Is Your Brand Optimized for the World's 2nd Largest Search Engine?

Pop Quiz: We all know that Google is the world’s #1 most used search engine, but who comes in second?
 

A.)    Bing
B.)    Ask
C.)    Yahoo
 

If you picked Bing, you are not alone. Most people would probably bet that Bing is the 2nd most used search engine, and that’s correct in some regard, but this is actually a trick question. A preferred answer would have been d.) None of the above. When asked to list off the world’s largest and most favored search engines, people seldom include this one. Most don’t even put it into the 'search engine' category. We’re talking about YouTube!

That’s right. YouTube accounts for more than 3 billion searches per month and is the fastest growing video sharing platform in the world. It is bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL combined. So with that in mind, you can probably understand why it’s important to have a presence there. Video marketing is highly effective, yet largely neglected. However, if you can harness the power of video marketing, your SEO can benefit majorly. So how do you optimize for YouTube? Below are a few tips.

1. Create a Channel: Setting your business or organization up with a YouTube channel unlocks branding potential that you don’t have access to through a normal user profile.
   
   Within your channel, you can add important features like your logo, social media icons, profile information and channel art that is consistent with your brand identity. Also be sure you optimize your channel description with keywords relevant to your demographic.
    
2. Complete Meta Data for Each Video: Just like a webpage, videos on YouTube also contain an area where you can add and optimize meta data fields. Be sure you fill out your video title and video description, as well as utilize keywords and calls to action where necessary.
    
3. Have a Content Schedule: Start planning your video content out in advance and (here's the important part) follow through on it. Video content can be hard to churn out, especially for smaller business or organizations without the staff or know-how, but it is arguably the most important part of optimizing your YouTube presence. You’ve heard us say before that fresh, consistent content is an important aspect of your overall visibility in search engines, and the rules are no different here. Users will come back to your channel on a regular basis if they know when new content will be available.
    
4. Transcribe Your Videos: Just as images cannot be read by search engines without the image alt tag, videos cannot be read unless they are transcribed. If your video contains keywords within its audio which would help users to locate your content, then transcribing the video is a must to ensure it is indexed properly.
    
5. Use Video Tagging: The tag feature is a great way to include keywords that your video relates to. Adding tags to your video is just another way to help make your videos searchable. Do this with caution, however, as it is never a good idea to abuse this feature. Only include keywords that accurately relate to your video content, as misleading users can harm your channels ability to rank.

Do you want to learn more about leveraging the power of YouTube? Check out the YouTube Creator Academy!