YouTube SEO Study: Insights & Data to Help You Rank Higher

It’s beauteous awesome to spot thing that started arsenic a video-dating website go the second most-used hunt engine (and website) aft Google, with much than 2 billion monthly progressive users.

Today, YouTube is much than conscionable a video level for casual amusement and euphony videos — it is simply a full-fledged hunt motor of its own. Just see however pandemic-inspired shifts connected YouTube align with our erstwhile findings for Google:

• In March 2020, YouTube searches for videos that had “home office” successful the rubric grew by a whopping 210%, “home workout” views surged by 515%, and videos featuring doing thing “at home” got 700% much regular uploads.
• These request patterns are identical to what we uncovered successful our studies that assessed the pandemic interaction on Google searches: Home Decor and Sports & Outdoors were the fastest-growing ecommerce categories backmost successful 2020.

And if YouTube is simply a hunt engine, determination are ranking algorithms that impact videos’ integrated visibility.

Together with Tubics, developer spouse of Semrush App Center, we’ve tally extended research, studying galore antithetic variables, to unwrap YouTube’s ranking algo and limb you with cardinal takeaways and actionable tips to perchance get your videos ranking astatine presumption one!

YouTube SEO Study: Key Takeaways

Below, we volition get into the nitty-gritty of YouTube SEO, but present is simply a sneak peek into the important discoveries from our study:

• More than fractional of the videos that ranked astatine the archetypal presumption person much than 50 words successful the description.
• 52% of videos ranking for “how-to” keywords person much than 100 words successful the descriptions, portion for the wide sample, it’s lone 31%.
• 52% of videos ranking for “how-to” keywords are longer than 5 minutes, portion for the wide sample, it’s lone 33%.
• Only 8% of videos with timestamps fertile astatine the archetypal position.
• 55% of videos person a lucifer ratio betwixt rubric and keyword adjacent to 1.
• Title similarity with keyword ratio, fig of views, and video duration are the astir important parameters, according to the Machine Learning exemplary we utilized for this research.

What Is YouTube SEO?

Before we instrumentality a heavy dive into the study, we should item that YouTube SEO is simply a spot antithetic from regular SEO and video creators truly request to recognize the algorithm to look precocious successful hunt results.

YouTube’s ranking decisions are mostly based connected the pursuing factors: 

• Channel maturation dynamics (number of subscribers and views);
• Engagement signals (likes, dislikes, comments); 
• Video features (video length, metadata, descriptions, etc.).

We’ve analyzed each adaptable to uncover data-driven insights that volition assistance successful getting your videos the champion visibility connected YouTube.

Study Methodology

We pulled 15,000 keywords from our Google Keywords Database, which triggered a Featured Video effect connected the SERP. Then we took a look astatine YouTube’s apical 10 hunt results for each of these keywords to cheque however antithetic video features impact their positions successful YouTube search. Based connected this data, we gathered a wide scope of metrics to measure which of them impact videos’ performance. 

Among different things, we’ve analyzed the show of “how-to” keywords versus wide keywords, the hunt positioning of videos based connected their engagement metrics (likes, comments, views), and a video’s cardinal elements (description, title, tags). 

We utilized median values alternatively of mean values to comparison metrics for antithetic positions since they are much resistant to outliers.

Machine Learning Model

We utilized a Machine Learning exemplary to place what features of a YouTube video were astir important for ranking. By utilizing determination histrion models, we identified that rubric similarity with keyword ratio, the fig of views and video duration were the astir important factors for this model.

Alongside these metrics, we tracked non-engagement-related metrics (title length, tag similarity ratio, statement length), which showed an interaction connected rankings arsenic well.

To comparison hunt terms, titles, descriptions, and tags, we utilized the Levenshtein Distance Similarity Partial Ratio. This metric has values from 0 to 1, wherever 0 means keywords are wholly different, and 1 means keywords are a match. 

Dissecting YouTube’s Ranking Algo 

Exploring the apical 10 results for the analyzed keywords, we were capable to pinpoint immoderate wide patterns crossed the cardinal factors affecting videos’ visibility connected YouTube.

Let’s instrumentality a look astatine things that signifier YouTube’s unsocial ranking algo. 

When It Comes to YouTube SEO, Do Growth Dynamics Matter?

