With 244.4 million video watchers in the US, you’d be remiss not to leverage the power of video marketing as part of your social media marketing strategy, and while long-form content has reigned supreme with 34% more conversion rates, there might be a new sheriff in town.

The average American’s attention span has gone down significantly, and while it’s not yet concretely quantifiable, there’s no denying that most of us struggle to sit through long-form content without planning or preparation.

That means all those movie-like ads, video marketing materials, and extensive video content are not as appealing to the ordinary audience member or consumer any longer—and it makes sense, too.

With apps like TikTok taking the world by storm garnering 1.7 billion active users around the world since it was founded in 2016, other apps like Instagram, Facebook, and eventually, YouTube all followed suit with the short-form video format. It’s proven to be the most successful marketing strategy in today’s quick-consumption information overload era.

In 2023, 33% of marketers are looking to invest more in short-form video, including YouTube Shorts, which have over 50 billion daily views as of February 2023! That’s an incredible reach, offering a lot of potential for getting relevant marketing material and content across to your audience.

But these Shorts will only get you so far without a few key components, including:

• Great content
• Relevant marketing niches
• Focus on every detail, including the title, thumbnail, and description
• Appropriate backlinks
• YouTube Shorts #Hashtags

Recommended Read: How to Create Winning Social Media Strategies for Small Businesses

Why You Need to Care About YouTube Shorts

Launched in 2020, this feature on the long-standing video content platform has been a game-changer. YouTube Shorts have a separate audience from its regular long-form content and use the typical 9:16 ratio to display content that is up to 60 seconds long. You can add music, play with filters, add captions, and, of course, add hashtags to make them more appealing.

Our social media management company encourages clients to invest in YouTube Shorts for their business and leverage this mobile-exclusive, vertical video feature for everything it can offer.

Unsurprisingly, sources like Forbes have also begun acknowledging the branding power YouTube Shorts offer, given that they allow you to reach a wider demographic, share more information in shorter time spans, create more content, and stay consistently on-trend. This is all while your standard social media strategy is already running as usual.

What’s The Deal With Hashtags Anyway?

If you’ve been on social media for even a fraction of a minute, you’ve probably seen hashtags everywhere and perhaps even used them to get a few additional likes on your photos and videos.

But have you ever stopped to wonder why we use hashtags anyway? Is it just to be #Quirky, #Fun, and #Interesting? Or is there an actual function to them?

Hashtags are actually one of the most valuable social media tools available to marketers, businesses, and audiences alike. They help classify content, making it easier to search for it on a platform. It also helps the algorithm determine what’s trending and what’s not, what content goes where, and how to personalize content for audiences based on these tags.

Even something as simple and mundane as #Selfie #WorkOutfit can help the platform filter out what your content is about and push it to audiences who need it—which is why it’s crucial to know the best YouTube hashtags to add to your video content.

Recommended Read: Social Media and SEO: How to Use Social Media to Improve SEO Rankings

Identifying The Best Hashtags for YouTube Shorts in 2023

While you do want to focus on niche hashtags that are specific to your content, industry, business, product, services, brand, and other details unique to you, it’s also important to look at what’s trending.

You can and should come up with unique, personalized hashtags, such as taglines for your business, catchphrases, business names, etc., but you can’t make it big without the right strategic choices, either.

That’s because users will be able to search for your content using the hashtag, too, and you want it to show up higher on their search results, making it necessary to use both viral and trending tags.

So, what’s hot and happening when it comes to the latest YouTube Shorts trending hashtags? Let’s take a look:

1. #shorts
2. #viral
3. #subscribe
4. #shortsvideo
5. #viralshorts
6. #reels
7. #youtubeshorts
8. #trending
9. #shortvideo
10. #youtuber
11. #share
12. #shortsyoutube
13. #shortsviral
14. #youtube
15. #ytshorts
16. #shortsfeed
17. #trendingshorts
18. #shortsads
19. #shortschallenge
20. #shortsbts
21. #youtubevideo
22. #shortsbeta
23. #youtubevideos
24. #shortscompilations
25. #shortsclip

These are some of our top YouTube Shorts tags that are intended to boost your reach, help you find more audiences, and get your short-form videos trending. But what’s next? Let’s address some FAQs:

Recommended Read: The Ultimate YouTube SEO Cheat Sheet

Where Will I Find Viral YouTube Shorts Hashtags for My Business?

You’re probably thinking we just gave you a whole list above—so why do you need to look for anything other than these?

Well, these are some of the highest performing, viral YouTube shorts tags, but as you can see, they’re also kind of generic.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it just means you’ll always be able to add these to your content and get traction, views, and engagement—but it also means that they don’t really show anything related to your business, content, or niche.

They’re also not necessarily what’s trending right now, which means people may not be actively searching for these terms at the present moment, and with 2 billion monthly logged-in users on the app, you want to know what they’re looking for.

A great way to look for trending hashtags is to do a thorough examination of:

1. Competitor Videos and Content

This seems fairly obvious when you think about it, but looking at your competitors is a great place to start. Our social media management services include a detailed competitor analysis, which we can perform for YouTube Shorts, too, identifying which hashtags are helping them soar through the algorithm and get recognized.

It’s especially helpful to look at competitors because they’ve already been through the trial and error of using different hashtags to see what performs and what tanks in your industry and with your audience, and if it’s not something unique to them, you can just as easily incorporate it into your content.

Like they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

2. YouTube’s Own Algorithm for Suggestions

With billions of daily users, YouTube is collecting mammoth amounts of data each day. This means it knows exactly what the best hashtags for YouTube Shorts are, and you should pay heed to its recommendations.

