What does ranking your videos on YouTube mean?
How can it benefit my business?
How can I use video rankings to get leads or sell products and services?
These are just some of the questions I'm going to answer in this video whether you're a beginner
or an advanced to YouTuber.
Hello, my name is Herman Drost.
If you want to grow your audience on YouTube and generate traffic leads and sales on autopilot,
hit the subscribe button and click the bell notification icon so you'll be notified whenever
I upload new videos.
What does ranking videos on YouTube mean?
Let's take a look at the path of a typical viewer searching for a solution to their problem.
For example, if I enter, how to tie a tie in YouTube's search box, I'll get a bunch
of videos that will provide the solutions.
First I'll select the most eye-catching thumbnail based upon the results on the first page of
YouTube.
Secondly, I'll look at the title and see if it grabs my attention.
Thirdly, I'll watch the video to see if it provides the information that's promised in
the title and the thumbnail.
If I like the content of the video, I'll give them a like and leave a comment.
If I want to continue to get more content from this channel, I'll subscribe to the channel
by clicking on the subscribe button.
What are some of the benefits of ranking videos on YouTube?
Number one, get exposure to your products and services and create videos that answer
the most frequently asked questions from your customers.
If you want to generate leads for your business then you can use the traffic that you're building
on YouTube to build an e-mail list.
Number two, make an impact on the world.
Perhaps you have a cause that you're very passionate about like saving the whales.
You can then create videos and educate people about your cause.
Number three, creative outlet.
Perhaps you have a hobby or an interest you feel very passionate about.
You can then create videos to share your passion with others.
Number four, fundraising.
You can link the crowdfunding sites on YouTube to raise funds for your cause.
Number five, sell merchandise.
YouTube allows you to sell merchandise based upon a number of sites that they've enabled.
You can sell t-shirts mugs, et cetera.
I mostly use YouTube to build an audience to generate traffic leads and sales to my
products and services.
Let me know in the comments below what you want to use YouTube for.
Here are the steps to rank a video on YouTube.
Number one, identify your best keyword phrase.
Enter your main keyword phrase and YouTube search box to get a bunch of suggestions.
For example, if I enter, how to monetize YouTube videos, I get a bunch of suggestions.
These are keyword phrases that people are searching for on YouTube.
The key is to find a keyword phrase that is not too competitive so it'll be easy to rank
your video for it.
You also want to make sure that the keyword phrase has enough search volume to make it
worth going after.
If you install a Chrome extension Keywords Everywhere, you will to see the search volume
in the YouTube search results.
For example, the keyword phrase, how to monetize YouTube videos, gets 6,600 searches per month
as a cost per click of $3.19 and a competition of 0.13.
Keep in mind you don't have to rank number one on the first page of YouTube search results
but even further down the page is good enough.
You'll still get a lot of traffic.
For example, my video ranks number five on the first page of YouTube for, how to monetize
YouTube videos.
It currently has 290,000 in 11 months.
Number two, check out out the competition.
Check how many videos are ranking for that exact keyword phrase on the first page of
YouTube.
If there's only a few videos ranking for that exact keyword phrase, then there's a high
probability you can rank for that keyword phrase yourself.
You still get a lot of traffic even if your video is further down the page.
If you want to save a lot of time with keyword research, install the free Chrome extension
TubeBuddy.
It'll analyze your keyword phrases and give you a keyword score so you can determine if
it's worth going after that keyword phrase or not.
Click the link in a corner to watch my review of TubeBuddy.
Now that you have identified your keyword phrase, it's time to create your video.
Number three, create an engaging video.
One of the top ranking factors on YouTube is watch time.
This means the longer somebody watches your video or watches your successive videos in
a row, the higher the probability your video will rank in YouTube search.
Here are some things to keep in mind to create an engaging video.
Grab viewers attention in the first 10 seconds.
If you can keep the attention of your viewers in the first 10 or 20 seconds of your video,
there's a high probability they'll watch all the way through.