Subscribers

Our information shows that astir of the results successful a YouTube hunt travel from the channels with the largest fig of subscribers. However, 18% of videos were featured connected channels that person little than 1,000 subscribers. This means that adjacent tiny channels tin find themselves among the apical 10 hunt results.

For example, erstwhile searching for the keywords “how to use thermal paste” oregon “most annoying dependable successful the world,” we tin spot that smaller channels instrumentality the fig 1 position. Below we tin spot that Tech Illiterate with 6.43K subscribers outranks Linus Tech Tips with 13.7M. 

If we wanted to explicate why, we could instantly pinpoint that Tech Illiterate has a little stock of dislikes and a much elaborate video description. But bash those factors truly substance and person a ranking impact? Keep reading.

Tip: When trying to fertile for keywords, don’t absorption connected your competition. Don’t interest astir getting millions of subscribers, though it helps. Focus connected creating engaging, high-quality content. The bully stats and followers volition come.

Views

The mean fig of views for a YouTube video sitting successful the 2nd presumption is 74% little than the mean fig of views for a video successful the archetypal spot.

The causation tin beryllium reversed, however. The archetypal video connected the database is simply much apt to beryllium viewed. So this whitethorn beryllium much of a chickenhearted and ovum matter. 

But there’s 1 view-related origin that surely impacts rankings. YouTube estimates the ticker time for each video for each keyword, truthful it volition suggest the ones that are much apt to beryllium viewed till the end.

If you hunt for “baking tips,” you volition find a large quality successful the fig of views betwixt the archetypal presumption video from Scrumdiddlyumptious astatine 3.9M and the second-place video from Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person astatine lone 446K views. The archetypal video is 9X shorter, truthful chances are, it has amended chances of being viewed till the precise end.

Tip: Don’t hold astir for YouTube’s ranking algo to footwear in. Actively beforehand your video and stock it crossed aggregate channels erstwhile it’s caller retired of the oven, to guarantee much aboriginal traction and scope a broader audience. 

Assessing How Engagement Metrics Affect YouTube Rankings

YouTube has publically said that it encourages creatives to interact with their assemblage to maximize engagement and assistance with ranking.

While we could instrumentality YouTube’s connection for it, we decided to spot to what grade engagement affects video rankings and how.

Likes

The mean fig of likes for the 2nd presumption connected YouTube’s hunt results is 72% little than the mean fig of likes for the archetypal position. 

This information is reflected successful the supra example, wherever Scrumdiddlyumptious’ video got doubly the fig of likes than that of Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person (24K vs. 12K likes).

The quality betwixt the archetypal presumption and the different positions is rather dramatic. But this penetration whitethorn person a akin chicken-egg connotation. 

Higher-ranking videos get much views and frankincense much likes and dislikes. The fig of likes correlates with the fig of views, with the correlation coefficient being 99%. 

Dislikes

The mean fig of dislikes for the 2nd presumption is 70% little than the mean fig of dislikes for the archetypal position. This shows the aforesaid logic arsenic with likes.

With comments, things are much straightforward. 

We spotted a shared correlation, that if a video received much views, it was much apt to get comments. This showed a correlation of 99.9%, wherever the median* fig of comments was 259.

Tip: Tired of proceeding “like the video and don’t hide to subscribe to my channel” portion watching YouTube? There’s a crushed the creators bash this. Encourage viewers to similar your video and permission comments with immoderate opinions oregon thoughts and get backmost to them wrong 24 oregon 48 hours to amusement spectator engagement. The comments and opinions of your followers tin thrust robust discussions; reactions to your video and to comments besides substance engagement. 

Video Features and Elements’ Impact On YouTube Rankings

From promotional efforts and engagement signals to transmission size and its maturation dynamics, what we discussed supra had to bash with the “external” factors affecting your videos’ ranking performance. 

The interior qualities of the video tin marque a large difference, too.

Video duration

A video’s magnitude tin play a relation erstwhile it comes to rankings. Our results amusement the organisation of video duration by percentages wherever 45% of videos successful our survey had a duration of 3 to 5 minutes, and 5% had a duration of little than 1 minute. It’s important to enactment that immoderate of the results (0.4%) are unrecorded streams, which person nary duration parameter.

The “go concise oregon spell elaborate” question stands earlier each creator. And information tin springiness america immoderate ballpark numbers.

