- Do you want to drive free traffic
to your website? - Do you want to get more leads
for your business? - Do want to build your brand?
If you’re not constantly driving traffic to your website or landing page and converting that traffic into sales you’ll soon be out of business. Many marketers spend 1000s of dollars advertising their business using the Yellow Pages or online advertising but get little in return. It can be a very frustrating experience.
Why you should leverage the power of YouTube
- 50x easier to rank YouTube videos than text
- Largest source of traffic on the Net
- Captivates viewer’s attention using sight and sound
- Increases viewer engagement
Here are the 7 steps on how to rank high in YouTube
1. Channel optimization
Optimizing and building up the authority of your channel will help your videos to rank high in the search engines.
Follow these steps:
- Name your channel using your main keyword (unless you are trying to brand it with your business name)
- Provide a clear description of your channel that includes relevant keywords (about tab-description)
- Add web links to your channel banner (ie main website, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc)
- Add a channel trailer that promotes your business to new subscribers
- Monetize your channel by becoming a YouTube partner
- Upload videos to your channel on a constant basis to keep your channel fresh and your audience engaged
- Invite people to subscribe to your channel for every video you create. This is a great way to build up the authority of your channel.
2. Keyword Research
Before creating a new video research the keywords that people are searching for so you’ll attract traffic from the search engines. One of the most accurate free keyword tools is WordTracker because it gets it’s results from multiple search engines (unlike Google’s keyword planner tool which is Google centric).
Generate a list of keyword phrases then create a short 2-3 minute for each keyword phrase. So if you create a list of 30 keywords you’ll have enough material for 30 videos.
2. Video optimization
Every video you upload to YouTube should be optimized for the search engines so it generates a continuous flow of free traffic to your landing page.
Follow these steps:
- File name – name your video file using your main keyword phrase ie how-to-rank-high-in-youtube.mp4
- Video title – place your main keyword at the beginning of your title (if possible) followed by one major benefit ie “How To Rank High In YouTube And Get Free Traffic Everyday”
- Video description – repeat your title at the beginning of your description followed by the address of your landing page (where you want visitors to be directed to). I usually redirect visitors to a squeeze page where they receive a free report in exchange for their email address. This is so I can build a relationship with my list of subscribers and serve them by providing valuable content and recommending products that will solve their problems.
- Video tags – include 5 or more keywords and/or keyword phrases in your tags with your most important one at the beginning. Don’t overdo it by stuffing it with 100s of keywords.
- Video category – select the category that best describes what your video content is about
- Video transcript – uploading a video transcript enables people who can’t hear your content to read the captions below it. The transcript also helps Google to index the content as it’s being voiced in your video which aids your rankings.
- Transcribe your video content
Transcribe your video content then copy and paste it into the caption area. Alternatively create a .txt file and upload it. - In-video Programming
This feature enables you to embed a chosen video or your channel logo across all videos on your channel. For example you could brand your channel by adding adding a graphical annotation that redirects viewers to one of your promotional videos. - Annotations – these get viewers to take action while watching your video. Examples may include adding graphics (ie subscribe, click here, download my free report) that when clicked on will redirect them to your channel subscription page, another video, Google+ page or an associated website.
- Playlists – these enable you to create a series of videos around a specific topic. For example you could create a series of WordPress video tutorials. After watching the first video in the series the next one will automatically begin playing.
Watch
How To Make a YouTube Playlist On YouTube
To Increase Viewer Retention Rate
3. Video distribution
Don’t make the mistake of creating videos no one watches because you’re not exposing it to an audience. The larger your audience the more leads, subscribers and sales you’ll receive.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Embed the video on your own blog
Grab the embed code under your video (share-embed) and insert it into a blog post related to the topic of your video content. If the content of your blog post is identical to your video content make sure the titles are different so they don’t compete with each other for rankings.
Submit to Social sharing sites Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest
Google uses social signals to determine the ranking of your content. An easy way to submit your video to multiple social sites in one location is to click “share this video” under your video. You’ll see a row of the social media icons. Create an account for each one and submit to them each time you upload a new video.
Submit to Web 2.0 sites WordPress.org, Blogger.com, StumbleUpon
These are known as authority sites because they are popular public platforms used by many people to establish a web presence.
Submit every new video to each of these sites. Use a different title and description for each one so you don’t get repetitive.
