Keyword Search Optimizing Help

Hi Guys,

So earlier this week I started my fitness youtube channel. I have prepared hundreds of videos to be uploaded daily on my channel.

I've done alot of research of getting keywords and using the google keyword tool to make my videos relevant for people searching them. Everywhere I look tells me that having lots of tags and high search volume keywords with low competition is what makes youtube channel's successful.

However, I don't know if I'm just being a little impatient, but over the week I've barely gotten any search related views to my videos. The only views I've got were from my facebook page, which consisted of friends and family.

Am I doing the right things? Help would be greatly appreciated.
 
The YTTalk channel link directs me to a nonexistent channel, so I can't really take a look at it to see what you're really doing.

I'm not very familiar with the Google keyword tool. Other than that, as long as you're using phrases for tags and making them relevant, you're on the right track! There are also a bunch of guides here that should help you learn more about what you can do to maximize the potential of your channel.

Oh, and considering you started this week, it'll take some time. It's definitely a matter of patience. Besides optimizing your tags and whatnot, I'd say the next step to getting around would involve being an active member of forums like this one! Definitely look for some fitness forums out there, too, and be a part of the communities (like subreddits, and stuff). Get some constructive criticism on your videos, meet new YouTubers doing what you do, etc.
 
The YTTalk channel link directs me to a nonexistent channel, so I can't really take a look at it to see what you're really doing..
I'm guessing this one is his channel, considering it matches the characters on his YT profile link: channel/UCVFjPasS3S42cXZWt2tb8aw


Here's the thing. Yes, SEO is important, but YouTube involves much more than SEO. You will need engagement as well. That means likes, shares (video embeds), and comments. It's a tough life in the beginning stages of YouTube, but it's how it is for everyone. Look for other outlets in which you can share your videos. Organic view hits aren't going to be coming to you until you've build a decent engagement status. Once you start getting detected by YouTube's algorithm, your SEO tags will mean much more. For the time being, you can work on marketing your channel more or pumping out more and more content for the sake of getting people to find you organically. I can attest that marketing yourself is a much easier outlet.

Outside of that, make better thumbnails and catchier titles.
 
I looked at the metadata for your video "Which Comes First Aerobics Or Weights?" and one of the first things that I noticed was that your description is basically just a laundry list of tags.

"In this video I will be talking about which comes first aerobics or weights, cardio workout, cardio exercise, cardio and weight training, cardio after weights, cardio for weight loss, cardio weight loss, cardio before weights, cardio after lifting, cardio strength, cardio to lose weight, weights before cardio, cardio strength training, cardio after weight training, cardio and weights, cardio and strength training. Cardio before weights. Cardio after weights."​

This is baaaad. It's not human-readable, and in fact, it clearly reads like someone trying to game the system. But secondly, rather than focusing on any one key phrase, it tries to address a ton of key phrases, and so it's dilutes the significance of any of them.

I think that you want to pick a central keyword/phrase and then focus on that. Think about one term that really addresses the subject of your video that people would actually search for, but that isn't overcrowded by so many other videos (here is probably your challenge -- there are already a LOT of fitness videos. So how do you distinguish from the others???)

So, in this case, I would start with your title. Are people searching for the phrase: "what comes first aerobics or weights?" No, not really. (Try typing that in. Does it ever come up as an autosuggestion???)

OK, maybe that's too specific. Maybe just focus on whether people are searching for "aerobics or weights"

If I type "aerobics" in youtube search, there are lots of autosuggestions, but so far, nothing comparing/contrasting to weights. So, I type in "aerobics or"...Again, there's nothing comparing/contrasting to weights, and in fact, the autosuggestions that youtube suggests aren't really about using the word "or" at all (there's some alphabet aerobics original, which is clearly not what you want.)

