In today’s blog post, we will explore keyword research on Youtube. What is keyword research? Why is it important? And most importantly, does keyword research for Youtube work?
As you may know, youtube is a popular platform for video sharing and marketing. However, to be successful on Youtube, you must ensure as many people see your videos as possible.
One way to achieve this is by optimizing your videos for Youtube searches using keyword research on Youtube. So, what is keyword research?
Youtube Keyword research helps you identify relevant keywords and put together a list of suitable keywords to help your Youtube videos rank higher in the Youtube search results.
YES. YOUTUBE IS A SEARCH ENGINE FIRST!
By doing keyword research on youtube, you can ensure that your videos are found by potential viewers searching for information related to the keywords you’ve chosen.
So is keyword research for youtube effective? The answer is a resounding yes! Doing proper keyword research can help your videos rank higher in Youtube search results and generate Free Youtube Traffic!
You might want to read--> Does Keyword Research On Youtube Work? How Not to Get Overwhelmed Building Your Youtube Channel Should You Analyse Your Competitors?
What is keyword research on Youtube?
Keyword research is vital if you’re looking to increase your Youtube viewership and traffic. This process involves searching for relevant keywords that you can use in your videos to draw in viewers. Optimizing your video for these search terms is essential if you have found the right keywords.
Not only will this help with your Youtube search engine optimization for a specific video, but it will also create a relevant Youtube keyword cluster around your entire Youtube channel!
Before we get started, however, we need to get familiarized with terms like SEO, Youtube SEO, Free Youtube Traffic, and more. Let’s dig in!
- What is SEO?
If you are trying to get a website to rank on the first page of the results in Google search, you will use SEO which means Search Engine Optimization, to do that.
SEO is the term for optimizing a website to appear higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
There are different ways to achieve this, including keyword research, link building, and more. However, we are not targeting google search results here! We are targeting Youtube search results!
- What is Youtube SEO?
YouTube SEO optimizes your videos for Youtube search engine ranking. In doing so, you can increase the visibility of your videos and Youtube channel and attract more viewers.
It will help if you use the right keywords and phrases in your titles and descriptions so that viewers searching on google will find your content when they’re looking for it.
YES, Youtube isn’t just a website to watch or upload a video. It is the biggest video search engine in the world!
What does a video search engine want? Well, it wants to provide the best results possible for its viewers. Your job is to help Youtube do that and benefit simultaneously. Youtube gets better user satisfaction rates, and your Youtube channel gets more viewers and subscribers.
We are essentially going to apply techniques that we have successfully used for the ‘Google Search Engine’ and apply them to the Youtube Search Engine!
You need to ensure your videos get optimized for Youtube search engine visibility – by adding metadata such as Title tags and descriptions that accurately reflect what viewers will find when searching on YouTube.
- Understanding Youtube’s desire to match search terms will help you in your Keyword Research Youtube.
.
Keyword research is essential for a good SEO strategy! If you don’t know what people are searching for, it’s impossible to target your content the right way and generate results.
Now think about this! If this is true for your content, how important will this be for the world’s most significant video content website?
Youtube will reward you with more traffic if you help it provide relevant content to its viewers! So you should take advantage, and it is mutually advantageous.
- You want people clicking on your video to feel they made the right choice! Their journey starts with users entering a ‘keyword search term’ on Youtube. The youtube user has an ‘intent’! It is your job and Youtube’s job to make this ‘youtube search’ experience satisfactory!
So while you have to ensure that your content is attractive, you also want the viewer to be pleased with the content you provide.
That’s why it’s so important to conduct keyword research before creating a video. You want to ensure that the keywords you choose are relevant to your topic and the search term trends on YouTube at any time.
What is free Youtube traffic, and how to get free Youtube views?
Free Youtube traffic and views or paid? While it is possible as a youtube content creator that you haven’t thought about it this way, there are actually different types of Youtube views.
