This article covers how to add keywords to YouTube video descriptions. You’ll find detailed instructions on how to add keywords to YouTube video descriptions below to help your channel’s video content perform better in search engine optimization (SEO).
By the end of this session, you’ll know how to add keywords to a YouTube description in the best way to meet this important need of the ranking algorithm.
Adding Keywords to the YouTube Video Description:
1. Register with YouTube Studio:
Creating an account on YouTube Studio is the first step in adding keywords to a YouTube video description. In order to add or update the SEO keywords for your video uploads, you must be logged into the site.
2. For the video, choose two to three keywords:
Choose the appropriate SEO keywords for the video after signing into YouTube Studio. To reach a wider audience of viewers, you should optimise each video you submit to your YouTube channel for at least two or three relevant keywords.
If you need assistance selecting the ideal keywords for your videos, try using one of the keyword research tools below to obtain some helpful ideas for improving your YouTube search engine optimization:
- Extension for Tube Buddy Optimization
- YouTube Search with Keywordtool.io
- (Start putting your query into the YouTube search bar, and suitable keyword suggestions will appear immediately.)
- Note: These tool options may also assist you with optimising your YouTube tags, which is another crucial component for SEO rankings.
3. Visit the YouTube video description section:
Go to the description area for the video so you can change it as the next step in adding keywords to YouTube video descriptions. For new video uploads, you’ll see the description area throughout the uploading process. (See illustration below.)
For existing uploads, you’ll need to head to YouTube Studio > Content and then click on the video thumbnail or title to see and update the description.
4. In the first two sentences, include the following keywords:
YouTube suggests that you include SEO keywords at the beginning of your video descriptions. If you hover over the tooltip icon for the description box, you’ll notice the following search engine optimization tip:
- Writing descriptions with keywords in them might make it simpler for visitors to locate your movies via searches. You may provide a summary of your movie and insert keywords at the beginning of the description.
- Expert YouTube producers and SEO experts that specialise in video optimization have found that using keywords in the first 25 words delivers the most value for ranking on YouTube. As a result, you should include your major keywords in the first or second phrase of the video description while also making sure the consumer can read them naturally.
5. Put your keywords in the text’s middle:
The centre of the overview paragraph is the next-best location for your keywords in a YouTube video description. You may repeat your keywords in the main body of this field up to 2-3 more times, depending on how long the description is.
Making your video descriptions at least 250 words long will allow you to organically place your keywords in the centre of the text twice, which is a solid YouTube tip for improving keyword rankings. Using the advice provided in this post, you are able to do this without having the overview text seem spammy or having an excessively high keyword density.
Keep in mind, however, that YouTube only allows you 5,000 characters (or 800 words) to describe your videos.This implies that if you exceed the YouTube description character restriction, you may safely include your target keywords three times in the midst of the content and optimise for a lot more search phrases (mentioned in Step 8 below).
Here are a few ideas on how to make your YouTube video descriptions longer for keyword optimization:
- Justify the viewer’s viewing of the video.
- Draw attention to the salient aspects and significant points of the video.
- Promote your platforms over the web, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
- Include links to the goods and services mentioned in the video that are pertinent.
- To give the viewer chapters in the video, add timestamps.
- Specify affiliations and disclaimers.
6. Toward the end of the description, include keywords:
The next step for adding keywords for SEO is at the end of the YouTube text, which you write after writing the main content for the video description. The last paragraph of the description is a good place to include your target search terms, which works similarly to good on-page SEO best practises go a long way toward convincing the YouTube algorithm that your video should be ranked for particular keywords.
A helpful hint is to put your target keywords within the last 25 words of the description field so they read naturally. This will allow you to include a general summary of the video at the end of the field.
7. Add keywords for videos to hashtags:
Adding hashtags to your YouTube video descriptions will help them become more searchable and will be another way to improve your descriptions for keywords. When YouTube creators use hashtags to link their content to certain topics, it is easier for viewers to find content that interests them without having to do a keyword search.
Simply enter the # symbol into the text field, followed by the keyword or topic you want the video to be associated with on the platform, to add keyword hashtags to your video descriptions. The YouTube system will offer popular hashtag suggestions as you type.
Here are some important tips for using hashtags in YouTube video descriptions to help with SEO:
- Even if YouTube does not automatically suggest your primary keywords, you should still create a hashtag with those words. Here, only the SEO value of your hashtags matters; it makes no difference how many related videos or channels there are for them.
- Add hashtags for different keyword variations.
- Include hashtags for pertinent subjects.
- When it comes to keyword hashtags in YouTube descriptions, less is more. For viewers who are searching, the more tags you add to a video, the less useful they become.
- Each hashtag on a video that has more than 60 hashtags will be disregarded by YouTube’s algorithm.
- A video may be removed from your uploads or from YouTube’s search engine if you use excessive tagging.
- To avoid cluttering your overview text, add hashtags at the end of the video description.
8. Keywords that are more relevant should be used:
The last step in adding keywords to YouTube video descriptions is to go back through the text and look for more places where relevant search terms can be used.
As mentioned in step 2 above, a good video SEO strategy is to optimise your videos for at least 2-3 main SEO keywords to get the most direct reach with your target viewers.However, because the algorithm recognises that the search terms are pertinent to the content, YouTube videos can rank for hundreds or even thousands of different search terms.
Here, it’s a good idea to consider all the keyword variations and semantically related terms connected to your primary SEO keywords. After that, find ways to naturally incorporate those phrases into the video description.
The fact that you should write the longest video description you can (5,000 characters, or approximately 800 words), as advised in tip 5 of this guide, is another reason to do so. Longer descriptions can bring in more search traffic from long-tail and semantically related keywords, which a shorter description on YouTube can’t do.
Now that you know how to use keywords in video descriptions the right way to improve search engine optimization, you might be interested in these other helpful YouTube guides:
- What are YouTube backlinks?
- How to Build Backlinks for Videos on YouTube
- Backlinks from YouTube for SEO
- YouTube’s top niche
- How to Set Up a YouTube AdSense Account
- Advanced Search on YouTube
- Search Engines for Reverse Videos
- In the YouTube video description, include keywords.
I hope you found this tutorial on adding keywords to YouTube video descriptions helpful. As you now know, there are only a few steps involved in adding keywords to video descriptions for SEO and ranking enhancements.
The start of the YouTube description, the middle of the text, and the end of the content are the key areas for increasing search engine optimization. Additionally, you can include hashtags that are keyword-optimized to improve searchability on the platform.