The algorithm has insights and offers data-backed recommendations by analyzing the information you provide, including your industry, products, and other specs. While sometimes these recommendations may not be accurate or seemingly relevant, it can’t hurt to add those hashtags to your Shorts. The simplest way to find recommendations is to enter the almighty # in the search bar or description and just choose tags that seem to fit.

YouTube will automatically recommend tags that are currently trending and popular, making your job significantly easier.

3. Trending Content and Videos on Shorts

Again, a great place to start here is to find trending content and videos and examine hashtags used there. Trending videos are often those that are going viral, or popular among viewers, and thus, more easily recognizable.

You can browse through specific trending categories to see what’s popular and what people are enjoying, and then make your selection for YouTube Shorts tags based on those findings.

This is a great strategy in general since it allows you to not just leverage popular, trending hashtags but also partake in relevant topics, conversations, and information to help you generate content that is also current. You can hack into the latest trends and exciting happenings on the internet and tailor your content to fit those conversations.

4. Designing Your Own Custom Hashtag

There are two things to note about this: you should look at your previous content to see what performed well, and use the same elements, especially hashtags, and also work to create your own tags.

By this, we mean to come up with innovative hashtags that are recognizable, unique, and interesting. Some of the most popular branded hashtags that we’ve seen trending on social media across the board include Nike’s #JustDoIt, Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign hashtag, and many more. But there are also other category-based tags such as #ASMR, that offer millions of results in a single search, as can be seen below:

While this is specifically for shorts, there are actually 13 million videos that come up for this hashtag alone, and the top two shorts pictured here have 215M views and 252M views, respectively—and they’re not even a year old.

Why this works is that viewers automatically associate your company or brand with that YouTube Shorts hashtag, and can also make videos in response to it, recreate, repost, or reshare them, and find all videos from that campaign in a single place by looking up your unique tag.

Recommended Read: How to Promote Your YouTube Channel: The Only Guide You Need

How Do I Use These Trending Tags On YouTube?

With all this information to deal with, one of the biggest questions you might be left with is how do I even use these trending hashtags for YouTube shorts? Do they go in the video itself?

To put it simply: you have to use the tags strategically.

As seen above, the hashtag #shorts makes an appearance in this product video’s description, which has 108k likes and over 4M views since it was posted in July 2022. This is a fairly successful brand video that doesn’t use much else other than one strategic, popular YouTube Shorts hashtag—pretty crazy, right?

This goes to show that you don’t need to stuff every single trending hashtag in your posts to make a splash. Make smart choices, adding them to your title if it fits, description, and comments so it can generate traction and views. #YouGotThis.

#LetsGetStarted on Your Very Own YouTube and Social Media Campaign

You may not have thought much about the impact of hashtags on your social media engagement and performance before today, but we know how algorithms work to impact your reach.

Don’t wait around to find the right hashtags that work for your brand or business. Let the social media marketing services at Global-marketing Inc. kickstart your campaign.

We offer comprehensive, affordable social marketing services that are tailored to your brand’s needs and requirements. Set up a consultation with our team and get a detailed audit, review, and analysis of your current strategy and where you’re falling behind.

We’re excited to help you customize and upgrade everything from your YouTube Shorts tags to your content strategy for more engagement and impactful results. #WeGotThis!

The post Viral Hashtags for YouTube Shorts appeared first on Global-marketing Inc..

There’s a reason why YouTube is this popular.

In 2023, content is becoming increasingly multi-sensory. People don’t just want written content; they also want video and audio content that appeals to two more senses. It’s simple. The more senses that are stimulated, the better the content consumption experience.

If you’ve turned your attention to YouTube marketing and advertising in 2023, you’re on the right track. If you’ve also turned your attention to YouTube SEO, you’re crossing the finish line.

The right YouTube optimization practices will give your videos the visibility, rankings, and traffic they deserve. What does this mean for you? A wider audience, exciting conversions, and more revenue in your pocket.

Keep reading for the ultimate YouTube optimization checklist. If you have any questions, our pros are waiting to answer your queries in the comments section.

Let’s crank the engine!

1. Rename Your Videos

Most creators are very particular about adding keywords to the YouTube video description and tags, as they should be. However, they often ignore the video file name. While you’re primarily creating content for your audience, you’re also trying to appease the YouTube algorithm. The goal is to feed both of these birds with one scone.

The YouTube algorithm can’t actually watch your videos to understand what they’re about (we wish). Instead, it reads the video file name and code. When you replace your regular “branding_C1_004EDITED.mov” filename with “credit building tips” (the primary keyword), you’ll help YouTube understand your content better.

The outcome? Improved rankings.

2. Add Keywords to the Title

There’s nothing wrong with adding a creative spin to your title. In fact, creativity will help your content stand out from the crowd. However, make sure you incorporate keywords into your title as well. If you sell bicycles and post a roundup video of the best bicycles for beginners, select a unique title that still satisfies audience intent.

Here are two titles that could be used for this video:

• “The Ultimate Bicycle Showdown”
• “The Best Bicycles for Beginners: The Ultimate Showdown”

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Which title do you think would perform better? If you’re looking for the best bicycles for beginners, you’ll never enter “the ultimate bicycle showdown” in the search bar. While it sounds more exciting and engaging as a title, it doesn’t satisfy user intent.

The second title combines the primary keyword (best bicycles for beginners) with a creative touch (the ultimate showdown) to check both boxes off the list. While you’ll give your title a little more oomph, you’ll also manage to insert the primary keyword and reach more people.

This sounds pretty easy, right?

Well, not quite.

Ideally, your YouTube video title should be under the 60-character limit. If it’s too long, it’ll get cut off in the search results. This limit can make it difficult to get the best of both worlds. A little bit of trial and error will help you get the hang of crafting creative and optimized keywords.

