- YouTube: probably familiar with it.
Why do people turn to it?
For a ton of reasons.
People turn to YouTube to find information, reviews,
how-to guides and much more,
Justin Bieber music videos.
I mean, that's why you're here right now, right?
And the site itself
is the second most trafficked search engine in the world.
That's what makes it essential
to learn how to optimize YouTube videos
to help you get more exposure.
- Thankfully, you don't have to have a fancy camera
and equipment to make great, informative videos
that can bring in potential customers.
You just need an idea,
the ability to work a phone,
and a little know-how
to optimize your YouTube videos and profile.
- What should be
in your videos?
One of the biggest hurdles in getting started on YouTube
is figuring out what your videos should be about.
And you can start simple
with an introduction to your business and your story,
if it's especially compelling, which I'm sure it is.
And you can also take a common problem
that you're your customers face,
and then show them how to solve it
with your product or your expertise.
I love how-to videos.
- What we do here on The Journey
is look at trending topics
and common issues our guides handle with our customers,
and then create content around it.
Sometimes it's a one-off video,
but other times we can make more videos,
diving deeper into a more complex topics,
like website security.
Once you get started making videos,
you'll be more comfortable playing with the content
and trying new things.
But one question you should always ask yourself
before creating a video is, "Am I providing value?"
- Which you always wanna do, right?
You always wanna make sure
that the content you create has a purpose and value
to your customers.
Check in on that.
This is more important than equipment.
This is more important than editing.
And a good video always provides value,
regardless of how professional or homegrown it looks.
- So we've talked about what should go into your video.
Now let's talk about how to actually optimize a video.
So once you've created your awesome video,
it's time to upload it to YouTube.
This is where you have an opportunity
to optimize how your video will appear
in the YouTube search.
And there are a few main ways to do that.
So starting off with writing good titles with keywords.
The more general you are are,
the less likely your video will rise to the top.
Targeted videos with specific keywords work wonders.
Do a quick search on YouTube
with your first idea for a keyword.
You'll see a bunch of suggested search auto-populate
in the dropdown menu.
This list of search terms can help you pinpoint a topic
or theme for your video.
- If you create a video about, let's say,
how to fix a flat tire,
and title it, "How to Fix a Flat Tire",
it will be lost in a sea of videos with the same name.
You want to drill down one more layer of specificity.
Try "How to Fix a Flat Tire in Five Minutes".
Now that's what I'm talking about.
'Cause if I'm gonna be fixing this flat tire,
I wanna know how long it's gonna take me.
Or do something similar.
- Yeah.
And a key there is just starting with a prefix, "How to...".
Then, once you have that great title,
choose good tags.
In addition to the title,
your video tags are another powerful SEO tool on YouTube.
A good rule of thumb is to choose no more than 12 tags
that accurately reflect what people can find in your video.
The more relevant, the better.
Extremely generic tags may not help your video get
to the people who are looking for it.
So watch your video,
write down the words that are most relevant to the content
and that you think people will search to find your video.
- And be sure to check out that description section
of a YouTube video.
It's a great place for you to fill in
and help out with your SEO optimization.
So you should write a blurb there
and let us know what's contained in your video.
You can just stick to a few sentences,
or you can write more,
have at it,
but be sure to pepper in your keywords in this section,
as well as provide outbound links
to more information about your business,
so relevant content outside of YouTube,
and other videos that may be of interest.
I know we do that with our description section
for The Journey.
We will include links to our GoDaddy blog
for more relevant information.
So you can take an even deeper dive in the topic at hand.
- And you know we're all visual people, right?
So with your YouTube videos,
you wanna make sure you add an interesting thumbnail.
So when you upload a video,
YouTube will choose a frame to showcase
as the thumbnail for the video.
And often this choice isn't great.
You may wanna upload your own thumbnail
that more accurately tells your viewers
what the video will be about.
This can be a different frame from the video itself,
or a completely separate made graphic.
Think about what will catch someone's attention.
You can use GoDaddy Studio
to create a free thumbnail for your video,
or just use one from the video that you've captured.
- Great tip, Nealey.
Also, be sure to add closed captions.
A great SEO hack is to add closed captions to your videos.
And not only is this great for the deaf or hard of hearing,
but this text is crawlable by search engines
and will help your SEO.
So if you're creating content around a popular topic
and you're using words that are relevant,
the more likely the video will get promoted
to others searching for it.
It's pretty cool.
YouTube does have an automatic system
that actually guesses what is being said,
but it isn't always accurate.
So you can go into the subtitles section
and edit them yourself to save yourself some cash,
but it might be worthwhile to use a paid service, like Rev.
- Now, YouTube can be a huge asset for your business
once you know how to optimize your YouTube videos.
Now that you know the secrets,
success is within reach on the platform.
But that is a wrap.
But your journey doesn't have to end here,
because we have over 300 more videos for you to watch.
- So be sure to like, comment and subscribe.
Thanks for watching.
This is The Journey.