Why don't my videos appear on YouTube search even though I've optimized the title, description
and tags? What am I doing wrong? Watch until the end of the video to learn how to get discovered
on YouTube via YouTube search even if you have a small channel. You'll also learn how
YouTube search works with some insights given by YouTube staff. Lastly, I'll show you some
best practices to get discovered on YouTube search. Here's one of my videos that's currently
ranked number one on YouTube search. It also ranks number one on Google search in a total
of 77,000 results and shows a huge thumbnail. As a result, it gets consistent traffic, day
after day, week after week and year after year. Wouldn't you like that?
Hi, my name's 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're notified every time I upload new content. How does YouTube search work?
YouTube shows most relevant results according to the keyword queries that you type in the
YouTube search box. Recently, I've been interested in resistance band exercises. If I type resistance
band exercise into the YouTube search box, I get a bunch of related YouTube videos that
I can watch. How does the YouTube algorithm work?
Number one, it's based upon the search term that I typed into the YouTube search box.
Number two, what they watch. If I want to see more resistance band exercises because
that's what I'm interested in, I'll watch a bunch of videos on resistance band exercises.
Number three, what they don't watch. If I'm just interested in resistance band exercises,
YouTube's not going to show me videos that are not relevant to resistance band exercises.
Number four, how much time they spend watching the videos. I might begin watching resistance
band exercises but then I might continue watching more videos on resistance band exercises for
glutes, resistance band exercises for knees, et cetera. If I binge watch multiple videos
in a row, then YouTube will serve us more of those videos because those are the ones
I'm interested in. Also, If I watch them all the way through, then YouTube knows that I'm
very interested in those particular videos. Number five, likes and dislikes. Obviously,
if I liked the video I'll like and comment on the video. If YouTube sees there's a lot
of engagement on the video, then YouTube will serve us more of those types of videos to
the viewer. For example, more of those videos will be recommended on the home screen as
well as in the suggested videos which appear on the right side of the watch page. Number
six, not interested feedback. If the video content doesn't match the title and the thumbnail,
I'm going to give a dislike and not continue watching the video. As a result, the video's
not going to get much engagement because of lost interest in that content. Number seven,
which videos have driven the most engagement for a specific query. If I'm really interested
in the topic of resistance band exercises, I'll watch more and more of those types of
videos. YouTube will service more of those videos because the algorithm knows that I'm
interested in that particular topic. Here are some search discovery tips. Number one,
research keyword-optimized phrases. Tom Leung: One approach is to focus on content
that isn't well-served by other channels today. If you're making videos in a very crowded
category, it could be difficult to outperform the competition. If I were starting a brand
new channel today and I said, "I'm going to make a bunch of videos about reviewing phones,"
that's probably a pretty crowded category. I could do it, I just have to make sure they're
amazing and really provide a much different perspective than what's currently out there.
Once you find that niche where you can establish yourself, you can always expand from there.
It's always better to start more narrow, then go broader. Sharing your videos with friends
and acquaintances in relevant forums across the internet and not just on YouTube is very
helpful. Herman: Use a tool like TubeBuddy or [unintelligible
00:03:13] to find keyword phrases that haven't been discovered. For example, resistance band
exercises has a search volume of 40,500 searches per month. I know that the keyword phrase
resistance band exercises is a great search term. The only problem is that it's super
competitive. I want to find other keyword phrases that are not as competitive so I can
rank for that particular keyword phrase. For example, the keyword phrase resistance band
exercises for legs and glutes gets a search volume of 880 searches per month. According
to TubeBuddy, it gives me a keyword score that says it's very good. I'll include that
keyword phrase in the title, description, and tags of my video. The key point is that
your keyword phrase should be relevant to the search engines as well as to your viewers.
I'll place a link to TubeBuddy in the description below this video.
