Video is currently 1/3 of web traffic, Google’s brand new SERP layout has made video results more accessible and if figures are to be believed, video will be the dominant online content medium in the next five years.
Optimising your YouTube channel effectively will not only increase your online visibility, but it will also increase the strength of your brand.
The 3 main areas you should concentrate on are:
Channel Page Optimisation
Your YouTube Channel needs to be attractive, useful to existing and potential customers and accessible.
Customising your layout properties will give you the chance to choose what information you want displayed on your Channel, including which video you want featured (choose carefully - this will automatically play each time someone visits the page!).
Creating playlists is a good option to target different demographics or to focus on different topics/ranges of products; linking to other Social Media profiles like Facebook and Twitter extends the Social Media experience.
There are many ways in which you can tweak your YouTube Channel and you should experiment with them all to see what works best with your viewers.
Video Optimisation
Optimising your videos is a bit like optimising a website.
You need to make sure that certain aspects of your Channel (such as title, description and tags) naturally describe the content that you have uploaded and the keywords that you decide to use are the basic words that people are likely to type into the search box.
Conducting keyword research will allow you to discern topics that people are searching for that are related to your business and will be invaluable in the long term.
It is also good practice to include your URL at the beginning of every video description so that customers have easy access to your website.
Distribution
There are several ways in which you can increase the popularity of your video content: YouTube badges, sharing videos with other Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter or embedding them on your website or blog.
Keep in mind that, unlike traditional SEO, inbound links do not contribute to video ranking but good video visibility can increase inbound links to your main site.
Finally, take advantage of YouTube Insights. This analytics feature of YouTube can provide information such as demographics and when people abandoned viewing specific videos. This data can help you improve future submissions.