Here’s an excellent example:

If web users are looking for the top Canon cameras of 2023, they’re trying to find the one. This title captures both aspects of user search intent: the best Canon camera of 2023 and the top 5 Canon cameras of the year. This is what you call a masterful title.

Pro tip: Instead of assuming user search intent, perform keyword research. User search intent changes every day as new trends, events, celebrations, holidays, industry changes, and other developments occur. Monthly or preferably bi-monthly keyword research will help you stay on top of user search intent and get rid of guesswork.

3. Add Accurate Closed Captions

While YouTube has an auto-caption feature in place, it’s only 70% accurate. What’s wrong with a few incomprehensible captions, right? Well, in some cases, the captions can be incorrect.

If you run a healthcare clinic or provide legal services, such errors can cause major reputational damage, especially if a client takes incorrect advice because of poor captioning. Google is pretty clear about its affinity for helpful, precise, and relevant video content. It also penalizes spam, or what Google likes to call “automatically generated gibberish”. That’s exactly what most auto-captions are.

If you run videos with poor captioning, your YouTube search rank will be affected.

Undoing the damage is pretty simple and easy. Add precise closed captions to your videos through an SRT file. As we mentioned earlier, the YouTube algorithm can crawl text but not watch videos. Keyword-rich search results will help YouTube crawl and rank your content better.

4. Add Keywords to the Tags

YouTube tags play a big role in keeping things organized, neat, and pretty on YouTube. If tags were removed, say, tomorrow, YouTube search results would lose a big chunk of their structure, relevance, and precision.

Tagging is pretty simple. It helps you to add relevant keywords to generate more views. If you want your videos to outrank your competitors, add LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords to your YouTube tags. These are conceptually related keywords that help search engines understand user intent.

LSI keyword-rich tags will help you speedily climb YouTube SERPs and generate more traffic. This glossy, tempting feature is often overused by people. Sure, adding a plethora of tags sounds like a neat idea, but it’s not. Your video will lose its specificity and appear too scattered. The worst part? YouTube will penalize you.

Stick to 10–12 tags, no more.

5. Choose the Right Category

If you want your video to appear under the right search results, select a relevant category. This seems like a pretty straightforward thing to do, but many creators get it wrong and fail to rank for relevant search results.

Once you’ve uploaded a video, select the most relevant category from the “Advanced Settings”. This will help you add your content to the right group, so it ends up in relevant playlists and search results. You can choose from the following categories:

• Film & Animation
• Autos & Vehicles
• Music
• Pets & Animals
• Sports
• Travel & Events
• Gaming
• People & Blogs
• Comedy
• Entertainment
• News & Politics
• How-to & Style
• Education
• Science & Technology

If your video overlaps between two categories or doesn’t fall under any category, you’ll have to do a bit more digging to select the most closely related category.

Work with YouTube optimization experts who can help you select the most suitable category for each video. For simple and straightforward videos, the process is fairly easy. However, the more complex your video gets, the trickier it will be to settle on a category.

Professional help will go a long way in keeping you on track.

6. Stay Away From Stock Images

Stock images are a big no for the thumbnail. Many creators don’t realize this, but in actuality, web users can easily distinguish between a stock image and an original photo. Stock images are more generic, staged, boring, and scripted. If you use a stock image as your thumbnail, your video will fail to stop users in their tracks; they’ll keep scrolling.

Custom thumbnails create an impact. They compel users to stop, watch the auto-play snippet, and keep watching if they like what they see. That’s the power of a good thumbnail: it prompts an “Oh hey, that’s pretty cool. What is it?” reaction. The goal is to get people to click on your video. The right thumbnail will speed up the process for you.

Here’s what you do. For starters, select an original image for the thumbnail. It should be a high-resolution, professionally photographed, creative, engaging, and relevant photo. Make sure you add text to it to create an even stronger impact. Check the basic requirements off the list; your thumbnail should be 1280×720 pixels (16:9 ratio). Save the file as .jpg, .png, .gif, or .bmp under 2 MB.

If your YouTube account hasn’t been verified yet, you will not be able to add a custom thumbnail. In this case, YouTube will pick a random screenshot from the video and add it as the thumbnail. Trust us; you don’t want that to happen. Visit www.youtube.com/verify to get your account verified ASAP. Here are some excellent custom thumbnails:

Your thumbnail should stand out. You can also use custom illustrations and other graphics as long as your final creation is unique, original, eye-catching, and engaging. Let your creative juices flow and come up with something spectacular.

7. Use Cards and End Screens

If you watch a lot of YouTube videos, you may have noticed that certain videos have a handful of popups. These are called cards. They redirect viewers to take relevant action while watching the video, e.g., open your YouTube channel, donate to non-profit organizations, provide funding for your next video, open an external site, answer a poll, open another video or playlist, and so on.

Cards can benefit both viewers and creators. If you’re not sure how to get started, watch this video to get up to speed with the basics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sex3r_CNWU

End screens are just as exciting. As the name suggests, this is a screen that shows up at the end with relevant content, e.g., a video recommendation, visual link, subscription request, and so on. You can only add up to four elements to your end screen within the last 5–20 seconds of the video. Find more instructions on how to use end screens here.

A/B test different elements to understand what performs best for your unique industry, audience, and products/services. By using the right elements, creators can get the most juice out of their videos. You’ll prompt a lot of positive action, including subscriptions, conversions, likes, shares, comments, and more.

8. Create Playlists

People love organized apps. YouTube is known for its neat, relevant, and helpful playlists. As a creator, make the most of this feature. Let’s say you run an interior design business. As you create curated playlists for different services, design techniques, interior spaces, and so on, you’ll add structure to your content and give your audience step-by-step video guides.

