TubeBuddy DOES the SEO SCORE really matter?

[MiffleMyDundah]

I've made changes to a bunch of my videos and gotten the SEO SCORE to 100% but there's no visible difference in performance.

So is it a waste of time getting your videos to 100% SEO SCORE?

Cheers,

Miff

 

[The Kitchen Gamer]

I've made changes to a bunch of my videos and gotten the SEO SCORE to 100% but there's no visible difference in performance.

So is it a waste of time getting your videos to 100% SEO SCORE?

Cheers,

Miff

No your not wasting your time, having a 100% SEO score is good the thing you must remember is that it's a combination of things to put your video in front of people who could click on it.
Those things are Thumbnail, Description, Tags, Title etc but don't worry just keep going forward and you'll get there.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

No your not wasting your time, having a 100% SEO score is good the thing you must remember is that it's a combination of things to put your video in front of people who could click on it.
Those things are Thumbnail, Description, Tags, Title etc but don't worry just keep going forward and you'll get there.

Thanks TKG!

The thing is many of my videos are already doing well so what difference does the SEO SCORE(or the edits it stands for) make for the video if I don't see any difference in viewer numbers?

Thanks again .

 

[biswa]

Yes

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

The SEO score matters... but man people have a tendency of looking into this score all wrong. This score is a reflection of how well optimized your video is for the terms you are targeting. It simply calculates a score based on whether you have these tags in your title, descriptions etc.

It does not reflect the quality of tags that you are targeting... it does not reflect the traffic flow for these topics, thumbnail or video quality.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

The SEO score matters... but man people have a tendency of looking into this score all wrong. This score is a reflection of how well optimized your video is for the terms you are targeting. It simply calculates a score based on whether you have these tags in your title, descriptions etc.

It does not reflect the quality of tags that you are targeting... it does not reflect the traffic flow for these topics, thumbnail or video quality.

Thanks!

So if my video is doing well on a 0/100 score and I change it to 100/100 and it doesn't change anything then why would I spend time on it? I'm not trying to bash the product at all I'm just wondering if I could do something better...or spend no time on fixing the score on already well performing videos?

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

It matters, but not as much as you think. Is a very tricky thing, this whole SEO scoring game.

The first thing you have to understand is, as I have said many times on here, "Something is only special as long as it is rare." The thing about great SEO is, it is NOT rare. You and about ten million other Tubers have SEO scores of 100. I have videos with scores of 100 that have almost no views at all. You see, once something becomes commonplace, it loses the special appeal and scale becomes balanced and there is no advantage in it.

Let's pretend that SEO score is a runner that can run the 100 in 10 seconds and everyone else can only do it in 15. Well, that runner is special and will always win. But now, he has set a standard and everyone else trains until they can all run the 100 in 10 seconds. Now the race is even and he is no longer special. This is how it is with good SEO. Thanks to tools like TubeBuddy, now everyone has good SEO. The race is even again.

What I am saying is that good SEO is just the beginning of competing in a market where everyone has an SEO score of 100. It may not help you win, but without it, you are definitely losing.

 

[Tito Tim]

Thanks!

So if my video is doing well on a 0/100 score and I change it to 100/100 and it doesn't change anything then why would I spend time on it? I'm not trying to bash the product at all I'm just wondering if I could do something better...or spend no time on fixing the score on already well performing videos?

It matters if you target the right keywords. I can get a perfect SEO score for a lousy keyword, and it would be useless. Did you research the chosen keyword before doing the SEO for it? The keyword explorer and SEO tool are 2 separate tools, but you need to use both. It is a tool to help you stand out in search, and it lets the algorithm know who to show your video to.

I use it because I think smaller channels need all the help we can get. If you are Stephen Colbert - you will get your views with no SEO or tags. Most of us are not that well placed.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

It matters, but not as much as you think. Is a very tricky thing, this whole SEO scoring game.

The first thing you have to understand is, as I have said many times on here, "Something is only special as long as it is rare." The thing about great SEO is, it is NOT rare. You and about ten million other Tubers have SEO scores of 100. I have videos with scores of 100 that have almost no views at all. You see, once something becomes commonplace, it loses the special appeal and scale becomes balanced and there is no advantage in it.

