Keywords in Title/Description/Tags experiment (useful for a starting youtuber)

Altervoid

New Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
15
Age
30
Channel Type
Youtuber
Hi! I just recently started my own youtube channel and as my videos gained no views at all, I started researching tags and keywords. What I learned is, that you are supposed to use phrases rather than one-word keywords as a starting youtuber, because people can find you better that way. For example, if you write "game" in your tags and search for it, there are millions of videos, but if you write "game location all secrets" for example, there aren't that many videos right? So people can find you better.

Okay, so I changed most of my tags into phrases with this rule in mind. But still no views. I tried to search my vids using the exact same phrase to no avail, not even a single phrase found my video (I tried going to page 27 every time with every phrase), that's strange I thought. So I did an experiment on 3 phrases from 3 different videos (I will refer to phrase as a tag from now on) and fyi I searched all tags in Incognito mode, so search results are valid in general (no cookies or history intervening):

experiment 1:
  • Tag added to the video = can't find vid (not even when filtering "This Week" and going to page 27)
  • Tag added to the Description = video found on page 24
  • Moved Tag to the end of long description, same result
  • Tag added to the Title = video found on page 8
  • Tag added to the Desc. and Title = video found on page 7 It is probably a bad Tag overall, because page 7 is still bad. So I tried less played game with less videos on YT.
experiment 2:
  • Tag added to the video = video found on page 7
  • Tag added to the Description = video found on page 6
  • Moved Tag to the end of long description, same result
  • Tag added to the Title = video found on page 3 Nice, but I can do better, so I tried once more.
experiment 3:
  • Tag added to video = video found on page 3
  • Tag added to Description = video found on first page (12th from top)
  • Moved Tag to the end of long description, same result
  • Tag added to Title = video found on first page (5th from top) 5th from top is a pretty good result I would say!
So what did I learn:
  • Biggest result came from having tag in Title, then Description and then in Keywords
  • Only keywords without the tag in Desc. or Title did almost nothing
  • Position of tag in description does NOT matter
  • You should try to add some tags you feel strong about to the video description BUT do not add all your keywords one after another, that is against Youtube guidelines. Instead work your tags in the text, talk about the video and its content, it really helps.
  • Adding tag to the Title helps a lot, but be careful with it. Title full of tags is no good and do not fall into clickbait. I would say take one tag that describes the video well and add it to the title.
Some more helpful tips I learned (but not tested):
  • Position in Tags does not matter
  • File name of a video you upload matters, so try to name your files with title you will give to the video

Hope this helps you if you're starting just like me or if you're struggling to get some views. Maybe this all is obvious to some of you, but I didn't know it and it would have been helpful for me when I started uploading videos.

Thank you for reading this and good luck to you all!
 

mikeliveslife

Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
21
Reaction score
4
Age
29
Hey thanks for sharing. What are the differences between the tags(phrases) in experiment 1, 2 and 3?
 
  • Like
Reactions: PickleStar

Altervoid

New Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
15
Age
30
Channel Type
Youtuber
Hey thanks for sharing. What are the differences between the tags(phrases) in experiment 1, 2 and 3?
I just used less and less competitive tags. This whole thing was not about differences between these 3 experiments, but about how much it can help you IF you got right tag.

So in experiment 1 I got a really bad tag, for example "Doom". There are hundreds of videos about Doom, it is really popular and the tag for that reason is too competitive, I would end up on page 7 even after adding tag to title, desc. and keywords. But if I use something less competitive like "Doom level 3 secrets" and add it to title and desc., I end up pretty high!

So the main thing is:
  • Good tags (not competitive) without adding it to desc. and title will not usually work (for a small youtuber)
  • Adding bad tags (too competitive) to the desc. and title will not help either
Combine both to get the best result!
 

