YouTube works exactly like a search engine
by allowing viewers to search for content and then showing them videos that match their search terms.
That means your videos have to be tagged and keyworded to match the search terms. Now, this may mean that your video information may not sound like it flows or may not even make sense. But don’t worry because it will make sense to the search engine.
For example, if you want to know how to use Photoshop then you probably aren’t going to type in a long sentence asking your question about Photoshop. Instead, you are most likely going to type in a sentence fragment or maybe even a couple of word phrases!
The same is true for everyone else. People don’t like to type because they are lazy. People want all the information instantly and they are not going to take the time to type out grammatically correct sentences when they are looking for something. You know this is true. After all, how many people do you know that use shorthand when sending text messages and emails?
That means you need to get up on the latest lingo and Internet abbreviations. You need to make sure your videos have the proper tags and keywords that people are going to be typing into the search bar. Don’t be afraid to use the abbreviations.
Remember, you are targeting 18 to 49 year-olds – Those are the people who are most often on YouTube. Therefore, they are your target audience and they are the exact people who type their queries in the search bar.
Therefore, if you have a video with great before and after images of a project or a photo you edited in Photoshop, instead of typing that entire thing out in the tag section, you will type as many variations of those words as you can think of. You may type things like “Gr8, B4, Grate,” etcetera. The reason is because people don’t worry about spelling when they search. They know that the search engine will automatically correct the spelling and suggest results based on what they meant.
Therefore, when tagging your video, use search terms so that your video will come out on top, no matter how people search for it.
That being said, you don’t want to tag your videos with hundreds of tags. Doing so will only harm you because it will make your video too broad. You need to hone in and be specific. Try to limit your videos to 20 tags or less. In addition, make sure they are all directly related to your video content. This will help YouTube suggest your video to other people who have viewed related videos, which will ultimately help your channel in a significant way.