Improve Your Video Titles, Tags, and Descriptions to Win Your Audience Over on YouTube
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YouTube may be the go-to platform for video content, but that doesn’t mean your YouTube subscribers are going to forgive you for badly written content on the platform. If you’re serious about promoting business growth through YouTube marketing and want your videos to get more YouTube views, you’re going to have to make sure the meta-data of your video (title, tags, and description) are chosen well so that you can improve your search engine rankings. Get more YouTube views and win more real YouTube subscribers.
This article will examine each of these three aspects of your video meta-data and present you with some of the best practices to improve them.
Video title
You get 100 characters in your video title, which is shortened to 70 characters in search results. Writing a good title for your video is important because it impacts the click-through-rate (CTR) of your video since people will decide to watch it based on the title and thumbnail. SEO is also affected by the title you write, so it makes sense to take efforts to write a good title.
Best practices
Make sure your title has keywords
Having a keyword-rich title is crucial to boost search results on YouTube. Starting your title with your primary keyword and including your headline within the first 70 characters will ensure that it’s seen in search results. Do some research on keywords for your topic or use a keyword generator to make sure you have the right keyword for your video.
Make sure your title is optimized for CTR
A high CTR, will indicate to the YouTube algorithm that people are interested in your content and enable you to get more YouTube views for your videos. To boost CTR with your title:
- Make use of numbers
- Utilize words or phrases that will grab the attention of your YouTube subscribers.
- Don’t be afraid to make an emotionally loaded title.
Don’t make the mistake of using clickbait titles.
Clickbait titles may sound like a good idea, but they’ll only have a negative impact on your channel’s growth. If people drop off early on in your video, it signals to the YouTube algorithm that your video most likely has a clickbait title, resulting in your search rankings being affected.
Let a Headline Analyzer help you out
Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule is one such tool that can help to evaluate your video title and provide you with feedback as well as suggestions for improving your title.
Re-optimize your old videos
Old videos that haven’t fetched you many YouTube views or YouTube subscribers can be re-optimized by making changes to the meta-data of the video. You can identify which videos have the least number of YouTube views and write another title for that video to make it a more compelling one and then check out the results.
Make sure your titles and thumbnails make sense together
People generally make decisions about whether or not to watch a video on YouTube based on the thumbnail and title, so make sure they make sense together and can encourage viewers to click on the video.
Video tags
Video tags on YouTube are certain words and phrases that help to give context to a video. With video tags, you can add up to 500 characters in the tag section with tags having a 30 character limit. Important tags that must be added to your video are:
- Primary keyword
- LSI keywords
- Words describing video content
- Brand and channel tags
Best practices
Make your first tag your target keyword
Tags appearing first tend to be given the most important, so make sure you put the exact target keyword as your first tag.
Mix it up with broad and focused tags
Focused tags give YouTube a clear idea of the topic of your video, but broader tags are also necessary to provide context to your videos. If your video’s primary keyword is “how to do a plank”, the focused tag will be related to the same, but broad tags such as “workout” and “fitness” will help to give context to your video.
Don’t overdo it
The whole idea of using tags is to make it easier to contextualize your video, so stick to 5-8 tags (broad and focused) that can give YouTube a clear idea about your content. Using excessive tags just for the sake of it will actually do more harm than good because it blurs the lines that make it easy for YouTube to determine what your content is precisely about.
Stick to 2-3 words per tag
While this may not always be possible, sticking to 2-3 words per tag has been found to improve SEO for videos on YouTube. Tags that are too short may not provide YouTube with enough information to identify what your content is about, and tags that are too long can just result in information overload and confusion.
Use tools to generate tags
Tools like TagTube and VidIQ Boost can help you come up with the right tags for your videos on YouTube. All you have to do is type in the primary keyword of your video and you’ll receive a list of suggestions of tags you can use for your video.
Use long tail keywords as tags
Long tail variations of your keywords make for great tags that can help put across the point of your video and fetch you more YouTube views.
Make sure your tags are accurate
Don’t just add popular tags for the sake of getting more YouTube views. Using names of celebrities as tags just to boost SEO can have the opposite effect, resulting in your video getting taken down.
Use tags from popular videos
Tags don’t just promote SEO on YouTube, they also give you an opportunity to show up in the recommended videos section of YouTube by matching your content with other popular content on the platform, so you can make use of tags from relevant popular content using TubeBuddy to increase the likelihood of your video showing up in the recommended videos section.
Video description
Video descriptions help to give an idea about the context and content of your video. You get 5000 characters for the video description and while this may be a lot of space, you need to make best use of it to boost your YouTube rankings and attract more real YouTube subscribers.
Best practices
Make the first 3 lines count
If you want to get more YouTube views, you have to make the first 3 lines of your description count. It’s what your YouTube subscribers will see before “see more” appears. This will appear in search results so make sure you include your keywords within these 3 lines, without overdoing it.
Maintain clarity
Make sure your description clearly conveys what the video is about and what your YouTube subscribers and viewers can expect from it. If the description following the first 3 lines is long, make it easier to read by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and break up text using characters such as asterisk. Pick the best keywords that describe your content and make sure they’re included at least 2-3 times in your video description for emphasis. You can also find complementary keywords to add to your description, but just be sure to write in a conversational tone. Don’t just list your keywords out because that won’t fetch you any plus points with YouTube’s algorithm.
Include timestamps
If your video is long and covers different aspects of a topic, use timestamps to help your viewers out. While you may want people to watch the full video, directing people to different sections of your video with timestamps can ease the viewing experience and fetch you more YouTube subscribers.
Include links
Include links to your products and social media handles in the video description so that viewers interested in your content can be directed to these pages. Links can help you see a growth in sales and help you monetize your channel.
Credit other work
If you’ve quoted someone else or used their music in your video, be sure to credit them in the video description as well since this will only increase your credibility among your YouTube subscribers.
Include your CTA
Your video description should include a CTA for what viewers should do next. If you want them to subscribe, check out your brand’s website, share your video, turn notifications on, or check out your products, make sure your description has a clear CTA.
Provide value
Write your descriptions in such a way that viewers will want to watch the video because they’ll see value in it. If your product/service solves a problem that people can relate to, it’s bound to get more YouTube views. People need to believe that watching your video will benefit them in some way so give them a reason to believe it.
Test descriptions on several devices
People may watch your videos from their phones, computer screens, or tablets, so test your descriptions on multiple devices to make sure that keywords don’t get cut off and clarity is maintained.
Conclusion
Excellent video content needs to be complemented by great written content to capture viewers’ attention, get more YouTube subscribers and YouTube views, and boost business growth. While you go about perfecting your video content, make sure you keep these tips in mind to get your titles, tags, and descriptions right. Your viewers will only come back for more.
