Master the Art of Video SEO

to Crush the Competition and

Skyrocket to the Top of the
Google & YouTube Search Results
ALEYDA SOLIS
 Let’s talk about
the video
opportunity!

By @aleyda https://youtube.com/intl/en-GB/about/press/
 Media search, which
includes videos (and
images), are one of
those top trends that
Google Webmaster
Analysts think that SEOs
are overlooking…

By @aleyda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWZuQ-hu7KQ
Videos allow to build presence in the 2
most top sitesand search engines & No.
1 social network

By @aleyda http://semrush.com/analytics/traffic/rank/
19% of desktop search results in the US include video
carrousels and 92% come from YouTube

By @aleyda www.rankranger.com/google-serp-features
 Which you can leverage to maximize your Google Search
Visibility for your products queries

By @aleyda
 Videos can also help to position your brand and
influence the customer journey on your site too

By @aleyda www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/youtube-strategy-to-drive-action/
 Like Asana does with video testimonials and how-tos in
their features pages

By @aleyda
 I took the leap last
year with my own
YouTube Channel..

By @aleyda www.youtube.com/c/crawlingmondaysbyaleyda
 … started
integrating video in
clients SEO
processes too

By @aleyda
 Answering key questions about the video optimization
process
1. 2.
Research Implementation, Optimization & Testing

What’s your How do you Publishing and

audience video measure video Optimizing the
search behavior? results? Establishing goals Repurposing the Refining the
and targets to track videos Videos videos

Who are your Measuring

Which are the main videos Videos Results
factors to grow competitors? Producing the Promoting the
your videos views? videos videos

By @aleyda
For which I’ve been using this video optimization toolkit

By @aleyda https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1FIhYqIpSi6MT2HvG9SmIeH1hdB8l_0N1HnDOBpJOpjk/copy
 Let’s go through
some of my top
video search
optimization
findings along this
journey…

By @aleyda
 To grow your
YouTube
Discoverability you
need relevance,
retention &
engagement

By @aleyda
 Most of YouTube’s videos views are powered
by its algorithm recommendations

By @aleyda https://qz.com/1178125/youtubes-recommendations-drive-70-of-what-we-watch/
 Which is so effective that keep users
highly engaged too

By @aleyda https://qz.com/1178125/youtubes-recommendations-drive-70-of-what-we-watch/
 YouTube’s Algorithm has two goals…

1 2
Help each viewer Get viewers to
to find the videos keep watching
they want to more of what
watch they like

By @aleyda https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery
 These principles are used through the
different YouTube discovery channels
INTERNAL EXTERNAL

Suggested Embedded
Home Subscriptions Videos
Videos Videos Tabs Google Search
Results

Search Links from

Notifications Trending Other Sites

By @aleyda https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery
 YouTube will follow the user behavior..

What users How much time

watch and don’t users spend
watch watching the
video

What users like “Not

and dislike interested”
feedback

By @aleyda https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery
 Suggested videos are ranked to maximize engagement
based on prior user activity

Topically Videos from a

related videos viewer’s past
watch history

Videos that
viewers watch
along with the
current video

By @aleyda https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery
 YouTube Home shows videos from subscriptions, videos
watched by similar users, news videos

How often the

topic or channel
is viewed
How many
times the video
has been shown

How well the

video has
engaged and
satisfied similar
viewers

By @aleyda https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery
 YouTube search ranks the most relevant and highly
engaged videos to the query

Title Relevance Description

Relevance

Watch time of
video for query

By @aleyda
 Relevance, retention & engagement are key to maximize
video visibility within the platform

Relevance Engagement Retention

Title, description, etc. Likes, views, ratings, Watch Time
comments, shares,
subscriptions

By @aleyda
 How to develop relevant
videos to be also linked so
much that retain and keep
users engaged, that will
also make YouTube to
recommend them further?

By @aleyda
 You need to
understand your
audience preferences
& competition to
establish an effective
video plan

By @aleyda
 Get popular queries to target by using your current
keywords tools with YouTube support

By @aleyda Ahrefs & keywordtool.io

 Get the
YouTube search
volume for related
terms as well as
search trend over
time for your
relevant business
topics

By @aleyda Keywords Everywhere

 Identify the videos with more views & engagement
about your topic using Buzzsumo

By @aleyda Buzzsumo
 Refine the terms by using YouTube’s focused tools like
VidIQ, including competition metrics

By @aleyda VidIQ
 Identify the
top ranked
videos
keywords used
in
tags, as wellas
the most
popular related
terms

By @aleyda VidIQ
Obtain the top channels for your relevant
topics to analyze howthey’re optimized and
videos

By @aleyda Socialblade, Noxinfluencer and Buzzsumo

 What topics are
your competitors
publishing about?
What are the best
performing ones?

By @aleyda Socialblade, Noxinfluencer and Buzzsumo

 Which of these terms are also popular & trigger video
results/carrousels/snippets in Google

By @aleyda SEMrush
 For which of these
topics do you already have
content that can be easily
repurposed into a video that
you can also embed in the
page?

