Optimizing My Video Essay For The YouTube Algorithm
Hi there! This post is part of a documentation project on how I wrote, scripted, narrated, scored, audio/video edited, and uploaded a rewrite video for the anime Demon Slayer. I detail my production process, and how my skills and principles can be applied elsewhere. Visit my landing page to see the rest of my process!
The Final Step
Anybody can upload a video to YouTube. Not everybody can optimize the tools YouTube gives you. Smart YouTubers research ways to optimize these tools. They market their videos with sharp thumbnails and SEO tactics. I’m no marketing professional, but I’d done some research. I didn’t know much, but I applied what I knew nonetheless.
My Title
Your video’s title and thumbnail are a pitch for your video. Your title should be concise. Titles between 3–5 words are optimal.
My title “I Rewrote Demon Slayer…” checks these boxes, but I left it open-ended, which will hopefully lead to viewers’ interest being piqued.
My initial title was “Rewriting Demon Slayer.” While it checks the same boxes, it didn’t have the intrigue.
My Thumbnail
Your thumbnail should reiterate and complement your title. I wanted mine to be striking. I come across plenty of thumbnails that are overcrowded, heavily photoshopped, and tacky. It muddies the focus, and I wanted something simpler.
I chose this image because it stood out and had the focus off-center. That left room for bold font on the other side, making for a well-rounded and attractive thumbnail to reinforce my video topic. Rather than a heavily edited mess, my thumbnail has two points of interest for exactly what I need.
Playing With Keywords
Keywords and keyphrases are essential to the YouTube algorithm in every form. They’re what YouTube uses to gauge your audience and promote your video, so knowing how to work the system is a wise thing to learn.
My Description
I started my description by giving a couple-sentence summary of my video.
“In this video, I rewrote part of Demon Slayer Season One. While we’re here, what do YOU like about Demon Slayer, and if you did a rewrite or video essay, what would YOU have changed? Thanks for watching, and stick around for Part 2 covering Mount Natagumo, Rehabilitation Training, and Mugen Train!”
Notice my wording? I reused keywords and keyphrases from my title, and added a couple more like “rewrite” and “video essay.” Repeated keywords help the algorithm further understand your video. Seeding my description with keywords helped, but to further utilize this method, I utilized YouTube’s tag system.
YouTube Tags
Tags are additional keywords and phrases the algorithm uses to gain a better understanding of your video and who you’re trying to reach. This is an incredibly beneficial tool, and I did research on it to find the best way to optimize it.
Keep your tags focused on your video. Words and phrases closely correlated with your topic help the algorithm better understand what your video is.
Try to keep them short. Roughly 2–3 keywords are optimal, but it isn’t the end of the world if you go under or over.
Use a mixture of broad and focused terms to diversify them. Just make sure they’re still on topic.
Your first tag should be your target keyword or phrase. The next several are also important, since YouTube gives most priority to the top tags, while giving less precedence to the ones further down the list. Roughly 5–8 are optimal, but again, it’s not instant failure if you go over.
My Tags
My tags are “Demon Slayer video essay,” “demon slayer review,” “demon slayer rewrite,” “demon slayer is,” “tanjiro,” and “anime video essay.” I kept most of my tags within 2–3 words, focused on my video, and only wrote six. My video is a bit niche, so I’d arrange my tags a bit differently for a broader video.
Do keep in mind that I’m only expressing what I’ve learned. I’m no SEO professional, so I’ll definitely experiment further in the future. It helps that you can change your tags at any time on any video.
The Mistakes New YouTubers Make
New YouTubers with no knowledge of tags can harm their reach by misusing them. They’ll randomly enter every keyword and phrase remotely related to their topic with the intention of boosting reach. This dilutes the effect of your keywords and will only confuse the algorithm in its efforts to find your focus, and therefore, your audience.
Skills I Demonstrated
- Propensity to learn and research
- Beginner’s knowledge of the YouTube algorithm and optimization tools
Applying My Skills
My SEO skills are virtually non-existent, but my willingness and ability to learn and research is valuable. That tenacity can be applied in any part of any field. In the future, I’ll definitely need to brush up on SEO tactics in order to further the success of my future projects.
With these details out of the way, all I had to do was hit publish. Head back to my landing page to see my thoughts in hindsight upon finishing my video.
