Does the actual video have a role in ranking on Youtube?

10 years ago

The video itself has very little to do with ranking. Speaking from experience, it's all about title, description, tags and some ninja marketing tricks that you can use.

Some people just make high quality videos and dont really know how to rank it good, so they end up with a good video on page 10. And some people know how to rank the crappiest videos ever on page 1 of google and youtube for free (I'm one of those

)

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EPoltrack77

10 years ago

I don't think it matters much. Or course your video needs to follow thier terms of service but yea I feel its the meta tags and backlinks that count the most. Youtube seems to be easier than ever today to rank video on both youtube and google.

I can research and find a keyword phrase and I can create a video and get the thing on the first pag of google with 15 minutes. Its crazy today!

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Olavski 10 years ago

Originally Posted by EPoltrack77

I can research and find a keyword phrase and I can create a video and get the thing on the first page of google with 15 minutes. Its crazy today!

Exactly that. Make a good sales letter and you can sell it as a service for hundreds of dollars.
Done that.
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karmadog

10 years ago

Originally Posted by EPoltrack77

I don't think it matters much. Or course your video needs to follow thier terms of service but yea I feel its the meta tags and backlinks that count the most. Youtube seems to be easier than ever today to rank video on both youtube and google.

I can research and find a keyword phrase and I can create a video and get the thing on the first pag of google with 15 minutes. Its crazy today!

In order to rank a video on page 1 of google, does that keyword have to already have Youtube videos on page 1 of Google? I remember hearing this somewhere.

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livinglarge 10 years ago

Originally Posted by karmadog

In order to rank a video on page 1 of google, does that keyword have to already have Youtube videos on page 1 of Google? I remember hearing this somewhere.

Karmadog, it does not. Some people say to stay away from any keyword that does not already have a video on the first page, but I have many videos on the first page that did not have any previously. As a matter of fact, most of my videos are solo videos on page one and there wasn't one prior to mine (at the time I researched, that is).

I do think the content can help, especially for difficult to rank keywords. My videos that have spoken content often rank faster than those that don't. I know that some people talk about gaming YouTube by uploading a transcript to a video that does not have spoken content. But for less competitive keywords you can get videos on page one pretty easily regardless of the content.
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David Beroff

10 years ago

YouTube spiders do seem to parse the actual content, so it makes sense that this would contribute to ranking.

We know that they scan for the music beds (to check for copyright).

While it's not always accurate, they scan the verbal content for closed captioning.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do OCR on any on-screen titles.

None of it is perfect, but collectively, it can generate a good guess.

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danieldesai

10 years ago

"Does the actual video have a role in ranking on Youtube?"

Yes, it does...

But not in the way you think.

One of the factors for ranking is viewer watch time or engagement.

Videos that get watched from beginning to end show YouTube that the content is interesting to viewers.

Therefore, in this case, a video that holds viewers' interests better than another video (everything else being equal) will likely outrank the latter.

I suspect that this will go on to play a bigger role in future YouTube search updates.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the "social" aspect of YouTube, such as comments.

If a video encourages lots of comments, that's another social signal that might play a role in ranking.

Regards,
Daniel

P.S. However, for the time being, the most dominant on-page ranking factors are the title, description and tags.

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Kurt

10 years ago

Originally Posted by danieldesai

"Does the actual video have a role in ranking on Youtube?"

Yes, it does...

But not in the way you think.

One of the factors for ranking is viewer watch time or engagement.

Videos that get watched from beginning to end show YouTube that the content is interesting to viewers.

Therefore, in this case, a video that holds viewers' interests better than another video (everything else being equal) will likely outrank the latter.

I suspect that this will go on to play a bigger role in future YouTube search updates.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the "social" aspect of YouTube, such as comments.

If a video encourages lots of comments, that's another social signal that might play a role in ranking.

Regards,
Daniel

P.S. However, for the time being, the most dominant on-page ranking factors are the title, description and tags.

Titles, tags and descriptions tend to influence relevancy more than ranking, although the two concepts are closely related.

Right now, the number one ranking factor YT uses is "session watch time", which is the total amount of time viewers watch other videos after viewing a video. This makes sense as the more video someone watches, the more money YT makes. It's important that videos encourage the views of other videos, especially for competitive keywords.

After session watch time, the next most important ranking factor is viewer retention, or how much a particular video is viewed on average. 20%? 50%/? 80%?

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Regional Warrior

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kurt

Titles, tags and descriptions tend to influence relevancy more than ranking, although the two concepts are closely related.

Right now, the number one ranking factor YT uses is "session watch time", which is the total amount of time viewers watch other videos after viewing a video. This makes sense as the more video someone watches, the more money YT makes. It's important that videos encourage the views of other videos, especially for competitive keywords.

After session watch time, the next most important ranking factor is viewer retention, or how much a particular video is viewed on average. 20%? 50%/? 80%?

Kurt

Do you remember the name of the Warrior who may have had a WSO awhile back where you could set the amount of viewing time but not views?

At the time people thought he was nuts not to have just views anyway may have got bunked due to the BH involved !

Jason

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danieldesai

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kurt

Right now, the number one ranking factor YT uses is "session watch time", which is the total amount of time viewers watch other videos after viewing a video. This makes sense as the more video someone watches, the more money YT makes. It's important that videos encourage the views of other videos, especially for competitive keywords.

After session watch time, the next most important ranking factor is viewer retention, or how much a particular video is viewed on average. 20%? 50%/? 80%?

I was actually surprised when I read your explanation of "session watch time" but you're right, it makes sense.

As for the viewer retention, I knew it was important but I wasn't sure if it held precedence over the other factors I mentioned (which you said were more important for relevancy).

Thanks for the clarification, Kurt.

Daniel

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Kurt

10 years ago

HD videos will generally outrank videos that aren't HD. Also, there's a number of YT filters, such as for long and short videos. If one of these filters is selected, then the length of the video factors into ranking.

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superowid

10 years ago

This is a great thread. Appreciate that extra info from Kurt & danieldesai.

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RyleyDonkersgoed

10 years ago

The content in the video being related to the tags and title and similair videos plays a role. Also likes and comments.

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RennieBottali

10 years ago

Yes, YouTube video can rank on 1st page of Google.

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anhtt265

10 years ago

Originally Posted by karmadog

Or is it just the optimization like the title, description and tags etc?

I ask this because I've uploaded many videos before, then went and deleted them and re uploaded entirely different videos files with those same title, description, tags etc.. and they had more or less the same ranking position.

You can rank first position on Youtube, even Google if your keywords is not so competitive.
Nowaday, to rank YT videos, they don't only customize Tittle, Description, Tag.. but also buy backlinks, social signal, blog comments. You can try with some backlinks on Fiverr...
Make sure to test to have a best provider.