Submit to document sharing sites Scribd.com and SlideShare.com
These are 2 of the most popular document sharing sites on the Net. They carry a lot of authority as their content is often ranked on the first page of the search engines.
4. Community Interaction
The main purpose of following these strategies is to build a community of like-minded individuals who interact and support each other.
Here are some ideas to get you going:
Email your list
Every time you upload a new video notify your list of subscribers. This helps keep them engaged and establishes a long term relationship with them.
Ask viewers to like, subscribe and plus your video
Instead of just relying on annotations to get viewers to subscribe, reinforce your request by also asking them in the video. This will increase the response rate.
Comment on related videos within the YouTube community
YouTube is a social platform therefore interact with people in related niches by subscribing to their channel, watching and commenting on their videos and adding them to your Google + circles.
Interact within Google+ communities related to your niche
Search for Google+ communities within your niche and interact with the people by asking and answering questions and providing valuable tips that will help grow their business.
Interact with members on Facebook Groups in your niche
Search and join Facebook Groups within your sphere of interest. It’s a great way receive feedback on improving your videos as well as getting views for new videos.
Participate in forum discussions within your niche
An easy way to find forums is to Google “forum+keyword” then join forum threads where you can share valuable tips and reply to questions. Often you can add your video URL in the discussion box which generates a valuable backlink to your YouTube video
Find related blogs and leave a comment
Google “blog+keyword” to find related blogs in your niche. Instead of leaving a comment that says “good info” (which will probably get deleted) invest a little more energy by providing more in-depth content so it will be helpful to others.
Identify the authorities in your niche and subscribe to their content
Every niche has people who have become authority figures because they have invested a lot of time and energy building up their supporters (or fans). You can identify them by the large amount of comments they receive to their blog posts and/or YouTube videos.
To gain their attention subscribe to their web properties, leave comments, offer tips and relate to them as if you were meeting over a cup of coffee.
5. Build Backlinks
Backlinks (links pointing to your video URL) help boost your rankings in YouTube and Google. The quality and quantity of links will determine how fast they rank. For example a rank from a well established site (such as a popular forum) carries much more weight than a newly established blog.
Transcribe your video content then submit it
to these web properties:
Article directories
Here’s a list of the top article directories…
EzineArticles.com
GoArticles.com
ArticlesBase.com
Amazines.com
SelfGrowth.com
ArticleSnatch.com
EzineMark.com
ArticleAlley.com
Bukisa.com
TheFreeLibrary.com
InfoBarrel.com
Isnare.com
ArticleBiz.com
SooperArticles.com
ArticleRich.com
ArticleDashboard.com
BrightHub.com
Xomba.com
EvanCarmichael.com
ArticlesFactory.com
Gather.com
Ezine Publishers
Publishers are constantly on the look out for fresh content to send to their subscribers. An article published in an ezine with thousands of loyal readers can generate a large stream of visitors to your content.
Tip: The Directory of Ezines is the best place to find updated ezines (updated every week) related to your audience. They are categorized by topic and show you how many subscribers they currently have.
6. Monitor the performance of your videos
The purpose of tracking the performance of your videos is so you can make the necessary changes to improve their rankings in the search engines.
For instance one of your videos may not be getting many views because the keyword you inserted in the title may not be what people are searching for. After doing some keyword research you discover a related keyword that gets a much higher search count. After editing your title your video rankings improve and your traffic increases.
Utilize YouTube analytics to discover the:
- Top 10 videos that received the most views in the last 30 days
- Viewer retention rate
- Keywords used to find your videos
If you find people are not staying to the end to watch your videos, make your video more interesting by adding more transitions, annotations, video clips and most of all good content. Only by testing different elements will your video retention rate improve.
7. Be consistent
The more videos you create, optimize and upload to YouTube the more traffic and leads you’ll generate. Therefore make a content creation plan to produce at least one new video every week.
Ranking Tip:
Exercise patience when getting your videos to rank. Often it takes 2 or more weeks to see your rankings appear in YouTube and/or Google depending on how competitive your keyword is. If they are no competitors your video may attain top rankings within a few minutes but usually your rankings bounce around for a while before settling down.
And now I’d like to invite you to subscribe to my FREE E-course “21 Ways To Get YouTube Traffic”
http://www.drostdesigns.com/get-youtube-traffic
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