Free YouTube Monetization Course – Lesson 12
If you do a short search about SEO on Google and YouTube, you can find hundreds of articles and videos. However, the vast majority of these articles and videos do not fully explain how the system works. In this lesson, I will explain to you how the system works and what you need to pay attention to.
What is YouTube SEO?
What is SEO? First, let’s look at the answer to this question. SEO is an abbreviation for “Search Engine Optimization“. So which search engines are mentioned here? Almost all search engines operating on the internet are meant. In other words, if you do an SEO study for your YouTube video, you will have done SEO work not only for the YouTube search engine but also for other search systems. As an example, I can list the following search systems:
- Yandex
- Bing
- Yahoo
There are some websites that are not generally search engines, but they have an internal search system within the site. The YouTube SEO work you do can also appear in the search systems within such sites. The main issue is that the user searches for the keyword related to your video.
How does YouTube SEO work?
In general, SEO works partially based on keywords, whether on YouTube, on websites, or on social networks. The reason I say partially is that keywords alone are not sufficient for SEO work. However, the basic quality of SEO work starts with the keyword research you will do. In our lesson called keyword research for YouTube videos, you will learn everything about keyword research. By using the right keywords, you can stand out in searches. So what are keywords and what are they necessary for? In order to understand the answer to this question more clearly, we should look at how the algorithm generally works.
When you enter YouTube, you see a pleasant interface. Videos everywhere, like button, subscribe button, video share button, and dozens of similar options make up the YouTube interface. In order to learn how YouTube SEO works, we also need to see the back side of this interface. In other words, we need to see a world full of codes and bots. Behind this pleasant interface, hundreds, thousands of bots work. Each of these bots has its own task. Before traveling into the world of bots, let me explain some factors that are important for SEO so that there are no dark points left in your mind about how SEO works.
There is a small difference between SEO in YouTube videos and SEO used on websites. Since the subject of this lesson is YouTube SEO, I will explain it through YouTube.
Let’s assume that you have a YouTube channel and you uploaded a video to this channel. Before sharing the video, some operations must be performed for the video in YouTube Studio. The order of these operations is as follows:
- Writing a title for the video (Video name)
- Writing an about text for the video (Description)
- Using hashtags (#hashtag)
- Writing tags
- Selecting the video language
- Selecting the video category
Let’s be satisfied with these 6 segments for now. However, YouTube SEO does not end with these 6 segments. I will give information about the others later. Each of these 6 segments explains to the bots what the video is about and who it is for. Let’s assume that the video you uploaded to your YouTube channel is a cooking recipe. After you upload the video and complete the 6 segments mentioned above, the process in the world of bots progresses as follows:
- The first bot comes and asks: What is this?
Answer: This is a cooking recipe. (This became the title)
- The second bot comes and asks: What is this?
Answer: This is a cooking recipe. This dish contains the following ingredients. (This became the video description)
- The third bot comes and asks: What is this?
Answer: This is a #cookingrecipe. (This became the hashtag)
- The fourth bot comes and asks: What is this?
Answer: This is a cooking recipe. (This became the tag)
In this way, bots scan the relevant video and learn what it is about. I only gave 4 bot examples here. However, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of bots. Each one performs a different task. Each bot transfers the information it collects to the database. Here, not only YouTube bots but also the bots of the search systems I mentioned above work. The main purpose of the bots is to fully learn what the video is about. The next process proceeds as follows:
- The user searches by typing “cooking recipe” in the search system.
- Bots check this keyword in the database and show the videos that match this keyword to the user.
- The user selects one of the videos shown and watches it.
As can be seen from here, in order to rank higher in searches, you must first give detailed information about your video to the bots. When the user searches for a video, the bots decide what to watch first, and then the user decides.
Two of the 6 segments mentioned above were “Video language and video category.” Now let’s examine these two segments.
Why should we select the YouTube video language?
Here, both the video language option and the language option in the video title and description are very important. Bots index such information along with keywords. When the user searches, bots consider not only keyword matching but also which language the user watches videos in. If you do not use any spoken language in your video, the language option in the video title and video description can be a key for your video to go global. Because YouTube technology translates your video title and description text into different languages in different countries through this option. Whichever language the user uses YouTube in, the majority of the videos shown to them are also in that language. Sometimes we can see the title of a foreign video in our own language. The reason for this is the correct use of language options.
Why should we select the YouTube video category?
Keywords and video language determine what a user is searching for and in which language they are searching. The video category is one of the factors that determine the user’s area of interest. The YouTube algorithm further improves the user experience by collecting users’ interests and other information related to the user. Behind this improvement is the learning technology of machines (bots) belonging to Google. Since machine learning technology is a very broad topic, I will talk about this subject in another article. Video category is a part of this technology. Thanks to this technology, bots recognize users and predict what they like and what they do not like. To see this clearly, log in to YouTube from three different devices belonging to three different people. The videos displayed on the YouTube homepage on each person’s device will be on different topics. Because the interests of these three people are completely different.
Lesson summary
The full order of the system explained in this lesson is as follows:
- You upload a video to YouTube.
- You enter all the necessary information about the video.
- Bots index your video.
- The user searches for a video by typing a keyword.
- Bots determine whether your video is suitable for this search according to this keyword and the other information you entered.
- If your video is suitable for this search, it appears in the search results.
- Your video is watched by the user.
If you keep this order in mind and fully understand how the system works, you can stand out very easily in YouTube searches. However, do not forget that these listed sequences are for the system to discover your video. For your videos to become popular, you must consider the viewers. In other words, you must influence not only the bots but also the viewers. You can do this with quality content.
