If you’re unfamiliar with YouTube’s search algorithm, you may struggle to get views on your YouTube channel’s videos. Pay attention to the following tips to learn how to rank highly on YouTube and how to generate views, subscribers, and traffic for your videos.

Use Your Competitor’s Video Titles as Tags

If you put this strategy into place, you will be ahead of the game. Use your competitor’s video titles as tags on your own videos. This tactic is part and parcel of performing successful keyword research on YouTube. No doubt there are certain videos out there that are very similar, content-wise, to yours. So, what you want to do is copy the title of that video word for word, and then paste it into the tag section of your video and also into the bottom portion of your video’s description. That way, when someone is watching that video on YouTube, your video will be much more likely to show up in the suggested video sidebar. And, if you want to be even more sneaky about it, you can open an incognito browser on your computer, navigate to your competitor’s video, and take note of which videos show up in the sidebar. Then, you can take the titles of some of the more popular videos that are popping up on that sidebar to use as even more tags on your own video.

Keep Your Viewers Watching

Keep in mind that YouTube likes to reward creators who keep users on YouTube for longer periods of time. Some of your viewers will bounce after they’ve watched one of your videos, and some viewers will stick around to watch another one of your videos on your channel. Consecutive viewing is an action that is tracked by YouTube’s algorithm, and it signals to YouTube that your content is performing well. That means that users are interested in watching more of your content, which means that they’re interested in being on YouTube longer. If you can do something to make people watch your videos one after another, then YouTube will reward you with a boost in their rankings, because they want your channel to succeed.

Use Your Own Name as a Tag

A sneaky way to go about getting consecutive views on your channel is to consistently use your own name, or your channel’s name, in the tag section of each video you post. Here’s what this does. If you implement this simple trick, YouTube’s algorithm takes note of a keyword in common, your name, and it will conclude that your videos are closely related to each other. Closely related YouTube videos are more likely to get watched consecutively, which is what YouTube likes to see.

Furthermore, videos that have tags in common are more likely to show up on the sidebar of suggested videos, which means that someone is more likely to watch another one of your videos right after the video that they’re currently watching. So, not only does this mean that YouTube will favor your channel, but it also means that you’ll get more views right there and then, because people like to click on videos that are suggested to them.

Put Your Tags into Your Description

Copy and paste your tags from your tag box into the bottom of your video’s description. Unlike Google, YouTube does not penalize you for keyword-stuffing. Viewers won’t think twice about it, and this strategy will allow you to incorporate twice the number of traffic-generating keywords into your video.

Say Your Keywords Out Loud in Your Video

Remember that YouTube is listening to you. Make sure you keep in mind that main, big-picture strategy, which is, you want to find keywords that have a high search volume and low competition. The more of those keywords you can find, the better your video will perform. A good strategy to implement is to decide which of those keywords you’ll be basing your content around before you film your video. YouTube is not only scanning your title, tags, and description text, they are also listening to your video content. Their algorithm and software have gotten a lot more sophisticated over the years. So, if you say your keywords out loud in your video in a natural, conversational way, then your video will rank better.

Publishing great video content is the key to good SEO, but it’s only the first step. Sometimes, ranking is determined by how well you can brainstorm clever ways to optimize your content. Take your YouTube channel to the next level today, and enjoy the benefits of more views and subscribers.