UnboxingSve

Loving YTtalk
Joined
May 1, 2017
Messages
269
Reaction score
107
Location
Abu Dhabi
Channel Type
Reviewer
Wait. Video file name that you are uploading matters to youtube search? Are you sure about that? Why will that matters? Yes, you are right about longer tags. They will help small YouTubers like us. BUT, they will still not rank well if your video has very fewer views for example <100. So immediately after you upload video use social networks, Reddit and other ways of promoting to gain some views. That will help your tags to rank better. For example, my video about SMOOTH Q stabilizer had 0 ranked tags and after it gained more than 300 views it started to rank better and better, and now it is over 1.4k views in only one week (and I have 200subsc). With tag smooth-q now it is in second place, in front of some videos that have more than 200k views.
For the end, as you find out, always combine as much as possible important words in Title, Description, and Tags. The combination of all three is important.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samira

OrbitGuy

Loving YTtalk
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
262
Reaction score
158
Channel Type
Gamer
Good stuff, you are totally right about putting the keyword in the title of your video. Partly why it works is because it makes the video the most relevant to the person who searched that keyword because it has an exact match in the title and therefore it gets a boost above the other videos that don't even if those channels have more subscribers it doesn't matter as much as the exact keyword match.

I was watching Brian G and he was talking about some of this in his recent videos/livestreams and how it's such a good way to craft your videos based around these longer keywords and then use the longer keyword as the title for the video if it makes sense. It may let you rank above people who seem like they would have more channel authority than you do because you have the exact match.

I've noticed a lot of my most popular videos all used a major multi-word keyword for a game in the title. Usually something that had less competition but was also getting searched for, like I would take the major keyword(name of the game) and add stuff like "chest opening", or "survival mode tips". This is a very powerful strategy to take advantage of YouTube search for easy views. You can type stuff into the YouTube search bar and see what it shows people are searching for to get more ideas of what multi-word keywords you could use.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Manyo Show

Altervoid

New Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
15
Age
30
Channel Type
Youtuber
@UnboxingSve I was told by quite a lot youtubers in forums and I read that at a few articles about Youtube SEO. I haven't tested having filename different, if it really helps or if it is just what people think, so no, I'm not sure about that one. That's why it is under "not tested" list. I started doing this, like if it works than great and if not, it doesn't take much time just to rename the file right?

Again people thought that it matters where in description you put the keyword and it doesn't matter. It can be at the top and also at the bottom of long article. Same thing with a position of keyword in tags, it doesn't matter even though big youtubers with SEO tutotials like Derral Eves and Video Creators said it matters. Not only them, articles, other people in forums etc. said it matters. Maybe it mattered before, but not now. That is tested.

I would love to hear someone tested the filename thing if it helps or not. But that would require either to upload the same video (with same title, desc. and tags) twice and see how it ranks or make like 10 similar videos and 5 of them with general filename (part01.avi) and 5 with title in filename, that would be interesting to do.

@OrbitGuy Exactly! You need to pick the right keyword with not enough competition but still being searched and put it in title, desc. and tags. And for a small youtuber especially multi-word keywords are the best. Taking some time doing research on those tags really pays off. If someone struggles with views, not getting any or very little, I would suggest instead of recording more videos to spend some time searching for tags and optimizing your title/desc.
 

EVO

I Love YTtalk
Joined
Sep 20, 2016
Messages
2,239
Reaction score
1,479
Age
40
Location
London, UK
Channel Type
Youtuber
Nice write up dude.
I also save my video on my computer desktop with the same title. So when I upload the video the title is already input for me. I will also use the same title within my description and tags. So 4 times used as I see it. And it always ranks as number 1.
 

mikeliveslife

Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
21
Reaction score
4
Age
29
That's awesome guys. What about combining 2 long keywords into 1 title?
For example: How to make your voice deeper | Deepen your voice in 3 steps.
1st keywork | 2nd keyword. Would that be better then title with just 1 keyword?
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Manyo Show

Altervoid

New Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
15
Age
30
Channel Type
Youtuber
That's awesome guys. What about combining 2 long keywords into 1 title?
For example: How to make your voice deeper | Deepen your voice in 3 steps.
1st keywork | 2nd keyword. Would that be better then title with just 1 keyword?
I would say yes. Didn't test this, but theoretically the best would be to write all tags in your title. Of course you can't do that and if you could, it would look terrible.

I always try to combine 2 - 3 keywords to my title (depends on the length) and I try to make 1 keyword eye-catching, make it something I personally would click on (or I think people would click). That way I have 1 - 2 keywords to rank better, so people can find the video and 1 keyword just to catch attention. Not doing clickbait of course, just converting numb generic title to an interesting title.

Because your video can be ranked very well (top 3), but still with low or no views, you still need to catch attention of potencial viewer with title and thumbnail.