One of the best ways to reach your audience is if you rank higher on YouTube search results. If you want your content to rank higher on YouTube search results or suggested, you can implement certain strategies to ensure that the YouTube algorithm picks your videos. YouTube Analytics makes your work easier by providing you with reliable data to optimise your videos. 

Contents

​

In this blog post, we will be discussing how you can leverage YouTube Analytics to optimise your videos and grow your audience. 

What Is YouTube SEO

YouTube SEO is the process of optimising your videos and channel so that YouTube recommends it when the user makes a specific query. When you optimise your content, your videos will rank higher in the user’s search results or suggested videos leading to increased visibility and engagement. 


Ranking on YouTube depends on several factors including:-

  • Video features like length, tags and descriptions.

  • Audience engagement like watch time and click through rate.

  • Growth of your channel like views and subscribers. 


By considering these factors when improving your content for YouTube, you are sure to see significant developments in your ranking. 

What Helps Your Videos To Rank On YouTube

YouTube tracks the performance of your videos and decides if your content will answer the queries a user might have. There are several metrics that YouTube analyses to determine your rank including:

  • Watch Time:

Watch time refers to the amount of time viewers spend watching your videos. YouTube's algorithm favours videos with higher watch time, because it means that the content is valuable and engaging enough to keep the user engaged. However a short watch time means your content is not engaging enough, so YouTube will probably not suggest your videos. 

  • Audience Retention: 

Audience retention measures how well your videos are retaining the attention of the audience. A good way to think about this is, how long till the audience of your video gets bored and clicks on something else. The longer they stay on the video, the higher the audience retention is. 

Videos with higher audience retention are more likely to rank higher in search results because they indicate that viewers find the content interesting and engaging.

  • Click-Through Rate: 

Click-through rate (CTR) measures how often viewers click on your video when it appears in search results or suggested videos. Videos with higher CTRs are more likely to rank higher in search results because they indicate that viewers are attracted to your content and its metadata like titles, tags, thumbnails etc. 

  • Metadata:

Metadata, including video title, description, tags, and subtitles, can have an effect on your video's ranking on YouTube. YouTube uses metadata to understand the content of your video and match it to relevant search queries.

How Can Youtube Analytics Help In SEO 

YouTube Analytics gives you access to data in the form of metrics that can be analysed to optimise your content:-

  • Keywords: 

The Keywords metric shows the top search terms that viewers are using to find your videos. By analysing this data, you can gain insights on the  audience behaviour and see which keywords are driving traffic to your channel. 


Analysing your keywords can help you to come up with relevant tags, descriptions or titles for your videos. You can customise according to your keywords, and allow bigger audiences to find your videos. 


For example if your niche is fitness and wellness videos, you can optimise your videos for popular search terms like "fat burning workout," “cardio workout” or "yoga for beginners," and grow your audience. 

  • Traffic sources:

 In YouTube Analytics, you can see where your traffic is coming from, whether it's from search results, suggested videos, or external sources. If most of your traffic is coming from YouTube search, it's important to optimise your videos with relevant keywords, tags, and descriptions to improve your visibility in search results. 


If your videos are being suggested to viewers based on their viewing history or interests, it's important to optimise your content by making engaging thumbnails, using tags or relevant titles to attract more clicks. 

  • Audience retention: 

Audience retention metric tracks how well different parts of video is able hold the viewer’s attention. If your audience retention is low, it may be an indication that your video content needs to be improved to make it more interesting for the viewers. Audience retention is a good indicator of the quality of your video. 


If you tend to create longer videos, you should incorporate elements that hook your viewers to stay till the end of the video.

  • Watch time:

 Watch time is the amount of time viewers spend watching your videos. It is a key factor in YouTube's algorithm for ranking videos in search results and suggested videos. The longer viewers watch your channel’s videos, the more likely the algorithm ranks your videos. 


By creating high-quality videos that capture viewers' attention and keep them engaged, you can increase the watch time on your videos and improve your rankings on the platform. For example, using storytelling techniques, and engaging visuals encourage viewers to watch the videos completely. 

  • Impressions and Click-through Rate:

Impressions refer to the number of times a video thumbnail is shown to viewers on the platform and Click-through Rate measures the percentage of viewers who click on the thumbnail to watch the video.


Engaging video thumbnails attract viewers and analysing these metrics will tell you if your visuals are compelling for the audience. Impressions and CTR also help you effectively optimise your video titles and descriptions so that your viewers are sure to click on it.  Experimenting with different video formats and styles is a good strategy for SEO. 

  • Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares are essential for SEO on YouTube. By analysing your engagement metrics, you can see how your viewers are interacting with your videos. Is it getting more likes? Are more people sharing it? Does it have a lot of comments? 


All of these questions help you decide on your content strategy. 


Some YouTuber Approved SEO Tips To Effectively Optimise Your Content

Now that you know what metrics to keep track of for SEO, here are tips to apply this data for improving your content:- 


  • Find target keywords from your niche and use them for your video titles and descriptions. 

  • Look for trending tags from your niche to add to your content descriptions. 

  • Viewers are more likely to watch videos with captions and time stamps. 

  • Experiment with custom thumbnails to see what attracts your audience. 

  • Use YouTube playlists to categorise your videos.

  • Try adding End Screens to grow your channel’s audience. 

Why should you optimise your content for YouTube

Optimising videos for YouTube is worth the effort because it can help you reach a wider audience, increase visibility, and ultimately succeed on the platform. Businesses across various industries can be benefitted by marketing on YouTube and using Analytics to optimise their content. 

For example, if your niche is educational tutorials, you can optimise your titles, tags and description using words like “learn online”, “tutorials,” “online course” etc. This can attract more viewers and increase your chances of appearing in search results. 

Once your videos are optimised for SEO, they will continue to drive traffic for a long time. This can provide long-term benefits and a strong return on investment for your business.

 Hence, leveraging the power of YouTube analytics to optimise your videos for SEO is a game-changer for anyone looking to succeed on YouTube. With the right strategy for SEO and high quality content, you can build a powerful presence on the platform.