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Language: en
Is YouTube keyword research really that important?
Since the first day we created a keyword targeted
video, our YouTube search traffic has grown
tremendously and super consistently.
And in this video, you and I, we are going to
unpack the exact keyword tools and process
we use, step-by-step.
Stay tuned.
[music]
What's up creators?
Sam Oh here with Ahrefs, the SEO tool that
helps you grow your search traffic, research
your competitors and dominate your niche.
Now, over the past 8 months, we've grown our
YouTube search traffic by 377%.
And the fundamental reason for our success
has been our YouTube keyword research process.
Now, I'm sure you've seen other videos that
talk about looking at the number of views
of top-ranking videos and copying their titles.
But this isn't the way to get more views for
your videos.
Looking at these numbers alone will likely
lead to a lot of wasted time because you've
no idea where these views came from.
For all you know, they could have been from
ads.
More on this later.
So let's cut the chitter chatter and get to
the exact process you can use to get free,
consistent, and passive views from YouTube
and Google search.
Quick sidenote: I won't be covering optimization
for suggested views, but if you want to see
a video on that, be sure to leave a comment and
let me know.
Alright, so step one is to map out a hierarchy
of your topics.
Structure is important.
Create videos on topics that are too broad,
and you start reaching irrelevant audiences
for your business.
But create videos on topics too small and
your reach diminishes.
Grab a pen and paper and let's start drawing.
Let's say I'm creating a new channel where
I'll unbox videos on popular tech-related products.
So let's add unboxing to the top of the hierarchy.
Now, what am I going to unbox?
Let's add cell phones, game consoles, and
camera equipment.
Now, which brands do I buy?
Let's add Apple and Samsung under cell phones.
Nintendo and Xbox under game systems.
And Canon and Nikon under camera brands.
And we can even add models under each of these
categories.
You get the point.
This exercise will help you build a framework
of topics you can use to quickly qualify or
disqualify whether it's a good fit for your
desired audience.
Step 2 is to generate keyword ideas and analyze
keyword trends.
There are quite a few keyword tools out there,
but from my experience, most of them are just way
off and some try and pass Google search volumes
as YouTube search volumes.
The thing is that people often search for
completely different things on Google vs. YouTube.
For example, if you look at the trend for
the phrase, "html tutorial," with Google set
as the search engine, you'll see that searches
have been declining over time.
Whereas YouTube searches had an upward trend
during the same time period.
So bottom line?
You can't rely on Google search volumes when
it comes to choosing keywords for YouTube.
But what about looking at the number of views
a video has?
If a video has a lot of views, then it must
be a good topic to target, right? Wrong.
Take a look at the search results for the
keyword, "seo audit".
You'll see that we created a video 3 years
ago and gained 640,000 views, which averages
out to around 200,000 views per year.
But let me show you our analytics.
You'll see that 550,000 views came from YouTube
ads in 2016 and less than 20,000 views from
YouTube search.
The good thing is that you can avoid wasting
time and get good representations of true
search volume using one of two tools.
The first is YouTube ads.
After you choose your keyword, let the ad
run for a month or so to collect a good amount of data.
Then, go to the search terms report, where
you can see the impressions and views data for
various keywords.
The number of impressions a keyword gets should
be an underestimation of search volume since
your ad won't show for every search query.
YouTube ads are quite cheap and a great way
to find new keyword ideas and see search volume.
The second tool is Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer.
Just select YouTube as your search engine,
and enter a keyword you want to research.
So I'll search for "unboxing." Cool!
So this topic has 108,000 monthly searches
in the US and around 645,000 worldwide.
But ranking for this keyword would kind of
be useless.
Think about it.
If someone searches for the phrase, "unboxing,"
what do you think they want to see you unbox?
I have no idea and you probably don't either.
I'll expand on this in the next step, which
is absolutely critical to your video's success.
So instead of looking at this, let's go and
generate some solid keyword ideas.
Just go to the Phrase match report, which
shows you all of the keywords that contain
your target query.
Right away, you can see nearly 100,000 keyword
ideas.
But not all of these keywords are going to
be relevant to you.
So let's take a look at our hierarchy again.
If we wanted to narrow our search down to
relevant phrases, we can use the Include box
and add our own comma-separated list.
So I might search for nintendo, xbox, iphone,
macbook, canon, and nikon.
Then I'll select the "Any keyword" tab.
And just like that, we have over 6,600 relevant
keywords we can create videos around.
And let's narrow down the results even more by adding a minimum volume of 500 searches per month.
Now, this is a much more manageable list of
videos we can create content around.
But not all of these topics are going to be
worth your attention.
For example, if we click on iPhone 8 unboxing,
you'll see that this topic shows 23,000 monthly
searches, which seems awesome!
But if you look at the trend graph, you'll
see that search volumes are diminishing, which
skews this number a little bit.
Most keyword tools, regardless of search engine,
use rounded annual averages.
