If you want your YouTube videos to get more views, you need to use keywords! Let us explain one of the simplest ways to grow your channel.

No matter your business or interests, YouTube is an incredibly powerful, and free, marketing tool. Whether you plan to use it to build your business, or to earn money directly from YouTube, it’s a force not to be underestimated. Uploading high quality video content can attract new clients, encourage brand partnerships, or insight creative collaborations.

Getting a good amount of traffic to your channel can be a challenge at first. Even if your videos are amazing, you need to make sure people can find them. Fortunately, getting to grips with YouTube analytics can be a game changer, and isn’t all that complicated. Although there are multiple aspects of analytics you should become well acquainted with, keywords are one of the simplest and easiest, yet incredibly important, tools you can use.

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are the search terms people might use to find a video like yours. They can be one word, or a string of words, also known as keyphrases. Longer keyphrases can be called long tail keywords, and are perfect for more niche targeting. Carefully considering keywords can help you write the perfect video title, ensure your descriptions are on point, and even optimise your channel name.

By carrying out keyword research on YouTube, you can ensure your content is being seen by your desired audience. This research can be done on YouTube, using the search bar and scoping out your competitors keywords. Or, you can use sites like Ubersuggest or Google Keyword Planner, to help give you an idea of what people are searching. It’s worth noting, though, that these sites go off searches on search engines, rather than YouTube specifically.

How to Use Keywords on YouTube

When optimising on YouTube, you should make sure to cover every base. Taking every opportunity available to boost your reach on the site is only going to benefit you, and putting in this little extra effort will pay dividends.

Optimise Your Channel

When setting up your channel on YouTube, you’ll have to fill out some information. Most of this is the typical stuff – your name, contact details, etc. You’ll also get the option to add keywords to your channel. This comes under the Basic Info tab in your Settings within YouTube Studio.

Here is where you can add words that are niche and relevant to your channel. For instance, if you share baking tutorials, you could add “beginner baking videos” and “simple baking tutorials”.

Use Keywords in Titles

Pretty much anywhere on YouTube that requires you to add text, you want to add keywords. This very much includes the title of your videos. Just like a headline in a newspaper, your title needs to convey the content of your video, whilst grabbing people’s attention.

Besides grabbing the attention of potential viewers, titles need to grab the attention of YouTube’s algorithm. This is where keywords come in. Whereas channel keywords are meant to fit your content on a broader scale, keywords used in titles can be more specific. You can research the best keywords to use by checking out the titles of similar videos and look at how well they have performed. Copying word for word isn’t recommended, but paying attention to formulas and the general feel is helpful.

Give Descriptions Some Love

Another easy way to increase views on your videos is taking the time to add engaging, keyword-filled descriptions.

An extension of the title, a description gives a more detailed breakdown of what a video is about. Since the online world is so fast-paced, people like to know exactly what they’re getting into before investing time watching something. The more help you can give them, the better and more likely they are to stick around.

A simple way of signposting to them what your video is about, is by using keywords. This, again, lets the algorithm know what the content is about, telling YouTube who to try and attract to the video. Descriptions are much longer than titles, so you have more opportunities to add keywords and also repeat them. Beware of stuffing keywords in unnaturally though, as this will turn off your audience and potentially scare them off.

Conclusion

If you start to use keywords on your YouTube channel, it might take some time to find your groove. The more research you do, the quicker it will become second nature. Once you get to this point, adding keywords to titles and descriptions will happen instinctively.

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on what competitors are doing, and carry out keyword research periodically. This is because trends change, and people’s interests fluctuate. Keeping track of your analytics whilst trialling different keywords will give you a solid indicator of what is and isn’t working.

There’s a lot to learn when it comes to SEO and analytics, but using keywords is a simple but highly effective place to start!