You can do things like ask a question or tease them about what's coming up in the video.
Create content that your viewers enjoy.
Your main content should expand on the title of the video.
Make sure you often change scenes to maintain the attention of the viewers.
End your video with a strong call-to-action.
I typically redirect viewers to a related video in the end screen.
Another important point is to mention the title in your video.
For example, this video is about how to rank YouTube videos for beginners.
If you say your title on the video, it means that YouTube will pick up the words.
Now that you've finished creating the video, you're ready to upload it to YouTube and optimize
it.
Number four, video optimization.
Title.
Use the exact keyword phrase at your research and the title.
The closer your keywords are to the front of the title the better.
Description.
Summarize the content of your video in the first three lines of your description.
Make sure you include your main keyword phrase in those first three lines.
The rest of your description can include links to other videos or playlists as well as your
social media sites.
Tags, include a title and your first tag then related keyword phrases and the other tags.
Avoid ending tags that don't relate to your video.
All your tags should be highly relevant to your video.
Cards and end screens.
Use cards and end screens to redirect viewers to a related video or to related playlist.
Keep in mind that long you keep people watching videos on YouTube the high probability your
videos will appear in Youtube search.
If viewers don't click on your thumbnail they won't watch your video.
Thumbnails is the first thing that people see in the search engines.
Therefore, make sure your thumbnail contains contrasting colors, bold text and even include
your face.
Try to make it stand out from your competitors videos.
Now that you've optimized your video you're ready to publish and promote it.
Number five, video promotion.
The amount of traffic that your video gets in the first 24 to 48 hours influences the
rankings of your video.
Therefore make sure you post it to your social media sites, your website, and answer to your
email list and also transcribe your video.
Click the link icon to learn how to transcribe your video so you can also get picked up by
Google.
After few days out to a playlist if you create a similar video you can link to this playlist
and get people to binge-watch your videos.
This will help your video to appear in suggested videos which are the ones that appear on the
right side of the watch page and the ones that play after a video has finished playing.
Here are some important things to keep in mind.
Number one, the Google Dance.
When you first publish the video, your video might rank immediately on the first page of
YouTube.
After a few days it might disappear this is called the Google dance because YouTube is
trying to figure out what is the best ranking for your video compared to all the other videos
on YouTube.
Take a few days for your rankings to settle.
Number two, rankings take time.
Sometimes a video may not rank at all but may rank down the road such as a few weeks
or even a couple of years later.
You've got to exercise a lot patience.
Number three, create similar videos if your video ranks well.
If your video ranks on the first page of YouTube or appears in YouTube suggested videos make
more of the similar types of videos.
If you have multiple videos rank it for some of the keyword phrases you may be able to
dominate the first page of YouTube.
Number four, model to your videos performance.
The three top ranking factors are watch time, audience retention and click-through rate.
Go to YouTube studio beta click on it and links to see the latest activity of your video.
For example on this video my top traffic sources are external 21.9%, YouTube search 18.8%,
channel pages 15.6%, other YouTube features 15.6% and direct or unknown 6.3%.
Go on to YouTube studio beta and click reach viewers.
You'll see a funnel that tracks the performance of your video.
I can also see that YouTube is recommending my content 21.5%, recommend on the home page
15.2%, and recommend it on the watch page 6.3%, you're seeking my content 78.5%, also
I have a thumbnail click-through rate of 2.7%.
This measures how often people have watched a video after seeing a thumbnail.
They also have a 2.5 for average view duration.
Average view duration is essentially how long people are watching your videos.
YouTube says you can increase the chance of YouTube suggesting your content by increasing
your click-through rate and your video watch time.
The holy grail of getting high rankings on YouTube is to get a high click through rate
on YouTube thumbnails and a high average view duration.
If you want to dive more deeply into YouTube analytics click the link in a card.
Now you know the exact methods I use to rank my videos on YouTube.
If you want to learn more advanced methods for ranking your videos on YouTube check my
video out over here.
You reach a larger audience and get more eyeballs on your videos.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.