For instance, your page could feature the following playlists:

• How to Design a Minimalist Kitchen
• Best Iron Doors for Modern Hallways
• Reviewing the Top Interior Design Trends of 2023
• Bathroom Design Guide
• Interior Color Palette Selection

See what we mean? As you add relevant videos to these categories, you’ll create a content library of sorts. Make sure you optimize each playlist with keywords.

9. Write Value-Added Descriptions

Your descriptions should be written with a lot of consideration. Instead of forcing a sale, provide value to your audience.

• What is the video about?
• Which areas does it cover?
• How can it benefit your audience?

Cover the basics in under 5000 characters. The YouTube algorithm also uses video descriptions to rank content. When you write a high-quality, keyword-optimized description, you’ll neaten your rankings and improve the viewing experience for your audience.

We also recommend leaving a pinned comment on your videos. This may sound unnecessary, but it’ll improve your video’s rankings. Engaging pinned comments often generate thousands of replies and spark an exciting conversation. The outcome? Greater value for your audience.

10. Track Your Analytics

Once you’ve done all the work, you can’t sit idle and expect your hard work to keep reaping results. For starters, you need to consistently optimize your YouTube videos for better reach, rankings, and conversions. Secondly, you must track your analytics to understand which videos are doing well, which videos require some tweaking, and how you can improve your overall performance.

YouTube provides a lot of analytics reports to help creators stay on top of everything and take their performance to the next level. Familiarize yourself with metrics like watch time, impressions click-through rate, traffic sources, unique viewers, subscriber growth, card click-through rate, and so on.

At this stage, you should also perform competitor research to understand how and why your top competitors are outperforming you on YouTube. Don’t copy their strategies; take inspiration and improve your own YouTube optimization plan. As we mentioned earlier, keep A/B testing your strategies to understand what performs well and what should be tweaked or discarded.

Recommended Read: How to Promote Your YouTube Channel: The Only Guide You Need

Let’s Fire Up the YouTube Engine!

Now that we have a good grasp of the top YouTube optimization strategies, let’s make a quick fuel stop and fire up the YouTube engine! Global-marketing Inc.’s YouTube SEO team is in the driver’s seat, ready to take charge. As one of the top digital marketing agencies across the nation, we help you dominate YouTube search results and earn more views, likes, comments, shares, and conversions.

We don’t just work on the SEO bit; our experts also plan and create power-packed YouTube videos for you. From content creation to video editing to YouTube optimization to marketing and advertising, we take care of everything.

Are you ready to grow your YouTube page? Explore our YouTube SEO services to get started!

The post The Ultimate YouTube SEO Cheat Sheet appeared first on Global-marketing Inc..

YouTube’s no longer just the viral video platform that brought us keyboard cat—it can be your whole career. But isn’t YouTube stardom just for a select few; the Logan Pauls and James Charleses of the world? The answer is what you want to hear: a resounding no!

As a business owner, if you play your cards right and tap into the all-powerful algorithm, making it big on YouTube is beyond possible—it’s almost a certainty.

Want to promote your channel for free? Grow your YouTube subscriber count? Get more traffic and conversions than ever on your small business or personal YouTube account? Well, then you’re in the right place!

The best part? You don’t need existing subscribers or deep pockets for these YouTube channel promotion tips (we’ll tell you when one of the steps is paid). Let’s get started:

Contents

How to Promote Your YouTube Channel: 13 Strategies That Work!

1. Tap Into the Power of SEO – Paid
2. a) Come Up With a Killer Title
3. b) Make Full Use of Video Descriptions
4. c) #Hashtags For the Win
5. d) Tap Into Tags For Even More Discoverability

Some Takeaways

2. Big Collaborations for Big Success
3. Don’t Forget to Engage With Your Audience
4. Call(s) to Action
5. Choose the Right Length For Your Videos
6. To Invest in YouTube PPC Campaignsor not to? (Paid)
7. Jump on the Trending and Evergreen Content Ship
8. Doubling Down on Successful Content Strategies
9. To Facebook and Beyond
10. Comment Ça Va? Find a Worldwide Audience
11. Branding
12. Contests and Giveaways
13. Consistency

How to Grow Your New YouTube Channel?

What Are the Best Places to Promote Your YouTube Channel?

What Do You Hope to Get Out of Promoting Your YouTube Channel—Wrapping Up

How to Promote Your YouTube Channel: 13 Strategies That Work!

1. Tap Into the Power of SEO – Paid

It’s time to take control of your YouTube destiny; so let’s start with a strategy with a ton of bang for your buck. Whether you want to promote your YouTube channel for free or go all in and benefit from a full suite of SEO services, there’s something here for everyone.

SEO is one of those things everyone knows a little about. Most people know that it involves:

• keywords
• optimization
• alt text,
• and more

But even as these words are tossed around by people around you, very few people can claim expertise in it. We’ve written about this previously, so take a look if you’re interested.

So let’s get specific; here are some steps you can take to ensure that the YouTube algorithm laps up your content:

a) Come Up With a Killer Title

The thumbnail (more on this later) and title are your first points of contact with potential subscribers; so, you need to invest a lot of time into getting them right.

Your titles need to strike the right balance between compelling and informative (and they can never be spammy). You also need to keep them short; 60 characters is the sweet spot.

Here’s a description that’s toeing the line:

The views speak for themselves, but what is it about the title that gets so many views? Well, it’s got volume for one—15 hacks mean a meaty video, and people love bang for their YouTube buck (read: time). On top of that, the word hacks, coupled with genius, elevates the video above others; say, for example, one that said “4 Plumbing Hacks You Need to Know.” Generating excitement is super important in titles.

