SEO Experiment Results: Title is More Important than Tags

Munchito696

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So I just did another experiment on a video I did a couple months ago to see how to optimize a similar video I'm going to make today. Before I added the bottom 6 tags in the picture, searching for "dog barking at dogs on TV" my video did not show up on the first two pages of search results even with all of the other tags in there. Once I added those bottom 6 tags, my video made it to the second page of results.

Next, I changed the title from "Dalmatian vs. Dog and Cat Videos on YouTuBe" to what the current title says. Then I did the exact same search and now my video is on the front page, so the title obviously had stronger results than tags do. Even searching for the exact term in my tags did not result in front page results; my title does not even match the search term verbatim, but it includes just about every word in the search term so it boosted it to the top.

I even went a step further and kept that title and removed the bottom 6 tags to see if title + tags may yield better results. The result was that my video stayed on the front page of results, so this pretty much proves that title is more important than tags and they do not really add together to boost results.

I have found the same results in the past when experimenting with SEO. From my experience, Title is 1st, Tags are 2nd, and Description is 3rd when it comes to importance in showing up in search results. You just need to think of what vague searches people may do to find something like your video and include those key words in your title and tags. I think adding variations in the tags is helpful just in case people get specific with their searches. Just experiment with it, I hope this is helpful info!
SEO.jpg
 

Riddikore

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I agree, my experiments have shown 1st = Title, 2nd = First line of description, 3rd = Tags. And I'm sure a combination of all 3 helps even more.
 
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Talooka

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Thanks for the info! Will definitely be using this in my videos in the future.
 

Munchito696

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Thanks for the info! Will definitely be using this in my videos in the future.
You can even do it to videos you already have uploaded. The one I did this recent one on has been up for a couple months and now I've managed to get it bumped way up in search results.
 

Seano1

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Thanks for doing the experiment! I should change some of the info on my videos and see what happens...
 

Munchito696

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Thanks for doing the experiment! I should change some of the info on my videos and see what happens...
Just try doing a general search term that has to do with your video and see where your video ranks. Once you change anything do the same exact search to see where it moves. There are other factors that I don't really understand that play a factor as well, but you can definitely see the search result rank move each time you change something.
 
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Seano1

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Just try doing a general search term that has to do with your video and see where your video ranks. Once you change anything do the same exact search to see where it moves. There are other factors that I don't really understand that play a factor as well, but you can definitely see the search result rank move each time you change something.
Very interesting... Thanks, I will have to see what happens. I have noticed before when I post a new video its shows better in the ranks, but after time it goes lower in rank. Probably because it did not get a lot of views.
 

ApexxWolf

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Agreed! All are important for sure but I think the Title is the most important. I changed one of my titles to a simpler and more relevant one and the results improved a fair bit :)