- If you're making videos for YouTube Search
and they're not showing up,
regardless of the titles that you use,
the tags that you use,
the descriptions that you use, and all of that,
you just can't get your videos to show up in Search,
I'm gonna tell you why, and we're starting right now.
This question comes from Seizures Family and Kids.
They say, "So if I have my tags with seizures
and my title with seizures and my channel name,
that won't get a result from search for seizures?
That doesn't make any sense at all.
How will I grow when people can't find my channel?"
This is a fantastic question,
it comes up quite a bit actually.
And the reason it comes up quite a bit
because a lot of people have the same exact problem
to where they're using the right title,
they're using the right words in the description,
they're using the right words in their tags,
but no matter what they do,
their videos still are not showing up
when somebody searches for whatever it is
that they're making videos about in YouTube Search.
And just in case you don't know what metadata is,
metadata is your title, tags, description,
captions also as well.
I think also and as well pretty much mean the same thing
but we're gonna roll with it anyway.
But when it comes to YouTube Search,
the important thing to think about
is of course, giving context
to what it is that your video is about
is extremely important for YouTube systems,
because, you know, adding keywords, and keyword phrases,
and making your video metadata about that thing,
it's important because it does,
regardless of what you'll hear,
it is important to helping their systems identify topically
what the video is about
because the captions, they'll figure it out,
you know, your title tags and description
just help make that process faster
and simpler for their systems,
and it just makes it to where it's a lot more accurate.
But YouTube Search isn't just title, tags, and description.
When it comes to YouTube Search,
there's other factors at play as well.
For example, YouTube tells us that at YouTube Search
we prioritize three main elements
to provide the best search results,
relevance, engagement, and quality.
And then they tell us,
and I'm telling you this part right here
just so that you don't mix up what quality means
by their interpretation,
they tell us that, "For quality,
our systems are designed to identify signals
that can help determine
which channels demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness,
and trustworthiness on a given topic."
So it's important that you understand that,
but wait, there's even more,
YouTube also tells us in the YouTube Creator Academy
that when people have the myth,
in terms of this situation
that we're talking about right now,
my videos have fully optimized titles and descriptions
why don't they rank higher?
The truth, and they say this in YouTube Creator Academy,
Search considers many signals
including the watch time of a particular video
for a particular query.
Okay, so let's unpack some of that information.
So basically what they're saying, in a nutshell,
is they're saying that what's important to them
is they're trying to identify the stuff
that is the most relevant
to the query that people are putting into their system.
So for example, if I'm looking for how to train a dog
then they are showing the videos
based on what it is that I'm looking for
in terms of videos that are optimized
for how to train a dog.
And while that's being factored in, they're also looking,
their system is also looking
for authoritativeness on that as well.
So if you have an entire channel
full of dog training content,
then what's happening in that situation
is you are increasing your authoritativeness
on that particular subject,
and then they also add trustworthiness to it
to where, if you're just always giving out great content,
people are coming back, you're giving out good advice,
you're not going anything like shady or anything like that,
then what you're doing
is you're basically putting points in the system,
without a better way to say it,
you're putting points in the system for those things,
in terms of YouTube systems identifying
that you are the right person
that has that particular piece of content
that is trustworthy,
that their users can get a good quality experience from
when they show it to them in Search.
So if we take that even further,
and we also apply the other things
that are important to YouTube in terms of click-through rate
and how much watch time they generate per impression
for each place that you show up on the platform,
then the same exact thing applies to YouTube search as well
to where is if you have your video optimized
in terms of all the right metadata,
title, tag, descriptions, captions, all that good stuff,
but you have all the right metadata in there
but you can't get people to click on your video,
or once they click on your video
they're not watching the video
for a fair enough amount of time,
or they're not engaging in that video in any way
to show YouTube that it is a quality experience
for that viewer, well, guess what?
Your videos are not going to continue
to be presented in Search,
because when they do show up there,
people are not clicking on them.
So instead of showing your videos there
when you are optimizing them for Search,
instead of showing your videos there,
they're going to show videos in those spots
that are proven to give people that satisfactory experience
instead of showing yours in that particular spot.
And right about now
is where you're probably having the thought
of, you know, "Hey Nick, that all sounds fantastic,
but if I'm, you know, making these videos
and I'm competing against all these other videos
on the platform that are authoritative over this subject
and they're optimized well for it,
they're getting people to click, and get people to watch,
like how can I even try to get a shoe in
for some of these heavier search results?
Or higher traffic search results?
How can I do that?"
The typical approach when it comes to that,
that you'll always hear people talking about
is to go long tail.
And what that means is
that when you are optimizing for YouTube Search,
the particular topic of your video, and the keyword
or keyword phrase that you're optimizing for,
you're actually going long tail
which means that you're being very specific
about who it is that you're trying to reach
or what that video is actually about.
