Corporate SEO Checklist for Your YouTube Video

Ryan Chester
by Ryan Chester 07 Jan, 2015

Imagine if the Amazon River was filled with gold and you could divert it to your backyard. Well that is what YouTube has recently become, a goldmine of traffic. It offers a great opportunity to quickly attract tons of traffic to your website.

That's why corporations worldwide are trying to figure out the magic of optimizing for YouTube.

Using this list you can make your video stand out in the crowded searches of YouTube and divert traffic to your website.

Get Your Video's Keywords

First thing you should go attack is your competitors' videos. Find out what keywords they are using in their titles.

You can combine this list with an old fashion keyword research you would do for a SEO campaign.

BIG Descriptions not small ones

Even as Google gets smarter and smarter, it still hasn't decoded your videos to figure out what they are about. 

With huge video descriptions it gives more keywords to index, more reference points and more to read for your viewers.

This will help make YouTube's job easier to know what your video about. When viewers are like me, we always read the description to learn more about a good video.

Take out that list we made in the previous checkpoint called "Video Keywords." Now spread those keywords throughout your description, but write for a human still and not to just stuff keywords. For example,the Smithsonian's National Zoo includes the who, what, when and whys of its video.

Share. Share. Share

Get on LinkedIn, Quora and Twitter and find out people who are asking for help. Then share. See some tactful ways to do so here.

Get Subscriptions & Likes

When you ask, you shall receive as the old adage says. This is why you should take a moment at the end of your video to ask the viewers to subscribe and like your video. It only takes a moment.

This is vital to ranking your YouTube video because it doesn't consider links in its ranking factors and looks at things such as subscriptions, views and liking.

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are necessary. Why was YouTube a hit in the first place? It had plenty of share options to share throughout the website. In this video (screenshot below), The Tonight Show asks viewers to subscribe now and includes a bitly link.

Create Playlists like You Would for Your iPod

We all like stuff organized. It gives us a peace of mind. Let's do the same for your video channel. Organize it by playlists.

Now bring out that keyword list we made earlier, and use it here to name your playlist properly. It'll help that rank, and in-turn bring you even more traffic.

A Final Checklist Item

All my tips above can help you only if the video you publish is worth seeing. Don't expect for it to go viral, if it isn't worthy of sharing. The tips above will help a good video get the recognition it deserves!

Ryan Chester is a digital marketing connoisseur. Having helped Fortune 500s with AnnexCore.com, and many other companies across the globe achieve success with search engine optimization, email marketing, pay-per-click campaigns, and countless other improvements.