Let's pretend that SEO score is a runner that can run the 100 in 10 seconds and everyone else can only do it in 15. Well, that runner is special and will always win. But now, he has set a standard and everyone else trains until they can all run the 100 in 10 seconds. Now the race is even and he is no longer special. This is how it is with good SEO. Thanks to tools like TubeBuddy, now everyone has good SEO. The race is even again.

What I am saying is that good SEO is just the beginning of competing in a market where everyone has an SEO score of 100. It may not help you win, but without it, you are definitely losing.

Thanks for the explanation! Then only thing I don't get is how I'm losing if my video is already doing well without fixing the SEO and it's score?

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

It matters if you target the right keywords. I can get a perfect SEO score for a lousy keyword, and it would be useless. Did you research the chosen keyword before doing the SEO for it? The keyword explorer and SEO tool are 2 separate tools, but you need to use both. It is a tool to help you stand out in search, and it lets the algorithm know who to show your video to.

I use it because I think smaller channels need all the help we can get. If you are Stephen Colbert - you will get your views with no SEO or tags. Most of us are not that well placed.

As a music(mostly) reaction channel I guess the audience of the reacted to artist automatically finds you when they search. The channel isn't big(30 000 subs) but the videos get about as many views as expected depending on the popularity of the artist.

So for a reaction channel maybe seo isn't as important?

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

Thanks for the explanation! Then only thing I don't get is how I'm losing if my video is already doing well without fixing the SEO and it's score?

Because the most important SEO is not what you say about the video, but it is the video itself. YT uses the AI of Google Brain to dissect every piece of your video, even down to the objects found in the video itself, to understand what the video is about. From this information, YT creates thousands of points of SEO and keywords associated with your video. YT does not need you to tell it what the video is about, it already knows. Your SEO is to help the human viewer know what the video is about, not so much YT.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

Because the most important SEO is not what you say about the video, but it is the video itself. YT uses the AI of Google Brain to dissect every piece of your video, even down to the objects found in the video itself, to understand what the video is about. From this information, YT creates thousands of points of SEO and keywords associated with your video. YT does not need you to tell it what the video is about, it already knows. Your SEO is to help the human viewer know what the video is about, not so much YT.

Thanks!

So then spending time getting your SEO Score up is a waste of time right? Since Google Brain already did the work?

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Thanks!

So if my video is doing well on a 0/100 score and I change it to 100/100 and it doesn't change anything then why would I spend time on it? I'm not trying to bash the product at all I'm just wondering if I could do something better...or spend no time on fixing the score on already well performing videos?

If your video is doing well on a 0/100 I wouldn't change it... but if you did change it to a 100/100 that would likely only improve the performance. The SEO Score is a reflection of how well you are optimized for a topic. If you are getting good traffic at 0/100 that isn't due to optimization, it's due to a this being a good video. Period. That traffic is coming from Suggested, Browse, Home feeds etc. But if... or rather when YouTube decides to cut off that traffic source having your video optimized for a topic can give it a second life in Search. It can continue to collect views as a viable resource for those searching that topic long after it is no longer pulling views from the other feeds.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

If your video is doing well on a 0/100 I wouldn't change it... but if you did change it to a 100/100 that would likely only improve the performance. The SEO Score is a reflection of how well you are optimized for a topic. If you are getting good traffic at 0/100 that isn't due to optimization, it's due to a this being a good video. Period. That traffic is coming from Suggested, Browse, Home feeds etc. But if... or rather when YouTube decides to cut off that traffic source having your video optimized for a topic can give it a second life in Search. It can continue to collect views as a viable resource for those searching that topic long after it is no longer pulling views from the other feeds.

