YouTube Keyword Research: How to Get More Views
You've created some great YouTube content, but it's not getting much attention!
What could have gone wrong? The thumbnails look good, the description looks fine, and even the intro is intriguing - but wait! What about your title and keywords?
It seems you chose a random title that's relevant to your video topic. That's not exactly how YouTube works.
Don’t worry though, we have you covered with everything you will ever need to know about YouTube keyword research.
Continue reading this dedicated guide on how to get more views with proper YouTube keyword research and you are guaranteed to get more views from the next video, so let’s go!
Why Do You Need to Do YouTube Keyword Research?
YouTube is the second largest search engine and is only behind Google.
Now, if you are a creator or marketer, you would know how important keyword research and keyword usage are to get your content ranked higher on the search engine results page (SERP).
By using the right keywords, Google can help identify the right target audience and share your content with people that are genuinely interested in your content niche. This can ensure that your YouTube content reaches the right audience.
The same theory applies to YouTube as well, and that’s why it’s important that you spend some time on keyword research and studying your competition for the video topic.
Unless your video ranks higher, the probability of your videos being discovered by a new audience on YouTube is very low.
That’s why you should always aim to get all your videos discovered by the maximum number of people and focus on keyword research.
This will also ensure that people who search for a particular keyword end up finding your video and you end up creating content that reaches the intended target audience.
What is a Keyword on YouTube?
The basic principle of a keyword on YouTube is the same as keywords on any other platform.
The audience on YouTube is much more specific than the general audience you would find on Google.
As Google is a search engine for text, audio, video, gif, news, location, and many more formats, the audience can have different intentions for search.
However, when it comes to searching on YouTube, the audience is much more specific and only searches for video results. That’s why using the right keywords, intriguing thumbnails, and optimized titles are important to stand out.
By incorporating keywords into the title, you can instantly get a huge boost in the total number of views your channel generates. Just like how you use keywords on Google, it is all about finding the balance through a lot of trial and error.
To make it simple, let’s take a scenario example:
You are planning to upload a video about using a GoPro, and one of your keyword ideas happens to be “GoPro video tricks”. Try playing around with different titles like “GoPro Video Tricks for Beginners” or “Simple GoPro Video Tricks You Need to Know”.
Pick out a title that you like, and go with your video, but make sure that you include the keyword in the title.
Whenever someone searches for “GoPro video tricks”, they will come across your video on YouTube.
How to Find Keywords for YouTube Videos?
There are many different ways to find the right keywords for YouTube videos.
From using some of the inbuilt features on YouTube to using third-party apps that help with keyword research, there are many different options.
If you didn’t know already, here are some of the options you can consider:
- Make Use of YouTube’s Autocomplete Feature
One of the easiest ways to find the best keywords for YouTube videos is to make use of YouTube’s autocomplete (auto-fill) feature. It is a pretty straightforward method that is guaranteed to give you the best results.
The best thing about this method is that you don’t need to leave YouTube and it only takes a few minutes to get this over with.
Simply enter a search query and as soon as you enter the first word into the YouTube search bar, you will get a list of recommendations from YouTube.
You will continue to get more recommendations as you add more words and most of these suggestions are good keyword recommendations or related keyword suggestions for your video.
2. Check Out What Other Creators in Your Niche Use
Another great idea is to spend some time on topic research and evaluate what keywords your competition is using.
By going through some of the topic search results, you will start noticing a pattern of common keywords across the different titles of top videos.
You can also go through their description and pick out some highly relevant and related keywords which will be present in some videos.
What’s most important is to include the best keywords used in the title of high-ranking videos.
Most of these keywords are guaranteed to give your video a good boost of views, discoverability, and engagement.
3. Make Use of Keyword Research Tools
There are plenty of keyword research tools that let you find the best keywords for almost every topic.
Most of these keyword research tools are free or come with plenty of features for the free version that can help you find good keywords that work.
If you are new to keyword tools or not sure about which ones work, check out some of the keyword research tools like Vidiq, Semrush, TubeBuddy, Keyword Magic Tool, and others.
All these keyword tools have a dedicated keyword research feature and give access to millions of keyword suggestions.
Apart from SEO, keyword research tools also have added features like giving you an estimate of where the video will rank in search.
How to Get More YouTube Views With Keyword Research?
By now, you will have a general idea about how to do keyword research on YouTube.
The next thing you need to learn is all about how to convert this theory into your YouTube account and improve your views.
If you are not sure about how to get more YouTube views with keyword research, we have you covered.
Here are some interesting ways to experiment with YouTube keyword research to increase your views:
- Make Use of YouTube Hashtags
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, and just like any other search engine, hashtags on YouTube are of great importance.
If you didn’t know already, YouTube hashtags are a great way of improving your overall views for all your YouTube videos.
They also let you optimize your videos better for search as you have the option of adding more keywords on YouTube as hashtags.
This will make sure that people who search for the same topic, but with different keywords also end up finding your content.
So make sure that you add those popular hashtags to your video.
2. Understand the Search Intent
You can create high-quality content on YouTube and still end up with very few views if you don’t spend time understanding the search intent of users.
YouTube is a search engine and has a wide range of audiences with different personalities.
To ensure that your video makes its way to them, you need to think like them. Consider their search intent or think about what they would enter in the search query.
Combining the search query, primary keyword, and YouTube’s autofill feature is one of the best ways to understand the search intent and get some amazing YouTube keyword recommendations.
3. Learn to Use Keyword Mapping
Keyword mapping is a great strategy to fine-tune a list of the best keywords to use in your video.
If you are new to YouTube keywords, or keywords in general, keyword mapping is the process of matching specific keywords to content pages.
In the case of YouTube, you will be matching content pages to YouTube videos.
To make a keyword map, you will need a list of relevant and important keywords, statistics on keyword search volumes, YouTube video URLs that match with different keywords, the video’s current search ranking, and the keyword competition.
Once you have a keyword map ready, the next thing you need to do is optimize videos that are not performing up to your expectations.
If you find keywords working more than your expectations, you need to double up on these keywords with fresh content. This will double up the overall number of views on your YouTube videos.