explains the basic definition for what is SEO for YouTube. The second section explains the step-by-step guide to video ranking by YouTube. 

Without further ado, let’s get started. 

Table of Content:

1. What is SEO for YouTube? 
   1. Search engine basically depends on the requirement to search for something. 
2. How does YouTube rank a video? 
   1. Step-1: The viewer typing his keyword in the search
      1. The action:
      2. Tip#1:
   2. Step 2: YouTube relating the search with your channel:
      1. Action:
      2. Tip#2:
   3. Step 3: YouTube reads your content and verifies the natural usage of keywords. 
      1. Action:
      2. Tip#3: 
   4. Step 4: User engagement. 
      1. Action: 
      2. Tip#4: 
   5. Step 5: YouTube verifies your authority in the niche. 
      1. Action 5: 
      2. Tip#5: 
   6. Step 6: The small factors with big impact. 
      1. Action: 
      2. Tip#6: 
3. Conclusion:

What is SEO for YouTube? 

First, let’s know what is SEO. Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your content in alignment with search engine ranking factors to get your page ranked higher in search results. 

So, in a sense, it is the process of optimizing the search engine to recognize that your content has higher relevance to the searcher’s query so rank it higher. 

Search engine basically depends on the requirement to search for something. 

This intent is called search intent. The word used to express the search intent into the engine is the ‘keyword.’ Hence, everything about SEO revolves around the search intent and the keyword. 

On YouTube, the home page is optimized according to the user’s watch history and other personalized factors which we will discuss later. But for now, let’s dive into the main part. What happens when a person types a keyword in the search engine? 

YouTube themselves stated three main elements to suggest a video to a viewer:

1. Relevance
2. Engagement
3. Quality. 

And these steps also follow a similar order along with tips to optimize your video accordingly. 

How does YouTube rank a video? 

YouTube never actually explained how they rank a video. The following steps are derived checking the ranking of videos after applying different methods and studying the search engine.

Step-1: The viewer typing his keyword in the search

Immediately after typing the keyword, the YouTube algorithm surfs all the pages to find the keyword in their content. By content, I mean every input a user can give to YouTube. 

These are the channel name, video title, video description, title tags, hashtags, channel tags, captions, playlists, and about info. 

So having these filled out is a must, and for guidance, you can refer to this complete checklist for YouTube SEO.   

The action:

YouTube arranges all the videos with the keywords in their title, description, title tags, and hashtags. It arranges in descending order of having keywords in all factors to having them at least once. 

Tip#1:

Have your target keyword in your video title, description, title tags, and hashtags. In case of broad keywords with relevance to your channel then use them in your about info, playlists, channel tags, and possibly even in your channel name. 

Now you cleared the first step. But YouTube mining for the best content for the viewer has just begun, so what is the next step?

Step 2: YouTube relating the search with your channel:

Now, you have the keyword in your video title, description, title tags, and hashtags, so your video is added to the list. Comparatively, it is already at a higher position. 

Now, after verifying these factors, YouTube sets the relevance of your channel as the tiebreaker. It verifies the other elements a user can provide to YouTube. 

It reads your ‘about info’ to know what your channel is about, studies your playlist to relate the number of videos relevant to the search, and then filters out the most relevant ones. 

Action:

YouTube tries to find the search keyword (seed keyword) or related keywords in the data you provide to YouTube on your channel.

Tip#2:

Add your seed keyword and related keywords to all the data you provide in your channel, namely, the about info, the playlists, and the channel name (if possible). 

So adding keywords to your data helps in getting listed after a thorough filter. But many channels simply stuff keywords into these factors, and YouTube is talented enough to recognize this. 

This is where the key to getting your video ranked is decided. 

Step 3: YouTube reads your content and verifies the natural usage of keywords. 

In this image, you could see that the very first search result directly answer the question “What is digital marketing?” Ahrefs, with more authority in the field is ranked at 3rd. Why?

After adding your video to the list of videos with high relevance, YouTube now reads your content.

By content, I mean your video title, and description to know whether they are keyword-stuffed or not. 

Action:

YouTube tests the authenticity of your video. It “reads” your content and determines whether your keyword has prominence in the title and description or it is just stuffed. 

Tip#3: 

Use your keyword in alignment with the title. Don’t just place the keywords one after another with no sense for the title and description. 

Try to naturally include the keyword in the title. To know how to write a title, you can refer to this article on 4 proven methods to write SEO-optimized YouTube video titles. 