Almost fractional of each videos making it to the apical 10 hunt results connected YouTube are 3-5-minutes long. The adjacent astir palmy video formats are either 1-3 oregon 5-10 minutes long.

If we instrumentality a dynamic presumption astatine video length, we’ll spot that the median video magnitude increases with the presumption of the video. However, the quality is not excessively dramatic.

While it looks similar 3-5-minute videos are the mode to go, the logical (and possibly right) reply would beryllium “it depends.” After all, users searching for “crunch exercise” and “The Sopranos” ending explained” expect antithetic levels of detail.

When doing a hunt for a “crunch exercise” connected YouTube, we typically get a enactment of videos that are connected the shorter extremity of the spectrum:

As for “The Sopranos’ ending explained,” we get much elaborate video pieces that really code the query, meaning they spell all-in connected clarifying the series’ finale:

Tip: Create videos that person the close equilibrium betwixt magnitude and quality. Have a bully intro and outro to support users engaged passim the full video. Use end-screens to supply a seamless spectator flow. 

Titles and descriptions

Our survey shows that erstwhile it comes to titles and descriptions, determination are 2 things to tackle:

• Word limit; and
• Keywords. 

54% of each the analyzed videos travel with an mean of 8 words successful their title. And looking astatine each the data, we tin spot that being overly wordy is not a fashionable maneuver among YouTubers.

You tin get much generous with video descriptions, though. They springiness some YouTube and users much discourse of what to expect successful a video, and arsenic we’ll spot further, connection much abstraction for keyword placement. 

31% of the top-performing videos diagnostic 11-30-word descriptions. But it seems similar you tin get much wordy here.

We recovered that the mean fig of words successful a statement was 107, and 17% of videos ranking for presumption 1 had astatine slightest 250 words successful the description.

Mentioning the keyword that your video is optimized astir volition let YouTube to easy recognize that your video addresses the user’s hunt term. 

Our survey shows that 30% of video descriptions had a similarity with keywords adjacent to 1, meaning that the main keyword was mentioned successful a video’s description. The mean statement similarity with a keyword was 0.42.

Tip: Our probe indicates that the apical videos person longer descriptions. Ensure that your statement accurately reflects the video’s contented truthful that users person a bully thought of what to expect. Typical header champion practices enactment for YouTube, too. Try including the main people keyword successful your video’s rubric without keyword stuffing. Add numbers to your rubric to entice viewers to click (e.g. ‘5 Ways to Change a Flat Tire’).

Number of links, hashtags, and tags successful the description

Our survey shows that the mean fig of links successful a video statement was 3.

Having references and links successful your video’s statement is simply a bully mode of driving viewers done their lawsuit travel by smoothly directing them to different videos connected your transmission oregon adjacent backmost to your website. 

When it comes to adding links to video descriptions, effort to see branded links (e.g., alternatively of bit.ly/xx, we’d usage semrush.com/xx) arsenic they perchance increase CTR by 39%.

YouTube Creator Academy has publically said in 1 of their articles that they counsel video creators to usage hashtags successful their descriptions. 

Our results amusement that 36% of videos ranking presumption 1 bash person them. Starting from presumption two, hashtag usage goes down to 24%.

Some YouTubers spell each successful and adhd arsenic galore hashtags arsenic possible. But YouTube volition lone show 3 hashtags, and if you usage much than 15, it volition simply disregard each of them. So it’s champion to enactment tenable and instrumentality to YouTube’s guidelines. 

Now let’s look astatine the interaction of YouTube Tags. 

Tags are not to beryllium confused with hashtags, which are displayed underneath a video. These are the hidden messages associated with a video, and it’s up to a creator to adhd them erstwhile uploading a video. 

Our survey shows top-ranking videos usage an mean of 13 tags. Their usage seems to person a choky correlation with rankings: videos with less tags thin to travel astatine little rankings.

Tags (as is the woody with our ‘regular’ metatags) should beryllium intimately intertwined with keywords arsenic this is an constituent meant for crawlers and not for humans. 

From our research, the mean tag similarity with keywords was 0.58, wherever 0 means keywords are wholly different, and 1 means keywords match.

Clearly, the person the lucifer betwixt tags and keywords, the higher the rankings.