So while people are still searching for this
query, it doesn't mean that 23,000 people
in the US are searching for it this month.
So this extra layer of data can help you make
smarter decisions on whether a topic is worth
targeting or not.
Let's take a step back and look at the trend
for "nintendo switch unboxing."
While search volumes have decreased from its
release date, it still holds a relatively
strong search demand.
So in my opinion, this one seems like a good
one to target.
But why stop here?
If you create a video on a Nintendo Switch
unboxing, you could probably create numerous
videos around the console too.
So let's change our keyword from "unboxing"
to "nintendo switch."
And then I'll go back to the Phrase match
report for our new target keyword.
And you'll see a whole bunch of new topics.
You can create a dedicated review, another
video on games, accessories, and more.
And that, my friend, is how you take the guesswork
out of choosing good keywords to target for
your YouTube channel.
But hang on a second.
There's one more thing that you have to see.
And that's the "Newly discovered" keywords
report.
This report shows you a list of keywords that
contain your seed, which were recently added
to our database.
Now, why am I creating a fuss about this?
Using this report, you can gain insights on
new topics or products that people are searching for.
So if you're one of the first to release content
on it, then there's going to be less competition. And
if the topic ends up trending, you can ride
the wave from start to finish.
For example, you'll see that we discovered
"super smash bros ultimate unboxing" in November
2018, which has a decent search volume.
And since this was a recent release, there's
a good chance that search demand is only going
to build as searchers start to look for this.
Let's check the YouTube search results.
These two videos have gained over 600,000
views in the last month or two and their high
engagement stats tell me that these views aren't
from ads.
And sure.
You could argue that they have millions of
subscribers.
But look at this video, which got over 3,500
views in one month.
They only have around 40 subscribers, which
is huge for a new channel.
So if you want to get more views fast, then
keep an eye on the newly discovered report
for trending topics.
If you're following along, then you should
have a ton of great keyword ideas for your
channel that have search demand.
But a critical component to rank on YouTube
is all in step 3.
Which is to analyze search intent.
Matching search or keyword intent should always
be your number one goal.
And it's a huge, yet simple part of the keyword
research process.
First, start by asking yourself:
What would someone want to find when searching
for your target keyword?
For something like "nintendo switch unboxing,"
it's pretty clear.
They want you to take that thing out of the
box and show them everything that's inside.
But something like "nintendo switch games"
is more open to interpretation.
To figure this out, go to YouTube in private
or incognito mode, and search for the keyword
you want to rank for.
And it's pretty clear.
People want to watch a video about a bunch
of games.
Also, take note of the length of the videos.
In this case, they're all around the 9 - 14-minute
mark.
So I'd probably create something of similar
length, but pack it with helpful information,
rather than just trying to fill in a time quota.
Ok, step 4 is to optimize your videos to be
found in Google search.
And I'm sure you've seen video pop ups in the
Google search results.
Some show up in video carousels, others as
dedicated results, some as featured videos,
and some have multiple formats.
If you're not optimizing for these video SERP
results, then you could potentially be missing
out on huge traffic potential.
For example, according to Ahrefs' Site Explorer,
this video on deleting your Facebook account
gets nearly 50,000 visitors from Google each
month.
Now, there are two ways to find topics that
have potential to "double-dip" from YouTube
and Google searchers.
First is obviously to Google one of your keywords
that you want to rank for.
And if you see videos being dominant in search
results, then there's a good chance you can
rank there if you're able to create a high
engagement video.
The second way is to use Ahrefs' Content Explorer,
where you can search through over a billion
pages and get useful SEO and social metrics.
And the best part about this is you can
use advanced search operators.
To find YouTube videos that are getting search
traffic in Google right now, you can type
site:youtube.com inurl:watch, which will narrow
our results down to YouTube videos only.
Then type title: and a phrase you want to
search for.
Next, I'll sort the results by pages that
get the most Google search traffic.
And this one looks super promising.
It was published only a few months ago and
gets around 18,000 views per month from Google
search alone, which I'm sure contributes to
their over 2 million views.
You can see the exact keywords this video
ranks for in Google by clicking on the details button,
and then the organic keywords tab.
Last but certainly not least, I recommend
searching for one of the keywords in Google
to get a better understanding of the video
SERP type and on-page factors like video
titles and lengths.
So in this case, the results show a video
carousel, which gives you a better chance
of ranking since there are three visible results.
Also, you'll notice that these were all published
somewhat recently, and they all use the keywords
"nintendo switch" and "review" in their titles.
Keyword research is a huge component to ranking
on YouTube, Google, and getting views to your
videos consistently.
But there's obviously more to YouTube SEO
than this.
So if you'd like to see more on ranking videos
on YouTube or anything video marketing related,
leave a comment below and let me know what
you'd like to see.
Also, make sure to like, share, and subscribe
because we have new videos that we publish
each week jam-packed with value.
So until then, keep grinding away, and I'll
see you in the next tutorial.