6 Hacks: How to Rank YouTube Videos Fast

Liz Nugent
Web Friendly
Published in
4 min readDec 1, 2017

Why would you want to put in effort to rank YouTube videos?

Imagine: you’re enjoying your morning coffee, checking notifications on your phone that popped up overnight. You casually check your Youtube analytics and, BOOM, your latest video had 10,000 views last week!

Hell. Yeah.

No wonder you saw that spike in leads…

Results like these are no accident. YouTube has the second highest volume of search traffic, right behind Google. Factor in that Google search integrates YouTube, and you get the picture.

To be found by your prospects, you need to optimize your profile for both Google and YouTube native search. Here are 6 simple steps on how to rank YouTube videos fast.

1: Title Your Videos

Video titles on YouTube can be up to 100 characters. However, Google cuts off the title after 70 characters.

Put the most important information at the start of your title, including keywords.

Keywords are the most important key to rank YouTube videos. To pick your keywords, consider what question you’re answering with your video. These keywords are what people will be typing into their Google or YouTube search.

State a clear and specific benefit. Tell the viewer right in the title why they should watch your video. How is it going to change their life?

When you’re brainstorming possible titles, search them on Google and compare your ranking competition. Try a few different ways of asking the questions to figure out which will have the best chances to rank YouTube videos. Look at the search results and go from there.

If one variation has a few really strong videos already, it’s not your best option. Try something different.

Keep in mind that Google tends to display YouTube videos results for the following types of keywords:

  • “How To”
  • “Review”
  • Anything Fitness Related
  • Tutorials
  • “Funny Videos”

If it is appropriate (considering your content) to include these keywords in the title, then you are sure to snag some Google search volume.

2: Tags

Keywords make you rank on Google, but tags help rank YouTube videos within YouTube.

To figure out which tag to use, get on ubersuggest.io and choose the YouTube search engine option. Then, Select your relevant relevant keywords to generate tag ideas.

Also, always use your name and your company as a tag.

3: Description

On each video, you have the opportunity to include a description. Always fill it out with the following details:

A Synopsis of you or your company. Don’t rely on people to click back to your profile. Tell them what you’re about right in the video description.

A call to action. What is the purpose of your video? Do you want them to buy a product, subscribe to your channel, check out your website? Tell them what to do!

Resources. So they liked the video and want more info, don’t make them go back to Google. Give them resources that will answer their follow up questions. Ideally, provide another video or a link to your website for more information.

Social media profile links. Congratulations, your videos made them like you. Now tell them where else they can get more of you. Chances are, if they’re on YouTube, they’re probably on another Social channel like Facebook or Twitter.

Video transcription. The more (keyword rich) content there is in your description, the more likely the video is to rank on Google. You can send the video off to a service like trint.com for fast, accurate, and inexpensive transcription.

If you really want to rank YouTube videos fast, make sure to follow these guidelines for the video description:

  • Your description should be at least 250 words long
  • Include your keywords once in the first 25 words
  • Repeat your keywords in the same way about 3–4 times

4: Thumbnail

YouTube will automatically assign a thumbnail to your video. It may or may not be flattering or a good representation of your brand.

Take control back and create the perfect thumbnail for your video, complete with overlay text that describes and entices. This will not directly help you rank YouTube videos fast, but it will increase the chances of people actually clicking on your video among the search results.

Tubebuddy lets you do this for only $3.60 per month. You can upgrade your account to Star Level for $15.60 monthly, which allows you to schedule posts from the platform, too.

5: Caption File

Hands down, if you want to rank YouTube videos, you need a caption file.

If you’re not familiar, a caption file correlates written text of what you say with a timestamp.

Rev will create a caption file from a video for $1 per minute. For longer videos, you could also use Fivver to decrease cost.

Once you have the file created, you simply upload it to YouTube.

6: Get Backlinks

When other websites or social profiles link to your video (backlinks), it shows Google that your video is relevant and high-value. Google will rank YouTube videos with more backlinks higher.

To get more backlinks, share it on social platforms and comment on relevant blogs with the link to help answers people’s questions.

Not all links are good, though. If a sketchy tabloid site links to you, then you’re related to an untrustworthy source. Too many of these bad links hurt your efforts to rank YouTube videos.

Check out the free Open Site Explorer tool from Moz to see who’s linking to your video.

Conclusion

Video is the most effective way to communicate online.

Build your repository of great videos on YouTube and help them be found on Google and YouTube with these hacks.

You’re just 6 steps away from your own explosive YouTube results. Become the go-to person in your niche.

Make it happen now!

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