So, right of the bat, this suggests that your title is not optimized around what people are actually searching for. So, maybe "aerobics" isn't what you should lead with. What's a different possibility? Maybe cardio? So, I start typing "cardio" in youtube search. There are lots of autosuggestions, but so far, nothing about comparing/contrasting to weights. So I type in "cardio b". "Cardio before or after weights" is something like the 7th autosuggestion...not bad. for "cardio be", it's the top suggestion. But if I do "cardio v" then "cardio vs weight training for fat loss" is the top suggested search, and that's a pretty specific "long-tail" keyword. If either of these are applicable to your video, I would consider optimizing around *these* sorts of phrases, rather than "aerobics or weights".

Optimizing the title comes first. You have to pick your specific focus with the title first. (If you start looking at search results, you'll see that youtube *typically* prioritizes exact matches in titles first.) (That being said, youtube ultimately cares about watch time, so if a video with a totally different title can generate more watch time for a given search, then youtube will rank that higher, even if the title/description/tags don't seem to "match")

From there, go into your description. Your description should be human readable -- so it should be key phrases incorporated into readable sentences and paragraphs. Lists are not viewed as "human readable". And again, with key phrases, you should try to focus on a very narrow range. The thing that I'm seeing with your choice of phrases is that you are using a bit of a shotgun approach -- you want to appeal both to the idea of "cardio before weights" AND "cardio workout" AND "cardio exercise" AND "cardio weight loss" AND etc., etc., etc., But you have to ask yourself -- is this video really about comparing and contrasting the timing of cardio vs weights, or is it about specific cardio exercises? Is it about cardio for weight loss or is it about comparing the timing of cardio vs weights? Pick a focus and then develop a description and title around that focus.

But even when you do that, your description should be human readable sentences, preferably with the first 3 sentences being the most relevant. Currently, your first sentence of your description is a link to a survey and a request for people to fill out that survey -- so that's not a very effective use of descriptions. Please note that the first few lines of a description show up in youtube search, and again, you can tell that exact matches are "bolded" by youtube, to highlight that youtube took that into consideration in a particular search query. So, if the first few lines of your description are links to a survey, then there's no search term agreement for youtube to "bold".

Now, to end all of this I want to mention something I said a few paragraphs back. ULTIMATELY, youtube cares about watch time. So, all things equal, a video that drives more watch time will be ranked higher than one that doesn't. However, I think that what youtube does is that it gives every video a probationary period -- for the first few days, youtube still tries to figure out what the rankings should be, so it gives a temporary boost to new videos based on SEO. So getting SEO right is critical for those first few days, but if the first viewers don't stick around, then youtube will then say, "Oh, well, this video doesn't generate watch time, so maybe it shouldn't be rated highly."
 
I looked at the metadata for your video "Which Comes First Aerobics Or Weights?" and one of the first things that I noticed was that your description is basically just a laundry list of tags.

"In this video I will be talking about which comes first aerobics or weights, cardio workout, cardio exercise, cardio and weight training, cardio after weights, cardio for weight loss, cardio weight loss, cardio before weights, cardio after lifting, cardio strength, cardio to lose weight, weights before cardio, cardio strength training, cardio after weight training, cardio and weights, cardio and strength training. Cardio before weights. Cardio after weights."​

This is baaaad. It's not human-readable, and in fact, it clearly reads like someone trying to game the system. But secondly, rather than focusing on any one key phrase, it tries to address a ton of key phrases, and so it's dilutes the significance of any of them.

I think that you want to pick a central keyword/phrase and then focus on that. Think about one term that really addresses the subject of your video that people would actually search for, but that isn't overcrowded by so many other videos (here is probably your challenge -- there are already a LOT of fitness videos. So how do you distinguish from the others???)

So, in this case, I would start with your title. Are people searching for the phrase: "what comes first aerobics or weights?" No, not really. (Try typing that in. Does it ever come up as an autosuggestion???)

OK, maybe that's too specific. Maybe just focus on whether people are searching for "aerobics or weights"

If I type "aerobics" in youtube search, there are lots of autosuggestions, but so far, nothing comparing/contrasting to weights. So, I type in "aerobics or"...Again, there's nothing comparing/contrasting to weights, and in fact, the autosuggestions that youtube suggests aren't really about using the word "or" at all (there's some alphabet aerobics original, which is clearly not what you want.)

