Keyword Research for YouTube SEO is a very different process than keyword research for Google and Bing. However, marketers too often take the research they have done for Google and apply the knowledge directly to YouTube. It never quite works, because the things people search for on YouTube are very different from the kind of things they search for on other search engines. Therefore, you should approach YouTube query research differently. In this post we discuss how!

YouTube is a search engine, but people use it differently than they use Google. To begin with, every search on YouTube has a video intent. There are also more implied questions, broader topic queries, and frequently repeated queries (where the results are expected to change frequently).

Therefore, in addition to the keyword research for your content pages. By getting the date before creative ideas and analyzing it, you can ensure that your YouTube strategy will yield a large number of views over a long period of time.

In this post, we offer a five-step approach to YouTube query research. It contains a mix of free and paid tools that give you a practical framework that you can use instantly.

Step 1: Collect your list of topics

First, you need to compile a list of all the topics on which you can create video content. Your existing list of keywords can be the starting point for this. However, think laterally and within the context of YouTube. In practice, this means that most navigation and transactional queries are removed from your query list and instead focus on the information queries.

When we search YouTube, we’re looking for a video related to a certain entity, covering a particular topic or solving a specific problem. We are probably not looking for a website, buying a product or finding directions. For example, searches for actual product categories are low on YouTube, but search for ‘[specific product]+ review ”tends to be quite high.

There is a large intersection between high volume YouTube queries and queries containing videos in Google search. One way to refine your keyword list quickly and effectively is through those that include video SERP features (this information is provided by Stat, SEMrush, Ahrefsand other popular keyword tools).

Use the expertise in your team

In addition, Google Trends, YouTube’s automated suggestion and analysis of competing YouTube channels can inspire you on available topics. However, I think the best way to find terms to act as your seed list is by researching your team. By finding out what they know and videos can contribute about.

Internal expertise is often the best starting point for setting up a YouTube content plan, as you can externally match the knowledge you have internally to the latent question. Remember that YouTube is just as much a social network as a search engine. The best ideas for content are not always those inspired by keyword data!

Step 2: Generate keyword ideas

If you have a topic list and ideas, the next step is to expand and refine it into a list of keywords that you can optimize for. There are a number of useful tools to do this:

Tube friend

Tube Buddy Keyword Explorer is one of the best free tools available for this step. Here you can enter one of your topic ideas, and you will receive an estimated search volume, weighted and unweighted competition scores. Based on how relevant your channel is to the particular term. But you also get a list of related searches, which you can then research and add to your query list.

YouTube Query Research: Tube Buddy Keyword Explorer - Screenshot
TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer

ahrefs

My favorite paid tool for YouTube query research is Ahrefs. It is very convenient for this process of expansion and refinement. With Ahrefs you can examine both terms and phrase agreement (use phrase – fit for topics with two words or more), group and execute ideas, as well as a relative measure of ‘rate of return’ that indicates whether it is a term or not which the same user will frequently search for.

YouTube Query Research: Screenshot of Ahrefs Query Explorer
Ahrefs keyword explorer

vidIQ

Another paid tool that also provides search volume and statistics for opportunities is vidIQ. It also gives you a snapshot of the currently popular videos related to the keywords provided.

YouTube Query Research: Screenshot of vidIQ Key Tool
vidIQ Keyword Tool
screenshot of popular videos for a keyword in vidIQ
vidIQ Trend Videos

The data here is of the same quality and detail as the data you get from TubeBuddy. But the advantage is that you can export everything to a database or spreadsheet.

Keyword.io

Keyword.io is a useful freemium tool for this stage in the process. Because you can quickly find a list of relevant YouTube keywords and then execute them for later processing.

Screenshot of Keyword.io Keyword Tool
Keyword.io Keyword Tool

Only the paid version of the tool gives you an estimate of search volume. However, the free version is still very useful for generating and executing more ideas.

YouTube Traffic Sources Report

The “YouTube Search” report among traffic sources in YouTube Analytics is the only place where you can get direct Google data on search behavior on YouTube. Sorry, no search volumes available. But you can see the keywords currently watching your existing videos. And how many impressions and views each keyword brings.

This can be a great way to find new opportunities. Suppose a keyword brings a lot of views, but you did not create a specific video for it. This is a good indication that you can achieve even better results by creating targeted content.

report for YouTube search in YouTube Analytics
YouTube Analytics Traffic Sources Report

Step 3: Get search volume data

The next step in your YouTube keyword research is to get search volume data for each of your keyword ideas. After that, you can refine the list to include only those with a large search volume to represent a valuable opportunity. The only tool I think is currently set up to do this on a large scale is ahrefs, as it allows you to enter a long list of queries, add additional recommended options, and then run the keyword volume for everything.

So take your list in ahrefs, go through the complete list, add new ideas that seem relevant and remove the ones that are not. Then export the data and export everything to Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

Screenshot of refined keyword list in ahrefs
Refined keyword list in ahrefs
ahrefs data in Google Pages
ahrefs data in Google Pages

Sort the data by global or local volume (depending on your target audience). Then you can remove all keywords that do not have a large number of searches. As a general rule of thumb, anything containing less than 100 global monthly searches is too low to worry about.

You should now have a list of relevant, validated keywords for YouTube, sorted by search volume. Depending on the task, it may be sufficient to make strategic decisions about your content strategy! However, if you have time and really want to validate the creative opportunities, you can go a step further. By applying a video quality lens to the keyword data to figure out which ideas to prioritize.

Step 4: Review the average video quality ranking

This step requires a lot of time and energy. So it’s best to keep it until you have refined your potential keyword list as much as possible using other factors. The goal is to find out how competitive each query is on a qualitative level.

Go to YouTube.com and enter your target query, then watch each of the 5-10 best videos. After watching it, make a qualitative assessment of how good the videos were on average and give an overall score of 10. If there was a good video and the rest of the content was low quality and dated, give it then a 4 or a 5. If everything was extremely captivating and well produced, it gives an 8 or a 9. But if the need of the seeker is not really met by the available content, then go with a 2 of 3.

The data here need not be too precise as it is a relative guide to creative competition. Which can then be used to calculate a composite metric that measures the opportunity. If there are already many amazing videos that meet the need of the search engine, you probably will not be able to generate traction by making another video similar to the existing listings. But if there is a question without good content serving it, this is an opportunity you should take advantage of.

Step 5: Generate an Opportunity Statement

Finally, we can create a YouTube Opportunity Statement to assess the potential value of each keyword for our channel. Divide the search volume by the average video quality, and use it as a guide for making videos.

YouTube Keyword Research Outputs in Excel Page, with Quality Score
YouTube Keyword Research Output, with Quality Score

Once you get it right, you need to have a list of priority, valuable creative opportunities that can inform your YouTube strategy. That means you can start filming!

In conclusion

Because people use YouTube a little differently than Google, you need to spend time researching queries for YouTube. While your existing query research list may serve as inspiration, you need to be mindful of which one will work on YouTube. And which does not. In this post, we have mentioned some tools that you can use to query your video SEO.

If you want to deepen the statistics, check out our post on how to use analytics for your video strategy. Or read more about the timestamp of your videos to get important moments from your videos in the search results:

Read more: How to time-stamp YouTube videos and create important moments »



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