How to Boost your video to top of the Google Search Engine - 5 Pro tips

YouTube Ranking Tips (latest)

YouTube is an American video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to playlists, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. YouTube selected creators earn advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program that targets ads according to site content and audience.

In 2018, YouTube introduced a system that would automatically add information boxes to videos that its algorithms determined may present conspiracy theories and other fake news, filling the infobox with content from Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia as a means to inform users to minimize misinformation propagation without impacting freedom of speech. In the wake of the Notre-Dame de Paris fire on April 15, 2019, several user-uploaded videos of the landmark fire were flagged by YouTube’ system automatically with an Encyclopedia Britannica article on the false conspiracy theories around the September 11 attacks. Several users complained to YouTube about this inappropriate connection. YouTube officials apologized for this, stating that their algorithms had misidentified the fire videos and added the information block automatically, and were taking steps to remedy this.

All the content that I share in this blog are from my own experience with using YouTube. I have listed out all the algorithms that I found on YouTube that were useful for my readers.

YouTube Ranking Tips: How to Boost your video to top of the Search

1. Quality

The video quality is the first thing that YouTube checks for ranking your YouTube video. I recommend upload video at least of the 1080p HD quality. If possible, record and edit the video in 4K quality and publish it. High quality videos are converted into their respective quality variants for the users on YouTube to choose according to their purpose or choice. You can edit high quality videos on Adobe Premiere Pro.

Another important factor like video quality is audio quality. Some YouTubers mix background music along with their videos resulting in poor quality of message being conveyed. If you are mixing background music make sure that you are audible. Software like Adobe Audition and Audacity are great tools for better sound quality in your video. Using a low noise mic is the best option for getting studio like sound quality.

2. Audience Retention Score

Audience Retention (sometimes referred to as “Viewer Retention”) is the average percentage of a YouTube video that people watch. Videos with high Audience Retention scores tend to have increased visibility on YouTube’s platform. You can increase your audience retention score by making your video content short and crisp. For some YouTubers used to display paid promotions and boring introductions in begining of the YouTube video, this will result in reduced audience retention scores and will reduce your videos initial 5 minutes boost. Try to engage users in your videos and never make them bored.

3. User Interaction Signal

A User Interaction Signal happens whenever a user interacts with a YouTube video. These signals include likes, comments, shares, and subscriptions. YouTube uses User Interaction Signals as part of its search and discovery algorithm. In short: the more User Interaction Signals your video generates, the better it will rank in YouTube search.

Ask viewers to give their opinion or to share their views. Compared to open-ended questions, specific questions make it easier for someone to leave a comment.Reply to comments that come in within the first 24-48 hours of your video going live. This shows visitors that you’re cultivating an active community, which makes them more likely to comment by themselves.Add a pinned comment to the top of your video that asks viewers to leave a comment. Pinned comments can be easier to spot than a call-to-action in your video.When a viewer sees that the comment section is full of spam, they’re much less likely to leave a comment. So do your best to moderate your comments so that no spam gets through.

4. Title, Tag, Thumbnail and Description (SEO)

Title is the most important part of your video. Using a free tool like Google’s AdWords keyword tool or Wordtracker, identify what people are searching for around the keyword niche. Google truncates page titles somewhere around the 70 character mark. Any longer and you’ll see an ellipse at the end of your title. Since YouTube automatically adds “YouTube –” to the beginning of every view page’s title tag, you’re already 10 characters down before you even start. So the first words that you use must be the most apt for your video and it should be the most popular keyword in the category in which you put the video.

YouTube heavily accounts for your video’s first few tags when ranking content in their search results, especially the first tag. So make sure your first tag is the exact keyword you want to target. Use specific keywords that describe the topics you cover in your video as the tags help YouTube understand your video’s content. To discover the keywords you can tag in your videos and help them rank higher in YouTube’s search results try Keyword Keg or VidIQ.

Along with your video title and tags, YouTube uses your description to understand the content (and context) of your video content. A well-optimized description can boost your video’s rankings in YouTube search. YouTube doesn’t understand your video, they’re not likely to rank it in search. That’s why you want to write long, thorough video descriptions (at least 150 words). Along with your video title and tags, YouTube uses your description to understand the content (and context) of your video content. YouTube’s algorithm puts more weight on keywords that show up in the first 2-3 sentences of your description so focus more on those sentences.

Video thumbnails let viewers see a quick snapshot of your video as they’re browsing YouTube. After your video is finished uploading, you can choose a thumbnail from the three options YouTube automatically generates, or upload your own. To upload custom thumbnails, you must have a verified account. Use a custom thumbnail for your video and design it in such a way that the viewers will understand what you are trying to convey.

5. CTR – Click Through Rate (Bonus tip)

Click Through Rate measures how often viewers watch a video after seeing a registered impression on YouTube. Half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impression CTR that can range between 2% and 10%. Consider an example that you were searching for some topic on YouTube. Several videos will come in search results. Consider the first 3 videos that appear in the search. If a user clicks the 1st video and watches it for 1 minute. Then the user skips it by clicking back and then clicks the 2nd video and watches it till the end. Then the second video will get the highest CTR and thereby improves the video ranking on search. You can use this method through different accounts to increase your YouTube video ranking. However, if you use one account every time you do it YouTube will understand it. So use it carefully. While watching, don't forget to increase your user interaction signals.