Ranking videos in Google and ranking videos in YouTube is a completely different process.
And while YouTube is a lot easier and Google does take a little bit more time, if you can get your videos ranked on Google, then you can take advantage of some massive amounts of traffic.
So let’s get to it.
Ranking Videos in Google
So before we actually go through some tips, I’d like to give you a little bit of proof and explain a couple of things.
Always check your results in Incognito mode
If you go to Google regularly, when you’re logged in and you type in a keyword, you’re going to see skewed results and your content will always be placed higher.
So in this particular example, I’ve typed in Content Samurai review.
This is a software and as I have the word review, this is what’s called a buyer keyword.
Now buyer keywords do get a lot less search volume than how to phrases.
However, people that are searching for buyer keywords, product name review, where can I buy so-and-so, they’re in the buying mindset.
They just want to learn a little bit more information.
So if you can rank highly for these particular evergreen products, it’s really great.
I mean, this particular video gets me approximately four figures every single month.
So it’s great that I can rank number one on Google for this particular keyword.
The Google carousel.
Now as you can see, in this example I am at the top with a few other videos:
This is what’s called the Google carousel.
Now there’s no 100% method to get into this carousel, but that is the goal.
And of course, if you are at the front or the top, that’s even better.
But as the word carousel suggests, it does go around and around, and occasionally you can be number one and the next day you could be number three and then number two.
And sometimes you may flip onto this section as well.
But if you can get into the carousel, you’ve done a good job, preferably within the first three spots.
The key point here is if you’re ranking in the first three, that your thumbnail image, the still graphic that you see, stands out.
That’s really, really important.
And sometimes there’ll be no videos at all.
For a lot of local keywords, it can be very tough to rank your videos on the top of Google because they prefer to rank articles or GMBs and that kind of stuff.
So make sure that you’re going after a keyword and that videos are already on the front page.
It will make life easier.
Google Vs YouTube Ranking
Now ranking on Google and ranking on YouTube is a completely different ball game.
I’m going to kind of give you an overview of the things that you need to consider.
So the first thing here is topic authority, and it works very similar to a website.
Topic Authority
If I was to go and buy a brand new domain and try and rank my articles for things related to the keto diet or how to play the piano, my new domain would not have any authority.
So it’d be very, very difficult, if I compared myself to a domain that had been online for five years, that had a ton of articles, a lot of fans, subscribers and all of that stuff.
They would have authority and I wouldn’t.
So I couldn’t really rank my articles right away.
With videos, you’ve got to approach it in the same aspect.
If I’ve got a brand new channel and I want to start ranking my videos for iPhone reviews, I’m not going to be able to do that.
So what I need to do is do my keyword research strategically.
Here is a simple video on how to get going:
You need to identify keywords that don’t have that much competition within your niche, and then start creating videos on those topics, because they’re going to be a lot easier to rank.
So let’s imagine this is your YouTube channel and your channel is all about how to lose weight.
Now, how to lose weight is very generic.
So you may want to have subcategories.
So for example:
- how to lose weight for women over 40,
- how to lose weight after giving birth
- Etc…
And then from here, you drill down more and more.
For KW that are long tail with little competition, start making videos about them.
And you could end up making five, 10, 15, 20+ videos all under the umbrella of how to lose fat on your thighs, or how to lose upper arm fat, or how to lose belly fat.
You may not rank for the term, how to lose belly fat, but you can rank for the smaller terms.
Granted, they do get much less search volume, but this is where you start.
And over time with consistency, with channel growth, with channel optimization, you will eventually be able to rank for harder keywords.
But what everybody does is they try to rank for these keywords right away and then wonder why they can’t.
You need to be consistent when it comes to your uploads as well.
And I’m not saying you have to upload a video every single day, but when you look up your authority channels, they’ve been doing this for a long, long time, often several years, and they have hundreds, if not thousands, of videos.
Now don’t let that disappoint you, but just look at the work they’ve put in, and then don’t expect that you can get the same results when you upload, five videos and that’s it.
Optimized for Google
You need to make sure that your videos are optimized for Google as well.
So for example, Google can read certain things, but you need to make sure that your description is longer than it would be for a YouTube video.
You want to make sure that if you are speaking about things on your video, that you also visualize that in your video as well.
So if I’m saying, for example, then lie on a yoga mat and do this pose, I want to visually show it on the video as well.
There’s got to be that kind of consistency.
Structure, your videos like a recipe.
- Step one
- Step two
- Step three
Talk about it in the video, show it in the video, but also have it in the description as well.
Have your long description written out as well.
Timestamps and Chapters
Also include things such as timestamps and chapters.
So let me give you an example of that.
Here is a video which shows you how to create these YouTube chapters.
Timestamps are important, but YouTube chapters are an improvement on timestamps.
They’re designed to give a better viewer experience, but they also organize your video in a better way.
And because they’re in the description, they tell YouTube more what your video is about.
In the long term, will aid your videos ranking on Google.
Captions
Adding closed captions is a really important thing that you want to do.
Rev.com is a great service that will not only create an .SRT file of captions, but automatically add them to your YouTube video.
Post Upload Tips
As soon as you upload your video to YouTube and it’s published, make sure that people find out about it.
If you’ve got a small channel with no fans, that can be tricky.
So share it on social media, ask friends to watch it, share it to your email list and embed it on your websites.
I have a software called Embedinate, which automates the embedding process.
So you can embed your video to 14 authority places in a couple of clicks.
And it’s just a huge time-saver.
You should take advantage of Quora and Reddit as well.
Answer questions on Quora, answer questions on Reddit, and link to your video.
Just be sure to have some credibility on Reddit first.
If you can get that stuff down consistently over time, you will see that your videos will begin to rank on Google and they will gradually get into the carousel.
And once you’re ranking on Google, you can get a ton of traffic.
Now, certain keywords, you get more traffic on YouTube because people want to see things. Certain keywords, you get more traffic on Google.
Of course, generally speaking, Google is bigger than YouTube, but you can get traffic for both.
If you just want to focus on YouTube ranking, a lot of the stuff I’ve spoken about is not relevant.
But to rank on Google, use the tips on this page.
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