Getting your videos seen by as many people as possible involves some insider knowledge. Here’s how to do keyword research on YouTube!

If you’re sharing your carefully crafted video content online, chances are you’d like a large audience. People have different motivators when it comes to uploading videos to YouTube. Some do it for posterity, others simply to share their joy for creating. And plenty of people share video content in the hopes that they will make money through YouTube.

Aiming to grow your channel, whether for financial gain or not, requires you to have some slightly specialist knowledge. We’re talking about SEO (search engine optimisation) and YouTube analytics.

What is YouTube Analytics?

For those of you new to digital marketing, analytics lets you see specific data about your content, audience, and channel. It enables you to see things like where your audience mostly live, how old they are, what videos of yours they enjoy best, and lots more.

You can compare performance metrics (these are things like watch time, average view duration, and likes/dislikes) in order to see how your channel is developing. Understanding all of this enables you to make informed decisions about how to present your content moving forward.

What About Keywords?

Part of SEO, both on YouTube and in general, is keyword research. Keywords are words or phrases that act as search terms. They let YouTube and Google know what your content is about, meaning they can recommend it to the right people.

In order for search engines to be able to recognise what your content is about, you need to optimise it. This means picking relevant keywords and threading them into your title and video description a number of times. You should always have a main keyword, and a couple of others in order to appeal to a wider audience, as well as be more searchable.

Why Research?

If you were making a vlog about baking bread, you might think having your main keyword as “bread” is fine. This is logical and understandable, however it might not get your video ranking highly.

Since there are so many people on YouTube sharing videos, there is a lot of competition when it comes to trying to appear higher up in searches. This is what we are referring to when we say “rank”, by the way.

To give your video content a better chance at ranking, it pays to opt for keywords which are popular but have a little less competition around them. This usually means choosing keyphrases or long tail keywords, which are more niche and specific. For example, “homemade sourdough bread”.

We just mentioned selecting keywords which are popular. This is another important aspect of keyword research. There is no point optimising your YouTube content for keywords and search terms that nobody is searching.

Keyword research on YouTube is also great for guiding you towards your next video project. If you’re feeling stuck for ideas or low on inspiration, some quick research can drum up a wealth of fresh ideas for your next video.

How to Do Keyword Research on YouTube

Now you know what keyword research is, and why it’s so important, you need to know how to do it yourself!

This video from Ahrefs breaks down YouTube keyword research and just how to do it correctly.

This video should help you to understand the importance of not mixing up keyword trend on YouTube and Google. You’ll hopefully also come away feeling confident using YouTube ads in order to gather data, and gain an understanding of impressions.

All of this should help you in carrying out your own keyword research on YouTube in the future, and grow your channel effectively.