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I see some strange things that people do with keywords... from the common single-word keywords to copy/pasting entire lists from other creators to using the name of bigger creators as a keyword in the hopes that someone will stumble upon their channel while searching for a PewDiePie video and think 'Yup, this is definitely the guy I was looking for!'
So for anyone with questions or whom are in need of assistance in honing their skills as an SEO master I am providing my personal process for researching keywords. Let's start at the beginning:
Do You Film First or Script?
I film first. I make fishing content, and therefore it is near impossible for me to predict what I am going to catch. As such I typically search for my keywords after the video has been filmed and most of the time it has already been edited and uploaded as private before I do my keyword research. Make no mistake; it can be done this way but it is going to be far more difficult to center around key terms if you pursue this route. A better approach is to do your keyword research in advance and to incorporate that into the scripting of your video. Everything I cover below will work for you regardless of what stage you do your research though.
Determine Your Topic and See What's Been Working
First you need to clear your head of all opinions about what you feel your video is about. Imagine that you are a new viewer... someone who has never seen this content before. They are searching specifically for this video. What are they typing to search for it? Whatever that is type it into YouTube and do a search for it. You want to take a moment to see what other creators are doing in this space, what are you competing against and what creative things have they been doing that you can mimic?
This is a great opportunity to see what thumbnail designs you are going to be up against. It will also allow you the chance to see what correlating data they have been using and it let you know if there is off-niche competition. For example, if you are doing a video about crystal clear water you will find that Clearwater Florida content is high on the list.
Grab A Pen
Once I have scribbled down a few ideas for topical keywords I run them through the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. I write them down and I write their score next to each. Once I get 1-2 solid, high-ranking keywords I begin to formulate a video title. If that keyword is ΓÇÿVodka HacksΓÇÖ then what can I do to add to that? I look at words that can go before ΓÇÿVodka Hacks.ΓÇÖ Maybe we search for ΓÇÿIngenious Vodka Hacks,ΓÇÖ ΓÇÿOld School Vodka Hacks,ΓÇÖ or ΓÇÿBest Vodka Hacks.ΓÇÖ Research each and see who has the best score; this becomes the beginning of our title. But them I keep going. How can we end that sentence? LetΓÇÖs try the same thing to the latter part of that video title:
Best Vodka Hacks for Beginners
Best Vodka Hacks In 2021
Best Vodka Hacks from Bartenders
We research not only the term ΓÇÿbest vodka hacks for beginners,ΓÇÖ but we research the term ΓÇÿvodka hacks for beginners,ΓÇÖ and ΓÇÿhacks from bartenders.ΓÇÖ This allows us not one but up to three different keywords (plus combinations) in our title alone. Once this is complete you simply need to add something enticing to the end to grab attention;
Best Vodka Hacks from Bartenders for AMAZING Cocktails!
If you are having difficulty coming up with things like this simply go to Google and type in ‘best vodka…’ Google will autopopulate a list of things that people typically search for after typing ‘best vodka’ and this will give you an idea of keywords to experiment with. It is best to look for longtail keyword phrases. Obviously a single-word term like ‘music’ is going to be HIGHLY competitive and you are NEVER going to rank for that. But there are a reasonable amount of people searching for things like ‘beach music lullabies for babies’ and this is a term you can rank for in search.
Implementation
Now that you have a solid list of keywords it is time to enter this into your video metadata. There should be a primary keyword that you are focused on; in our above example that primary keyword would be ΓÇÿvodka hackΓÇÖ and as an extension ΓÇÿbest vodka hack.ΓÇÖ As such that needs to the beginning of our title (the beginning of the title acts as a sort of ΓÇÿmega-tagΓÇÖ in your metadata). The title is complete, so we need to work on the description next. It is the first 200 characters of the description that are most recognized by YouTube for topic validity purposes, so you want to put as many of these keywords into that portion of the title as possible. But you canΓÇÖt cram them in; YouTube values a natural description that people will read. SO we need to craft a legible description with emphasis on our keywords.
Today I am going to show you the BEST vodka hacks!
