Tags experiment

[CallofBooty]

I did an experiment where I uploaded the same video over and over again trying different things. I found a four word tag which only had 15,000 results, so it was easy to rank in. Every time, I deleted the video, and re-uploaded again with different variations. This was all done in incognito mode.

I uploaded the video with the same 4 word title, description, tag, and ranked first on the exact search, and 2-45 on a few 3 word combinations of the 4 word tag. Removing the description, or tags separately made no difference at all in the ranking. Removing both the description and tags, I still ranked 1 on exact search, but on other searches I dropped by 1 rank. So, title is by far the most important. I tried a compound tag, and separate words, made no difference in ranking. In one test, I kept the title the same, but made an irrelevant description, with random, but unique tags. None of the words were from the title. I ranked the same on all the tested search terms, but on one I got a rank lower.

Then I changed the title to a different 4 word tag, which was also easy to rank in. The description and tags were the same as before. For the new tag, I ranked easily on many 3 word combinations. For the old terms however, I dropped a lot in the rankings. I then repeated it without the tags, but kept the description, it had zero effect. Next I put back the tags, but deleted the description, and now I couldn't find my video at all for the old search terms. So new title, old tags and description, made a big drop in rankings for the old keywords, and once the description was removed, I couldn't find the video at all.

Next I repeated the experiment keeping the old 4 word title, but this time I made a long drawn out description, mentioning each of the keywords several times, For tags I used a combination of long tail tags, and single words, and even irrelevant words. It made no effect from when I just had the 4 word description and tag, in one of the searches I improved by 3 spots. Then I changed the title to the new one from the previous test and repeated it. This time I dropped by about 10 spots in the ranking. So if you spam tags that are in the title/description, it seems to be ok, but if you are spamming tags and description that aren't part of the title, I think it will negatively affect you.

Finally, I found a four letter tag which only had 10 search results. I used it as my tag. No matter what I did, I could not show up in the search results for this tag as long as it was left out of the title and/or description. So if you put PewDiePie in your tags, but it isn't part of the title or description, you might think you are one of the millions of results when people search PewDiePie, but you probably aren't.

 

[Msd]

I did an experiment where I uploaded the same video over and over again trying different things. I found a four word tag which only had 15,000 results, so it was easy to rank in. Every time, I deleted the video, and re-uploaded again with different variations. This was all done in incognito mode.

I uploaded the video with the same 4 word title, description, tag, and ranked first on the exact search, and 2-45 on a few 3 word combinations of the 4 word tag. Removing the description, or tags separately made no difference at all in the ranking. Removing both the description and tags, I still ranked 1 on exact search, but on other searches I dropped by 1 rank. So, title is by far the most important. I tried a compound tag, and separate words, made no difference in ranking. In one test, I kept the title the same, but made an irrelevant description, with random, but unique tags. None of the words were from the title. I ranked the same on all the tested search terms, but on one I got a rank lower.

Then I changed the title to a different 4 word tag, which was also easy to rank in. The description and tags were the same as before. For the new tag, I ranked easily on many 3 word combinations. For the old terms however, I dropped a lot in the rankings. I then repeated it without the tags, but kept the description, it had zero effect. Next I put back the tags, but deleted the description, and now I couldn't find my video at all for the old search terms. So new title, old tags and description, made a big drop in rankings for the old keywords, and once the description was removed, I couldn't find the video at all.

Next I repeated the experiment keeping the old 4 word title, but this time I made a long drawn out description, mentioning each of the keywords several times, For tags I used a combination of long tail tags, and single words, and even irrelevant words. It made no effect from when I just had the 4 word description and tag, in one of the searches I improved by 3 spots. Then I changed the title to the new one from the previous test and repeated it. This time I dropped by about 10 spots in the ranking. So if you spam tags that are in the title/description, it seems to be ok, but if you are spamming tags and description that aren't part of the title, I think it will negatively affect you.

Finally, I found a four letter tag which only had 10 search results. I used it as my tag. No matter what I did, I could not show up in the search results for this tag as long as it was left out of the title and/or description. So if you put PewDiePie in your tags, but it isn't part of the title or description, you might think you are one of the millions of results when people search PewDiePie, but you probably aren't.

So in the end, you can put as many keywords and tags and it helps your as long as it's relevant and the title is the biggest impact on your video? just to make sure!

 

[WilliamRayWalters]

I did an experiment where I uploaded the same video over and over again trying different things.

This post needs to get more likes. Good job doing some research here and sharing it with us. It is truly appreciated by all (yes I will speak for everyone).

First of all...is it possible that rather than having an effect on search results, that the tags could possibly have an affect on suggested video ranking (if not immediately (which is unlikely with suggested videos) then at a later time)?

Secondly, I would also like to have seen how adding a fifth word (like '2015') to the original 4 word title would have affected the search ranking for that 4 word phrase. Since your 4 word title only resulted in good to decent rankings for combinations of the other 3 words, I can only assume that adding a 5th word to the title would drop the ranking of the original 4 word phrase. It would be interesting to see if adding a word at the end would affect the ranking more than adding the same word at the beginning.

You did very nice work here and I am really impressed.

 

[Sabrina]

No matter what I did, I could not show up in the search results for this tag as long as it was left out of the title and/or description.

I've experienced something similar, couldn't even rank for a 5 word phrase that was both a tag and the first line of the description. However, bigger channels (with better watch time, I assume) do it all the time. For instance, if I search "parallel universe" (incognito), the TomSka sketch titled "Meanwhile" appears as #4.

 

[CallofBooty]

This post needs to get more likes. Good job doing some research here and sharing it with us. It is truly appreciated by all (yes I will speak for everyone).

