YouTube is a great platform for video marketing to increase the brand’s presence without spending a fortune. Earlier, the limited space on the television was tough for the creative heads in the marketing department. The online video streaming service has given them creative freedom and free space to gain unlimited viewership.
Still, brands often find them short of an audience on the video streaming platform. The tough competition makes SEO important to rank the content high among the same content. In this article, we have enlisted the most common mistakes for the YouTube SEO that limits your viewership on the platform.
Optimisation Over Quality
The optimisation is an added boost to the content to increase the visibility of the video. You still need quality content for the optimisation to work. Viewers will not minutes watching something ill-prepared and irrelevant on any platform, be it television or YouTube.
Descriptions with No Keywords
YouTube provides ample space for the description, unlike the google meta description. You can use it with some details about the video for the convenience of users. A detailed description with references and suggestions will be helpful for the video.
Make sure it has all the relevant keywords and hashtags before you put the video online. Keywords make the video visible based on the search query of the user. You can take help from the competition to find keywords used by the targeted audience.
Title for SEO
A good title is essential for the success of any type of content. It should be intriguing, self-explanatory, and relevant to the videos. Many SEO experts make the mistake of creating a title based on SEO, not the content.
Not Mentioning the Keywords
Use of keywords in the video is necessary for the videos to rank high on the index. You can check the transcript of the top-ranking videos and how often they have used the keywords in it. The videos should clearly mention the targeted keywords or phrase in it for the algorithm to catch them.
Also, try not to use the tools for transcription as they often make mistakes with the caption. Any sort of gibberish in place of the target phrase or keyword is a negative market for the video. The snippet on Google search engine depends on these closed captions to show the video’s good portion.
Unappealing Thumbnails
YouTube recommends some thumbnails for the video during the upload process. You might be saving some time by selecting one of those recommended screenshots from the video. However, a custom-made thumbnail will create attraction and click through more to increase the ranking.
Less Time Spent on Keyword Research
You need to spend some time before the upload process on the keyword research. Many creators procrastinate the task only to end up with insufficient use of the keywords. High search volume is not the solution to garner views if the competition is tough.
There are many tools available online that provides accurate results with simple actions. Some of them are free, while the best services come with a subscription cost. You can search for no credit check loans to raise money for subscription and the other costs.
Lack of Focus on Watch Time
Watch time on any channel is an important metrics for the SEO algorithm of YouTube. The video or any other channel content would not rank high if the audience switched the video after a few seconds. Try to make the content more interesting and stretch certain portions less to increase the watch time.
Not Using the Off-Page Metrics
The user interaction plays a prominent role in the YouTube SEO algorithm. You have to pay attention to the off-page metrics such as audience retention, engagement, and click-through rate to improve the performance. You need to make changes in the strategy if any of these factors are under-performing.
Too Much CTAs
You need CTAs to grow the channel or sell some service. But you cannot expect the users to share, subscribe, donate, buy, and download something all at once. Put only one CTA in the video based on your requirement, the maximum number here is two.
No Video Suggestions
YouTube wants the users to remain on the platform for longer durations. Your video needs to help the platform by suggesting videos to watch one after another. This way, your channel can increase its presence while helping the platform earn some ad revenue.
No Specific Niche
The audience on YouTube subscribes the majority of the times for a specific interest. They will press the unsubscribe button if most of the times, videos are irrelevant to them. The solution here is to stick to a specific niche and type of videos to target a very precise audience.
Missing Cards and End Screens
YouTube has amazing interactive features called cards and end screen to help increase your session time. Recommend the videos most relevant to the current videos to keep the users engaged. You can use it for the serialised content to connect the viewers to the next episode.
Unable to Engage
Your viewers will appreciate a response to their comments. You are encouraging the viewers to share their opinion while improving engagement metrics. It will increase the loyal subscribers to your channel that will stay with you for years to come.
Use of Sub4Sub
Subscribe in return of subscribing or sub4sub is a tricky business for the channels. Many channels have received thousands of subscribers instantly with this strategy, almost each of them inactive. This may help increase the subscriber count, but their inactivity will damage the channel’s SEO and reputation.
To Conclude
In the end, the results of your video marketing strategy depend heavily on the implementation of the plan. Your focus should remain on providing quality content to the audience by either solving their problems or offering some stress-relieving content. SEO will help the content by delivering it to the targeted audience.
