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YouTube is the second largest search engine and is used to share tens of thousands of news stories and interviews daily. Have you ever thought how a video gets viewed on YouTube, or let us say how does it get ‘ranked’ on Youtube for the people to view it? So, if a video has over 40,000 views, but with no comments will be ranked high? Or, a video with only 10,000 likes but favorited many times will be ranked higher? Or how about a video that has over 200 inbound links? So on and so forth. What really counts (factors, per say) in determing the ranking of YouTube videos?

Needless to say, there are lists of factors that are essential in optimizing videos for YouTube. So, how to achieve higher rankings on YouTube? This is the question we’ll be discussing in the post. Just as Google, YouTube follows its own way of ranking videos. This may sound weird as Google owns YouTube. Here we will cover 12 techiniques that will be categorized under 2 broad categories. They are namely- Content and Engagement.

Firstly, in part-one of this post, we will talk about the first six ranking factors that fall under the category of Content.

So, now here you are done with the content part of the video. That’s is, a great title in place, an awesome description, easy to index transcription and almost all the important tags and keywords used. So, now what? Other people can also do the same? What is it that will take your video to the next level? The second part is creating awesome Engagement. This is the most important area that people tend to miss out on. Following are the six key factors, in the engagement section, that really plays a major role in YouTube ranking:

Now, a video will amazing content will get natural links. Good videos usually go viral by word-of-mouth. They will be shared by people on social media and on the blog( so that people know about your video, and link it back) . This will surely get you natural links to your YouTube channels and videos, per say. In all of your profile links (in your emails, for example) , have your YouTube channel in the bottom. Even when doing a press release, you should have your YouTube channel there. Your website should be linked to your channel.

On the other hand, Google and YouTube is also looking for video responses, which is a lot harder to get. So, how do you get somebody to make a video in response to your video? That’s a pretty tall tale, but it also is a huge ranking factor. Because if someone’s willing to do that, then, it is obvious that your video made a lot of sense ot them . But there are ways to get it done. Ask a friend or somebody else you know to make a video in response to yours. Get in front of their webcam on their laptop and record a quick video response that says, here’s what I really liked about this video, or this is how I feel. Upload it to their own YouTube channel, share it, and respond to the video and put it as a video response. That’s going to be a huge factor for you in terms of ranking.

In a Nutshell,
On the whole, when it comes down to content and engagement, there is actually an internal page rank system inside of Google and YouTube that causes the rankings to fluctuate. That is why link building and inbound links work. When someone shares your video on their channel, they are passing page rank to your video. When someone makes a video in response to your video, they are passing page rank and authority to your channel and to your video. So this makes sure you are engaging with the YouTube community. And, if you are going to show in their feed, then again the page rank will be passed to you. And a great page rank means you have an awesome content and user- engagement in place for your YouTube Channel and Video. Watch the following video from seomoz’s Whiteboard Friday, to understand better.

Let us know if these factors have helped you to rank well on YouTube. Also, feel free to add to this basket of factors. Till then have a great week ahead.

About The Author

Dave Thompson works at AgencyPlatform.com, a White Label Software + Services provider for online marketing agencies.

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