Are Tags Worth The Effort?

[MedTerms]

Has anyone else wondered about the constant advice regarding the importance of SEO and tagging? After taking a look at search stats/terms in channel analytics, I'm not convinced half that advice is even relevant anymore. (To be fair, some 'gurus' are now downplaying the importance of tagging).

My observation is that most search traffic still comes from the one basic keyword that is ranked by my SEO tools, as 'too competitive' to be worth it for my niche. Other search terms, long-tailed or not, bring far less traffic (like, by a mile). Also, many of those search terms that do bring a little traffic aren't even the highly ranked ones that I spent time carefully researching.

Am I looking at this wrong?

 

[videoeditgr]

Eh, look it this way:
I follow the rules and I use flash signes when I turn.
Never saw my flash lights,
it is annoying to hear the tic-tac especially when stopped.
Do I really need to use flash signs? XD
Kind more serious, whatever tool you are given (in this case by Youtube) you can use it.
I don't care for gurus and trends, tagging is a common system to all platforms
so I follow it without questioning...
(tbh ...trying to... as long as I have not fullfilled even the 1/10th of my tag related work...)

 

[MedTerms]

Eh, look it this way:
I follow the rules and I use flash signes when I turn.
Never saw my flash lights,
it is annoying to hear the tic-tac especially when stopped.
Do I really need to use flash signs? XD
Kind more serious, whatever tool you are given (in this case by Youtube) you can use it.
I don't care for gurus and trends, tagging is a common system to all platforms
so I follow it without questioning...
(tbh ...trying to... as long as I have not fullfilled even the 1/10th of my tag related work...)

I get you, but what if you use your flashlights and they can't actually be seen by anyone? Rules are supposed to also make sense, no?

 

[videoeditgr]

Seeing your channel creation day, subscribers and views, I would say that people actually see you and your channel
It is the subject maybe that is not so popular as e.g gaming or vlogging or whatever.
That is not to discourage you. In time channels offering knowledge go steady, solid and well known.

As you are into medical terms you can try tagging those terms in different languages so that you will aim
to a more variated viewer community. Nowadays English are so common that if I searched for the route of -phobia
(-φοβια) and you have tagged it as Wikipedia does refer (or in some other popular languages) you could earn viewers
from a variety of countries? Just an idea.

 

[MedTerms]

Seeing your channel creation day, subscribers and views, I would say that people actually see you and your channel
It is the subject maybe that is not so popular as e.g gaming or vlogging or whatever.
That is not to discourage you. In time channels offering knowledge go steady, solid and well known.

As you are into medical terms you can try tagging those terms in different languages so that you will aim
to a more variated viewer community. Nowadays English are so common that if I searched for the route of -phobia
(-φοβια) and you have tagged it as Wikipedia does refer (or in some other popular languages) you could earn viewers
from a variety of countries? Just an idea.

That's a great tip, thanks.

 

[Boris Qs]

Has anyone else wondered about the constant advice regarding the importance of SEO and tagging? After taking a look at search stats/terms in channel analytics, I'm not convinced half that advice is even relevant anymore. (To be fair, some 'gurus' are now downplaying the importance of tagging).

My observation is that most search traffic still comes from the one basic keyword that is ranked by my SEO tools, as 'too competitive' to be worth it for my niche

No one said the Tools are perfect But SEO helps a great deal if you know how

Other search terms, long-tailed or not, bring far less traffic (like, by a mile).

Less Traffic but those who click through to watch the video are people who really looking for that content as opposed to those who just stumble upon the video Like the case is with Generic keywords ...Plus the competition is very low almost nothing which is an opportunity for small channels to get views even how small it is.

Now if you start making many videos targeting long tail keywords that bring small amount of views do you know how many viewers you will be pulling to your channel as a whole ...that's how I grew my channel and I still follow the same strategy till date

Also, many of those search terms that do bring a little traffic aren't even the highly ranked ones that I spent time carefully researching.

Then spend time on those that will bring you viewers who will, with time know, like and love your channel in the meantime while growing...at some point when your channel starts getting hundreds if not thousands of viewers you can start spending time on the type of videos that takes time knowing that there will be viewers

Just my opinions hope it helps

 

[MedTerms]

No one said the Tools are perfect But SEO helps a great deal if you know how


Less Traffic but those who click through to watch the video are people who really looking for that content as opposed to those who just stumble upon the video Like the case is with Generic keywords ...Plus the competition is very low almost nothing which is an opportunity for small channels to get views even how small it is.

Now if you start making many videos targeting long tail keywords that bring small amount of views do you know how many viewers you will be pulling to your channel as a whole ...that's how I grew my channel and I still follow the same strategy till date

Then spend time on those that will bring you viewers who will, with time know, like and love your channel in the meantime while growing...at some point when your channel starts getting hundreds if not thousands of viewers you can start spending time on the type of videos that takes time knowing that there will be viewers

Just my opinions hope it helps

Thanks for your thoughts. Its not so much a question of my channel's specifics, although I used them to illustrate the point I was making. It's a question of whether the methods really have much value (FWIW, I've used 2 SEO tools for a couple months now) or whether they're over-hyped.

 

[PictureFIT]

At your level, it might seem discouraging and simple to think tags aren't worth it because yes, it's true that larger channels will rank higher than you automatically. But they still indeed work. Unfortunately, you're going to be placed well down the totem pole, but it's important to establish a position in the totem pole to begin with. Let your gradual growth slowly creep you towards a higher position and hopefully onto the front page of a popular search tag. For now, you're battling for those people that click on "page 2" and beyond when searching for something. That's okay. That's better than not even showing up for any search words.

And believe it or not, there are still popular keywords out there in your genre that do not have a lot of competition but have search rates. It's up to you to do some digging to see what exactly those tags would be.

 

[MedTerms]

At your level, it might seem discouraging and simple to think tags aren't worth it because yes, it's true that larger channels will rank higher than you automatically. But they still indeed work. Unfortunately, you're going to be placed well down the totem pole, but it's important to establish a position in the totem pole to begin with. Let your gradual growth slowly creep you towards a higher position and hopefully onto the front page of a popular search tag. For now, you're battling for those people that click on "page 2" and beyond when searching for something. That's okay. That's better than not even showing up for any search words.

And believe it or not, there are still popular keywords out there in your genre that do not have a lot of competition but have search rates. It's up to you to do some digging to see what exactly those tags would be.

.

I'm sorry, but nobody seems to be getting the point of the thread. The comment is about a process that gets tons of people selling it everyday. My progress has been great actually, given that the first actual video was published in December 2017, and the retention rate is hovering near 70%. It is not a personal complaint - just an observation that tags (or at least the tag tools I use) don't seem to work as advertised. I still get traffic - just from the opposite sources that my tag tools indicate.

 

[PictureFIT]

What exactly are you critiquing about the process? That long-tails aren't worth it? That basic keywords are the place to go? Why not have both? Is your issue that neither of them provide a substantial benefit? Tags aren't all that effective in the big picture, but they can help. In the beginning, about a third of my views came from matched tag searches.