If you’ve read my last few articles, you now know how to capture and upload video and how to create a YouTube channel for your business. But how can you help people find your videos within YouTube? The answer is to deploy a keyword strategy. By attaching the right keywords to your videos when you upload them, you’re increasing the chances that someone who is looking for your type of products or services will find you.
But what keywords should you choose?
In 2008, YouTube released the Keyword Tool, which uses either a description of the video topic or the actual YouTube video ID or URL to help determine what keywords your target audience is using to find videos similar to yours. Even better, the tool is pretty simple and straightforward to use.
The opening screen of the Keyword Tool asks you to select a language, then offers two ways to generate keyword ideas. One way is to enter a descriptive word or phrase. If you also click the box labeled “Don’t show ideas for new keywords,” then YouTube will display monthly search volume for just those words (see screenshot below). If you leave that box unchecked, YouTube will also display search volume for a list of related words.
The other way to explore keywords is to select “YouTube video id or url,” then enter the address of the video for which you want to generate keywords (see screenshot below). YouTube then displays monthly search data for suggested keywords that are appropriate for that video.
By looking at the lists, you can see which keywords are used most frequently in search and you can choose the ones you want to use in your video descriptions and URLs. If you have any questions or need additional information, please leave a comment below.
—Chris Marentis is founder and CEO of Surefire Social, an Internet marketing company.
