Video Transcript: You Tube Videos

In this video, I'm going to show you my five step process for ranking number one in YouTube. I recently used this exact method to rank in the top three in  YouTube for the keyword SEO. I'm Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko, the  place where marketers turn for higher rankings and more traffic. And today,  you're going to learn the five most influential Video SEO ranking factors to get  your videos to the top of YouTube fast, keep watching. A few years ago, my  youtube channel was struggling. I consistently created high quality videos that  provided a ton of value, but when I publish my videos, crickets. Needless to say,  I was frustrated. I knew that video was a powerful way to grow my online  business, but I learned the hard way that video only works if people actually  watch your videos. And no, your mom, watching your videos doesn't count. Trust me. Hey, Mom, I just published a new video on YouTube. Can you watch it for  me? Thanks, Mom, you're the best Flash forward to today, and my videos  consistently get 10s of 1000s of views, and hundreds of people subscribe to my  channel every single month. My secret I learned everything I could about video  SEO. Unfortunately, most of the advice that I initially read about ranking in  YouTube didn't work. You know the advice I'm talking about, put your keyword in your video description, put keywords in your video file name, write 20 tags for  every video. Sure this stuff can help, but it's not gonna rocket your video to the  top of Google or YouTube. Why? Because everyone on YouTube is doing the  exact same thing. After trying all the generic advice that I read and getting  nowhere, I decided to run a bunch of experiments, and that's what I learned.  What really works? Specifically, I discovered YouTube's five most important  ranking factors, and these are ranking factors that very few people know about.  Once I applied these ranking factors to my videos, my rankings shot through the roof. I started ranking for super competitive keywords, like SEO, link building,  how to get traffic and more. And now it's time for me to share these five ranking  factors with you and show you exactly how to use them to rank your videos in  YouTube. Let's start with step number one, which is to create and publish long  videos. You may have noticed that longer videos tend to perform better in  YouTube? Why? Well, YouTube's most important ranking factor is your video's  total watch time. As you probably know, the more of your video people watch,  the better it tends to rank that's called Audience retention, which is an important  ranking factor. Even though audience retention is important, it's not nearly as  important as your videos total watch time. That's because YouTube wants to  promote videos that keep people on YouTube for a long period of time. So the  more total minutes people watch of your video, the more YouTube will want to  rank it in the search results. For example, let's say that you just published two  different videos. Video one is two minutes long, and video two is 10 minutes  long, and let's say that each video gets 1000 views, and the audience retention  for both videos is exactly the same, 50% that means that, on average, people  watch half of your video. The total watch time for the two minute video would be 

1000 minutes. But for the longer video, that video's watch time will be 5000  minutes. That means that video number two will have five times the watch time  of video number one, which means that it'll likely outrank video number one.  That's the power of publishing longer videos. In fact, my video that ranks in the  top three for SEO is nearly 10 minutes, which is significantly longer than most  videos on YouTube, because it's longer, my video accumulates more total watch  time than my competitors, and I'm able to rank above videos with significantly  more views than mine. Okay, let's move on to step number two, which is to  master the hook. As I said, longer videos tend to rank better because they  accumulate more total watch time. But there's one big problem with this  approach, you have to keep someone's attention on the internet. Fortunately, my experiments have taught me that if you can hook someone in the first 15  seconds of your video, you've hooked them for good. In fact, YouTube  recommends that you focus on the first 15 seconds of your video to maximize  watch time. The question is, how do you hook people in the first 15 seconds of  your video? Start your video off with the PPP formula. The PPP stands for  preview proof. Preview. Here's exactly how it works. First preview what your  video is all about. When I first started creating videos, my intros would go on  and on about why my video's topic was important, and these long winded intros  would make people click away today, I cut out the fluff and tell them exactly what to expect. For example, let's say that your video outlines 10 paleo diet tips you'd want to start off your video saying in this video, you're going to learn 10 of my  favorite paleo diet tips. That's it next. It's time for the proof. Here's proof that you can deliver. You can mention that you've already accomplished what the viewer  wants, that you have lots of experience in your field, or that you've researched a  ton about your topic. For example, you could say these are the same tips I use  to gain five pounds of muscle in 60 days. Finally, hit them with a preview again.  Here's where you reiterate what your video is about. Now you obviously don't  want to just repeat what you said in the beginning. Instead mention something  specific from your video. You can mention the number of tips, a detail from a  case study, or that you're going to share something completely new. This will  make your viewers curious and want to keep watching. For example, you could  say, and today you're going to learn about the so called healthy paleo diet food  that's actually bad for you. Next up, we have putting your exact keyword in your  title. There's no question that Google and YouTube are getting Smarter Every  Day, which means the days of keyword stuffing your video to the top of YouTube are long gone that said Google and YouTube both use your video's title to  understand what your video is all about. So make sure to include your exact  keyword once in your title, preferably in the beginning of your title. For example,  I created a video that I wanted to rank for the keyword link building, so I made  sure to include my exact keyword link building in the beginning of the title, and  that helped it rank in the top three for my target keyword. Okay, now it's time for 

