You put so much time and effort into creating your marketing video, promoting your channel, and telling people about your new video. But when you uploaded it to YouTube, you skipped right over filling in the description box because you thought it was unnecessary. Stop right there! Don’t throw away all your hard work by skipping out on optimizing your video description – instead, follow our SEO tips for YouTube.
YouTube is the second largest search engine, and every part of your video (including the description) factors into how it ranks. Your description can even include clickable links that will be recognized and show up in search results. These links connect that video and your viewers to your website, opt-ins, services, and any other online content.
However, you can’t just drop links and call it a day. By providing structure, you’ll encourage your viewer to engage with your description and help guide them wherever you want. The copy (text) inside your description box is indexed by all search engines – we’re not just talking YouTube. You can rank on YouTube without a good description, but you won’t really get anywhere with Google.
Another thing to think about is if you have a description, people will spend time reading it. Most of the time, people read your description while your video is playing. This means extra watch time. You don’t want to miss out on that! A good YouTube video will have a detailed description that is keyword optimized and includes links to direct your viewers.
3 SEO Tips to Improve Rankings:
1. The first 5 lines are the most important.
When you upload a video you have the option to fill in the description box. Make sure this is done before your video goes public. Make sure the first 5 lines of your description are engaging because they’ll be visible next to your video in search engines, anytime it’s shared on social media, and above the “read more” tab in the actual description box.
Make sure it includes a link to whatever your offering or a lead magnet and then a keyword optimized summary of what your video is about.
2. Don’t forget the html links.
Aside from the link in your first 5 lines, the body of your description should include other related links. Only include ones that would be relevant to someone who is watching the current video. In order for them to be clickable, make sure they start with http://
This is a good time to include any affiliate links to products mentioned, social media pages, opt-ins, and similar videos.
3. Take advantage of the space.
This isn’t Twitter and you aren’t limited to 140 characters. You have 5000 characters to use in your YouTube description! Your video on YouTube has the same ability as your blog posts to rank on Google. Structuring your description as a short blog post will engage the reader/viewer and provide you with better results. Use this space to outline your video and use a lot of key words and phrases.
When you’re doing this, try getting your word count above 300 to show Google you have some substantial information to share. You can also include some transcribed quotes from the video and time codes to help people who may want to skim the description and skip to certain sections of your video (especially if it’s a long one).
Description Box Guide for SEO:
Even if you don’t think your viewers are reading your descriptions, don’t skip over them! They’re very important when it comes to SEO. For reference, here’s a quick guide to putting together your description:
- Engaging first 5 lines
- Opt-in link
- Video content teaser
- Social media links and contact information
- Detailed description / short blog
- Links to anything referenced in video
- Link to blog
It helps to start thinking about and writing your description while planning your video. Your description should be an outline of your video so you could even use it as a guide while shooting.