Elaborately provide details of your video in your description and naturally, the keyword itself gets embedded in relevance. I will cover an article on different outlines of YouTube video descriptions, so make sure to subscribe to the blog. 

Now having relevance to the search query, your video is in the tier 1 list of YouTube search results after a major cut of videos. By a major cut, probably 50% percent of channels following such practices get filtered. Still, this list contains 1000s of videos. 

This ends the first main element, the Relevance element. Now YouTube needs to jot down this list to 100s. How? 

Step 4: User engagement. 

Yes, the second element is in itself a step of filtering out YouTube videos. User engagement, there are many factors such as bounce rate, views, etc., but the most important one is watch time. 

Watch time is similar to dwell time on Google SEO. The longer the watch time, the more relevance to the search, the more satisfied the viewer is. So, watch time explains how on-point the video is in relevance to the search query. 

Action: 

YouTube checks the watch time, Click-through rate, bounce rate, views, likes, and shares. These give the data on user engagement, and if it is good then it determines your video to be better than the rest. 

Tip#4: 

Make sure to provide quality-driven information and avoid fluff in your video, just to extend the video length. Be on point and focus on what your viewer expects from the video. 

Viewer satisfaction determines your user engagement factors such as watch time, bounce rate, and click-through rate (CTR). This ultimately decides whether your video is quality-driven rather than being a bluff. 

Further, CTR depends on how well you present your video. This depends on two factors, the thumbnail and the title. Using one of the four methods, you already have a title that sells. Now it is time for a thumbnail. Make sure that it is appealing and explains enough data on what your video is about. 

Use end cards and related cards to increase user engagement. 

I accentuate to avoid clickbait. Whether your thumbnail and title is a clickbait is determined by bounce rate and YouTube penalizes your video. So avoid using clickbait. 

This ends the second element, the user engagement. Now the list is refined further. Still, there are 100s of videos. It is time to determine the top 10. Here’s how:

Step 5: YouTube verifies your authority in the niche. 

In the keyword section, we have seen the result given by YouTube for the medium tail keyword “What is digital marketing?”

But now, by changing the search query to much broader keyword “Digital Marketing,” it prioritized the authority channel “Ahrefs” above the others.

After determining the quality, YouTube uses the quantity metrics. If it determines your channel has higher authority in the niche, it pushes you into the top 10. 

Action 5: 

YouTube verifies all the videos with related keywords, the arrangement of your videos into playlists, your subscriber count, and your regularity in posting videos, combined with user engagement metrics. 

It also uses traffic acquisition, through search or social links to determine the number of people referring to your channel in the specific niche. Finally, it determines your authority in the niche. 

Tip#5: 

Have a schedule and post videos regularly. Determine your niche and stick to it. Post videos relevant to your niche regularly with high-quality content. 

Connect your social networks and website to the channel. It is not a direct factor in SEO but substantially increases traffic acquisition. 

Organize your channel into a playlist and add a trailer to explain what your channel is all about. Use features such as podcasts if applicable. Present your channel in a way to shows it is relevant to your niche. 

Now if all these factors are aligned with what YouTube expects, congrats, your video is in the top 10-20. But the filtration isn’t done yet. These three elements are main but there are others to determine the #1 search result. 

Step 6: The small factors with big impact. 

Many people don’t even look through the features on YouTube studio pages except for the analytics and monetization features. However, some small features do show impact at the 11th hour of video ranking. 

Action: 

YouTube verifies the feature eligibility of the channel. It also checks the number of hashtags used for the video and if it exceeds 60, as stated by YouTube, they completely discard all the hashtags taking the video to the very first step or ranking. 

Tip#6: 

Make sure to enable advanced features in feature eligibility. It is also a requirement to monetize your channel. Make sure to use hashtags that are only relevant to your video and keep the count under 60. 

With all the YouTube features enabled and by satisfying the three main elements, your video is destined to rank #1 on YouTube. Use this step-by-step guide to achieve the most difficult task. 

Further, YouTube also use the user’s search history and engagement to recommend a video, but following these tips, you could make your video visible to relevant users.

Conclusion:

This ends the definitive guide for how YouTube ranks a video. Not only the inputs you provide to the platform, but also the user engagement and quality impact your ranking. 

The tips suggested in the article can do more than 60% of the required work, whereas the rest depends on some other factors. As previously mentioned, do visit the complete YouTube SEO checklist for reference. 

I hope this helps you in planning your next video. Provide your valuable feedback or views in the comment section. If you have any queries, do comment them and I will get back to you ASAP.