Let’s differentiate it for now as PAID views and Free views, aka ‘organic views’ to your Youtube videos. Your goal as a Youtube channel is to maximize the viewers to your channel at the lowest possible cost. For most Youtubers, this will be creating good content!
Big brands, however, will pull out money out of pocket to get hyper-targeted audiences for their brand and video content. As a content creator, you usually don’t think about paying for your viewers, and you cross your fingers that you can attract your viewing public by making viral Youtube videos! However, there are different types of traffic or viewers on Youtube.
Types of Youtube traffic?
You can get three different types of traffic/views on your content.
- Paid (ad) traffic is the most effective way to increase the viewership of your videos, but it is also the most expensive. Here, you simply pay google for ad space and target your audience. You will have to pay Youtube more if the target audience is more specific.
- Sponsored videos are popular because they offer a branded message to viewers. Many YouTubers will lend their Youtube channel and videos to insert a Branded video or to introduce a branded section of a product or service of that brand.
- Organic traffic is where you get the Youtube views / Youtube traffic for free! Yes, creating your content was not free, but you are not paying to get views!
Unlike big brands with even bigger budgets, you’ll have to compete ‘Robin Hood’ style! You provide amazing content, and the Youtube masses will love you for it and pay you with many views! Yes, you want to get Free Youtube traffic!
How to get free youtube traffic, you ask? You know already! You create the best content, and the viewers will come? Well -not exactly-there are different ways for you to get free traffic. Let’s narrow it down and explain why a ‘keyword research strategy for your Youtube channel’ will help to boost the free traffic you are getting!
Free youtube traffic?
Let’s say you just uploaded a new video to your Youtube channel, and you will not pay Youtube to send you viewers for your video. Where do Youtube ‘free’ viewers come from?
1. Your own Youtube subscribers -> if you create a good connection with your viewers, they will be awaiting the moment you publish your Youtube video. But what happens if you are just getting started with your Youtube channel?
2. Youtube Suggested videos –> Only if the Youtube algorithm has picked up on your video content in a super positive way will you get added to suggested videos. If you are just getting started, however, getting picked up for the suggested videos is hard. Why is that? One simple word –> competition! Other channels might have established subscriber bases and gotten a head start with thousands of views. Why should Youtube get your video up there when a competitor channel already seems to fill that void?
3. FREE Youtube Traffic via a KEYWORD RESEARCH STRATEGY! If you do not optimize your video for the relevant, low-competition keywords, your Youtube videos will lose out on a lot of Free youtube traffic.
Free Youtube traffic by utilizing a sound Youtube Keyword strategy can help you kickstart your Youtube channel! Targeting low competition and high search volume Youtube keywords is crucial to unlocking this free traffic. It’s a great way to get better channel visibility and boost organic search engine results within the Youtube search engine.
How to get free Youtube traffic using a Keyword research strategy for Youtube?
Getting free Youtube traffic requires some work, but it is not impossible, and learning how this works will put you ahead of the crowd.
Three tips that can help you prepare your keyword research strategy for Youtube
1. Ensure your keywords are relevant to your video and target market.
Ultimately, when you are performing keyword research on youtube, you need to consider the viewer and Youtube!
- The perspective of a viewer: If you spam your video for the wrong keyword just because it has a high search volume and low competition and your content is not a match, the user will be offended! You have wasted their time!
- Youtube’s perspective: If your content is getting offered to youtube users, and as an audience, they tend to click away from your content immediately, you will get a lower ranking in the Youtube search algorithm.
For Youtube keyword research to work, you want to achieve a – thumbs up -from both the viewer and Youtube! Ensure the used keyword is a relevant search term for your youtube video!
- If the viewer agrees –> A positive feedback loop
- Likely to watch the entire video
- Possibly watch more of your Youtube content
- Potentially subscribe to your Youtube channel
- Learn about your Youtube channel with greater interest,
- Share or recommend your Youtube channel or video with peers directly or on social media…, and so on.
