Course Curriculum

YouTube SEO: Ranking Your Videos #1

3sections
14lectures
30mtotal

What you’ll learn

  • Find and research keyword ideas to optimize your videos

  • Use free powerful tools to collect keyword ideas

  • Optimize video metadata

  • Optimize video titles, descriptions, thumbnails, tags.

  • Add closed captions/subtitles for your videos

  • Improve engagement and build authority

01

Starting with YouTube SEO: Keyword Research

3 lectures • 6min

  • Keyword Research for YouTube

    Master keyword research to optimize your YouTube videos by using keywords in the title, description, tags, and spoken content so YouTube surfaces the most relevant results.

    1:52

  • Using top Google Chrome extensions to find keywords

    Two Chrome extensions boost keyword research by revealing search volume, competition, and top keyword opportunities, helping you evaluate targets. They provide video analytics, summaries, and tags to refine future optimization.

    1:55

  • Using Rank Tracker & Google Trends to collect and analyze keywords

    Learn to use Rank Tracker and Google Trends to collect and analyze keywords, compare by monthly search volume, competition, and difficulty, and discover regional popularity and rising queries.

    2:15
02

Optimizing meta data to rank your YouTube videos

6 lectures • 13min

  • Introduction to YouTube video meta data

    Master keyword research and metadata optimization to boost your YouTube videos' visibility. Learn to optimize titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and captions to rank for relevant queries.

    1:09

  • Learn how to optimize video titles

    Place the keyword at the beginning of your video title to improve ranking. Craft catchy, accurate titles that reflect the content, and add brackets at the end to boost clicks.

    2:03

  • YouTube video thumbnails: best practices to know

    Discover best practices for YouTube thumbnails to boost clicks, from preshoot planning and custom, high-resolution designs to readable text, a person in the image, and brand-aligned color contrast.

    3:24

  • Learn how to optimize video descriptions

    Optimize video descriptions to help YouTube algorithms understand your content, place keywords at the start, craft the first lines for search results, and provide 100–200 words of detail.

    2:00

  • Learn how to optimize tags

    Optimize tags to signal the video topic to the algorithm, keep about 10–12 tags, and use two to three main keywords with alternatives and broad terms.

    2:03

  • Adding subtitles and timestamps

    Learn to add closed captions and subtitles to improve accessibility and YouTube SEO, including uploading or generating subtitles, translating captions, and adding chapters with time stamps for navigation and indexing.

    2:27
03

Improving audience retention and engagement

5 lectures • 11min

  • How to improve audience retention and watch time

    Increase audience retention and watch time by analyzing where and why viewers drop off. Capture attention in the first 15 seconds and keep viewers engaged.

    3:20

  • How to provoke engagement on YouTube

    Provoke engagement after publishing to boost rankings and maximize watch time by encouraging comments, replies, likes, and shares, and use end screens and cards to invite subscriptions.

    2:42

  • Sharing the video across multiple channels

    Share your optimized YouTube video across multiple channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, and outreach email campaigns, to reach new audiences, boost traffic, and improve Google visibility.

    1:20

  • How to build authority

    Develop authority by building brand recognition through consistent branding that earns credibility and trust; create a unique brand name, a high-quality channel icon, and an authentic short trailer.

    1:25

  • How to monitor your video performance

    Monitor your YouTube performance with analytics on demographics, traffic sources, impressions, and CTR to improve future videos; use star and watch time to optimize thumbnails and titles.

    2:28