By @aleyda
Start with relevant, lower competitive, but still popular
queries/topics to address with videos

Possibility to
Feasibility to repurpose or
Medium Search High Topical embed in
Volume relevance for produce and
cover w/ a existing content
your audience video

Low Are aligned

Competition Is there a video with your
High Expertise intent? Google
Shows Videos? marketing/busi
ness goals

By @aleyda
 Remember that it’s about targeting topics that are highly
connected to your business offering

vs

By @aleyda TubeBuddy
 Establishing a consistent video publishing schedule for
them as a result
Week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

1. Promote 1. Reply to 1. Reply to 1. Ask for

feedback on Record next
Publish How to “Set in Social & Groups comments comments current video
1 2. Reply to comments 2. Retweet/Reshare 2. Retweet/ week video
SEO Alerts” 2. Ask for
3.Repurpose video in blog other people Reshare
other questions for
post people next topic

1. Promote 1. Reply to 1. Ask for Ask for

Publish How to in Social & Groups 1. Reply to comments feedback on ideas/run Record next
2 “Optimize faceted comments 2. Retweet/ current video poll for week video
pages” 2. Reply to comments 2. Retweet/Reshare Reshare 2. Ask for future
3.Repurpose video in blog other people other questions for topics
post people next topic

Publish Interview 1. Promote 1. Reply to 1. Ask for

1. Reply to feedback on Record next
“With Carlos - How in Social & Groups comments current video
2. Reply to comments 2. Retweet/ week video
3 an SEO agency in comments 2. Ask for
3.Repurpose video in blog 2. Retweet/Reshare Reshare
Spain is run” other questions for
other people next topic
post people

… … … … … … … …

By @aleyda
 Start by optimizing
your YouTube Video
Key Areas for
Relevance and better
Structure

By @aleyda
 Begin optimizing the base of your presence: Channel
Description, Keywords…

By @aleyda
 Optimize
each content areas to
make them highly
relevant towards the
targeted queries

By @aleyda TubeBuddy & VidIQ

 Titles
Starting with titles,
Descriptions
description, tags for which
YouTube gives length
references and you can get
keywords suggestions w/
Tags
tools add-ons

By @aleyda TubeBuddy & VidIQ

 Tubebuddy
and VidIQ add-
ons can save
you time
from
looking
for the related
keywords
elsewhere

By @aleyda TubeBuddy & VidIQ

 Addrelevant
hashtags in
descriptions (they
will be
featured above
the title) and in
titles too

By @aleyda
 The hashtags will become clickable and generate a
YouTube search

By @aleyda
 Upload your own “higher quality” closed captions to
videos if you can …

LO
L

By @aleyda
 Take a look at how the top ranked videos for your
queries are optimized & improve yours

vs

By @aleyda
 Are these elements all taken into consideration ranking
in YouTube search results though?

Title Closed
Hashtags Captions

Description Tags

By @aleyda
 I tested it…

By @aleyda
 I included the
same
“dummy” text
in the title,
description, tags,
hashtags,
closed
captions to see
which video
ranked

By @aleyda
 Tests results
suggest that
the title,
description and
hashtag are
taken into
consideration

By @aleyda
 No tags and closed captions though

Title Closed
Hashtags Captions

Description Tags

By @aleyda
 However, closed captions have other important roles that
will improve engagement & retention

Non-native
For Hearing audience
Impaired support

Watch muted
video

By @aleyda
 Enable key
moments for your
videos by adding
labels and
timestamps in your
YouTube’s videos
descriptions
Timestamp
s
Label (timestamp)

By @aleyda https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/video#best-practices-youtube
 They can be shown like this in Google’s Mobile Search
Results…

By @aleyda
 Optimize and promote
your YouTube Videos
for Engagement &
Retention

By @aleyda #videoseo at #smxwest by @aleyda from @orainti

 Once you’re ranked for
a query in YouTube
search results: How do
you engage and retain
users to grow your
subscribers and get
recommended by
YouTube?

By @aleyda
 Besides a
relevant, catchy title
and description, it
starts with your
thumbnail, that
can make
your video to
stand
out vs the rest and
improve
By @aleyda
 Thumbnails are the “ads”
of your videos and you
should design them to
make them unique, attractive
with a representative
image, including a catchy
title

By @aleyda
 Replace the default thumbnail of the video with an
original image using a thumbnail generator

By @aleyda www.canva.com/create/youtube-thumbnails/
 Run AB Tests of
your videos
Thumbnails and
Metadata to identify
your audience
preferences

By @aleyda TubeBuddy
 Create playlists to
facilitate your
users to browse
through your
channel videos
using the main
topics

By @aleyda
 Use your YouTube
Channel Home to
Promote your latest
videos or those that
generate a higher
number of subscribers
and better engagement

By @aleyda
 Include info cards in your videos to link to other
relevant ones or create a poll to engage users

By @aleyda
 Add end-screens to
videos using
YouTube’s studio
feature to refer to
your users to more
of them and
subscribe to channel

By @aleyda
 Don’t be shy! Ask your users to engage

Keep
watching to get
answers
Leave
comments with questions

Like the
video

Subscribe to
channel

By @aleyda
Show your audience what your video is about right away
so they decide to keep watching

Start
Don’t do long right away
intros with the
actual info

By @aleyda
 Add call to
actions with links to
watch more of
your videos and
subscribe from
your
description, be the
first to
comment and
pin your own
comment too,
By @aleyda
to start
 Interact with users in
the comments
addressing their
questions, liking
meaningful
comments, etc.

