Episode 034 SEO and YouTube Search (1)
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Welcome to SEO Day Studio with your hosts, the Findability Queen Denise Millet, and the entrepreneur Whisperer, Kim White. This is a space to hear the questions that fellow entrepreneurs have about SEO and get them answered. So many discussions involving techy topics like SEO are loaded with jargon and unnecessary complexity.
So much so that anyone outside the tech industry has difficulty getting to the real meeting inside the information. Denise believes that every entrepreneur can benefit from search engines. Once they hear how they work in a clear and straightforward way. She's on a mission to help entrepreneurs get the content and they spend hours creating included in search engines.
So when their customers search online, they're findable because she believes if they can't find you, they can't do business with you. So stay tuned. The fun starts now.
Welcome to the SEO Day podcast. I am the official mail bag keeper around here, Kim White, and I'm here with the Findability Queen herself, Denise Millet.
Denise, thank you for giving business owners a place to get their questions answered about findability and SEO.
Thank you, Kim. I'm so glad you're here. You're back here with me. We are back for season two. We took a little bit of a break and I hope everybody's enjoyed our top 10 replays of the most downloaded episodes from season one, and now we're starting off on season two, and I'm so happy that you're here with me and that we get to do this again for the audience out there and answer their questions about SEO.
I love it, Denise, and I want to say, I want to recommend anyone who did not listen to the top 10, go back and check them out. It's really good to be reminded of what we can do for our SEO. So love it. Well, our first questions, Of the day are from the mailbag we dug deep, but we found one from our friend Adam Rothenberg, who is the founder, creator, media, personality.
All the things of callmeadam.com, who is at. He is over 3 million visitors in the last couple of years. So let me just say that. And that's thanks to Denise. So if you need a recommendation, Adam is the guy to get it from. But he has some interesting questions based around YouTube. So he sent in multiple questions, and I would love to kick off the first one with does SEO impact YouTube videos?
Yes, absolutely. I love this line of questioning because I know I've heard it from a lot of people. They're curious. And the first thing I want to say is YouTube is its own search engine. It is, obviously they're owned by the same parent company, but it is a different search engine and it is standalone from the major search engine we all know and love.
So, yes, videos are made available into the main search engine, but people search within YouTube itself. So there are different things that they're looking at and looking for in order to produce search results for people. So whatever you do with search SEO for your setup of your video has an impact on how it's going to be found.
On YouTube.
Love this line of questioning, we'll call it. Our next question is, do keywords matter for YouTube videos?
Yes, they do. If we think about what keywords are, they are the connecting language between the people looking for something and you and your content. So when you create a video, you have to title it and describe it, and.
Choose the main theme or topic or what it's about, and that has to connect with what people are looking for in order for it to be found. So that keyword has to be the keyword. You choose the phrase, and the keywords are never just one word, right? So they're a phrase, they're a question, they're a topic that has to be put in all the identifying places on the video when it gets created so that it can be searched for.
Got it. Such a great answer. So question number three is what is needed to make a YouTube video ready for search?
Okay, so now we'll follow up on the last question, I guess. And so the title is very important as it is in other types of content and the thumbnail that you create, the image that is on the video.
So on some things, YouTube automatically creates that image. That's the first thing you see when it's coming through results. But sometimes you can upload it yourself on videos, and that has an impact on. What people, are gonna see is they're scrolling, so it's another cue for them to see if there's interest in what you're doing.
So you want to pay attention to what you put on your thumbnail, and then the description has a big. Big impact because that is read by this YouTube search engine to identify and support what you put in the title and what you put on the thumbnail to see if it's really relevant, if it makes sense for what you've created.
So those really do need to connect. You can't just title something for sensational reasons or a thumbnail, something just to hook people to look at it. You may be served up if it doesn't match with what your video is about and your description's about. So you kind of have to reinforce your title and your thumbnail by all the other things underneath.
Great answer. So Denise, let's head over to a word from our sponsor today.
This episode is brought to you by the findability Queen Denise Millet. Visit her YouTube channel youtube.com/@findabilityqueen for her collection of short videos, answering questions about findability and SEO for entrepreneurs every day.
Let's just handle the, whoops for a second sometimes. Sorry about that.
Whoops, happen. So we love that that was recorded. So I just want to giggle and say we are back talking about SEO and YouTube search. We are happy you have joined us today. We have questions from our friend Adam Rothenberg from callmeadam.com and we'd like to ask the question. Ma'am if or no? Do I see? I have a, whoops.
Now do I have to have lots of views on my video to show up in YouTube search? Hmm.
This is a yes and no. YouTube is, look, when it chooses videos to give to somebody after they search for something they're looking for, whether it's relevant to what the people, the person searched for. So whether your video makes sense for what they were looking for.
And they're looking for quality, so they're looking for.
Similar to when you do your content for regular search engines, they're looking for the things that are really valuable to people. Is it a helpful topic? Is it gonna be useful? Are you really sharing real information or is it just, you know, you walking on the street talking about something random? Like, is it, is it helpful and useful?
All and are you, someone who has more than just a random one video out there. So they're looking for authority and proof that you're a real person. So all those things, all that trustworthy stuff matters. But then they're looking at engagement. And engagement is unfortunately views and how long people stay and view your, it's not just views, it's how long they stay as well.
If people are scrolling by and they stop for five seconds, that's not as valuable as somebody who stays for 10 or 15 or 20. So you're competing on that level too. So it really is quality. Numbers and views do have an impact on that, but it's not alone. So there are other things that they look at to rate the quality.
I hate to say rate, but to gauge the quality of the video as they're making their decision.
Gotcha. Man. SEO is complicated. I'm so thankful you are in our lives, Denise. I'll just say that. And our final question from Adam today. Is our search results in YouTube created the same as in Google. Hmm.
As we just talked about in the last question.
They, they do use things like quality, relevance to what somebody asked for, and engagement, how many people have seen it? Some of those metrics, but the other things that impacted are what you do on YouTube. So what do you subscribe to? If you do a search and you have a subscription to something and there's something on that channel that you subscribe to that fits, you're gonna see that as a result where that may not happen to someone else who isn't a subscriber on that channel.
So it's gonna filter on that. And then it also separates by. Type. So there are shorts, there are clips, there are longer form videos, so that they're gonna separate those types out. And then they are going to filter in ads sponsored videos like you would see in Google. And they're gonna be smattered wherever they fit in the different types of content or in the subjects they choose to make relevant to what you looked for.
So it's, yes, it's that way, but it's a little bit different. I. Gotcha.
Well, thank you so much for answering Adam's questions because there were questions you brought up or he brought up that I didn't even know to ask. So there you go. Thank you for today. We're closing the mailbag for today and we'll jump back in next week.
You did a great job, Denise Millet, of making it clear what SEO is and how we can use it for our businesses and our YouTube channels.
Thank you Kim, and thank you for being with me here again. It's so great to be back with you recording season two and for all of you that submitted questions will add on this time.
Anyone else who has, we have really appreciate it. So please continue. You can go to the show notes. There's a link where you can submit questions. There. And I also wanted to help everybody get started with your keyword journey, which is the first step in SEO for YouTube and regular Google. So I created a guide called Quickly Find Your Perfect Keywords, the Simple and Easy Way to Be Findable.
And you can also go to the link in the show notes and get a copy of that today and get started on your journey and make Tuesdays your SEO day. So until next time. We will look for your questions, and we hope to see you in the next round.
Thank you for joining Denise and Kim in the SEO Day studio for today's discussion. If you would like one of your SEO questions answered in the future episode, head on over to denise Millet.com/questions to let us know. The link is also in the show notes. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the SEO Day podcast.
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