How to SEO - Titles Descriptions and Tags (Full guide with example)

Gamayun

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thanks for the feedback. glad you enjoyed the lengthy read :). as for thinking about SEO before you even make the video. i didn't want to go too into that because for a lot of people, they just want to make the content they want to make regardless of if it gets 10 views or a million views. everyone wants their work to be found, but not everyone wants to adapt their work to get found if that makes any sense[DOUBLEPOST=1468245772,1468245557][/DOUBLEPOST]

i don't think you can really aim for goals like that. some videos will do better than others. some videos have a lifespan - for example a game or movie review will drop hugely in views after a month or so. some videos are whats called evergreen, a funny game montage or a comedy skit. videos that will continuously gain views and not become out of date.

what sort of videos do you make? whats your channel name so i can look it up?
I have an educational videos - abc 123 playhouse
 
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Loki Doki

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I have an educational videos - abc 123 playhouse
well your videos are definitely evergreen so thats good. i think your only issue will be that a lot of the videos look and feel very similar. all those ABC videos will be competing with themselves to get those 2k views per video per week. maybe you could do a alphabet series. each episode is just one letter, so A would be learning about some of the useful A Words. i think you just need to mix it up a bit more. just my opinion of course. your more of an expert in that area than me
 
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Gamayun

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well your videos are definitely evergreen so thats good. i think your only issue will be that a lot of the videos look and feel very similar. all those ABC videos will be competing with themselves to get those 2k views per video per week. maybe you could do a alphabet series. each episode is just one letter, so A would be learning about some of the useful A Words. i think you just need to mix it up a bit more. just my opinion of course. your more of an expert in that area than me
I am working on video like that. Need to draw more images to do so. I am changing tags in few videos every 2 weeks and watch for changes.
 
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Mikes

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Thanks so much for this! I think one of my main problems is that I struggle to find some sort of niche. Sure, I do have some sort of audience, but I do want to gain more, and it seems like everything I'm trying isn't working.

So, based on what you told me, I'd say my first step is to try to make my titles a little more specific. For example, I play Super Smash Bros., and always use a certain character online, but considering I hardly see many people on YouTube play the character, I try to make my tags as specific and full of phrases as possible, but perhaps I need to make the titles more specific, too.

Do you know if having long titles would be bad for SEO?
 
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Little World View

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Golden ticket advice. Thanks. I need to do much better with the tags and description that I have. Why is it the most I important part is the one I don't feel like putting much effort into. I struggle with finding tags a lot since I basiclly make an animated rant about various topics. My first video is about why I hate the zoo and honesty not sure how many people actually search the word zoo on YouTube :S. Like 75 percent of my views with my first video came from mostly reddit. I'm sure I'm going to need this to change to have any success on YouTube.
 
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Loki Doki

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Thanks so much for this! I think one of my main problems is that I struggle to find some sort of niche. Sure, I do have some sort of audience, but I do want to gain more, and it seems like everything I'm trying isn't working.

So, based on what you told me, I'd say my first step is to try to make my titles a little more specific. For example, I play Super Smash Bros., and always use a certain character online, but considering I hardly see many people on YouTube play the character, I try to make my tags as specific and full of phrases as possible, but perhaps I need to make the titles more specific, too.

Do you know if having long titles would be bad for SEO?
yes you've nailed it. instead of "Super smash bros gameplay" as an example of a title use "super smash bros Mario <insert name of special move> kills" etc you get my point, i dont play super smash bros as is painfully obvious :)

long titles are fine for SEO allows you to get more keywords in it. the downside of having a long title is it makes it harder to read for viewers to read. they might not take the time to read it all if it gets too long, and its annoying on mobile[DOUBLEPOST=1468333094,1468332538][/DOUBLEPOST]
Golden ticket advice. Thanks. I need to do much better with the tags and description that I have. Why is it the most I important part is the one I don't feel like putting much effort into. I struggle with finding tags a lot since I basiclly make an animated rant about various topics. My first video is about why I hate the zoo and honesty not sure how many people actually search the word zoo on YouTube :S. Like 75 percent of my views with my first video came from mostly reddit. I'm sure I'm going to need this to change to have any success on YouTube.
yeah some videos are difficult to tag right. that goes back to the planning of the video. i watched the zoo video and its great, but its not the sort of thing people will be actively searching for. your video is more likely to go viral through sharing twitter/reddit etc

if you can plan your idea's around an actual search, lets say you wanted to make a video about mcdonalds, you know you can work with some obvious youtube searches. such as "is mcdonalds healthy" "is mcdonalds unhealthy" "is mcdonalds too expensive" "is mcdonalds clean" etc. these things people are actively searching for, which then allows you to tailor a video to those searches before you even start the video

people think SEO starts after video creation, but in should start at the same time as your thinking of idea's for your next video. got an idea? cool, do some youtube searches. do some research, look at tags on popular videos, work out how people could find your video. if its a subject that you realise won't be searched for. then either ditch the idea. adapt it to fit some searches. or create the video and promote the hell out of it on twitter/reddit etc
 
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Killerzeus

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Awesome guide, and well explained steps through it all. Will have to read through it a few times to learn it all :)
 
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xingcat

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A very thorough and thoughtful post. Thanks for writing all that out.
 
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Kirgle

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Ha nice!
Best advice thread I have seen on here for ages.
For some reason people seem to hint at how to do things but keep the mechanics a guarded secret. Like when people proclaim reddit to be a great source of views but clam up when asked how to use it. I just tell em exactly the way I use it when asked - You just laid it all out - bare bones - Love it!

Your a champ.

I have seen mentions of Tube Buddy several times, but from what you have shown, I might give it a spin.
 
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