Have you noticed how often videos appear in Google searches? There’s a reason for that.
YouTube is now the second-largest search engine next to Google. And in 2019, it ended up being the most popular social media channel. Of course, it’s a video website as well.
YouTube is a lot of things to a lot of people, but it’s important for marketers to be aware of its value as a search engine.
According to Cisco, by the end of this year video will make up almost 80 percent of all online traffic. Think about that: 80 percent.
You definitely must consider YouTube marketing/SEO capabilities in 2020.
And keep in mind:
- TV watching is declining while YouTube watching is increasing
- There are more US adults on YouTube than on Facebook. (The Pew Charitable trust says that fully three-fourths of US adults watch YouTube videos)
- YouTube watchers use it to find product reviews, watch tutorials and even the latest episode of Saturday Night Live
- A huge number of people watch videos suggested by YouTube’s search algorithm, which can be different than the Google search results
- Google owns YouTube and profits greatly from ads and increased video views as many popular YouTube videos are running ads.
So if you want to get more traffic from search in 2020, Intuitive Websites recommends creating and optimizing content specifically for YouTube. It’s a search engine that is too big and too popular to ignore!
Is Everybody Watching Videos?
Pretty much. In fact, some statistics show that YouTube’s fastest growing audience is Baby Boomers (50 to 65 years old) and Gen X (36 to 49 years old). If someone is younger, you can almost be certain they are watching YouTube as well.
You probably already know your customers often conduct online research before they decide to engage with your company. And statistics show those customers are connecting and engaging with video creators and channels like never before.
Turn Videos into Website Visits, Leads and Customers
Keep in mind that 80% of people said they watched a YouTube video for research before they began their buying journey.
What people want today is information and a connection to your brand. Of course, a properly optimized video will also lead viewers to your website. There they can learn more about you, your company, and the services you offer.
People are looking for genuinely helpful videos that provide the information they need and to inspire them to find out more. That’s a far cry from traditional advertising.
YouTube viewers are not always looking for famous actors or over-the-top production values. They want current content that won’t be outdated in a few months and helps them know more about a particular topic. This is where your company expertise will shine.
YouTube Videos Must be Optimized to Rise to the Top of the Search
When you have YouTube videos as part of your content marketing strategy, you’ll need to optimize them for both Google and YouTube search engines.
You may be familiar with SEO strategies needed to get to the top of a Google search, however, YouTube has its own set of SEO guidelines and rules.
But as you’ve noticed, YouTube videos are now also showing up at the top of Google’s search engine results as well.
There are similarities: metadata like title tags and descriptions for content and keywords.
But there are some real differences as well. Video keywords can be different than website keywords. For example, the term “How to” is extremely popular on YouTube videos.
There are also video tags to help you get found and they are super-important to YouTube SEO.
Optimizing titles of YouTube videos and descriptions is something many people don’t think about when they are uploading videos. But it’s a key to ranking highly on the YouTube search engine results.
We strongly encourage you to make YouTube part of your content marketing strategy for 2020 and beyond! We’d love to help you optimize your YouTube videos for the platform search engines.
We’ll be offering a second post in this series to give you some ideas about how to create your own amazing and effective YouTube videos.
And then we’d love to talk with you about ways we can help bring your YouTube videos to the top of the search!
In the meantime, what’s your YouTube strategy?
