Original subtitles

- In this video, I'm gonna show you my five-step process

for ranking number one in YouTube.

I recently used this exact method to rank in the top three

in YouTube for the keyword SEO.

I'm Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko,

the place where marketers turn for high rankings

and more traffic.

And today, you're gonna learn the five most influential

video SEO ranking factors to get your videos

to the top of YouTube fast.

Keep watching.

A few years ago, my YouTube channel was struggling.

I consistently created high quality videos

that provided a ton of value.

But when I published my videos, crickets.

(cricket sounds)

Needless to say, I was frustrated.

I knew that video was a powerful way

to grow my online business,

but I learned the hard way that video only works

if people actually watch your videos.

And no, your mom watching your videos doesn't count.

Trust me.

Hey mom, I just published a new video on YouTube.

Can you watch it for me?

Thanks mom, you're the best.

Flash forward to today and my videos consistently get

tens of thousands of views

and hundreds of people subscribe to my channel

every single month.

My secret?

I learned everything I could about video SEO.

Unfortunately, most of the advice that I initially read

about ranking in YouTube didn't work.

You know the advice I'm talking about.

Put your keyword in your video description.

Put keywords in your video filename.

Write 20 tags for every video.

Sure this stuff can help,

but it's not gonna rocket your video

to the top of Google or YouTube.

Why?

Because everyone on YouTube is doing the exact same thing.

After trying all the generic advice that I read

and getting nowhere,

I decided to run a bunch of experiments

and that's when I learned what really works.

Specifically, I discovered YouTube's

five most important ranking factors

and these are ranking factors

that very few people know about.

Once I applied these ranking factors to my videos,

my rankings shot to the roof.

I started ranking for super competitive keywords

like SEO, link building, how to get traffic and more.

And now it's time for me to share

these five ranking factors with you

and show you exactly how to use them

to rank your videos in YouTube.

Let's start with step number one

which is to create and publish long videos.

You may have noticed that longer videos

tend to perform better in YouTube.

Why?

Well, YouTube's most important ranking factor

is your video's total watch time.

As you probably know, the more of your video people watch,

the better it tends to rank.

That's called audience retention

which is an important ranking factor.

Even though audience retention is important,

it's not nearly as important as your video's

total watch time.

That's because YouTube wants to promote videos

that keep people on YouTube for a long period of time.

So the more total minutes people watch of your video,

the more YouTube will wanna rank it in the search results.

For example, let's say that you just published

two different videos.

Video one is two minutes long

and video two is 10 minutes long.

And let's say that each video gets 1,000 views

and the audience retention for both videos

is exactly the same, 50%.

That means that on average, people watch half of your video.

The total watch time for the two-minute video

would be 1,000 minutes.

But for the longer video,

that video's watch time will be 5,000 minutes.

That means that video number two will have five times

the watch time of video number one,

which means that it'll likely outrank video number one.

That's the power of publishing longer videos.

In fact, my video that ranks in the top three for SEO

is nearly 10 minutes which is significantly longer

than most videos on YouTube.

Because it's longer,

my video accumulates more total watch time

than my competitors.

And I'm able to rank above videos

with significantly more views than mine.

Okay, let's move on to step number two

which is to master the hook.

As I said, longer videos tend to rank better

because they accumulate more total watch time.

But there's one big problem with this approach.

You have to keep someone's attention on the internet.

Fortunately, my experiments have taught me

that if you can hook someone

in the first 15 seconds of your video,

you've hooked them for good.

In fact, YouTube recommends that you focus

on the first 15 seconds of your video

to maximize watch time.

The question is, how do you hook people

in the first 15 seconds of your video?

Start your video off with the PPP formula.

The PPP stands for Preview, Proof, Preview.

Here's exactly how it works.

First, preview what your video is all about.

When I first started creating videos,

my intros would go on and on about

why my video's topic was important

and these long-winded intros would make people click away.

Today, I cut out the fluff

and tell them exactly what to expect.

For example, let's say that your video outlines

10 paleo diet tips.

You wanna start off your video saying,

"In this video, you're gonna learn

"10 of my favorite paleo diet tips."

That's it.

Next, it's time for the proof.

Here is proof that you can deliver.

You can mention that you've already accomplished

what the viewer wants,

that you have lots of experience in your field

or that you've researched a ton about your topic.

For example, you could say,

"These are the same tips I used

"to gain five pounds of muscle in 60 days."

Finally, hit them with the preview again.

Here's where you reiterate what your video is about.

Now you obviously don't wanna just repeat

what you said in the beginning.

