Stop Using YouTube Tags - Do This Instead

all right friends we got to talk about YouTube tags you've probably been told that tagging your videos is the key to ranking higher in YouTube searches and blowing up your views so you spent countless hours crafting and perfecting your video tags only to watch the analytics stay flat Well turns out tags is just a tiny slice of a PT no no no no no not that small even smaller I mean they're probably going to help but more slices play larger roles in skyrocketing your channel and this video is going to help you master all of

these spices so that every video you drop has the best chance of getting views starting with this tiny slice we all know how crucial a search is in getting our content seen and even going viral this is why new creators obsess over search engine optimization or SEO by stuffing some magical keywords called Tags in their videos well thinking it's some kind of magic pill that will launch them into the YouTube Stratosphere well guess what it's not I mean think about it when you search something on YouTube you want to see videos that are exactly what

you need and YouTube's algorithm is smart enough to know this and tries to show you the best match so if your tags are just some random popular words that have nothing to do with your video YouTube's like uh-uh this isn't what viewers want let's put you down to the bottom now let's say that people do stumble across your video well they'll just click off it fast when they realize it's not what they were looking for and that tells YouTube that the viewer wasn't satisfied so it stops putting your video up for those tags all right

friends do you see what happened here using the wrong tags or failing to do them correctly only hurts your channel and buries your videos where nobody can find them all right so how do you use tags correctly well there's two ways first YouTube tells us to use tags for common misspellings and certain keywords that your a ience might search for second only use relevant tags that accurately reflect what your video content is about but the hard truth Still Remains tags only play a minimal role in helping viewers find your content at the end of the

day if you're not making videos that your audience wants to watch your video will continue to struggle no matter what you did with the tags but if tags aren't the end all be all then what is well I've already pretty much told you let me spell it out to you in case you missed it you need to create content that your audience wants to watch and how exactly do you do that simple focus on the things that influence their watch decision because while the YouTube algorithm can see tags when viewers are scrolling through YouTube they

don't which brings us to the larger slice of our pie the first two factors that play a huge role in your video ranking is the title and thumbnail your title is your ultimate hook it's the first thing that viewers see when they search for something or even scroll through YouTube this is why it needs to be so intrinsically interesting that it's just going to with them if they don't click on it okay now I understand that Mr Beast is a huge Creator not really relatable so if you're just trying to get started on YouTube and

you want some tips to how to make your title Stand Out try this first you're going to include one relevant keyword you want to be found for remember that your ultimate goal is to create a title that viewers want to click on so make sure you focus on that instead of stuffing your title with multiple key words that make it so H so big and unreadable that nobody clicks on it anyway so many creators fall into that mistake of stuffing their title with as many relevant keywords getting it all the way to the 100 character

limit and then it's just at this point where it's like it doesn't even look good like no one wants to even click on that title anymore so make it short and sweet next give a clear idea of what viewers can expect now be careful not to Veer into the territory of clickbait because if you're title promises something to viewers that your video doesn't actually deliver on they'll just leave the video faster or even hit dislike and this tells the YouTube algorithm that viewers are not enjoying it and it might stop recommending your video and third

stick to 60 characters or less you want your title to pack a punch so keep it short sweet into the point now of course a title on its own is not enough you need to pair it with a great thumbnail that's like hey I on me baby and there's plenty of ways to do that and I'm going to share three with you right now first you're going to use bright and vibrant colors pleas draw the eye and just pop out your videos among the rest next include some Snappy text that gives a sneak peek into

your video's content and I really mean this the less the better the less the better this thumbnail here uses two words that make the title more intriguing while this one uses just a few words that support the title of the video while conveying a message in the photo itself and if possible show your face in the thumbnail because people love seeing the person behind the content remember your thumbnail is going to be competing with thousands of other videos on that viewer's homepage so you really want to take time to making sure your thumbnail can stand

out so you see it all starts with a great title and thumbnail that helps the viewer decide whether they'll start watching your vide or not that's why top creators Focus crazily on titles and thumbnails and when something goes wrong if the video is not performing like they want it to the first things they start looking at are title changes and thumbnail changes because they know that that can have a huge impact on performance now there are still two more slices that will complete our pie and the last one is arguably the most important element of