Pro tip: Try to get all your essential keywords in the beginning of the title; doing so really does maximize views—people on YouTube are usually looking for solutions, so don’t waste their time.

As for the compelling bit, let’s look at an example. Say you’re running a diet and lifestyle channel, and are making an explainer video about the differences between the Keto Diet and the Atkins diet. Let’s take a look at two title options:

Our Take on the Timeless Atkins vs. Keto Debate

Vs.

Comparison of Atkins and Keto

Most of us would click on the first one over the second—at least we hope so. It puts your personality front and center (our take), and has both the essential keywords in about 50 characters or so. That’s a win!

So what’s a winning formula for keywords? Here’s a breakdown:

• Use the YouTube autocomplete suggestions to find keywords that your audience is actually using.
• Avoid stuffing keywords into the title—use as many as you can without stylistic compromises.
• Pair keywords with titles that spark curiosity.
• Modify keywords as needed to—YouTube, like Google, can make out semantic differences.

b) Make Full Use of Video Descriptions

Good descriptions follow many of the same rules that good titles do; it’s just a difference of volume—5,000 as opposed to 60 characters.

Like the titles, keywords should be front and center; but there’s more! You can use descriptions to send view counts soaring across your channel. Do this by:

• Linking to existing videos that didn’t get the success they deserve, or
• by directing views to an entire playlist of similar content.

Let’s talk examples now:

MKBHD isn’t the biggest tech YouTuber out there for nothing—notice how he plugs in his merch page, his Amazon affiliate link, and a playlist of other videos in one description, while also having all his socials there too.

So, the takeaway is: give the people what they want, and watch the views roll in.

c) #Hashtags For the Win

YouTube recently introduced hashtags, and they took the platform by storm not soon after. Much like Twitter, use them to send people down a discoverability rabbit hole. Just make sure you’re using the right ones (tools like Google’s Keyword Planner are your best bet here)

Viewers who click on them and find similar content are much more likely to binge watch it. We like to call it the hashtag hook, line, and sinker.

d) Tap Into Tags For Even More Discoverability

YouTube’s Creator Studio allows you to embed tags—essentially keywords that you want to rank for—in your videos. They’re the least important piece of the YouTube metadata puzzle, but they can get you over the edge when it comes to discovery.

We always suggest adding them because in your quest toward eventual bigtime YouTube fame, you can’t leave any stone unturned.

Some Takeaways

Remember, Google owns YouTube, and it’ll always be a search company first. And search and SEO go hand in hand. This means you need to know the algorithm really well—how it works, what kind of content it prefers, and what it doesn’t.

For example, YouTube transcribes your entire video every time you upload, so even your videos aren’t exempt from keyword optimization!

If this sounds overwhelming, we have some good news: the map to success is already in front of you; all you need to do is see how others are optimizing their videos (especially the most successful creators) and follow suit.

YouTube SEO is involved, we’re not going to lie; if the time investment is too much for you because of the millions of other responsibilities you have, you could always hire us to do it for you—we’d be glad to help.

2. Big Collaborations for Big Success

The first question that popped up in your head after reading this was probably: “But who would want to collaborate with me when I have no views or subscribers?”

The answer, surprisingly, is that a lot of bigger creators would. The key is to perfect the two Ps: the pitch and persistence.

A lot of bigger creators are looking for an opportunity to shine a spotlight on up-and-coming talent—and if you’ve been a long-time subscriber, they’re even more likely to take you up on the offer, especially if you’re in the same niche.

Make it beneficial for them—content ideas like fan Q&As are surefire hits; it’s an offer that’s hard to say no to.

But what, why do you want to do this, again? Here are some obvious benefits:

• The scale of their much bigger platform.
• The collab will send viewers torpedoing toward your channel, while also giving you a ton of credibility.

Everyone respects clout; so standing in the shadow of a YouTube giant won’t dim your light; it’ll help you shine brighter than ever. In the business, we call it building industry authority.

Not to mention that bigger creators have really diverse audiences; this can open you up to so many new content possibilities as your subscribers diversify.

Remember, YouTube is a personality-first platform; as long as you have an electric personality and are good at what you do, other creators will be on board.

The best part is that there are no consequences with reaching out—it’s free, and the worst you can expect to hear is radio silence.

Another option is to partner with other influencers or even endorse a business’s product; a lot of businesses will pay to promote your content if their product is in it—it’s a you scratch my back world out there—which can be a great equalizer if you don’t have a PPC budget to speak of.

3. Don’t Forget to Engage With Your Audience

Just like Kendrick Lamar, it’s important to stay humble and remember who got you the success you have today. In this case, it’s your existing audience!

As it turns out, the biggest advantage you have is how small your YouTube presence is. Lost us? Let us explain: People love content creators who exude charm and have an electric personality—the problem is one of discoverability, not talent.

So, when you do start attracting a (small) audience, it’s very likely that they’ll start feeling a sense of belonging with you due to the intimate, small nature of your account.

A small audience of, say, 500 people allows you to engage with every single comment. It allows you to:

• Send push notifications that are customized.
• Highlight some subscribers in every video (who doesn’t love a shoutout!).
• Have a back-and-forth conversation with them where you address them by name.

All of these are super underrated promotional techniques that go a long way.

Your subscribers are very likely to rave about you in their inner circles, which will have a trickle-down effect on your follower count.

Sure, the more success you get the less intimate the channel will be, but it’s important to double down on this while you’re a small creator.

Remember, all this requires is you putting yourself out there and being true to yourself; try not to perform or put on a persona (unless that’s what your account is about) and have honest conversations with your audience. Nothing works better on YouTube than a bit of vulnerability.

