How to choose the best tags to promote your YouTube video?
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Did you know 500 hours of video are uploaded every minute on YouTube worldwide? How do you stand out from this sea of content and become a successful YouTuber with a continually growing viewership and YouTube subscriber base? Let’s face it. You may have the best content in the market but it will all be for nothing if people can’t find it to actually ‘see’ it. This is where YouTube hashtags play an important role in getting your business the right visibility.
So, what are YouTube Hashtags?
YouTube hashtags or video tags are words and phrases that let your audience know what your videos are about. You can include them in your video title, and they can help your content appear in the relevant search results. In other words, when people type keywords in the YouTube search bar, the videos that are tagged using those specific keywords will show up.
Why should I use YouTube Hashtags?
If you want to amplify your YouTube video’s reach, hashtags can help you achieve this goal. When you use a hashtag, YouTube can grasp the topic and category of your content. It further associates it with similar content and this semantic search works in your favor overall to grab more views for your channel.
Similar to keyword research in SEO that you incorporate in your written content, YouTube hashtags work on the same principle. The algorithm pushes your video to more viewers and helps gain real YouTube subscribers.
YouTube Tags Best Practices
You may consider these best practices to boost your YouTube subscriber growth and increase your channel’s viewership:
1. Pay attention to your target keyword
Important things first – including your target keyword in your YouTube video’s title is what may help you get a top ranking for that particular keyword. So, make sure your first tag on the video you upload is what you are targeting and want the audience to see.
Additionally, limiting the target keyword to 60 characters is a good way to avoid it from getting chopped off in the result pages. Crisp hashtags make it easier for the audience to keep track of your posts and make them more clickable.
2. Use broad keywords that touch on the theme of your video
It is good to have a few broad keywords as YouTube hashtags. These keywords define the overarching topic of your YouTube video and help YouTube categorize it. For example, you are looking to upload a video on ‘How to play a guitar, you may want to add ‘guitar’ as a broad hashtag. This can allow YouTube to know your video is about a guitar.
For an increase in real YouTube subscribers, you must also aim to rank related keywords. Long-tail keywords (containing three words or more) offer valuable leads for your business. Similar to other social media platforms, long-tail keywords generate better results in most SEO campaigns.
3. Don’t go overboard with hashtags
The idea behind using YouTube hashtags is to let the algorithm figure out what your video is talking of. This allows it to show your video in the right results when a user is looking for content like yours. If you use too many keywords, it can do more damage than good by confusing the algorithm.
Research shows any number between 15 and 20 hashtags is fine, provided it doesn’t include any irrelevant or confusing hashtags. Choosing your hashtags wisely can broaden your content’s reach as YouTube places it under similar video categories. If you use irrelevant hashtags to garner more views on your video, Google may penalize you for it.
4. Learn from the best in the business
Don’t know where to begin with YouTube hashtags? A good starting point can be to look at your competitor’s YouTube channel and study the hashtags they are using. You can understand the trending keywords/hashtags, ones that work and others that are not worth it.
Not all hashtags may be that promising and align perfectly with your end goals. You can perform a quick check to see the kind of content that pops up when you consider a hashtag choice. Envision how it bodes with the content you are creating to lure more YouTube subscribers and then finalize the ones that fit best.
5. Draw inspiration from auto-suggest
Remember the auto-suggest that drops down when you start typing in the YouTube search bar? That’s your inspiration right there. No better option than YouTube itself to guide you in the right direction when it comes to keywords.
Simply start typing your search term and you will come across the most popular search terms related to that topic that the audience types. When you grasp what most people tend to search for, it automatically becomes easier to zero in on the right keywords for your business. For example, if you give piano lessons online, you may type ‘how to play the piano,’ and the auto-suggest will throw more keywords that you can choose from.
Tips and Tricks to Make the Most of Your Tags
We have outlined some important tips and tricks to make the most of your YouTube tags while crafting your YouTube marketing strategy:
1. Use keyword variations
Often, your audience may alter the sequence of the keywords to find the right YouTube video. For example, instead ofhow long to boil pasta’ they may type ‘boil pasta for how long’. This makes it crucial that you take into account keyword variations. So, no matter what the audience chooses to type in the search bar your video shows in the results.
2. Use singular and plural forms of keywords
It is a wise idea to integrate both the singular and plural forms of your target keywords so you appear in the search results of both. You don’t want to lose potential YouTube views because you only had either one of the combinations to promote your YouTube video. Suppose, someone was looking for how to change a flat tire. Your YouTube tags can be ‘change flat tires’ and ‘how to change a flat tire’ both.
3. Use a target keyword to rename your file
If your content’s file name before uploading it on YouTube resembles this ‘business_ad_005FINAL.mov’, we may have a problem. YouTube’s crawlers can’t physically watch the content of your video to correlate the target keywords with it. But it can ‘read’ your video’s filename when you upload it. If your keyword is ‘house cleaning tips’, that’s what your YouTube video file name should reflect.
4. Create your own branded hashtags
YouTube hashtags can be a rabbit hole, you know it. They can draw your audience away from your video if they click a hashtag and find a better video that offers them what they want. This is why it’s a smart move to create your own branding hashtags that will only lead to the content on your YouTube channel. For example, #AskGaryVee, #JimmyFalon or #GordonRamsay are great examples that show when the audience clicks on these YouTube hashtags, it will lead them to more content of the same channel.
Where Can I Get the Most Relevant YouTube Hashtags?
1. Keywordtool.io
This is one of the most popular keyword generators out there which can drive results. All you have to do is type a target keyword in its search bar and it will give you the recommended keywords and its search volume. You can also see how a particular keyword has trended in the last 12 months.
2. Rapidtags
This leading YouTube hashtag generator works quickly to generate the right video tags for your YouTube videos. You can enter a seed keyword and Rapidtags will come up with a bunch of related tags for you. The best part about using this keyword generator is that it makes copying the texts from the screen to another file very easy.
3. TubeBuddy
This mobile app and browser extension is YouTube certified and offers amazing features on top of YouTube’s website. From video SEO and channel optimization to tag management and keyword research it comes loaded with features to drive success. You can find, view, extract and copy tags from your competitor’s video and use them in your SEO campaigns.
4. VidIQ
VidIQ is ideal for YouTubers looking to grow their channels and extend their brand awareness. From analytics and video SEO to video scoring and keyword management, this YouTube certified app can work wonders for your subscriber growth.
Final Thoughts
The internet is flooded with content more than ever before. Unfortunately, this means no matter how good you are at making useful content, it won’t be fruitful if you don’t promote it well. YouTube hashtags are an excellent way to promote your channel, drive more traffic and increase your YouTube subscribers. Using the right hashtags can boost your rankings by allowing more people to find your videos in the right search results. However, remember to not overdo the hashtags, keep them within the optimal character limit and align with your business directly.