Number two, view your top traffic sources in YouTube analytics. If you view your traffic
sources in YouTube analytics and click on YouTube search, you find the keyword queries
that people are entering into YouTube search to find your videos. Make a list of all the
keyword queries that people are using to find your videos, then make more of those type
of videos. Number three, use Google trends. Use Google trends to find trending and seasonal
topics in your niche. If you find a hot topic related to your niche, jump on it right away
and create a video for it. Sometimes when you ride a trending topic, it'll generate
a ton of views to your channel. Number five, Create an awesome thumbnail.
Thumbnail's like a small display ad in the search engines. If you create an awesome thumbnail,
that stands out from your competitors, then your viewer's are more likely to click on
it. If they don't click on your thumbnail, they're not going to watch your video and
all that energy and time you spent creating your video will come to waste. What I often
do is create the thumbnail before I've even created the video. As I create the video,
I get more ideas what I can put into the thumbnail. Keep in mind that if your video does well
in search, it often gets promoted by YouTube in suggested videos. These are the videos
that appear on the right side of the page that the person is watching. They also appear
below the video on the YouTube app. They also appear on videos that are up next. Here's
some best practices to get your videos discovered on YouTube search.
Number one, find low competition keywords. Use keyword research tools like TubeBuddy
and [unintelligible 00:05:15] to discover low competition keywords that are easy to
rank for. There's no point wasting your time going after high competition keywords if you
can't rank for them. Click the link in the description to watch my video on how to find
low competition keywords. Number two, create an awesome thumbnail that
stands out from your competitors. The goal of your thumbnail is to get viewers to click
on it so they can watch your video. If they don't click on your thumbnail, they're not
going to watch your content. YouTube says that half of all channels on YouTube have
an impressions click through rate between 2% and 10%. Keep in mind that your click through
rate might be very high at the beginning because subscribers are watching your video. Ultimately,
you want to compare the click through rate between different videos over the long term.
Click the link in the description to watch my video on how to create an awesome thumbnail.
Number three, create an engaging video. If you get a high click through rate and a low
average view duration or a low audience retention, that means that people that click on your
video but they're not watching it all the way through. When viewers leave within the
first few seconds of your video, that means they're not interested in your content. As
a result, that video won't be promoted by YouTube. The ideal scenario for your YouTube
video is to get a high click through rate and a high average view duration. If you can
do that, your channel will grow really fast. Number four, create a video series on a related
topic. The benefit of creating a video series is that people can take a deeper dive into
your content. Speaker 3: Tactically, as a creator, if you
have a question like "How do I get more traffic from watch next, you can't really optimize
your videos for a traffic source or a service, but you can for your audience. If you really
want your viewers to continue watching your videos, one strategy I see some creators doing
is of course making really consistent content or a series. That way if those videos start
being watched together they're topically related and they attract the same type of viewer,
they're very likely to come up together in watch next. That's something we sometimes
call co-watch, the videos are watched together. That's one of the signals in [unintelligible
00:06:50] ranking. Series are a really powerful way to keep viewers watching.
Herman: Another benefit is that you'll increase your watch time because people are watching
more than one video from your channel and watch time is a great ranking factor. Keep
in mind that when you create a series of videos, put them in a playlist and link to that playlist
for every video that's in the playlist. This will encourage viewers to watch the next video
after they're finished with the one they're watching.
Number five, monitor the performance of your videos in YouTube analytics. Log into YouTube
studio, click on analytics then click see more. Under traffic source, you'll be able
to identify where most of your traffic is coming from. If you click on YouTube search,
it'll show you the search queries that people are entering into the YouTube search engine.
It'll also show you the views, your watch time and the view duration, impressions and
impressions click through rate. If you want to see more metrics, just click the plus sign.
If you find that most of your traffic comes from YouTube Search, try to get more traffic
from suggested videos. Watch my next video on how to get your videos suggested and recommended
by YouTube. Getting into suggested videos means free promotion by YouTube so it's well
worth the watch. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next video.