ranking factor number four, which is to say your keyword in your video. When I  first got started with video SEO, I'd go back to old videos and optimize them  around keywords that I wanted to rank for, and it very rarely worked. That's  because Google and YouTube can now listen to your videos even without a  transcript. For example, let's say that you just published a video about healthy  desserts, then a few weeks later, you realize that the keyword healthy desserts  is too competitive, so you go back and optimize it around a different keyword,  like low carb desserts. Now this sounds smart, but it's something that doesn't  work as well as it used to. Why, even though the keyword low carb desserts may be in your title, description and tags, you never said that keyword once in the  video, YouTube knows this, and it looks fishy to YouTube. Your video is about  healthy desserts, but all of your on page metadata says it's about low carb  desserts, so they won't rank you for either keyword. That's why I always make  sure to actually say my target keyword in every video. For example, in my video  about SEO, I made sure to say the word SEO a few times simple yet effective.  Last up, we have user interaction signals. YouTube wants to see that people are actually interacting with your video. The more people watch, like subscribe and  comment on your video, the higher your video will rank in YouTube search  results. Now the strategies that I've showed you so far will help you naturally get more of these user interaction signals. But there are two simple tactics that I use on every video to increase my videos, user interaction signals. First I add an  annotation that asks people to like my video. After a lot of experimenting, I've  found that this simple annotation significantly boosts the number of likes that my videos receive. At the end of my video, I also ask people to subscribe and  comment, which also increases the amount of my videos. User interaction  signals. I was originally gonna end the video right here, but I decided to throw in  a quick bonus tip for you, which is to optimize for click through rate when  someone searches for something in YouTube, YouTube pays very close  attention to what video they click on. For example, let's say they rank number  five for your target keyword. As you probably know, videos ranking number one  through four get the vast majority of clicks, but for some reason, lots of people  are clicking on your video in the search results. What do you think YouTube will  think about your video that it's a great result for that keyword, and they'll give  your video a rankings boost to make it easier for people to find so how do you  maximize your click through rate? Well, YouTube displays three main pieces of  information in the search results, your title, your thumbnail and a snippet of your  description. Here's how to quickly optimize all three for click through rate. The  key with your thumbnail is simply that it stands out. That means that you want to  create a custom thumbnail that looks different than the other videos that are on  the first page. For example, my video has a completely different design and  color scheme than my competition. For your title, like I mentioned before, you  want to include your target keyword once. Other than that, your goal with your 

title should be to maximize your click through rate. As you can see, my video  title is emotionally compelling. I also include the current year so people know  that the content is still relevant. Finally, you want to write something compelling  in the first few lines of your description, most people put a link to their website or channel here, and it's a huge mistake. Nothing looks less enticing to click on  than a link to someone's website instead. Write a sentence or two that includes  your target keyword in a compelling way. For example, in my SEO video, my first sentence is, if you want to rank in Google today, there's a new SEO ranking  factor to pay attention to, and this attention grabbing line gets more people to  click on my result. If you like this video, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube  channel right now, just click on the subscribe button right here. Also, if you want  exclusive SEO and traffic techniques that I only share with subscribers, head  over to backlinko.com and sign up for the newsletter. It's free. Now I want to turn it over to you. Which of the five ranking signals from this video are you going to  try first? Are you going to try to create longer videos? Or maybe you're going to  start optimizing your videos for click through rate, let me know by leaving a  comment below right now. Okay, the stage is yours. All right, I'll do it for real this  time. Yeah, that's very, very slight. Do it like? What up? I don't know. PPP, your  thumbnail.