Even large channels take out the time to do this:

Notice how the guys over at Hardware Unboxed have liked the first comment, and have also left one of their trademark Aussie witticisms under another; viewers love being made to feel special—it can set you up for a lifetime of loyalty.

You also want to know them like you know the back of your hand; remember, YouTube doesn’t give you tons of analytics data for kicks—tap into their demographics, locations, preferences, etc. to make content accordingly.

You also want to rely on your subscribers to double down on your success—is someone subscribed but hasn’t clicked the vaunted bell icon? Ask them to in a video!

4. Call(s) to Action

YouTube is probably the only platform where you can get away with adding all kinds of calls to action to your content.

We already hinted as much with the title and the thumbnail, but you can double down with multiple CTAs in your video.

You’ve probably seen hundreds of YouTube videos that ask you to “click on the bell icon to get my videos the moment I post them.” Yep, that’s a CTA.

How about this one: “Remember to like and subscribe to my channel if you enjoyed my video.” Also a CTA.

And the thing is, it works; videos with multiple compelling CTAs get viewers to take a desired action. Why? Because YouTube is, you guessed it, a personality-first platform, if people like you enough, they won’t find this spammy.

It can get spammy if done too much, so try to figure out where the line is, and never cross it. This is the most important thing you need to figure out when trying to promote your YouTube videos.

Here’s a small scenario to demonstrate:

A long-time subscriber to your household hacks channel hasn’t been getting your videos in their feed for some reason (it happens a lot!). But then they navigate over to your channel to see what you’ve been up to.

When they do, the first thing they hear in your latest video is that a lot of people haven’t been seeing your videos, and to click on the bell icon to get push notifications. If the person loves your content and persona, it’s more than likely that they’ll follow through.

Plus, YouTube then gets a signal that people want more of your content, and the algorithm will play ball accordingly.

5. Choose the Right Length For Your Videos

Don’t follow in the footsteps of this 10-hour Nyan Cat video!

Depending on what kind of content you make, the length of your videos really does determine whether viewers stick around till the end. If you’re a mukbanger, for example, long-form videos are actually the de facto route, since many people like to eat their meals alongside these videos. And you don’t want to be done before they are!

But if you’re running a channel that gives people tips and life hacks that help them fix things around the home space, viewers will really appreciate shorter videos because all they want is that broken pipe to stop leaking.

The good news is that YouTube gives all kinds of metrics; so, all you need to do is track when people stop watching, how engaged people are in different sections of the video, and what video lengths on your channel are most popular. Once you find the winning formula for your niche, it’ll be smooth sailing.

6. To Invest in YouTube PPC Campaigns or not to? (Paid)

So far, we’ve kept the focus squarely on how you can promote your YouTube channel without spending money—it’s in the title! But let’s spend just a little time on whether you should spend money on PPC. Is the payoff worth it? Yes and no!

If you spend a ton of money on PPC and don’t have a lot of content, viewers will arrive at your channel and find the elephant graveyard from Lion King—that is to say, a ghost town with no content to consume.

They won’t subscribe, and it may even leave a bad taste in their mouths. So, should you only stick to the organic tips in this blog? For now, yes, but after months of producing content and building a solid portfolio—especially if you’ve had no luck getting viewers—it may be time to dip your hand in the PPC cookie jar.

Just remember to limit your spend and to keep prioritizing organic results. And when you’re ready to advertise your YouTube channel, our expertise in YouTube advertising will ensure you get every dollar’s worth from your campaign.

7. Jump on the Trending and Evergreen Content Ship

Plumbing pipes can burst in perpetuity. And while that’s a sad fact, it also means that if you have a video on your channel that helps people fix this problem, they’ll keep coming back to it whenever things go south.

The same goes for channels that feature recipes; if it tickles viewers’ tastebuds, you can bet they’ll come back for a second serving. Encourage viewers to bookmark such content, put it on playlists, and even share it with others. This will multiply the number of viewers you get on every video.

But evergreen content isn’t all there is to it; there’s also the opposite—flashes in the pan like the #ALSIceBucketChallenge. Just remember, when jumping on a bandwagon, paint it in your own colors.

What we mean to say is, you can’t just do what everyone else is doing—think of how you can put a personal spin on these trends because that’s what brought your followers to you in the first place.

8. Doubling Down on Successful Content Strategies

If you have a video that made a wave in the YouTube space, but the rest of your videos fell flat, it’s probably a safe bet to make a second part to that video.

YouTube is a limited risk game; you take gambit after gambit until you find a strategy that works for you—and then you should stick to it.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t make any big content bets anymore, just that you need to have a stable of ol’ reliable content that you can always bank on during a dry spell.

Here’s a few ideas to ensure great viewership numbers:

• Put the series of videos you make into playlists.
• At the end of every video, remind your viewers to check out all the other videos in the playlist.

Also remember that YouTube gives you a lot of tools—use them! From the channel introduction video to featured videos, and recently, YouTube Shorts and Stories (the last two particularly are known for bringing in a swarm of new viewers), if you tap into YouTube’s full potential, you’re looking at a future success story.

9. To Facebook and Beyond

You can’t just stay on a YouTube shaped island if you’re going to make it big on the platform. You need to venture out and sail to other social media shores.

Facebook, for example, has hundreds of groups for all kinds of industry niches. These groups are rife with conversion potential, because you already know that the people on them are deeply invested in the type of content you produce. If you want to promote your YouTube videos on Facebook, this is the holy grail.

