Easily the most popular multimedia platform on the planet, YouTube now commands a huge control of the video market. From everyday enthusiasts who like to create their own videos to major corporations seeking to market their content, all roads more or less run via YouTube when seeking to boost video awareness and reach.

While many people directly search for their desired content through YouTube itself, the fact that it is also owned by Google means its results can feature prominently in many Google SERPs. The question many are asking is: what does it take to rank your videos in Google’s search results, whether they be video-specific or not?

Let’s take a look and see what criteria you need to consider to rank your YouTube videos in other Google results.

Optimized Closed Captions

Search engines like Google are getting better at analyzing video content with each passing year, but they still lack the true ability to discern it like with text-based content. As such, optimizing your videos by uploading a comprehensive set of closed captions is crucial to better rankings.

Whenever Google is pinging servers to analyze content such as videos on YouTube, it will by default try to analyze the content via automatically generated closed captions. These are often incorrect or jumbled: by adding your own, you ensure that your video content is capable of ranking well and being analyzed properly.

Gorgeous Thumbnails

Aesthetic charm makes a difference in content marketing. While we all probably know that this is the case when persuading human beings, search engines also take this into account. By analyzing the existing organic behaviors of users, Google will more prominently rank YouTube videos that have aesthetically pleasing thumbnails. Since more people click on videos with better-looking thumbnails, you can definitely argue that this is one criteria that helps brands better promote their videos via search.

Emerging Topics/Trends

How many times have you had a great idea for a video, only to procrastinate and let somebody else beat you to it? Acting as soon as possible is crucial in achieving great rankings for your latest YouTube content – especially when targeting emerging topics and trends.

By latching onto new developments within your niche, you can definitely stand to benefit in terms of better Google search result visibility. By being one of the first to target such an emerging topic or trend, your video naturally has a higher chance of earning traffic sooner, which can help it snowball to success in relevant SERPs across Google’s search services.

Segments via Timestamps

When recommended a video in Google search results as the number one entry, you may have noticed the “suggested clip” or recommended key moments. If you add comprehensive segments into your videos by including timestamps and subheadings in the description, then the search engine has an easier time at analyzing each portion.

From there, a specific segment of the video that may be of relevance to a user can be suggested via search results. This is a boon for video marketers, as it can easily help get your video to the top position of SERPs (it also makes things easier for those who watch your videos on YouTube directly by providing them with timestamps to navigate the video).

By pinging servers with these optimizations, your videos will not only continue to gain traffic and traction on YouTube, but they’ll also begin emerging into new forms of search results on Google. Keep these optimizations in mind for future videos, as none of them are particularly difficult or time consuming to implement.