- If youtube agrees –> A reinforcing feedback loop
- Youtube’s algorithm detects above-average watch time, resulting in a higher ranking for the Youtube search engine.
- Youtube’s algorithm will put your video in more suggested results within your Niche resulting in more traffic for your video.
- As you create relevant keywords and tags for your content, Youtube’s algorithm will trust your channel more!
- Subsequent videos should get picked up sooner & ranking within search, and suggested results should be higher from the start.
- You gain more subscribers, gain more views, and relevancy as a Youtube channel.
2. Use the correct keywords in your video’s title and keyword tags. This will help Youtube rank your video higher in search results for those specific terms.
- Your keyword research should not just focus on the title of your Youtube video but also be targeted within your tags, description of your video, and so forth. Help the Youtube algorithm to understand your content!
3. Finally, build Youtube keyword clusters for your Youtube channel as a whole!
- If you have a Youtube channel about ‘cameras,’ for example, try to stay within that lane. Focus your content on related content. People will have more trust in a channel with 100 videos on a particular topic compared to only 1 video discussing the topic. The Youtube algorithm is no different. It will follow the opinion of – its bread and butter – the Youtube audience!
- Ex content cluster
- Camera
- Lighting for camera
- Tutorials on how how to use lighting
- Hands-on reviews about cameras
- Etc.
Now that you know how important it is to envision a keyword strategy that can work for the long term, how can we actually do this keyword research for Youtube? What steps should you follow to research your keywords with the most potential? Should I just write down some keywords and related keywords, and I’m done?
How to do Keyword research on Youtube like a pro?
You can take a few steps to begin researching keywords for your next YouTube video.
1. Try to start your keyword research before creating your video!
The first step is to create an outline of what you want to talk about in your video.
Once you have found your main talking points, it’s time to look for keywords that complement those topics.
You can start your keyword research by selecting the best keywords for your Niche.
Now that you know what you think your keywords should be, we’ll start the real work and test how potent your selection of keywords really is.
How should you choose your main Youtube keywords? Example: Do you choose ‘ keyword research tool ‘ or ‘ keyword research software ‘?
2. Compare your selection of keywords and key phrases with your competition.
Once you have selected, it is good practice to look at what your Niche competitors use as keywords. First, you should look at the title of their video! The video title is the most important part of your keyword real estate!
By gauging the competition, we don’t mean copying the competition! We want to observe how they apply keyword research as we continue our keyword research!
How should you choose your main Youtube keywords? Example: Do you choose ‘ keyword research tool ‘ or ‘ keyword research software ‘?
Choose Your target keywords for Youtube – Understanding Keyword Search volume vs. keyword competition.
So, the way to do this is to understand keyword or keyphrase volume and keyword or keyphrase competition! Youtube search term competition is vital when deciding which keyword/keyphrase will be most beneficial to your channel.
Keyword or Keyphrase volume refers to the number of searches that are made for a specific keyword.
Keyword or keyphrase competition is a metric that indicates how hard it is to rank for a certain keyword or keyphrase comparatively.
When choosing keywords and key phrases, you shouldn’t just copy the competition, and you shouldn’t just use the keywords that you thought of. You will want to find keywords with high search volume and low competition.
EXAMPLE:
The Youtube search algorithm might have an equal amount of searches for keyword number 1 and keyword number 2. Now imagine that most of the competitors in your Niche are using keyword number one instead of keyword number 2. In this case, you can benefit by creating your keyword and keyphrase strategy around keyword number two. When the Youtube search algorithm chooses results to show to the audience, your videos will be ranked quickly for keyword two as a top result for that search. This should help you to get more free traffic quicker. This positive effect reverberates into a positive feedback loop spiral. More views–>more subscribers–> your Youtube algorithm ranking rises –> better visibility for your Youtube videos and channel!
The obvious question becomes: How can we measure keyword competition and search volume for Youtube keywords and keyphrases? But first – Keyword clusters!