So, right of the bat, this suggests that your title is not optimized around what people are actually searching for. So, maybe "aerobics" isn't what you should lead with. What's a different possibility? Maybe cardio? So, I start typing "cardio" in youtube search. There are lots of autosuggestions, but so far, nothing about comparing/contrasting to weights. So I type in "cardio b". "Cardio before or after weights" is something like the 7th autosuggestion...not bad. for "cardio be", it's the top suggestion. But if I do "cardio v" then "cardio vs weight training for fat loss" is the top suggested search, and that's a pretty specific "long-tail" keyword. If either of these are applicable to your video, I would consider optimizing around *these* sorts of phrases, rather than "aerobics or weights".

Optimizing the title comes first. You have to pick your specific focus with the title first. (If you start looking at search results, you'll see that youtube *typically* prioritizes exact matches in titles first.) (That being said, youtube ultimately cares about watch time, so if a video with a totally different title can generate more watch time for a given search, then youtube will rank that higher, even if the title/description/tags don't seem to "match")

From there, go into your description. Your description should be human readable -- so it should be key phrases incorporated into readable sentences and paragraphs. Lists are not viewed as "human readable". And again, with key phrases, you should try to focus on a very narrow range. The thing that I'm seeing with your choice of phrases is that you are using a bit of a shotgun approach -- you want to appeal both to the idea of "cardio before weights" AND "cardio workout" AND "cardio exercise" AND "cardio weight loss" AND etc., etc., etc., But you have to ask yourself -- is this video really about comparing and contrasting the timing of cardio vs weights, or is it about specific cardio exercises? Is it about cardio for weight loss or is it about comparing the timing of cardio vs weights? Pick a focus and then develop a description and title around that focus.

But even when you do that, your description should be human readable sentences, preferably with the first 3 sentences being the most relevant. Currently, your first sentence of your description is a link to a survey and a request for people to fill out that survey -- so that's not a very effective use of descriptions. Please note that the first few lines of a description show up in youtube search, and again, you can tell that exact matches are "bolded" by youtube, to highlight that youtube took that into consideration in a particular search query. So, if the first few lines of your description are links to a survey, then there's no search term agreement for youtube to "bold".

Now, to end all of this I want to mention something I said a few paragraphs back. ULTIMATELY, youtube cares about watch time. So, all things equal, a video that drives more watch time will be ranked higher than one that doesn't. However, I think that what youtube does is that it gives every video a probationary period -- for the first few days, youtube still tries to figure out what the rankings should be, so it gives a temporary boost to new videos based on SEO. So getting SEO right is critical for those first few days, but if the first viewers don't stick around, then youtube will then say, "Oh, well, this video doesn't generate watch time, so maybe it shouldn't be rated highly."

Awesome advice man. I will get started on what you said right away. I'm actually going to save your post into a word document and use it as a resource for each video I upload. I'll let you know how it turns out!
 
I'm guessing this one is his channel, considering it matches the characters on his YT profile link: channel/UCVFjPasS3S42cXZWt2tb8aw


Here's the thing. Yes, SEO is important, but YouTube involves much more than SEO. You will need engagement as well. That means likes, shares (video embeds), and comments. It's a tough life in the beginning stages of YouTube, but it's how it is for everyone. Look for other outlets in which you can share your videos. Organic view hits aren't going to be coming to you until you've build a decent engagement status. Once you start getting detected by YouTube's algorithm, your SEO tags will mean much more. For the time being, you can work on marketing your channel more or pumping out more and more content for the sake of getting people to find you organically. I can attest that marketing yourself is a much easier outlet.

Outside of that, make better thumbnails and catchier titles.

What advice do you have for marketing? Is there a guide that I can follow? I've made myself virtually every social media outlet that I can think of and have been posting on them tips about fitness, my youtube videos, and some articles that I've written on a daily basis. (Maybe I'm just being a little impatient haha )
 
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