Aha I see thanks. Now that's interesting. Right now my channel gets about 43% of it's traffic from video suggestions(I guess this is YT controlled?) and about 31% from searches. If for instance a video has gone down on views a lot over time it could bump back up again via improving the SEO score being fixed then right? And if so, is there a way to simply see which videos have lost it's YT support and might benefit from improving the SEO? I have about 600 reaction videos on my channel and it'd be great to know where to start

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Aha I see thanks. Now that's interesting. Right now my channel gets about 43% of it's traffic from video suggestions(I guess this is YT controlled?) and about 31% from searches. If for instance a video has gone down on views a lot over time it could bump back up again via improving the SEO score being fixed then right? And if so, is there a way to simply see which videos have lost it's YT support and might benefit from improving the SEO? I have about 600 reaction videos on my channel and it'd be great to know where to start

You can definitely improve an aging or underperforming video by going back and re-writing the metadata. That doesn't hurt; in fact that is part of my process. I am always re-working some older video to try and re-invigorate it. 43% of your traffic from Suggestions is awesome and if you are going to go viral that is how you need to do it... through Home/Suggested/Browse. These feeds mean you have a good thumbnail and a solid, sustainable video. But the traffic for these feeds goes away. You get dropped after time. Search provides you an evergreen foundation of views that can produce for years on end. You can have a library of 500 videos, none of which have ever managed to get into Home/Browse/Suggested feeds but if they top the search ranks for good keyword phrases they will produce a respectable, consistent source of views indefinitely.

Combining your ability to create a video which hits the Suggested feed with an ability to optimized that video so that it has a life after Suggested is the goal for your best videos... having a library of optimized videos producing views regardless of whether you take a week off or you are in a slump is a safe fall-back position.

Your SEO score doesn't determine this. That is just a checklist of things to look at when you are making sure you covered all your bases. It is far more important to be sure that you are researching the correct terms. But once you have done that it helps to know that you have done everything you can to ensure your video has been optimized after doing that research. That is the value of the SEO score.

 

[Damon]

Exactly! SEO is for the future, the long game, the end game.

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

Thanks!

So then spending time getting your SEO Score up is a waste of time right? Since Google Brain already did the work?

No. The SEO you do is mostly for humans, not for YT. Would you watch a video that had no title or thumbnail? Not normally (although I have a video like this that does get views because there are certain people that cannot resist a mystery, but normally, you would not). As I said before, SEO is the START, not the end. Everyone is doing great SEO, if you are the only one who is not, you are lagging behind. It is a minimum standard, not a maximum standard. Not sure how much clearer I can make it.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

No. The SEO you do is mostly for humans, not for YT. Would you watch a video that had no title or thumbnail? Not normally (although I have a video like this that does get views because there are certain people that cannot resist a mystery, but normally, you would not). As I said before, SEO is the START, not the end. Everyone is doing great SEO, if you are the only one who is not, you are lagging behind. It is a minimum standard, not a maximum standard. Not sure how much clearer I can make it.

Thanks! Stanley explained it pretty clearly above.

 

[BraveStar]

It's very simple. SEO is not a guarantee that your video will be found. Most creators are under the impression that if you just use the right keywords and SEO that your videos will magically be seen by everyone and become an overnight success. But the reality is if it were that simple then everyone would be successful or no one would be because there are not enough hours in a day and not enough eyeballs on YouTube at the same time to be able to see every video uploaded daily thus someone will fail to get views regardless if it was that simple.

In other words, if everyone has a Ferrari, almost no one would be able to drive 200 MPH because everyone's gonna wanna do it at the same time and I'm sure you know what a traffic jam is.

 

[MiffleMyDundah]

It's very simple. SEO is not a guarantee that your video will be found. Most creators are under the impression that if you just use the right keywords and SEO that your videos will magically be seen by everyone and become an overnight success. But the reality is if it were that simple then everyone would be successful or no one would be because there are not enough hours in a day and not enough eyeballs on YouTube at the same time to be able to see every video uploaded daily thus someone will fail to get views regardless if it was that simple.

In other words, if everyone has a Ferrari, almost no one would be able to drive 200 MPH because everyone's gonna wanna do it at the same time and I'm sure you know what a traffic jam is.

Sooo, you're saying I should have a Ferrari cause otherwise I'll have a Trabant and I'll be slower than everyone else cause they all have Ferraris but getting a Ferrari doesn't make me faster than others cause they all have it?