There’s no denying that YouTube is an unquestionable media giant, with over a billion users and a global reach. Yet still, only 5% of businesses are uploading their videos.

The good news is that just by having a channel gives you an advantage. However, it’s time wasted if customers can’t find your videos.

Here are four simple SEO tips to help your video views skyrocket.

  1. Implement keywords in the title.

YouTube is a part of Google, and treats keywords with similar importance.

The title should include the most relevant keywords, while still being a clear description of what the video is.

It is also important to keep the title short enough to fully show in Google search results – anything longer than 66 characters will get cut off with an ellipsis.

  1. Optimise your description

With a 5000-character limit, there’s a lot more freedom when writing descriptions.

Include keywords with an accurate description of what viewers can expect from the video above the ‘show more’ cut.

People will then often expand this to find out where to go next – it’s an ideal place to link back to your website, social media platforms and other videos.

  1. Tag your video

With 500 characters for tags, ensure that they are all relevant – if Google decides they aren’t then this can work against the video in the search algorithm. Remember to include the brand name – you want people to easily find videos if they specifically search for you!

There are tools that suggest tags, including on YouTube itself – but you can also see what people are looking for via search bar autocomplete, or see what similar videos are tagging.

If you use the same tags between videos, your other content is more likely to show up in the ‘suggested videos’ column, so simplify this by setting some default tags.

  1. Local success

Even with YouTube’s global potential, it is important to prioritise your local audience. Including your business name, address and phone number together in the description will rank you higher in local organic searches.

Geotagging is also a great feature – link your video to where it was shot, or your business location. This can be done most simply by phone, or you can go to Video Settings > Advanced Settings – click on Video Location, and use the map to easily add coordinates.

Good luck!