all now before we get to that let's talk about another essential element that most small channels Overlook the description you have to understand that your YouTube description not only helps viewers have a clear idea of what your video is about it actually helps the YouTube algorithm understand your content better that's because the YouTube algorithm scans your description for Relevant keywords and uses that information to determine where and when to show your video in Search and recommendations but unfortunately small creators treat their description like an afterthought they either leave it blank write a sentence or two

or just stuff it with relevant hashtags and links so how do you write a description that will actually work in your favor well here's an easy template to use first you probably notice that the video description on YouTube only shows a couple of lines not the entire description that part is called above the fold and it is actually really crucial in the first line you want to write out one sentence that concisely describes what your video is all about now here's a little Pro tip include relevant keywords in this first line this way you signal

to YouTube right away what your video covers and the viewers quickly see that that video is for them also helping you rank for those terms then in your second line add your call to action below that is where you should provide a brief overview of your videos content without giving away the whole plot you can also briefly describe who you are and what your channel is about and why viewers should stick around and watch more of your videos all of this is helpful information that YouTube is still reading to understand what kind kind of content

you're making so don't just think about doing this for your viewers this helps the YouTube recommendation system understand what's in that video what your channel is about so it can start recommending you to more people and lastly you want to add timestamps to your description to allow viewers to jump to the parts of the video that interest them the most a lot of people do not know this but when you add time stamps and chapters to your video those end up getting indexed by Google and by YouTube so when people are searching they can find

your video from the chapters alone now a lot of creators mess up their descriptions by cramming too much irrelevant information like their social media links but here's the thing the main goal of your description is to help YouTube get what the video's all about that way it can show your video to the right people who will actually watch it so throwing in your social media handles might be okay but it's not really going to help and finally the most important slice of all high quality content now high quality content is a lot more than just

the camera you use and the lights that you have it's about the whole packaging of your video the topic the storytelling the way you engage your audience from the beginning to the end now this doesn't mean you have to nail it right off the bat we all start somewhere and in the beginning your content's going to be a little rough around the edges Mr be started from this to this Ali abdall started from this to this Ryan Tran Michelle car I mean heck even our Channel started like this and now we're making videos like this

you just have to make sure your video is engaging offers what viewers are looking for and keeps them Hook from beginning to end now let me show you the flow that viewers take so a viewer types something into their search bar then hit search then they scroll through the results until they find the one that grabs their attention through a title in thumbnail and then they click to watch but if your video is boring or worse it sucks well guess what happens next they hit the back button and go look for something else to watch

and if enough people do that YouTube will start to take notice and stop recommending your video but if your video is a banger viewers stick around they engage with your video they share it with their friends then YouTube takes notice of that too and started showing your video in your other videos to even more people if you can know that you you're you're you're set like you're on your way to YouTube success all right let's do a quick little YouTube Showdown which one do you think viewers are more likely to click on this video with

no tags but a strong title thumbnail description and content or this video with great amazing tags but weak everything else well hopefully you guessed this one because videos with stronger viewer Centric elements will win every single time but what makes your video even stronger is when you strategically use all of these elements for your Tex to your title thumbnail description and your content friends we've been in this YouTube game for a long time and in the early days we were so obsessed with speaking to the algorithm rather than speaking to our audience and a lot

of small channels and new YouTubers still fall into this trap but at the end of the day the algorithm is just a system that helps viewers get what they want so instead of just thinking about what popular tags will help your video go viral think about what kind of content you need to put out that will connect with the a that you want to reach tabs and descriptions definitely help with SEO but viewers make decisions on what to watch by looking at your title topic and thumbnail so make sure that 90% of your effort goes

into what viewers see and make decisions on thanks for watching hit the Subscribe button and I'll see you next time but before you go if you're a new Creator here are 11 YouTube settings that you have to make sure you turn on so your channel has the best chance of succeeding see you over there