YouTube SEO: How to rank videos for YouTube Search in Kenya

In this comprehensive guide, we take a look on YouTube SEO in Kenya for you videos. You finally have taken a leap of faith and uploaded your videos in you tube.

Now that you have uploaded your videos and guess what? only 10 views after 6 months? and majority are your friends who showed interest just to support you.

We learn how to increase your visibility and ranking for your videos particularly for the Kenyan Market.

YouTube is the Second most visited search engine right after google, so why do you not rank for your videos?

People love quality content and for sure you know  that your content is quality, then there is reason not to rank for it. YouTube like all other Search Engines has algorithms that determine how content is ranked. 

While a public figure or celebrity will ride on their celebrity status to gain views, you will need to work on your YouTube SEO to gain views particularly in Kenya. 

It’s very common to find videos with millions of views and other with little views yet the content is the same. This boils down to a few items and elements, mostly something to do with YouTube SEO in Kenya.

Today we’ll be looking at the various tips for your channel YouTube SEO in Kenya to make sure that your videos starts getting views and also improve on your ranking

Read: What is SEO and why it’s Important

Before we dive into the details here is a look of what we’ll cover

1. keyword research
2. using keywords with video title
3. optimize video description
4. researching the right Tags for your videos
5. use custom thumbnail for your videos
6. categorize your videos
7. add subtitles to your videos
8. Use cards and end screens to improve your viewership

How should we go about YouTube SEO in Kenya

Below we cover some of key elements to put into consideration while working on your video visibility.

1. Keyword Research

This is the cornerstone of your videos SEO Strategy. Just like we do keywords research for our blog post and websites, we need the same for videos in YouTube.

You can adopt the skills, or techniques below to do your keyword research in YouTube.

Use YouTube auto-suggest-: Just like Google Search bar offers auto suggestion whenever we key in words for search, YouTube uses the same technique. This are usually suggestions of what majority of people are searching for online via YouTube search.

 

The list of various search suggestion that are being displayed via search bar offers an insight on what people are looking for online.

Use of YouTube SEO tool-: various  YouTube SEO tools are used for analytics of the video search giant.  SemRush and Ahref offers some of the best tools you can use for a start

2. Using Keywords with video title

While doing search the most striking thing we see first is the title. Make sure you titles are clear and grab the user attention

Your title should have the keywords embedded naturally to fit well within the Title.  If your keyword is E.g. “Cook Pilau” and your goal is to educate, you can use a title such as “How to cook pilau recipe “

While it’s not guaranteed that having your keywords in titles will work the magic, having them in keywords will certainly will bring the YouTube algorithm closer.

3. Optimize video description
A brief description about the video is good to have on your video.  Always remember your user came to watch the video and not to read theoretical content. Always make it precise and brief.

The best way to optimize your video description is  to;

• write a description that is catchy and prompts the user to click on the link
• include your keywords in the description
• Add you CTAs

4. researching the right Tags for your videos

Tags make it easier for YouTube and also you videos to show up in related search that appear on the users screen. The rule of thumb generally  your first tag should show or be your keyword the other related tags should follow.

Don’t over use the tags, stick between 5-10 keywords and make sure to use of good mix of common and also long-tail keywords.

5. Use custom thumbnail for your videos

Always look to upload a custom thumbnail that will prompt your user to click on the video. Usually many people ignore this since YouTube will usually create a pre-designed thumbnail automatically.

Learn to include the name of the video on the custom thumbnail with your business or branding items such as Logo, or icon with an image of your team or staff behind the creation of the video. 

Image of HubSpot thumbnail

6. Categorize your videos 

You can categorize you videos under “advanced setting” on YouTube. Having categories for your videos is also a different way of grouping your videos such that it also visible to another similar content your users are engaging in. There 15 categories so you will need to choose which one best suits your video

7. Add Subtitles to you videos

Add subtitle to your videos in order to make your content even more understandable and also support your main title. Subtitles offers a great opportunity to add keywords to you video without stuffing it. 

They also help YouTube Algorithms to better understand your content and what it’s all about thus boosting your YouTube SEO in Kenya efforts.

Read: SEO for Real Estate Companies in Kenya

8. Use cards and end screens to improve your viewership

ever interacted with a YouTube video and see the small circle with icon “i” at the corner most part of the video? That’s the Card. It’s usually a preformatted notification that you can use to promote other videos and brands of your business via the playing video.

source: Google

You can add various Cards to a single video and there are 6 types of cards

• donation cards for fundraising events and encouragement
• fan funding where your fans can support your video
• Link Cards which redirect to other external links
• Poll Cards where user can vote on a particular matter via your channel
• Playlist Cards which allow user to link to other video content on your channel
• Chanel Cards where the viewer is redirected to another channel

To Sum up

Now that you’ve got an idea of YouTube SEO for Kenya in particular, take steps to review your videos and apply the elements of SEO for your videos to see how best you will rank. Remember it takes time and will not show up on page one of YouTube pages automatically.