Virtually everybody knows that search engine optimization remains one of the most important tactics in being discovered by audiences. Brands with better SEO get better visibility in search engines, leading to more clicks, purchases and other desired actions. While an incredible amount of energy gets focuses on targeting search engines like Bing and Google, there are other platforms that also need attention.

For those in the video marketing scene, YouTube is arguably the single biggest venue for SEO strategies. While owned by Google and therefore featured prominently in its video search results, boosting visibility in search results on YouTube itself requires a slightly different approach. Let’s look at what you can do to improve your video SEO in these vital results.

Research Keywords

While targeting various search results on YouTube can present some unique challenges, one of the cornerstones will be familiar: keyword research. There are several basic ways you can analyze keywords and research their potential by pinging servers on both YouTube and Google. For starters, a variety of keyword research plugins exist that can help glean this information in an easy-to-use format. Additionally, you can use YouTube suggest to conduct paired searches that show recommendations just like with Google’s Autosuggest feature.

As usual, searching for high-traffic keywords and phrases with minimal numbers of videos (and/or unoptimized results) is ideal, but balancing the two sets of considerations is the overall key to success.

Determine Your Audience’s Intentions

Google – and therefore YouTube – has algorithms that are growing increasingly smarter by the day. A huge element of SEO from the perspective of search engines’ desires is to match content with intent, regardless of the keywords or phrases used by the audience. As such, conducting valuable research into what your audience wants to see – above and beyond the mere broader topics -is crucial.

For instance, a video about fly-fishing might be relevant to your target audience, but they may instead be looking for a how-to video on finding the best fishing spots or understanding the best fishing equipment available. When you determine what types of specific content an audience wants, ranking well in search results – especially when combined with past user browsing history – becomes much easier.

Optimize On-Page Details

Just as crucial as the type of content you create is the way in which you present it to YouTube audiences. While search engines continue to become more adept, they still are not great at deciphering the true intent and meaning of video content. As such, on-page elements have to be configured and optimized to provide a true picture of the video to search engines.

Obviously titles must be configured properly, with the occasional use of keywords and an informative and/or intriguing headline. Adding useful descriptions to each video is also crucial, as this is one of the most content-rich on-page elements that’ll be pinging servers on both YouTube and Google with intent. In addition, your video tags should be carefully chosen and should coincide with your keyword research efforts. It’s also generally smart to add a high-quality and interesting thumbnail to grab attention (ranking highly means nothing if users don’t actually click).

With these tips in mind, optimizing your YouTube videos  for search results both on the video platform and on Google will become exponentially easier. In short, use every piece of available real estate to optimize the content, figure out where the most views can be generated and deliver content that is relevant to your audience’s search intent.