YouTube receives 30,000 hours of video daily. That's right. DAILY. With that mind-boggling amount of video, it's become nearly impossible to gain traction and make your video popular. It now takes performing YouTube SEO tactics.
YouTube ranks YouTube videos based on popularity. Here's what they look at to determine a video's ranking in the search results.
Channel Views:The more channel views you have, the higher your YouTube channel will rank in its various niche.
Video Views:The more views you have the higher you'll rank on YouTube's search results for the key phrase you're targeting. But views aren't the only popularity measure.
Video Comments:The more comments you have, the higher you'll rank. I recommend setting up multiple accounts and commenting on your videos. Even try to entice some drama. The more controversy you can create over your video, the more comments you'll receive. People flock to conflict.
Video 'Like' Ratings:You want as many positive ratings as possible. Get your friends to give you positive ratings. Email your list of YouTube subscribers and ask them to give it a like rating. I've found ratings are just as important as video views. If you have 50,000 video views and two hundred negative ratings, your video will not rank in the top. If you have 50,000 video views and two hundred like ratings you're going to be sitting at the top of YouTube's search results.
Video Favorites:The more favorites your video receives, the higher you can rank. Plus, you'll show up on other YouTube favorites lists which brings in more traffic.
Channel Subscribers:The more subscribers, the higher your YouTube channel will rank.
Basically you want a balanced approach of all the above. Lots of YouTube video views, comments, likes, favorites, etc. If you have a good balance of those your video will rank higher on YouTube's search results and, also, this is a bonus, Google's. If you can get a YouTube video to rank at the top of Google, it's major traffic. Major. And I've found the videos hold those positions for a long, long time. It's a consistent traffic source.
Back links:The more external back links pointing to your video, the higher it will rank. The easiest place to start obtaining back links is from social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and all the rest. Also, try to list it on message boards/forums and submit your video to free link directories. Also set up free blogs and embed and link to your video from those. Be greedy and relentless in obtaining back links.
Be active on YouTube: Comment on videos, subscribe to other channels, send friend requests. The more active you are, the more attention you'll attract to your own videos.
YouTube SEO Don'ts- Do you not use automated software bots to artificially increase YouTube views. YouTube has shut them down and your account will be banned. It's a violation of YouTube's Terms of Service and they have zero tolerance. Now there are some YouTube friendly software tools you can use to automatically add friends, subscribe, comment, but be careful with which on you pick. In my signature file I'll link to only good one that doesn't violate YouTube's terms of service.
The other big don't is to mislabel your video to get more traffic. There are some high traffic key phrases out there, but if your video content doesn't match your title key phrase, YouTube will ban your video. Also tag your video appropriately. Don't put in a random high traffic phrase. YouTube will ban your video and the traffic from that phrase likely isn't targeted anyway, so it doesn't matter.


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