First of all...is it possible that rather than having an effect on search results, that the tags could possibly have an affect on suggested video ranking (if not immediately (which is unlikely with suggested videos) then at a later time)?

Secondly, I would also like to have seen how adding a fifth word (like '2015') to the original 4 word title would have affected the search ranking for that 4 word phrase. Since your 4 word title only resulted in good to decent rankings for combinations of the other 3 words, I can only assume that adding a 5th word to the title would drop the ranking of the original 4 word phrase. It would be interesting to see if adding a word at the end would affect the ranking more than adding the same word at the beginning.

You did very nice work here and I am really impressed.

I'll try that soon. For now, I tried adding it to the searches. I noticed that with adding 2015 to the search, the ranks improved. Putting 2015 before the other search words had the best result than putting it in the middle or the end. I did it with random, irrelevant tags, and descriptive tags that were relevant to the title. The relevant tags yielded better results.

Then, I tired to search with original 4 words plus another random word, and I couldn't find my video at all now. So I tried to search for "25" + plus 4 words from title, it worked again, 25 is today's date, which is when I uploaded the video. I tried other numbers, words, nothing worked. Not even 8, which is august. For the extra words I added, there were only a handful of results, and then suggested videos, and youtube didn't bother to include my video in any of those. So it seems youtube keeps track of the day and year when you upload the video, and searching for those number ranks your video higher. With typing 2015 25 + 2 words from title, I actually showed up on the first page of the results, where as before, I couldn't find my video by only searching 2 words.

I then added a random word to the tags, but kept it out of the title and description. I searched for title + that word. I still didn't show up. Searching for something that isn't part of the title or description doesn't show your video in the results, even if you type out the title exactly + add stuff to it. So basically, I can safely say that tags don't make you show up in searches, they do drop you in rankings if they are irrelevant though. I will test more on how tags affect my results. My goal now is to try to rank high on the 3 word variations of the 4 word title.

I also noticed that the order in which you type the search words is important. The number of results varies as you change the order. My video ranks higher if I type the search in the right order. Even with the 4 word search, random order, my video was 2-3 in the rankings, the first video had 1,000,000 views, and only 2 words matched.

I will also try to upload 2 videos on two different channels. Same title, same description, same tags. I will see how they rank in search, and I will see if they show up in each others related videos.[DOUBLEPOST=1440551132,1440551032][/DOUBLEPOST]

I've experienced something similar, couldn't even rank for a 5 word phrase that was both a tag and the first line of the description. However, bigger channels (with better watch time, I assume) do it all the time. For instance, if I search "parallel universe" (incognito), the TomSka sketch titled "Meanwhile" appears as #4.

Hmm, well I was able to rank for a 4 word phrase that wasn't in the title, but in the description. In fact, I even ranked on 3 out of the 4 terms.

 

[WilliamRayWalters]

I'll try that soon.

How soon do you see a change in the search results when making these changes?

 

[CallofBooty]

How soon do you see a change in the search results when making these changes?

I'm not making the changes. I delete the video, and re-upload it. Hopefully it doesn't affect anything. But I will try making changes, for which I know the outcome, and see how soon they will apply.

 

[WilliamRayWalters]

I'm not making the changes. I delete the video, and re-upload it. Hopefully it doesn't affect anything. But I will try making changes, for which I know the outcome, and see how soon they will apply.

I love it...you're like YTTalk's little guinea pig. But seriously, we appreciate the time you're taking to run these experiments.

 

[CallofBooty]

I love it...you're like YTTalk's little guinea pig. But seriously, we appreciate the time you're taking to run these experiments.

Hehe, well I'm doing it for my self as well. Plus it's pretty interesting to see these results. I'm surprised by some of them.

Well, I added an extra word to the original title, just another random word. It didn't make any difference at all to any of the searches. The 4 word search still showed up number one, and the 3 word searches ranked the same. I did it again and added one more extra word, same thing. I repeated again with no description or tags, no change at all.

Changing the video seems to update the search results almost instantly. It is a little glitchy, and sometimes still shows the old description at first, but after about 5 minutes, all the changes are present, and affect the search results. I tested this with a 4 word title, same 4 word description, and compound tags from description with 1 extra word. I searched for exact title + extra word, my video wasn't found, I then edited the description to include the extra word, and my video showed up in the search right away with the extra word in the description. Then I changed the description back to 4 words, and searched, video was gone from search results right away. Clicking refresh a few times sometimes makes the old description re-appear, but after about 5 minutes, it's all gone.

So my conclusions so far are:

Title is the most important. Long titles don't seem to be penalized for having extra words that aren't part of the search. Short titles won't show up in search if people are typing extra words that aren't in your description.

Description, not as important if it has the exact same words as title, can be important by including words that aren't in the title. I still didn't test density here, maybe higher keyword density in the description will lead to higher rankings.

Tags, not really important when it comes to searching. Tags don't show up in searches. Having irrelevant words in tags has some negative effects on some tests, on others it didn't produce a noticeable difference. Same with relevant tags, minor improvements in some trials, no effect in others.

At some point, I will try uploading two videos, and tinkering with their descriptions, titles, tags, to see if I can get one to show up in related videos of the other.

 

[WilliamRayWalters]

Changing the video seems to update the search results almost instantly.

So it would actually make sense to make a second Youtube channel that you never advertise and use it purely for testing title combinations that produce the best search results for the keyword targets. Once you find the right title, you delete the video on that channel and upload it on your 'real' channel. I understand that search traffic isn't the true goal (suggested videos are) but I'd have to imagine that videos that rank higher in search are seen as more relevant to those keywords and will subsequently be seen as more relevant to other videos with high search ranking for those terms. Then, presumably, you would have a better chance at appearing in suggested videos for those videos. Interesting.