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Chapter 21 Optimizing Your Videos for Search 239

It’s all a matter of determining how viewers search for the information they need.
When you figure out the keywords they’ll most likely search for, you have the most
effective keywords for your video.

You have to learn how customers think, and how they search. When someone is in
the market for a new car, and trolling YouTube for useful information, how are they
likely to search? If they’re just starting out, and don’t know what models best fit
their needs, you’re likely to see queries that focus on particular features, such as
four wheel drive sedan or hard top convertible or fuel efficient SUV. After
customers narrow down their choices, they’re more likely to search for information
about specific models, such as Ford pickup or BMW 3-series or Audi A5
convertible. You have to pick your keywords to match the stage at which you’re try-
ing to reach these customers.

As such, you probably need to come up with a combination of both generic and
specific keywords. For example, if your video talks about the differences between
incandescent and fluorescent lighting, you should include generic tags such as
lighting, light bulb, energy efficient, and the like, as well as more specific tags such
as incandescent, fluorescent, and your company name. In this way, you attract
viewers that are essentially browsing or just getting interested in the topic, as well as
make yourself known to those viewers that have more specific needs in mind or are
searching specifically for your company.

Optimizing Your Tags

After you come up with a list of keywords and phrases, just how do you use them?
As noted earlier, there are three places where you can include keywords: your
video’s tags, title, and description.

Let’s start with the Tag field first. What YouTube calls “tags” the rest of us call key-
words; it’s just another term for the same thing. So naturally you should enter your
keywords into the Tags field when you first upload your video, or later via the edit-
ing function.

As you can see in Figure 21.1, the Tags box has plenty of room for all the keywords
you might want to target. Enter individual words with spaces in between. To enter a
multiple-word phrase, enclose the phrase within quotation marks, like this:
“multiple word phrase”.

You’ll also note that YouTube recommends additional tags, beneath the Tags box.
These are based on the tags you’ve previously entered and the video’s title and
description. To add any of these suggestions to your official tags list, just click the
tag.