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242 Part IV Promotion and Monetization

higher than a less popular one. This is just another good reason to try to push more
people to view your video, even though it’s admittedly a bit of a circular endeavor.

Optimizing Comments and Ratings

The final factor in YouTube’s search rank are the comments and ratings your video
receives. A video with more comments and ratings (assuming it’s a net positive rat-
ing) will rank higher than one with fewer comments and ratings. For this reason,
you need to activate comments and ratings for your videos, and then encourage
viewers to voice their opinions.

The Big Picture

For your video to be found by the viewers you desire, it has to include those key-
words that those viewers will be searching for. You should include these keywords
in your video’s tags, title, and description; all these fields are used by YouTube to
determine your video’s content. (Interestingly, YouTube can’t determine the content
just by viewing the video; technology of that sort is still years away.)

YouTube also looks at the number of pages that link to or embed your video; the
number of comments and ratings your video receives; and the total number of
views of your video. In other words, the more popular a video is, the higher it will
rank in YouTube’s search results—assuming it contains the appropriate keywords, of
course.