Tip: Use links to different videos successful your statement if they’re relevant. When utilizing hashtags, see the keywords you person discovered with Semrush and your YouTube postulation root report. Finally, don’t spell overboard with the usage of tags. Use this Chrome extension to find retired each the tags connected a video. Brain Dean recommends having your archetypal tag arsenic your people keyword.

Timestamps

Timestamps let video creators to nexus to circumstantial “moments” of a video truthful viewers tin easy navigate to definite parts of a video. Timestamps adjacent look connected Google SERP with the video. 

Timestamps present provoke rather immoderate discussions among YouTubers, with immoderate reasoning that timestamps alteration the magnitude of viewership and others expecting an engagement increase.

Our survey shows that videos with timestamps marque up 8% of each videos that fertile for the archetypal position. 

We whitethorn infer that for hunt rankings, timestamps don’t marque overmuch of a difference. However, this illustration predominantly contains shorter videos that don’t typically diagnostic timestamps. For longer videos, they tin person expanding importance.

With “how-to” keywords, lone 4% of videos from our illustration person timestamps successful the description. This fig doesn’t alteration importantly with the position.

As for the “to adhd oregon not to add” question, since some ticker clip and engagement person adjacent value erstwhile it comes to YouTube SEO, it’s ever champion to experimentation successful this lawsuit and spot however your rankings and different metrics alteration with oregon without timestamps.

Tip: There is nary magic fig erstwhile it comes to timestamps, but don’t spell overboard. Make definite you database timestamps successful chronological bid (based connected the video's timeline) and support the timestamp statement to the constituent but descriptive.

Exploring YouTube SEO Specifics for “How-to” Keywords vs. Other Keywords

We analyzed 1,165 keywords that commencement with “how-to.” We chose “how-to” queries due to the fact that they usually correspond the acquisition intent and those videos people mostly find from searches. So our presumption was that hunt optimization should beryllium much important for them than for different keywords.

Here are the main differences from the wide results.

1. Video duration (in seconds)

For wide keywords, the median video duration was 16 minutes and 53 seconds, portion it was astatine 7 minutes and 57 seconds for “how-to” keywords. 

If the wide keywords’ top-performing videos were typically of an mean length, successful the “how-to” case, they are connected the longer extremity of the spectrum. 

2. Number of words successful the description

The mean fig of words successful a statement for wide keywords was 152 versus 107 words for “how-to” keywords. 

Using YouTube SEO Insights for Growing Our YouTube Channel

Over a twelvemonth ago, we began optimizing our ain videos connected the Semrush YouTube Channel. We launched the YouTube finetuning run to amended code users’ queries, arsenic good arsenic to amended our videos’ positions crossed YouTube’s hunt results. 

As a result, integrated postulation to our videos grew by 37%.

Here are immoderate of the quickest tweaks that brought the largest interaction to our rankings and wide channel’s performance: 

• Added agelong descriptions (at slightest 2,000 symbols, 400-600 words);
• Used timestamps and tags successful each the videos (in our case, timestamps did not impact ticker times and adjacent positively affected our idiosyncratic engagement stats);
• Added 2-3 main keywords successful video titles to fulfill hunt intent.

In this video, we uncover our proven YouTube SEO tips. 

Final Words

Now that you are equipped with data-driven insights from our YouTube SEO survey and adjacent person a heads up from our ain YouTube maturation experience, here’s a last checklist to spell done erstwhile you commencement your YouTube optimization journey:

1. When considering competition, don't fto their transmission size discourage you. With immoderate keywords, the fig of subscribers doesn't ever matter. Focus much connected creating a prime video that afloat addresses a user’s query.

2. Give your video the attraction it deserves by sharing it crossed aggregate societal media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Quora).

3. A bully YouTube transmission has beardown engagement metrics. Make definite the contented you upload entices users to prosecute by having a motivating intro and outro.

4. Get originative with your titles to promote users to click.

5. No substance what benignant of video you’re uploading, marque definite you person an elaborate and compelling description. 

6. Utilize the powerfulness of tags and hashtags and marque the astir of your channel’s insights. Leverage what you person implicit power of.

7. Take vantage of escaped tools and chrome extensions, specified arsenic Video Rank Tracker, TubeBuddy and vidIQ, that volition assistance you successful YouTube fertile monitoring, analytics, rival scouting, and more.