Instead, mention something specific from your video.

You can mention the number of tips,

a detail from a case study

or that you're gonna share something completely new.

This will make your viewers curious

and want to keep watching.

For example, you could say,

"And today, you're gonna learn about the so-called

"healthy paleo diet food that's actually bad for you."

Next up, we have putting your exact keyword in your title.

There's no question that Google and YouTube

are getting smarter everyday,

which means the days of keyword stuff in your video

to the top of YouTube are long gone.

That said, Google and YouTube both use your video's title

to understand what your video is all about

so make sure to include your exact keyword once

in your title, preferably in the beginning of your title.

For example, I created a video that I wanted to rank

for the keyword link building

so I made sure to include my exact keyword link building

in the beginning of the title

and that helped it rank in the top three

for my target keyword.

Okay, now it's time for ranking factor number four

which is to say your keyword in your video.

When I first got started with video SEO,

I'd go back to old videos and optimize them around keywords

that I wanted to rank for and it very rarely works.

That's because Google and YouTube

can now listen to your videos

even without a transcript.

For example, let's say that just published a video

about healthy desserts.

Then a few weeks later,

you realized that the keyword healthy desserts

is too competitive.

So you go back and optimize it around a different keyword

like low carb desserts.

Now this sounds smart,

but it's something that doesn't work as well as it used to.

Why?

Even though the keyword low carb desserts

may be in your title, description and tags,

you never said that keyword once in the video.

YouTube knows this and it looks fishy.

To YouTube, your video is about healthy desserts,

but all of your on-page metadata says

it's about low carb desserts

so they won't rank you for either keyword.

That's why I always make sure to actually

say my target keyword in every video.

For example, in my video about SEO,

I made sure to say the word SEO a few times.

Simple yet effective.

Last up, we have user interaction signals.

YouTube wants to see that people are actually

interacting with your video.

The more people watch, like, subscribe

and comment on your video,

the higher your video will rank in YouTube search results.

Now the strategies that I've showed you so far

will help you naturally get more

of these user interaction signals.

But there are two simple tactics that I use on every video

to increase my video's user interaction signals.

First, I add an annotation that asks people

to like my video.

After a lot of experimenting,

I have found that this simple annotation

significantly boosts the number of likes

that my videos receive.

At the end of my video,

I also ask people to subscribe and comment,

which also increases the amount of my videos'

user interaction signals.

I was originally gonna end the video right here,

but I decided to throw in a quick bonus tip for you

which is to optimize for click-through rate.

When someone searches for something in YouTube,

YouTube pays very close attention

to what video they click on.

For example, let's say you rank number five

for your target keyword.

As you probably know,

videos ranking number one through four

get the vast majority of clicks.

But for some reason,

lots of people are clicking on your video

in the search results.

What do you think YouTube will think about your video?

That it's a great result for that keyword

and they'll give your video a rankings boost

to make it easier for people to find.

So how do you maximize your click-through rate?

Well, YouTube displays three main pieces of information

in the search results, your title, your thumbnail

and a snippet of your description.

Here's how to quickly optimize all three

for click-through rate.

The key with your thumbnail is simply that it stands out.

That means that you wanna create a custom thumbnail

that looks different than the other videos

that are on the first page.

For example, my video has a completely different design

and color scheme than my competition.

For your title, like I mentioned before,

you wanna include your target keyword once.

Other than that, your goal with your title

should be to maximize your click-through rate.

As you can see,

my video title is emotionally compelling.

I also include the current year

so people know that the content is still relevant.

Finally, you wanna write something compelling

in the first few lines of your description.

Most people put a link to their website or channel here

and it's a huge mistake.

Nothing looks less enticing to click on

than a link to someone's website.

Instead, write a sentence or two

that includes your target keyword in a compelling way.

For example, in my SEO video my first sentence is,

"If you wanna rank in Google today,

"there's a new SEO ranking factor to pay attention to."

And this attention-grabbing line gets more people

to click on my result.

If you liked this video,

make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel right now.

Just click on the subscribe button right here.

Also, if you want exclusive SEO and traffic techniques

that I only share with subscribers,

head over to backlinko.com and sign up for the newsletter.

It's free.

Now I wanna turn it over to you.

Which of the five ranking signals from this video

are you gonna try first?

Are you gonna try to create longer videos

or maybe you're gonna start optimizing your videos

for click-through rate?

Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

Okay, the stage is yours.

All right, I'll do it for real this time.

Yeah, very, very slight.

Do it like what up?

I don't know.

PPP.

Your thumbnail.