That is a start. For the purposes of this I am going to avoid just throwing our entire title into this natural sentence, but it could be done so long as we maintain a natural sentence structure. So like our title before we need to now figure out how we are going to structure this description to include our other keywords…
Today I am going to show you the BEST vodka hacks! The vodka hacks from bartenders that I have spoken to are some of the best bartender hacks weΓÇÖve ever come across!
In the process of writing this out I may stumble across new possible keywords. In the example above I came across ΓÇÿbest bartender hacks.ΓÇÖ This term not only fits in with our natural sentence structure, but it fits our topic perfectly and appears to be a good, high-ranking search term. I add it to the list and I continue with my description. I pick the next highest-ranking keyword and I add that into a sentence. I continue this until I have the majority of my preferred keywords listed in the description.
Just because YouTube weights the value of the first 200 characters more heavily doesnΓÇÖt mean I stop what I am doing at 200 characters. I continue on until I have a description that not only fulfils YouTubeΓÇÖs metadata desires but also so that anyone reading it is actually going to get some insight into the video by reading it. Remember, if someone is going to take the time to check out the description of your video this is a VERY valuable view; they will see not only the things you have chosen to say but also any subscribe CTAΓÇÖs, video/playlist links and Affiliate Links you have. Honor the viewer with a well-crafted description, beginning to end.
DonΓÇÖt Be Scared of Rework
In the process of doing this you may come across an entirely new series of keywords, topics et cetera. DonΓÇÖt be afraid of redirecting your strategy if this new direction fits better. The entire purpose of this endeavor is to uncover these hidden gems. If you need to redo all that work then this is the reason to do it. But also, donΓÇÖt be afraid of doing it all over again. If you uncover information that is highly underserved; (i.e. keywords that are ranking really high) make note of that (TubeBuddy has a tool for this!). This is a perfect opportunity to make another video! It is ok to cover a topic multiple times and in fact some topics needs to be revisited multiple times over the years. Some viewers are in search of the more updated insight into a topic and it also doesnΓÇÖt hurt to have multiple videos for the sake of expressing your authority. Also worth noting, you may have filmed a really good video and it just doesnΓÇÖt work. I would give the video some room to breathe (I donΓÇÖt touch a video for 140 days, but have seen duds pop after 9 months) but if it is a video that you really feel strong about then donΓÇÖt be afraid to redo the keyword research. Maybe you targeted the wrong search categories, you can go and redo this.
So for anyone with questions or whom are in need of assistance in honing their skills as an SEO master I am providing my personal process for researching keywords. Let's start at the beginning:
Do You Film First or Script?
I film first. I make fishing content, and therefore it is near impossible for me to predict what I am going to catch. As such I typically search for my keywords after the video has been filmed and most of the time it has already been edited and uploaded as private before I do my keyword research. Make no mistake; it can be done this way but it is going to be far more difficult to center around key terms if you pursue this route. A better approach is to do your keyword research in advance and to incorporate that into the scripting of your video. Everything I cover below will work for you regardless of what stage you do your research though.
Determine Your Topic and See What's Been Working
First you need to clear your head of all opinions about what you feel your video is about. Imagine that you are a new viewer... someone who has never seen this content before. They are searching specifically for this video. What are they typing to search for it? Whatever that is type it into YouTube and do a search for it. You want to take a moment to see what other creators are doing in this space, what are you competing against and what creative things have they been doing that you can mimic?
This is a great opportunity to see what thumbnail designs you are going to be up against. It will also allow you the chance to see what correlating data they have been using and it let you know if there is off-niche competition. For example, if you are doing a video about crystal clear water you will find that Clearwater Florida content is high on the list.
Grab A Pen
Once I have scribbled down a few ideas for topical keywords I run them through the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. I write them down and I write their score next to each. Once I get 1-2 solid, high-ranking keywords I begin to formulate a video title. If that keyword is ΓÇÿVodka HacksΓÇÖ then what can I do to add to that? I look at words that can go before ΓÇÿVodka Hacks.ΓÇÖ Maybe we search for ΓÇÿIngenious Vodka Hacks,ΓÇÖ ΓÇÿOld School Vodka Hacks,ΓÇÖ or ΓÇÿBest Vodka Hacks.ΓÇÖ Research each and see who has the best score; this becomes the beginning of our title. But them I keep going. How can we end that sentence? LetΓÇÖs try the same thing to the latter part of that video title:
Best Vodka Hacks for Beginners
Best Vodka Hacks In 2021
Best Vodka Hacks from Bartenders
We research not only the term ΓÇÿbest vodka hacks for beginners,ΓÇÖ but we research the term ΓÇÿvodka hacks for beginners,ΓÇÖ and ΓÇÿhacks from bartenders.ΓÇÖ This allows us not one but up to three different keywords (plus combinations) in our title alone. Once this is complete you simply need to add something enticing to the end to grab attention;
Best Vodka Hacks from Bartenders for AMAZING Cocktails!