So let's say for example that I'm targeting YouTube tips
and I'm using myself as an example
because you are familiar with my content.
So if I was targeting YouTube tips
then of course I would optimize around YouTube tips,
that would be part of what I was going for
maybe the main keyword or keyword phrase I was going for.
But in order to give myself a chance to rank at something,
like let's say I was a new YouTube channel
and I was competing against all these other people,
then in that situation,
I would go for something more long tail or more specific
like YouTube tips for beginners,
YouTube tips for new YouTubers,
or you know, all of the different ways
that people are looking for YouTube tips,
I would just go for something very specific that way.
And by doing so, I'm being very specific
about, you know, how I'm optimizing that video
but I would actually research all that stuff first
so I can actually be very specific
about the actual content as well,
so I can make sure that the content that I would be making
for that particular term would be a fantastic fit
if somebody did run across it in Search
and if they did click on it
so that they can get all the stuff
that I told you was important to YouTube.
But when you're trying to go for something
like a single word like seizure, for example,
it can be really difficult
because basically there's not tons of context there
in terms of, you know just what exactly
is your video about, about seizure.
Maybe YouTube systems has identified
that when people look for that specific word,
that they're looking for an example of that happening,
or that they're looking for instructions of what to happen
or what to do if they happen to be in an environment
where that happens to somebody.
And what their systems are doing
is their systems are going through
and they're basically tracking
what it is that people are responding to
when they're looking for that one word,
and then when they're looking for that one word,
YouTube is going to always surface
the stuff that people respond to the most,
and the things that follow the information I told you before
in terms of, you know, being authoritative,
and trustworthy and all that good stuff.
But in addition to all of that,
the hardest thing for content creators to get over,
the hardest hump, so to speak,
for content creators to get over
is the hump of I'm making this content,
I'm optimizing for it, but I'm not showing up, why?
And one of the biggest problems
is because when people are making content,
they're optimizing it for Search,
they're either not doing their research beforehand,
and again, you can use TubeBuddy or Morningfame for this,
but they're not doing the research beforehand to really know
who it is that they're trying to rank up against.
And because of that,
they're trying to go for something that's really difficult
that they're gonna have a really difficult time
if they can even squeeze into that term at all.
But in order to even get in there,
they have to have a really, really high response content.
When instead they could go for something
more long tail and very specific,
which would in turn be easier to rank for,
but don't get me wrong, like that stuff is also competitive
but it's typically easier to rank for
because you're being more specific
and the content that you're making is also specific
to that part of that subject.
But here's the thing,
when it comes to YouTube
and this is the hard pill to swallow
that I was talking about,
when it comes to YouTube
another thing that content creators
don't want to face a lot of times
is that if you're not showing up.
Let's say that you are competing for something
in terms of search rankings that isn't very competitive,
and you're still not showing up.
Well, you're still just getting completely outranked
in that situation, well that's because
when YouTube does show your content there
people are not clicking on it,
and watching it, further engaging in it,
or they're not getting that satisfactory experience
that YouTube is after,
and therefore they move your video down
and they move the videos
that do give that satisfactory experience,
or the people do click on more, that they do watch more,
that they do further engage with,
that they do share with people and all that,
they move those into those higher spots
because those are proven performers on the platform.
So, something that's really important to think about
in terms of long-term growth on a YouTube channel
is that how they're talking about authoritativeness
on a subject, right?
This is where niching down comes in,
where you're always hearing people like me
talking about niching down, niching down, niching down,
making sure that you know
who it is that you're trying to reach
so that you can make the content that they care about.
The reason for that is because of that whole thing, right?
One, because it turns your channel into a resource
of a certain type of content,
but also because it can make your channel
an authoritative channel,
an authority channel to where
when people are looking for information on that thing,
then your channels is one of the ones
that are popping up all over the place.
So, in your specific case, for the seizure channel
in your specific case, keep making that type of content.
And if you keep making that type of content
and you're optimizing it all properly,
and you're getting people to click on it at a fair rate
and you're creating a good experience
when they actually watch it as well,
and you can see this in your audience retention reports,
but if you can do those things over and over and over again
and you can keep seeding that content
for all these different search terms that are long tail
or that they're very specific,
then in that situation, what you're going to do over time
is you're going to build that authority,
you're gonna build that trustworthiness,
you're going to build videos
that are gonna be referring people to other of your videos
when they are watching the single video,
and because of that, YouTube will over time,
be able to identify that that is what your channel is about,
that everything about the channel
is about that type of content,
and therefore, when people are looking for specific things
around that type of content
then YouTube will, of course help you surface
as long as you're optimized for it,
and as long as people respond to it.
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Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time.