I’ve mentioned it many times before but it’s worth noting again: the topic of search engine optimisation is often shrouded in mystery but it’s actually quite simple. In a nutshell, you need to consider three things: on-site SEO, off-site SEO & ‘code’.
Search Engine Optimisation in 60 seconds
On-site SEO is anything you can see on a website, be that page/post titles, text, images, video, maps, files/documents and links, as well as something called the ‘Meta Description’.
Off-site SEO concerns any references to your website, homepage or otherwise, somewhere else on the web. This includes – but is not limited to – forums, blogs, directories and social media.
Code is what sits behind the scenes. In short, clean code is good code. A website which loads quickly is better than one that takes a while. Similarly, you need to ensure search engines can actually see your content… so stay away from things like Flash. If you’re using something like WordPress or Joomla then you have nothing to worry about.
Google SEO vs YouTube SEO
YouTube is second only to Google in terms of daily search traffic and, with the exception of ‘code’, can be treated in the same was as a website when it comes to SEO.
However, most of the videos that supposedly show you how to get more views completely ignore this fact so I have decided to do my own little series.
How to get more views on YouTube Videos EP #1: Meta Descriptions
The first video in the YouTube SEO series has been uploaded on two separate channels, with identical titles, tags and thumbnails. The only difference between the two is the opening 160 characters of the YouTube video description. This is important because YouTube uses the first 160 characters to populate the Meta Description for any given video.
A month from now I will compare the number of views that both videos received from YouTube & Google searches and I am confident that the one with a well defined meta description will see the bigger numbers.
If you want to try this on your own videos, remember that SEO is an art and not a science. There is no right or wrong way, but try and consider the following:
1. Search engines will use the Meta Description as a way of assessing the content of your web page (or in this case, your YouTube video). Remember that Google can’t see, so you need to offer a concise set of key words; and
2. YouTube will show the first 120 or so characters from your video description in their search results. A well written description may encourage someone to click on your video as opposed to someone else’s.
The remaining videos will be posted to my gaming channel. Be sure to hit that subscribe button :0)
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