Marketing Videos: YouTube Tags

Nov 13, 2019

You’ve come up with a great marketing video idea. You brainstormed, written, filmed, and edited it. What’s next? Before posting videos on YouTube there are steps to take so that your target audience will see it. Below, I’ll go into marketing videos—how to use YouTube tags.

Marketing Videos: YouTube Tags

Stepping into the YouTube world is a key part of content marketing.

Video allows viewers to get to know you and your company. While focusing on content marketing, incorporating videos into your marketing plan is crucial, according to research by Brightcove:

  • “81% of consumers currently interact with brands on social media – two fifths (43%) have done so through watching branded video”
  • “When asked for their number one choice of branded content on social networks, video was the most popular answer (31%)”

Incorporating valuable metadata in your videos, through titles, descriptions, tags, and annotations will help interested viewers find your videos.

YouTube’s ranking system is hard to exactly pin down, as it is complicated and changing. However, keywords allow users to find relevant videos, so they’re an important step in the process. When people search topics, if your tag is in their search or related to it, your video will show up. The YouTube algorithm is in charge of what videos show up to its users. YouTube is the second largest search engine, so optimizing your videos for search results is just as key as optimizing your websites.

Tags allow YouTube to tell what your video is about.

The connection between tags and YouTube rankings isn’t the be-all, end-all of YouTube’s ranking algorithm. However, they do have a significant relationship all the same.

In YouTube’s rankings, the first few keywords are the most important. These keywords are your target keywords. The first tag should be the exact target of your video. The following keywords should be general: what subject does your video talk about? These allow YouTube to classify and order what your video is about and what it relates to. The last keywords can be super specific. These describe exactly what your video is about.

Tags should be short and used in moderation.

If you go overboard with your tags, YouTube won’t be able to tell what your video is about. Imagine giving a description with over 30 subjects to YouTube—they won’t know what your video is about. This is the same as giving YouTube 30 different and unrelated tags. To help with the process, here are some general tips and tricks to use while deciding on YouTube tags:

  • In your keyword tags, you’ll want to use keywords that are two to three words long. This is different from some SEO techniques that call for long-tail keywords of almost complete sentences. For YouTube, keep tags short. Including one or two long-tail keywords is appropriate, just keep an eye out for them.
  • Similarly, you can tie your keywords into your title to strengthen the impact of your tags.
  • An additional technique is to add one or two tags that are trending and relevant to your video. If your video pops up next to trending videos, that’s a bonus for you.

There are some ways to streamline your brainstorming process. For example, using a keyword generator like keywordtool.io and keywordkeg.com can help you come up with optimized keywords.

To check your tags before posting, read over the tags while covering up the title and content of your video. Ask yourself if you would be able to know what your video was about. If not, go back and edit your tags to apply to your video more closely.

Content marketing matters for growing your B2B company’s connections, traffic, and overall reach. For more information and specific marketing strategies for your company, contact us at RedMoxy.