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According to MOZ Bar’s post on Influencer marketing, the concept is defined as, “…the process of developing relationships with influential people that can lead to their assisting you in creating visibility for your product or service.” Influencer marketing is incredibly popular on Youtube, a social media platform that also has the ability to take your SEO to the next level. As humans, our brains respond favorably to visuals even more so than text. Youtube is a great platform to engage your fans with great visual content. This blog post will help you use the world’s 2nd largest search engine to your advantage.
Step #1: Creating your Youtube page
A Youtube account is fairly easy and self-explanatory to set up, but I’m here to give you a few thoughtful tips on optimizing the process. First, you need to know (if you don’t already) that Google owns Youtube. This means great things for the small business owner and SEO.
As with any other social media page you’re garnered, make sure your profile picture and header are engaging and reflect your brand accurately. This is one of the first things customers will see when visiting your Youtube page. Also make sure that you link your other social media in your “About” section. Let’s use Jimmy Fallon’s Youtube page as an example.
[Image: Screenshot of Jimmy Fallon’s Youtube page]
The first thing you’ll likely notice is the header, which is eye-catching and accurately depicts what Jimmy’s brand is (i.e. the Tonight Show). Also notice the text that describes when and where to watch the show. Below that to the right you’ll see some social media icons where you can find Jimmy on more popular social media platforms. Below that you’ll find the channel’s description, which is full of keywords that encompass what the channel is all about. This is incredibly important when making your own channel. Include keywords that make you easy to find and that are relevant to your brand. Below the channel’s description you’ll see the “Links” section where you’ll find Jimmy on pretty much every relevant social media platform on the internet today. Follow suit and include all your relevant links (i.e. blog, website, and social media platforms) when creating your own Youtube page.
Step #2: Creating engaging visual content
This step may be the most difficult one. It’s not always easy to create quality content that’s engaging and encompasses your brand completely. Bear with us! In Mark Schaefer’s The Content Code, a book we highly recommend you get your hands on, Mark talks about a client of his who blew up on Youtube thanks to a handy 59 second video on “How to open a bottle of wine- without a corkscrew”. More specifically, how to open a wine bottle using a shoe. Seriously, check it out. The video, as you can see, has been viewed almost 11 million times! What can a small business owner learn from this? You don’t always need big bucks and loads of time to create a good Youtube video. Informative videos or tutorials are often the best way to go. As long as you stay true to your brand and get a little creative, you may very well be on your way to a successful Youtube channel.
Step #3: Posting and optimizing content
This step is incredibly important and it starts with your video description. In the video’s description, make sure to include keywords about the video as well as your company (Source: Marketing 399-01, Loyola University Chicago, Professor Schwab, [23 March 2016]). For example, if Searchable were to upload our 1 minute tutorial on Alt tags to Youtube, we would use keywords like “SEO”, “Searchable”, “Alt Tags”, and “Optimize” to the video’s description.
The second thing you need to add to ALL your video’s descriptions are your relevant social media and website links (Source: Marketing 399-01, Loyola University Chicago, Professor Schwab, [23 March 2016]). Just like you would in a blog post, link anything significant that you mention in the video. I’ll use one of my favorite Youtube channels as an example. The SACCONEJOLYs are a family that post daily vlogs to Youtube. In each video’s description, you’ll find a plethora of links associated with their “brand”.
[Image: Screenshot of description on SACCONEJOLYs Vlog]
First, notice the call to action. Every video description should start with an ask for comments or a shout out to your other social media. Notice they then link to the two individual’s channels that they were interacting with in the video for that day. Following that they link to their other social media and Youtube channels as well as a helpful link for subscribing to their channel. Keep in mind, this is all amazing for SEO. What really impresses me about this channel is what’s next: links to 5 different videos corresponding to the same day 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years before. This is a great way to upcycle old content and gain more traffic on previous videos!
[Image: Screenshot of description on SACCONEJOLYs Vlog]
The end of their video description gives a brief background on who they are and why they started Youtube. Notice how many times “Saccone” or “Joly” is mentioned. This, obviously, ties into the name of their Youtube Channel. The same should be done with the name of your business!
Something else you can do to optimize your content on Youtube is add annotations to your videos (Source: Marketing 399-01, Loyola University Chicago, Professor Schwab, [23 March 2016]). Let’s go back to our Jimmy Fallon example.
[Image: Screenshot of Jimmy Fallon Youtube Video]
On one of his more recent posts, “Thank You Notes: April Fools, Lunar Eclipses” you’ll see that the last 8 seconds of the video, like with all of his videos, there is an ending page with annotations. The ones above link to everything from subscribing to the channel, playlists, and previous videos. Again, all of this is great for SEO and driving traffic to your other content. Use these annotations for social media links, website links, and always include a subscribe button! Put them at the beginning of the video, the end or somewhere in between, but remember, do not overwhelm the screen with a million annotations. Keep the number to around 3 or 4 to avoid driving the audience away.
Step #4: Going the extra mile
The tips we’ve shared so far will have you well on your way to optimizing your content on Youtube and using the platform to your advantage. However, if you’re like us, you’ll want to go the extra mile when it comes to SEO. The first way to do this is by creating playlists with both your own content and curated content that is relevant to your brand. Playlists appear in Youtube’s search and they drive up views by keeping viewers engaged with videos.
Step #5: Don’t forget to make friends
This is super important on a community platform like Youtube! Remember to favorite videos, leave comments and share your videos on social media! This will bring valuable traffic to your content. Plus, as we know, sharing content across social media channels is great for SEO and brand awareness. By favoriting and commenting on videos of those you admire on Youtube, you may greatly increase your chances of an inbound link to your own Youtube page from an influencer in your field, thereby exposing you to a completely new audience! Making friends will only benefit you!
That concludes our post on SEO and Youtube. I hope you found some valuable tips for starting a Youtube page for your small business. If you already have a Youtube page, I hope there were some helpful tips on using the platform to ramp up your SEO. As always, we’re here for your questions, remarks, concerns, or anything else you’d like to leave in the comments!
LUC Marketing 399 