If you are having difficulty coming up with things like this simply go to Google and type in ‘best vodka…’ Google will autopopulate a list of things that people typically search for after typing ‘best vodka’ and this will give you an idea of keywords to experiment with. It is best to look for longtail keyword phrases. Obviously a single-word term like ‘music’ is going to be HIGHLY competitive and you are NEVER going to rank for that. But there are a reasonable amount of people searching for things like ‘beach music lullabies for babies’ and this is a term you can rank for in search.
Implementation
Now that you have a solid list of keywords it is time to enter this into your video metadata. There should be a primary keyword that you are focused on; in our above example that primary keyword would be ΓÇÿvodka hackΓÇÖ and as an extension ΓÇÿbest vodka hack.ΓÇÖ As such that needs to the beginning of our title (the beginning of the title acts as a sort of ΓÇÿmega-tagΓÇÖ in your metadata). The title is complete, so we need to work on the description next. It is the first 200 characters of the description that are most recognized by YouTube for topic validity purposes, so you want to put as many of these keywords into that portion of the title as possible. But you canΓÇÖt cram them in; YouTube values a natural description that people will read. SO we need to craft a legible description with emphasis on our keywords.
Today I am going to show you the BEST vodka hacks!
That is a start. For the purposes of this I am going to avoid just throwing our entire title into this natural sentence, but it could be done so long as we maintain a natural sentence structure. So like our title before we need to now figure out how we are going to structure this description to include our other keywords…
Today I am going to show you the BEST vodka hacks! The vodka hacks from bartenders that I have spoken to are some of the best bartender hacks weΓÇÖve ever come across!
In the process of writing this out I may stumble across new possible keywords. In the example above I came across ΓÇÿbest bartender hacks.ΓÇÖ This term not only fits in with our natural sentence structure, but it fits our topic perfectly and appears to be a good, high-ranking search term. I add it to the list and I continue with my description. I pick the next highest-ranking keyword and I add that into a sentence. I continue this until I have the majority of my preferred keywords listed in the description.
Just because YouTube weights the value of the first 200 characters more heavily doesnΓÇÖt mean I stop what I am doing at 200 characters. I continue on until I have a description that not only fulfils YouTubeΓÇÖs metadata desires but also so that anyone reading it is actually going to get some insight into the video by reading it. Remember, if someone is going to take the time to check out the description of your video this is a VERY valuable view; they will see not only the things you have chosen to say but also any subscribe CTAΓÇÖs, video/playlist links and Affiliate Links you have. Honor the viewer with a well-crafted description, beginning to end.
DonΓÇÖt Be Scared of Rework
In the process of doing this you may come across an entirely new series of keywords, topics et cetera. DonΓÇÖt be afraid of redirecting your strategy if this new direction fits better. The entire purpose of this endeavor is to uncover these hidden gems. If you need to redo all that work then this is the reason to do it. But also, donΓÇÖt be afraid of doing it all over again. If you uncover information that is highly underserved; (i.e. keywords that are ranking really high) make note of that (TubeBuddy has a tool for this!). This is a perfect opportunity to make another video! It is ok to cover a topic multiple times and in fact some topics needs to be revisited multiple times over the years. Some viewers are in search of the more updated insight into a topic and it also doesnΓÇÖt hurt to have multiple videos for the sake of expressing your authority. Also worth noting, you may have filmed a really good video and it just doesnΓÇÖt work. I would give the video some room to breathe (I donΓÇÖt touch a video for 140 days, but have seen duds pop after 9 months) but if it is a video that you really feel strong about then donΓÇÖt be afraid to redo the keyword research. Maybe you targeted the wrong search categories, you can go and redo this.
