(Hypebot) — Although an extremely valuable marketing tool, keeping up with YouTube and it’s ever-evolving inner workings can be a challenge. Still, we know enough about the algorithm to have a few ideas on how to game the system.
Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0
YouTube can be a confusing animal. Like most social networks, once you think you’ve gotten your arms around how it works, it changes up its algorithm and you have to rethink your strategy again. That said, the platform does openly give you some idea of how the YouTube algorithm works, and these 6 ways to beat it were recently outlined by uber-marketer Neil Patel. Here’s what to do.
1. Be Thoughtful About Your Keywords And Metadata
YouTube makes it clear in their algorithm explanation that keywords, descriptions, captions, and tags that are directly relevant to the video content really matters when it comes to optimizing your videos.
That means you need keyword rich titles and descriptions in order to increase your chances of the algorithm feeding your video to people when they search.
2. Make Sure You Optimize Your Description
This is one of the keys to the YouTube algorithm. The platform really likes long descriptions that include the names of the people involved in the video as well as links to other content, social media, or your website (don’t forget to include https:// in front of the URL to make it active). 100 words or more is what you’re aiming for.
3. Add A Dialog Or Lyric Transcription
Many people watch videos with the sound off, so if there’s something critical that you’re trying to get across, then make sure you upload self-created subtitles. The best part is that these are also indexed for search so that they’ll help you rank higher in the search results.
4. Optimize Your Video Endings
While it’s easy to just have a simple ending to a video, that’s depriving you of many marketing opportunities. If you direct viewers to another video on your channel, not only will you benefit from the increased interaction, but it will also satisfy the engagement requirement for the YouTube algorithm as well. This can be done in a variety of ways, from watermarks to end screens to cards, all which can be linked to another video on your channel.
5. Encourage Subscriptions
Subscriptions are not only useful for engagement, but they also help your search ranking as well, since YouTube will make sure that your reach is extended as a result. Sometimes creating a channel trailer can provide an incentive for people to sign up.
There are more examples of how to increase your YouTube search ranking, plus an explanation on how the algorithm works here.
