If you want your video to rank high on YouTube, then video descriptions should be your top priority.
As you know, Video thumbnails are essential for quickly grabbing the audience’s attention.
Video description helps YouTube to understand the intent of your video, and when optimized rightly, there are good chances for your videos to rank higher.
Perhaps, you’re not a wizard with words and need some assistance writing a decent text. In this case, be it a description or a script for a video, you can order an essay online to get expert help. This will get you a professionally written text that fits your requirements exactly. So, if you’re looking for perfect grammar with ideal content, outsourcing might be just the choice you need.
It works similarly to optimizing a blog post but with few differences. In this guide, we have listed some of the best ways to optimize your YouTube video description to attain higher rankings.
Best Practices for Writing YouTube Video Description
Optimize the first 200 words
Though YouTube provides a character count of 5000, the first 200 characters are significant to be optimized, as they show up in the search results.
Try to provide at least 200 words video description with enough information related to the main keyword of your video. It helps YouTube understand the right keyword you are targeting to rank.
Also, try to make the first sentence of your description captivating for the audience to click on your video, which boosts the click-through rate.
Insert target video keywords
Make use of your target keywords in the title and video description. It helps YouTube understand your video intent and maximizes the search traffic for your video.
If you are unsure which keywords to select for your video, try to use Google keyword planner and Google Trends to understand what terms people are searching for in your niche?
Choose the closely related keywords and insert them in your video description. Also, make sure that your keyword doesn’t look stuffed unnecessarily in the description. The keyword placement should be natural.
Give human touch with original content.
Make sure to use the original content in your video description. People often use ready-made templates for the video description, which has a poor impact on the ranking of videos.
If you provide a unique description for your videos, it will be easy for the visitors to search for your content on YouTube, which helps you stand out from the competition.
Always try to provide engaging content to your subscribers if you want to retain them. If you have older videos with fabricated content, we recommend rewriting them and republishing for better results.
In short, please write in your audience’s language so that they can better resonate with your content.
Use some related hashtags.
Hashtags are the easiest way for users to find your content. It is recommended not to pick more than 15 hashtags for your video, as YouTube ignores hashtags beyond that limit.
Hashtags generally appear above the title, and it is also suggested not to use any irrelevant hashtags, as it might spoil the user experience.
For optimal results, it is recommended to use the hashtags in the title case so that readers can easily recognize them.
Insert related keywords
Apart from the target keywords, try to pick a set of closely related keywords and sprinkle them in your video description.
For example, if your video is about “windows troubleshooting,” try to pick closely related keywords like windows 10 troubleshooting, how to troubleshoot your windows laptop, etc.
It will not only help you rank faster but also brings in additional traffic to your video content.
Using the related keywords in your video description, you also stand a chance to rank in Google search for broad keyword sets.
Optimize video description for CTR
As mentioned earlier, the first few sentences of your video description play a crucial role in ranking your videos on YouTube. It helps improve your video click-through rate significantly.
The first 200 characters (2-3 sentences) should be well optimized and compelling enough for them to click on your video. Otherwise, people will not engage with your videos.
For better results, it is recommended to start the video description by mentioning the benefits of watching the video. This technique increases the likeliness of the users clicking your video.
Use the target keyword 2 – 3 times.
For a better ranking of your videos, it is recommended to use the target keyword at least 2-3 times in your video description.
Especially, try to use the target keyword in the title and first sentence of the video description naturally.
If you stuff your content with the target keyword unnaturally, it creates a signal for spam.
It is always better to use the keyword variation in place of the exact match keywords in your description to get mode coverage.
Insert a call to action and links
At the bottom of your video description, insert links to your social media profiles and put the relevant call to action like blog posts, product links, landing pages, etc.
It will help drive traffic to your website and build more followers on your social profiles in the long run. Suppose you want to track the number of visitors hitting your profile and website through the video.
In that case, it is recommended to shorten the URL using any URL shortener tool and paste it into the video description.
The call to action must be clear, create a sense of urgency, and above all, it should describe the benefit to the viewer. It helps in getting more engagement with your CTA buttons.
Use default video description settings.
To avoid spending more time copy-pasting the same content on every video (like your social profile links, contact number, etc.), try to use default video settings for all your videos.
It helps in keeping your default content ready without much manual addition.
To create default upload settings for your video description, follow the steps mentioned here.
Bonus Tip – Optimize to appear in the suggested video
Suggested videos are another great source of getting views for other videos on your channel. According to YouTube’s algorithm, your video description and metadata’s proper optimization help show your videos in the suggested column.
In short, if the content in your video description matches with the keyword in the description of other videos, then there is a strong chance of ranking the videos in the suggested column.
This technique helps to rank your other videos, especially when you create a series of content on the same topic.
Final Thoughts
With the growing number of video uploads each day, ranking YouTube videos is not so easy. However, with these simple tips, you can easily optimize your video description and get higher chances to rank your videos. Implement these tips on your videos, and share your experiences here.
About the Author
Ranjit is a web developer and blogger at AppsTale, He loves to write about email marketing strategies and online marketing tips for small businesses.
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