How to improve SEO

[Khappa MJ]

Hi guys,
i just have a doubt about TubeBuddy and the keywords suggestion tool.
I just uploaded yesterday my last video and set some keywords and it seem to work very well.

My question is: i just set other relevant and not competitive keywords using all the best SEO tools for web without getting the same result, unbelievable.

So i understand that one of the most important factor in youtube SEO is not how that keyword is competitive sho what do you do for SEO? What is your strategy?

 

[Highfalutin' Low Carb]

The thing about SEO is that a lot of people assume it helps compete against your competition. And while in a way it does, most people don’t take into account that SEO only lives within the space of competition. Are you good at SEO? Awesome! But you’ve got 37 other channels vying for the same keywords using similar videos which all have more views, more subscribers, more watch time, more engagement and more history. So, yes, you can spend hours optimizing a video, but don’t go into it assuming other channels haven’t done the EXACT same thing except they have a massive post history that will always trump simple SEO tactics. Yes, these things are important, but the fact is that it is nearly impossible to out-rank a similar video with similar content that starts with more momentum and subscribers than you. I know that sucks to hear, but it’s the truth.

SEO is important, but only to an extent. You will rarely, if ever, outrank a more popular channel for identical content. To the YouTube algorithm, one channel is a known success and one isn’t. YouTube won’t risk losing a watcher by offering unproven content, regardless of how optimized said content is.[DOUBLEPOST=1517515249,1517514592][/DOUBLEPOST]Edited to add:

Looking at your screenshot, there is very little optimization happening here. One single sentence in the video description, a short and non-descriptive video title, and you’re only using a fraction of your allotted tags. Lots of ways to improve this, if optimization is your goal.

 

[evoloz]

The thing about SEO is that a lot of people assume it helps compete against your competition. And while in a way it does, most people don’t take into account that SEO only lives within the space of competition. Are you good at SEO? Awesome! But you’ve got 37 other channels vying for the same keywords using similar videos which all have more views, more subscribers, more watch time, more engagement and more history. So, yes, you can spend hours optimizing a video, but don’t go into it assuming other channels haven’t done the EXACT same thing except they have a massive post history that will always trump simple SEO tactics. Yes, these things are important, but the fact is that it is nearly impossible to out-rank a similar video with similar content that starts with more momentum and subscribers than you. I know that sucks to hear, but it’s the truth.

SEO is important, but only to an extent. You will rarely, if ever, outrank a more popular channel for identical content. To the YouTube algorithm, one channel is a known success and one isn’t. YouTube won’t risk losing a watcher by offering unproven content, regardless of how optimized said content is.[DOUBLEPOST=1517515249,1517514592][/DOUBLEPOST]Edited to add:

Looking at your screenshot, there is very little optimization happening here. One single sentence in the video description, a short and non-descriptive video title, and you’re only using a fraction of your allotted tags. Lots of ways to improve this, if optimization is your goal.

I think i'd slightly disagree with this, I know what your saying and in that sense your correct you cannot compete with the big channels for the common key word rankings. However, I'd argue that trying to do that is just poor SEO i'd be focusing on less competitive but descriptive keyword(s) or phrases that you can rank well for. Just my thoughts though I don't pretend to even slightly understand the algorithm

Completely agree with your ending comments though, non descriptive title, not used all the tags and very short description do not help.

 

[PictureFIT]

Look at SEO as another means to push you a bit closer to exposure. Don't anticipate that it will be a huge game-changer unless you were able to hit a niche content that momentarily had very little competition but lots of interest (e.g. a new game coming out and you were the first to talk about it).

Even though it won't do much for you right away, especially if you're new to YouTube, it's still imperative to learn at least the basics. It will pay out once you do indeed start gaining traction in your growth.

Either way, quality content dictates your success. You can get all the optimization you want, but if no one cares to watch your content, then it's not going to help. Imagine two creators with both making quality content with the same audience size. One had no SEO and the other did. Which one will be better off? Main takeaway is focus on content first, then make sure you get all the nitty gritty down.

 

[Darren Taylor]

SEO is important, but only to an extent. You will rarely, if ever, outrank a more popular channel for identical content. To the YouTube algorithm, one channel is a known success and one isn’t. YouTube won’t risk losing a watcher by offering unproven content, regardless of how optimized said content is.

Bingo!

With video SEO you simply need to accept that you have to target the long tail. Go as niche as niche can be. As long as there is some search volume, then you'll build up slowly as you create more and more content. as you build up the popularity and authority of your channeI, you could start to get more ambitious with the difficulty of the tags you target.

But saying that, I've seen the tags that top YouTubers are targeting via TubeBuddy and even they struggle to rank for about 50% of their tags...

I am only just starting to get views from "suggested" and "search" and I have been on here for 5 and a half months and have created 35 videos.

It takes time to get there, keep pounding away! Every video you create is another shot at views from search.

 

[DIY Reid]

Here's what SEO did for me. Now, compared to other similar videos it may not get as much but it still boosted this video big time. I changed the tags and title in mid November. Don't worry about the spike in mid Auguest as that was because of a paid ad.

 

[Khappa MJ]

Interesting! In my case SEO works for my website , but im using SEO Yoast and that is the best tool, in case of Youtube i got some of my videos at the top of the first page using some generic and logic and common used keyphrases but after few days someone else has beat me down definetely.
Of course for a small channel there is not competition at the moment.

Nothing... ADwords still remain the unique resource able to make a channel running!

 

[Oneandahalfpint]

I don’t believe that you need to go as specific as possible, because you want to be searched, and if you go too specific, for example “how to make pancakes in the dark whilst juggling” might be a bit too specific.(although you would rank immediately for this search term, nobody would search it)

But if you target a keyword phrase that’s slightly different to what’s being overrun then you can still get ranked high and be suggested by the bigger guys. For example, “Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Campaign Walkthrough” has 870,000 video results, now “COD BO3 campaign walkthrough” has 270,000 video results, but they mean the same thing. Try using different phrases to get the same result. Swap out walkthrough for Guide, strategy guide, complete walkthrough. Am I making sense?

 

[Khappa MJ]

I don’t believe that you need to go as specific as possible, because you want to be searched, and if you go too specific, for example “how to make pancakes in the dark whilst juggling” might be a bit too specific.(although you would rank immediately for this search term, nobody would search it)

But if you target a keyword phrase that’s slightly different to what’s being overrun then you can still get ranked high and be suggested by the bigger guys. For example, “Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Campaign Walkthrough” has 870,000 video results, now “COD BO3 campaign walkthrough” has 270,000 video results, but they mean the same thing. Try using different phrases to get the same result. Swap out walkthrough for Guide, strategy guide, complete walkthrough. Am I making sense?

oh ya ya, you're right man. You know sometimes keyword/phrase cannot be too specific otherwise we take risk to go out of video content. As you said we have to try with different keyworks bases on how our video/channel is popular.