But don’t just post links to your videos ad nauseam; it’ll be considered spam and might even get you booted! Instead, build relationships on these groups, help people out, and establish trust. Alongside, use your Facebook profile as a landing page of sorts—the people you help will click on your profile, and when they do, they’ll see that you’re also a content creator.

At this point, because of the work you’ve put in, they’re very likely to click through and subscribe. The spillover effect is that YouTube will get a ton of search signals from this, indicating that your channel is one they want to promote and put forward in recommendations.

For Instagram, don’t make the mistake of using it as a promotional page; no one wants to see a whole feed of “new video up, link in the bio!” It’s repetitive, and just a bad strategy overall. Instead, use your Insta feed like a lifestyle page; it’s an added flair that’ll flesh out your online presence.

Don’t cage yourself in by only looking for keywords that rank in YouTube search. Videos are taking Google SERPs by storm, so you really want to be making content that can rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword.

Ask bloggers and other platform holders—nicely—to embed your content; if you see a blog that’s lacking a video element, for example, and yours fits in like the last piece of the puzzle, drop the platform a pitch.

The last bit, ask yourself; no, this isn’t a spirituality thing; we mean to say that if you already have a website with pages that rake in traffic, embed your videos on those pages to take your success into your own hands!

10. Comment Ça Va? Find a Worldwide Audience

Here’s an open YouTube secret that too few creators know about: the more languages you translate your videos into, the more subscribers you’re going to get. And it’s pretty much a given!

But wait, what do closed captions have to do with viewer counts? Remember that little thing called the YouTube algorithm? Well, as it turns out, it wants what’s best for viewers. So the videos it serves to them are always in languages they understand—and this includes captioned videos!

And the good news doesn’t even stop there—YouTube is also a lot less competitive for other languages, so the chances of you swooping in and becoming the content czar in your industry niche are pretty high, we’d say.

This propels you to new heights in terms of reach, and the diversity in your audience will also give you more content possibilities than ever before!

11. Branding

Aesthetic optimizations may seem like they’re a bottom of the barrel optimization, but that approach doesn’t keep in mind how attuned we’ve become to consuming visual content, and how eagle-eyed viewers are when it comes to tacky branding.

For instance, your thumbnails could be even more important than titles when it comes to people clicking through. What can we say, aesthetic is everything these days!

You should really consider—and when we say that, we mean you need to—making custom thumbnails for all your videos; the funnier they are, the more likely they are to attract viewers (but this does depend on the type of content).

Your videos also need to look super professional; you can’t afford to make any compromises here, as even though most people wouldn’t know the first thing about making one, we’re all hyper-attuned to when a video just doesn’t look right—it’s glaringly obvious! And the last thing you want is to fall victim to the YouTube aesthetic police.

12. Contests and Giveaways

People love free stuff; it’s an undeniable fact. So when you couple your already small community with the occasional giveaway, your audience will know that their chances of winning are a lot higher than on a channel with millions of viewers.

This is a really solid inceptive that taps into our collective love of free things, without the usual doom and gloom around people saying “I could never win.”

13. Consistency

Let us hammer the point home: consistency really is the most important factor on this entire list—by far. Like all the other strategies, we defer to the actions of the algorithm.

For YouTube, the best creators are those that are always plugging away at content creation, and churning it out on a regular schedule. Why? Because it turns out that more people tuning in to the platform to watch their favorite creators’ daily or weekly videos is great for business!

But more than that, your videos—if your content is up to snuff, can become like traditions for your viewers. How many times have you heard someone say “It’s Wednesday, Tati’s going to drop that new makeup tutorial today?” or something along the same lines? That’s because we thrive on routine—so give viewers what they want.

At least one video a week is generally considered good practice. But two quality concepts is where the fame and fortune are at! You need to treat YouTube like a full-time job if you’re going to make it on the platform.

Oh, and alongside, your posts should be diverse too, because the last thing you want is users getting bored of the same kind of content being posted over and over.

We get it, this sounds like a lot, but if your work takes up most of your time and you can’t devote the time to YouTube, there are always services out there that can do it for you.

How to Grow Your New YouTube Channel?

The first 1,000 subscribers are the hardest, so we suggest kicking posting activity into high gear until you get to that benchmark.

There’s a snowball effect as you get more subscribers, with shares and word of mouth making the task substantially easier. So remember when we said consistency was your golden ticket? Well, the first few months are when the hustle really is vital.

Get your social circle to share your channel, leverage all the social media strategies in the blog, and fire on all cylinders to ensure you make it big.

What Are the Best Places to Promote Your YouTube Channel?

We’ve touched upon this above, but to really solidify your options, here’s where you should be promoting your YouTube channel:

• For a channel that does a lot of DIYs, Facebook groups and platforms like Quora are your best bet. Use them to build relationships by helping people, and watch your organic views soar!
• For YouTube Shorts and TikTok compilations, as well as other short-format videos, use the Stories feature on all your social media accounts; this is especially successful on Instagram.
• If you’re a vlogger, make bite-sized Facebook content that’s shareable, and make your Instagram page a behind-the-scenes style feed.

There are way too many categories of content creators to count, so if you want specific feedback regarding your niche, reach out to us, and we’d be glad to make a game plan for you!

We have a pretty comprehensive set of social media management services too, so you really can’t go wrong.

What Do You Hope to Get Out of Promoting Your YouTube Channel—Wrapping Up

Your point of reference matters a whole lot. Your YouTube KPIs fundamentally change based on whether you’re a small creator who makes DIY science videos or a rising commerce startup that’s looking to cover more ground on the web.

Yes, the general rule of thumb is that more followers are better, but what kind of followers do you want to attract to meet your goals? If making sales is the primary motive for your woodwork business, for example, your best case scenario is a large number of high income Gen Xers.

