Explaining YouTube SEO & Metadata with a simple analogy

subversiveasset

Posting Mad!
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
473
Reaction score
303
Location
Houston, TX
Channel Type
Musician
I don't claim to be an expert on SEO or metadata, but it seems to me that in threads talking about these subjects, there is a basic misunderstanding that a lot of people have. Based on everything I've read so far, I thought of an analogy to explain SEO & metadata very simply. Please let me know if you think it is accurate or not!

The basic concept is this: YouTube cannot "see" videos.

Think of YouTube as someone who recommends books to his friends. He wants to be known as a good source, so he only wants to recommend people books that they will love. But he has one BIG problem...He never actually reads any books!

Instead, he looks at reviews, looks at book plot summaries, reads the wikipedia page on the book and the author, and then reads the back cover and inside flaps of books. He looks at people's reviews to see how many people finished the book vs how many people put away the book without finishing. He look at the Amazon reviews and the bestseller list to see who books have been purchased the most, as well as which books are coming up in the rankings.

In this analogy, "metadata" represents the stuff about the book that is not the book itself. From this information, he tries to decide whether his friends would like a particular book, what book they might be talking about when they make comments, and so on. Additionally, when people ask him for book recommendations, he uses this "metadata" to determine which books are worth sharing with which people.

In YouTube, instead of an inside flap or a back cover summary, you have several tools to help: for example, you might just explain in sentences and paragraphs what the video is about ("description"). You might give a quick phrase to describe it, draw people in, or raise interest ("title") . You might give them several general topics and words that the video is about ("tags"). And if you speak in the video, you might even give them a transcript so they would know what was said ("submitted subtitles.")

In this analogy, "analytics" represents the sales and popularity data that the non-reader book fan looks at. YouTube does its own research by seeing what people who have already watched the videos already think about it. So they essentially are asking people who watched the video, "Hey, how much of this video did you watch? How many other videos did you watch afterward?" In YouTube terms, this is your "watch time", just one of the many things you can also see in your analytics.

YouTube takes these two things -- "Metadata" and "analytics" -- to determine what topics and search terms are relevant to your videos, and how highly it should rank your videos. YouTube's goal is to maximize watch time for its viewers, so it wants to show its viewers videos that they are likely to enjoy so they will keep watching YouTube.

In the book world, the same person usually isn't writing the inside flap, back cover, book review, and wikipedia page. But in YouTube, you get the control -- it is your job as a creator to write your titles, tags, and descriptions effectively to help YouTube recommend your video to the right audiences.
 

lucagrabacr

I've Got It
Joined
Oct 12, 2015
Messages
162
Reaction score
67
Channel Type
Other
The fact that you have to explain it in a very looooong post kinda makes me think it's not a good analogy that will make people understand SEO better compared to reading about what SEO actually is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jordan Pike

subversiveasset

Posting Mad!
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
473
Reaction score
303
Location
Houston, TX
Channel Type
Musician
The fact that you have to explain it in a very looooong post kinda makes me think it's not a good analogy that will make people understand SEO better compared to reading about what SEO actually is.
hehe, good point. that's probably a fatal flaw.
 

Jordan Pike

YTtalk Mad
Joined
Feb 16, 2016
Messages
370
Reaction score
125
Age
34
Location
Brandon, South Dakota
Channel Type
Vlogger
Haha, I have to agree with lucagrabacr. It's a good analogy. It fits. It was probably fun to think about. And it might actually help certain people wrap their mind around how metadata and analytics are applied to their YouTube videos, but I think for a majority of the people out there, it's just easier to actually read up on these topics to fully understand them. :)

You forgot one thing though, most the 'readers' are just going to judge the book by it's cover. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: lucagrabacr

TheTNGMen

I'm Just a Meme Machine
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
345
Reaction score
180
Age
31
Location
Defending The Alamo
Channel Type
Gamer
Actually I agree that the way he is explaining it is very helpful to people who have not learned much about how general SEO works, especially people who tend to not engage it due to being overwhelmed with technical terms ("Hey I just want to make funny videos"), older generations who are a little out of it ("what the hell is a SEO"), or younger audiances ("I am 12 and have no idea what is happening").

It's the same crap that comes with all other types of learning. Some people just don't get how to do stuff like calculus while others get it immediately. So in order for those who don't get it to understand we break it down into simpler terms that may seem over-complicated to those who already know it (duh cos90 = 1). Well how the hell are you going to explain to a 12 year old what that stuff means, and have them understand it? You give them real life examples that they can relate to in easier terms~

Kudos for the write up subversiveasset
 

Jordan Pike

YTtalk Mad
Joined
Feb 16, 2016
Messages
370
Reaction score
125
Age
34
Location
Brandon, South Dakota
Channel Type
Vlogger
Actually I agree that the way he is explaining it is very helpful to people who have not learned much about how general SEO works, especially people who tend to not engage it due to being overwhelmed with technical terms ("Hey I just want to make funny videos"), older generations who are a little out of it ("what the hell is a SEO"), or younger audiances ("I am 12 and have no idea what is happening").

It's the same crap that comes with all other types of learning. Some people just don't get how to do stuff like calculus while others get it immediately. So in order for those who don't get it to understand we break it down into simpler terms that may seem over-complicated to those who already know it (duh cos90 = 1). Well how the hell are you going to explain to a 12 year old what that stuff means, and have them understand it? You give them real life examples that they can relate to in easier terms~

Kudos for the write up subversiveasset
I understand that. That's why I said this analogy might actually be a better way to go about learning SEO basics for some people. I'm definitely one of those guys that gets math a lot better than other subjects. But basic SEO information isn't challenging to understand. I think you almost need to know the basic SEO info to fully wrap your mind around this analogy. :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheTNGMen

TheTNGMen

I'm Just a Meme Machine
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
345
Reaction score
180
Age
31
Location
Defending The Alamo
Channel Type
Gamer
I understand that. That's why I said this analogy might actually be a better way to go about learning SEO basics for some people. I'm definitely one of those guys that gets math a lot better than other subjects. But basic SEO information isn't challenging to understand. I think you almost need to know the basic SEO info to fully wrap your mind around this analogy. :p
While I do agree this stuff isn't for the basic of basics, I think it does help to serve as a guide to a lot of misconceptions out there. I think of this post as supplementary reading or tutoring more than anything~
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jordan Pike