video ranking

8 Tips for Increasing Your Video Ranking on YouTube

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With over one billion hours of YouTube viewed per day, it is no question that YouTube is a valuable platform for marketing your business. This clearly shows that you need to improve your video ranking game if you want to stand out from the crowd.

Whether you are wanting to create income from ads on YouTube, the number of views, or even just to promote your own product, knowing how to rank Youtube videos on Google will help you skyrocket your income!

With only 9% of small businesses using YouTube, learning how to market your channel now will help you to outrank your competition before they catch on.

But how exactly do you optimize a YouTube search ranking? It can get overwhelming when there are another 1 billion subscribers uploading videos almost every day.

Keep on reading to learn how to skyrocket your YouTube video ranking, and watch the viewers and cash start flowing in!

Let’s get started.

1. Optimize the Title

Titles are one of the most important key factors for a good video ranking on YouTube. However, you need to have your title catchy enough or else no one will care to watch.

The title of your video should be at least five words long and include your main keyword, being careful not to overstuff it. If you start the title with your keyword, you even get more SEO bonus points.

For example, if your video is a how-to instructional video, make sure you include the “how-to” at the beginning of your title.

The title must also include some clickbait. Describe why your audience needs to watch this video and how will it help their life.

2. Master Your Keywords

One of the easiest ways to master your keywords is to learn what people are already searching for, and you can do this using the suggested keywords in the search bar!

The suggested keywords are the sentences and phrases that pop up when you search for a video. If YouTube is suggesting them for you, this means that this is a very popular search topic!

Another tip for keywords is to say your keyword out loud in the introduction portion of your video. You are probably aware that YouTube does transcribe your videos, so if they hear your keyword, you are in for a higher search ranking!

3. Improve Your Audience Retention

Audience retention is based on the percentage of your videos that your viewers actually watch. So if you have a 10-minute long video and they only watch 2 minutes of it, your audience retention is only 20%.

YouTube will award the videos that keep the viewers watching, so if your video is not engaging, your retention will be low and YouTube will show it less frequently.

You can improve your audience retention by focusing on these key points:

  • Create a compelling hook: The first 15 seconds of your video matters the most, so create a sneak peek of what’s to come at the end of your video to keep them watching.
  • Mention the value: Explain what the viewer will learn and how your video can help improve their life if they watch until the end.
  • Mention that you will give the most important part of advice at the end. This way you can keep them interested.

4. Discover Your Niche

Generic videos do work, but they could also drown you within the sea of a billion hours viewed every day.

Having a niche is going to help you get discovered by your target viewers. This will help to improve your audience retention, gain some subscribers and get more engagement.

5. Mind Map Your Video Plan

Just like blogging, you need to plan your future videos ahead of time and see how you can tie them all together. For example, if you have numerous points to bring up about a certain topic, turn that video into a multi-part series and speak about each upcoming video as they come.

6. Break Up the Topics

Not many viewers have the attention span to watch a 10-minute long video. However, if they know there is information coming up in the fourth and fifth 2-minute long video that is valuable to them, they will watch the entire series.

7. Create a Script

It can take a bit of time for the average person to become comfortable talking to a camera, therefore, planning a script of what to say will help you build confidence while speaking.

The last thing a viewer wants to listen to is a bunch of “um’s” and “ahh’s” from the presenter. If you come across with no confidence in what you are speaking about, your reader will have no confidence in you as well, which will make them want to watch something else and click on another video.

8. Promote Your Video

When you are new to YouTube, gaining audience retention will be hard if no one knows who you are. By creating an online presence as a professional in your niche, people will start to take you seriously and start following your channel.

There are a few awesome platforms to use to spread awareness about your video content:

  • Quora and other Q&A websites: Share your YouTube link in relative conversations where people are asking advice on your niche topic. This creates high-retention views.
  • Embed your videos into your blog posts. Some people would rather watch a video instead of reading an article on the same topic.
  • Create a playlist consisting of 4-5 similar videos so that they will automatically play in sequence, and increase your audience retention!
  • Make a case study: Check out this guide for more information.

Learn More About Skyrocketing Your YouTube Video Ranking

Now you hold the powerful tools to improve your YouTube video ranking, follow these and start to watch more subscribers, viewers, and cash pour in. Remember, to have consistency in your efforts, track your progress and see where you can make changes.

If you would like more information, check out our blog! We have more useful tips on ways to decrease bounce rates as well as a beginner’s guide to SEO.

You can also check your domain’s rankings by plugging it into our handy keyword ranking report tool.