But if you’re hoping to become the next Mr. Beast, you want to go to the other end of the spectrum and court Gen Zers.

The takeaway? Knowing how to promote your YouTube channel will take you a long way, but you really do stand to benefit by aligning yourself with one of the best digital marketing agencies in the U.S. We can completely manage YouTube SEO and YouTube advertising campaigns!

For more information about our services, call +1(833)405-1025.

The post How to Promote Your YouTube Channel: The Only Guide You Need appeared first on Global-marketing Inc..

The Backdrop: How Do I Get My YouTube Video to Come Up First?

1. How Long Do People Watch Your Videos For?
2. Rank Your Video on YouTube By Acing Keyword Matching
3. Focus on Descriptions That Are Keyword-Rich + Title Length
4. The Length of Your Videos Matters
5. Use the Right Keyword Tags to Get More YouTube Subscribers

A search engine that’s used by a billion people, but isn’t usually seen as one. YouTube users spend a collective billion hours a day on the internet surfing videos!

YouTube’s rise has been meteoric, even if we’re being modest. And it’s every brand’s dream to create viral content that attracts 100s of millions of views.

While there are countless articles out there talking about how to create viral content, the truth is, it’s very hard to replicate the exact circumstances that lead to a video going viral.

That being said, there is a way to win at YouTube—but it doesn’t involve chasing a flash in the pan. YouTube SEO is about being in it for the long haul.

With the right practices, you’ll successfully rank your video on YouTube and get more YouTube subscribers. What are those practices? We’re glad you asked.

The Backdrop: How Do I Get My YouTube Video to Come Up First?

Just like Google’s, YouTube’s search algorithm is always evolving. Video ranking in 2020 won’t be remotely similar to how video ranking was done just a few years ago.

What is video ranking? It’s the position your video shows up in when someone searches keywords that target its content.

While the obvious one is how many views your video has, that’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. What’s great, though, is there are a ton of other metrics YouTube has been using recently.

1. How Long Do People Watch Your Videos For?

The rankings for video watch times and video views are highly correlated. However, even if you don’t have a ton of views, but the people who do watch your videos watch them from beginning to end, you’re much more likely to be ranked higher by the algorithm.

Let’s say you have a video on your channel that covers makeup trends that are going to be big in 2020. If another channel has the same content, but your videos are being watched all the way through, while theirs are abandoned halfway, it’s much more likely yours will be the ones that show up higher.

2. Rank Your Video on YouTube By Acing Keyword Matching

The Google SEO experts are probably shaking their heads at this, but unlike Google today, keyword matching is still hugely important for YouTube. Videos that match the keyword a user searched for exactly are much more likely to show up for them than a partial keyword match is.

It’s important to think like people search. If you’re making Mukbang videos these days, type it into to YouTube and pay close attention to the suggestions that show up. In this case, the second most searched suggestion is Mukbang ASMR. Not only is this a great video idea, it’s also a keyword that should be present exactly in this order in your title!

Can descriptions help you cover more keywords? You read our mind!

3. Focus on Descriptions That Are Keyword-Rich + Title Length

It’s generally best practice to make sure that your descriptions are as rich with keywords as possible while still sounding organic. Remember, content is king! You can’t just stuff keywords in and expect the algorithm not to penalize you.

The ideal length of a description is 250–350 words. At the same time, shorter titles generally do a lot better than long-winded ones. So try not to cross 50 characters if you can when choosing a title for your videos.

4. The Length of Your Videos Matters

There’s pretty definitive research now on which video lengths are ranking best in YouTube’s search today and in the near future. The magic number seems to be between 10–16 minutes. Don’t fret if you’re above or below, though.

As always, it’s important to consider what type of video you’re making. If you spend 15 minutes making a promo for your new product, and people stop watching just two minutes in, that’s really bad for your ranking and your views.

At the same time, it’s also important to make sure the video isn’t too short. Users hate clicking on YouTube videos only to find that they’re over in a minute. It wastes time, and videos shorter than two minutes are proven to rank a lot lower.

5. Use the Right Keyword Tags to Get More YouTube Subscribers

This is another one that’s a vestige of the past for Google, but YouTube still uses. However, they don’t work in the way you might expect. YouTube lets you assign keyword tags to each video you upload. While they affect ranking a little bit, that’s not what’s important.

Think of them like barnacle SEO but for YouTube. Keyword tags are hugely relevant to whether your video will show up in a person’s recommended tab. And because most users leave autoplay on, if you use the right keyword tags, there’s a very high likelihood that you can use a more popular YouTuber’s video as a launchpad for your own content.

How should you use these tags? We recommend that you have between 30–40 unique tags, and each be a 2–3 word phrase. As for what keywords you should use, it really depends on the video. If your video is about trying on different makeup brands, try keywords for those brands, for example.

“How can I get more YouTube subscribers?”

“How do I get my YouTube video to come up first?”

“How can I rank my video on YouTube?”

If you’re still unsure about what it takes to build a killer YouTube following, we can help you out! Global-marketing Inc. is one of the leading small business SEO service providers in the United States. We recently completed our 15,000^th SEO project and have a bevy of happy customers who are ranking higher on video sites than they ever imagined. We have a highly experienced team of SEO experts who always stay up to date with the latest SEO trends.

Get in touch with us and we’ll help transform your website and brand’s presence online. Our SEO experts have unique insights into how to optimize videos for YouTube search results.

Whether you’ve been struggling to rank your video on YouTube, tap into new demographics, or create backlinks on Youtube, our SEO specialists will help you kick things off in the right direction!

The post How to Optimize Videos for YouTube Search Results in 2020 appeared first on Global-marketing Inc..