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How to Optimise Your YouTube Videos for SEO Ranking

Marketing
September 6, 2022
tim saye

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Personal trainers recognize that YouTube is an excellent social media platform for developing and growing their brand. Workout videos and nutrition tips are sought daily, so you'll want to ensure that your videos are featured in these results.

Developing an exciting and impactful video is only half of the battle, though. You also need to make sure your videos are optimised effectively. Otherwise, no one is going to see them in the first place.

With that being said, let's look at some steps you can take to optimize your YouTube videos for SEO.

optimized​​

Step 1. Carry out Keyword Research

The first thing you need to do is determine which keywords you're going to target. A prominent place to start is with the YouTube search tool. When you input a keyphrase, commonly searched related keywords will pop up underneath, which helps you to understand what's in demand.

a image of YouTube search

You should also make sure you're benchmarking against your competitors. Visit channels that are authorities in your niche, whether this is bodybuilding, weight loss, or any other area of personal training.

If they have many views and a good audience, they may adopt good SEO practices and know how to use keywords properly. Look at some of their most popular videos, and examine the descriptions and the tags they use.

Long-tail keywords work well for personal trainers with a small presence.

If you have a small personal training business, long-tail keywords can work very well. They don't have as much competition, so getting into a good position is much easier.

A long-tail keyword is typically longer than three words. For example, "how to get rid of back fat".

Step 2. Choose a Video Title Carefully

This step is one of the most critical aspects of ranking and indexing content on YouTube.

This is the user’s first contact with your video content. It needs to be straight to the point, describe what's in the video, and encourage the user to click on your video.

Step 3. Add Tags to Your YouTube Videos

Personal trainers should also add tags to their videos. Tags are a vital step in YouTube/ Google identifying the subject of the video and the video being indexed effectively. It also helps recommend related videos, which could create another traffic source for your content.

You're given 120 characters in this field. Using between six and eight words is ideal. This will ensure you don't confuse the algorithm by incorporating terms that are too detached from the content.

Step 4. Describe Your Videos Effectively

The description that accompanies your videos should explain what the video is about. While the title needs to be concise, the depiction can be longer and more detailed. You have as many as 5,000 characters for this.

There are two reasons the description is critical for ranking purposes. Firstly, it can act as an instrument of persuasion to get the user to access the video. You can increase engagement and viewership levels with a good video description.

Another reason the description is essential is that it helps YouTube’s algorithm identify the video's content. Therefore, you must ensure the description naturally includes keywords that represent what you cover in the video. This will increase your chances of ranking for those terms.

Step 5. Create Custom Thumbnails for Your Videos

A great thumbnail can considerably boost your traffic and watch times. This will improve your ranking on YouTube and across other search engines, such as Google.

Just think about how often you've been browsing YouTube and stopped in your tracks due to a striking thumbnail. It does make a difference.

If you go for one of the automatic options that YouTube selects for you, you run the risk of an out-of-context still, which will struggle to capture the attention of your ideal clients.

Step 6. Encourage Viewers to Interact With Your YouTube Video

Audience engagement can make a massive difference when gaining visibility across YouTube and search engine result pages.

Because of this, it's crucial to consider different ways to encourage viewers to interact with your video. Aim to encourage likes, comments, channel subscriptions, and video shares. All of these factors influence how your videos rank on YouTube.

One of the best ways to encourage people to comment on your video posts is to answer comments already left. If people feel like they will get a response, they'll be way more inclined to leave a comment in the first place.

Different strategies must also be used to keep people watching your video until the end. For example, you could do a giveaway at the end of the video and tease this throughout.

Step 7. Create Longer Videos

Last but not least, longer videos meet the expectations of people looking for more in-depth and complete content. It is worth investing in videos at least 10 minutes long if the topic calls for them.

Always ensure that the video's nature and topic guide you but don't overlook the prospect of longer videos. You can, for instance, hold an online seminar, record it and then add it to your YouTube Channel. You can also create 15+ minute workout videos for specific goals.

How to Optimise Your YouTube Videos Effectively for SEO?

So there you have it: the 7 steps you need to follow to optimise your YouTube videos effectively for SEO. You can create the most impressive workout and nutrition videos on YouTube, but if you don't optimise them, no one will see them. Putting these steps in place can turn your video content in to a powerful method of attracting clients.

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