By @aleyda
 Promote your videos
and incentivize
subscriptions outside
YouTube Too: Social
media, newsletter, email
signature..

By @aleyda
 Organize give-aways to encourage subscriptions to your
YouTube Channel

By @aleyda
 Invite special guests,
influencers or
authoritative people
in your industry that
will help you reach a
wider audience

By @aleyda
 Piggyback on
trending topics
that people are
actively searching
for in your sector

By @aleyda
 Promote while the video while new for “freshness” boost & show
YouTube that is popular to recommend further

By @aleyda https://www.briggsby.com/reverse-engineering-youtube-search
 Repurpose and Embed
your YouTube Videos
in your own site to
expand in Google
Search Rankings

By @aleyda #videoseo at #smxwest by @aleyda from @orainti

 Embed your videos in
the relevant pages you
already have targeting their
topics, and if you don’t
create new content
leveraging the video
information

By @aleyda #v
 Include a “rel=0” parameter to show related videos
only from your channel (no competitors)

By @aleyda
 Link to your channel with a “?sub_confirmation”
parameter to go to the subscription option

By @aleyda
 Include a watermark to your videos showing
a subscription button to your channel

By @aleyda
 After the “freshness” period, switch the YouTube Embed
for Wistia for video Schema

By @aleyda
 Wistia videos will add the VideObject structured data to
the embedded videos automatically

By @aleyda
 Like this you’ll have
higher chances to trigger
the video thumbnail
along your pages in
Google’s search results

By @aleyda
 It’s not trivial
work but it does
pay off…

By @aleyda
 You should be
able to rank well for
those not yet so
competitive but
highly relevant
queries within
YouTube

By @aleyda Rankranger
RankRanger
 Like this

By @aleyda
 Or this…

By @aleyda
 Or this…

By @aleyda
 Rank in Google
Search Results for
informational
queries with your
YouTube’s Videos
as well as
embedded ones

By @aleyda RankRanger
 Like this…

By @aleyda
 Or this…

By @aleyda
 Rank also in Google’s
search results with a page
featuring a video
thumbnail when the
YouTube video doesn’t
rank

By @aleyda
 Rank also twice
withthe same video
within the Carrousel,
with the YouTube
video and the
embedded one in the
post

By @aleyda
 Or rank with a video
highlighted with a “key
moment” in mobile
search results

By @aleyda
 Identify the
characteristics of videos
that generate better
rankings, more views,
engagements and
subscribers to identify
what works best

By @aleyda YouTube Studio Analytics

 Those competitors that outrank you in Google &
YouTube search results to identify the gap

By @aleyda Accuranker
 Incorporate the changes. Rinse and repeat.

By @aleyda YouTube Studio Analytics

 Remember, it
shouldn’t be about raw
numbers but your end
goal: Having an
impact with your
actual relevant
audience through the
customer journey

By @aleyda
 Like they’ve done

By @aleyda
 Prioritize Video SEO Based on your context
IS VIDEO
RELEVANT TO
NO YOUR YES
MARKETING/CONT
ENT
STRATEGY/GOALS?

IS IT FEASIBLE FOR
YOU TO
DEVELOP/IMPLEM
NO ENT FOLLOWING YES
BEST
PRACTICES/GUIDE
LINES IN A COST
EFFICIENT WAY?

WILL THEY TARGET

RELEVANT &
NO POPULAR QUERIES YES
FOR WHICH USERS
LOOK FOR VIDEOS
TO CONSUME
INFORMATION
FROM?
WILL THEY
IMPROVE/EXPAND
NO HOW YOU ARE YES
SHOWN IN GOOGLE
SERPS FOR
TARGETED
QUERIES?

DON'T
By PRIORITIZE
@aleyda PRIORITIZE
 Keeping always the RER in mind

Relevance Engagement Retention

Title, description, etc. Likes, views, ratings, Watch Time
comments, shares,
subscriptions

By @aleyda
 I’m Aleyda Solis,
SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti

* SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti

* SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries
* Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
* Blogger in Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal
* Crawling Mondays YouTube Channel Host
* #SEOFOMO Newsletter Wrapper
* European Search Personality of the Year in 2018

By @aleyda orainti.com
www.orainti.com