- Build Youtube keyword clusters!
The idea of keyword clusters for Youtube is pretty straightforward! As a content creator, you want to dominate the search term you aim for.
Did you know that x percent of the traffic of google searches goes to the number x result in google search? Well, this is not any different for Youtube search traffic. You want to get into the top results for that Youtube search term.
For sure, you’ll still need to create an attractive thumbnail for people to click on, but the most important thing is to be seen! So how do we help the Youtube search algorithm to understand that our Youtube channel and our Youtube videos are the ‘authority’ in our Niche?
One thing that will help us is creating a cluster of different relevant, related videos that all answer important ‘intent’ questions for the audience. This will boost your position in the rankings. Use keyword research tools to find related keywords, figure out which Youtube search terms are low-competition, and create your content around that.
Great! Which tools can I use to do my keyword research on Youtube?
Youtube keyword research tools
There are many Youtube keyword research tools that can help you become an expert at finding the best keywords for your Niche. As with most services on the web, you’ll find a mix of FREE and PAID Youtube keyword tools.
In this blog post, we’ll name just a few, but if would want a complete overview to find all the best Youtube Keyword tools and additional tips and tricks, don’t hesitate to check our blog post. Best Free Youtube Keyword tools –> and how to use them!
Here are three Free Youtube Research tools that will get you started with your Keyword research on Youtube! (Free, meaning that, in our opinion, they are useful in the free version, and if you need the upgrade, that is up to you!)
Keywordtool.io
The Keywordtool.io website is an excellent place to start testing your keyword ideas for Youtube. Keywordtool.io will allow you to compare the search volume and competition level for different keywords and key phrases.
A key benefit of keywordtool.io is that you can search for keyword competition across different search engines. Google, Youtube, Bing, Amazon, eBay, App Store, Play Store, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Trends. This is very helpful if you use a content strategy across multiple platforms.
While the free version of Keywordtool.io will not always show you the search volume and competition level metrics for free, it is still a very useful tool to get an idea of which keyphrases are related to your search term. You can easily select all your top keyword and keyphrase ideas for free and download your keyword selection as a .csv file or copy-paste them to your clipboard for free! This is a great way to build a keyword list and get ideas for future Youtube videos!
VidIQ
VidIQ is, without a doubt, a must-have Youtube keyword tool for your toolkit! You can download VidIQ as a chrome extension, and it will provide you with detailed information about Youtube search volume and competition for the search term you are using.
So, while you browse on Youtube, you will get instant keyword competition info!
The Free version of VidIQ is a perfect tool if you are just starting with your Youtube channel and don’t have the budget to spare.
Tubebuddy
Tubebuddy works similarly compared to VidIQ! A great tool to gauge the keyword competition on Youtube.
Combining the information these free tools provide will give you a head start on your keyword research and planning! As we said, there are more good Youtube keyword tools, but we wouldn’t hesitate! If you are serious about creating a keyword strategy for Youtube, try these free Youtube keyword tools out immediately!
In conclusion! Does Keyword Research on Youtube work?
You might be wondering if keyword research for Youtube works. The answer is yes, but it’s essential to do it correctly.
First and foremost, ensure that your videos’ content optimizes for search engine visibility! Thumbnails remain an art that any Youtube content creator hopes to master as this will improve click-through rates (CTR).
Secondly, research the best keywords for your Niche and target them wisely.
And lastly, be sure to track your results to determine the effectiveness of your keyword research. Doing keyword research on Youtube the right way will result in increased viewership.
NOTE: There is a topic that we haven’t really touched on in this blog post, and it is the – Intent of the user – and how this relates to choosing which keywords to rank for.
The ‘intent’ of your Youtube channel is important! If it is to convert views into leads and ultimately increase profits! If you think this topic is relevant to you, we got you covered! Just read our blog post about the sliding scale of user intent and how to maximize your lead conversion into profits!
English