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SEO: Some techniques to improve video SEO

Videos are everywhere on the internet. YouTube which is part of Google is the go-to site for most of us. With the advent of " youtubers " and the entry on the web of " autoplay " videos on Facebook, the phenomenon does not diminish !

Video is a very effective communication tool that you cannot ignore in your content strategy.

If you have created a YouTube channel, for example, and the videos published do not meet with the expected success, it may be that you are missing some technical elements to improve the referencing of your media. In this article, we will give you ways to improve the positioning of your videos on YouTube. Another element should encourage you to better reference your videos on YouTube , because did you know that videos can actively contribute to the natural referencing of your web pages if they are well optimized?

Here are 7 tips to implement to boost your video referencing and be more visible in search engines.

Some techniques to improve video SEO
Some techniques to improve video SEO

Choose the right subject

If you develop videos related to a company or a product that you distribute, the choice of subject will be found. If, on the other hand, you want to develop a YouTube channel and publish videos there in order to gain an audience , but you have no idea, you will have to find "the subject" that will be of interest. for internet users. Either way, it's important to analyze trends and see what your competition is offering. In fact, if you publish videos that don't fit the tastes of the moment or that don't meet the needs of the people you are targeting, you won't get a lot of audience… Even with the technical advice that we are going to develop in this article.

  1. Organize a competitive intelligence.
  2. Take a walk on social media and see what works.
  3. Ask yourself if you can make changes to what you see.
  4. Do you have value to add?

Here is a tool to help you in your competitive intelligence


Google Trends

If you are looking for topics that are at the top of the moment, you can use Google Trends . It will tell you what are the most frequent requests at the moment. In case you hesitate between two topics, go to Google Trends , and compare them by asking for a search on YouTube .


Make the right choice for your keywords

You must seriously consider the keywords that will be used to rank your videos. To begin with, they allow you to highlight the popularity of the theme(s) you wish to develop and to position yourself in relation to your competitors. There are a few interesting tools that will help you in this process. Here is 1:

YouTube Analytics

You 've created a YouTube channel, and when you're on the analytics dashboard , you can go to the "Audience" section and see what other types of channels your audience is watching. This gives you an idea of ​​what interests your community. Analyze the titles that can help you choose your keywords.

Make a quality video

One important thing to know is that all the optimizations in the world will not replace the intrinsic quality of the video. The latter must interest Internet users and be relevant to be well referenced.


How does Google rate the quality of a video?

Based in particular on the viewing time: if the viewers leave after only a few seconds, this is interpreted as a sign of poor quality or lack of relevance which will be penalized in the referencing. So it's in your best interest to create engaging videos that stand out. To do this, check out our selection of tools to create original videos .

Transcribe the video

When you dedicate a page to a video, get into the habit of adding a text transcript. This has two big advantages:

  • For the user experience , this allows you to offer your visitors two different ways to read your content. You can thus adapt to everyone's tastes and situation and limit the bounce rate.
  • For video SEO, the text helps to optimize page ranking on targeted search terms.

A word-for-word transcription, however, can be time-consuming and laborious, especially if the video in question is long. This is why you can also make a synthetic transcription in the form of a summary or an article as we did for our video tutorial on UTM tags .

Optimize video metadata

Like web pages, videos contain metadata that search engines use a lot to help them rank.

These metadata, in particular the title and the description , must therefore be optimized to improve the SEO of the video:

Create a clickable title with relevant keywords and no more than 50 characters;

Write a relevant description, accurately describing the content of the video and not exceeding 155 characters.

Focus on “video-friendly” keywords

Your goal, when you optimize the SEO of a video, is also to see it appear in the standard search results (and not only in Google Videos).

However, not all keywords are conducive to having videos in their search results.

Sure, Google is unpredictable and it's hard to set precise rules, but some search phrases seem to be more "video-friendly" than others. For example, those that include words like tutorial , demo or even test often include videos in their results, since this medium is particularly suitable for tutorials and demonstrations of products, software, etc.

A simple practice to estimate the potential of your keywords is to test them directly on Google to see the proportion of videos in the results.

Make a video sitemap

It's possible to create video sitemaps to help Google better find the videos on your site based on the additional information you provide.

This has the effect of improving the referencing and appearance of your site in search results.

You can create a full-fledged sitemap for a video or add information about a video to an existing sitemap.

Tips when posting your video

Remember to include keywords in the name of your file: tuto-couture-sac.mp4 or tutocouturesac.avi are more interesting for referencing your videos than titles generated by video editing software. Include your keywords in the title of your video as well. For example: Sewing tutorial: creating a bag

Focus on the description, which should be around 200 words, and include keywords related to your video. In our example: sewing, bag, sewing thread, fabrics, sewing machine…


Do not put more than 6 tags.

Fill in the information related to the language, the filming location… even if it does not seem important to you, it is not the same for the search engine algorithms!

How YouTube's Algorithm Works

Referencing as a whole is done by algorithms. The same goes for YouTube . Here are some parameters that matter for the SEO of your videos on YouTube.

The law of keywords

They are, like all other videos, an essential part of SEO. It is by choosing them carefully that you will best optimize your YouTube channel and your videos. The words chosen must have a link with the subject of course, but also with the requests made by Internet users in connection with your theme. You can add the targets you are aiming for and the sector of activity.

The fields

Elements that inform about a video. You have to fill them in well , because on the one hand, they provide interesting information to Internet users, but they will also give relevance indicators for YouTube's algorithms. It includes the title, description and tags. Don't forget to include some of your keywords.

Viewing time and interactions

YouTube's algorithms also work for "revenue" from ads. The longer people stay on the videos, the more ads they will see. So the longer they stay on your videos , the better the SEO will be. On the other hand, there will be more possibilities to interact with other videos, other channels, information and advertisements… Again, this is a powerful SEO lever.

YouTube and external levers

Google SEO also gives the possibility of better referencing videos on YouTube. If your website is well positioned on the search engine, there is a good chance that this will affect your YouTube channel or your videos. Some levers are very important and will have a significant resonance :

  • Embed your videos in your blog posts,
  • Create “backlinks” related to your videos,
  • Promote your videos on social networks, in your newsletters …

Our tip to improve video SEO

Whatever your approach, whether personal or professional, SEO work on YouTube and more generally for your videos is not easy. Indeed, the amount of content on the web is enormous as well as the competition very important. Standing out will not be an easy task! The tips offered in this article give you keys so that you can take advantage of the videos on your website and boost the SEO of your videos. Don't forget to perform the "classic" SEO optimizations to get into Google's good graces.

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